Inno3D GeForce RTX 3070 iCHILL X3: Review | Test | Specs | Hashrate

Contents hide

1 Specifications

2 Packaging and delivery set

3 Appearance and features

4 Cooling system

5 Printed circuit board

6 Firmware and RGB lighting

7 Test stand

8 Temperatures, noise, power consumption and overclocking

According to sites for tracking the cost of certain goods, the last price in the CSN store for the Inno3D GeForce RTX 3070 iCHILL X3 video cardwas 53,999 rubles, after which the video card disappeared from the catalog and was no longer noticed. Since, by strange coincidences, Inno3D GeForce RTX 3070 iCHILL X3 for some reason is not so easy to find in the open sale, the video card arrived to me for testing in a roundabout way. It will be all the more interesting to see this graphics adapter in action. The key features of the Inno3D GeForce RTX 3070 iCHILL X3 are high gaming performance and, of course, the favorite RGB lighting for many gamers. In this review, I will tell you about the device of this video card, consider its cooling system and overclocking potential, as well as evaluate the backlighting and performance in games.

Specifications

Manufacturer: Inno3D;
Model: GeForce RTX 3070 iCHILL X3;
GPU: Ampere GA104-300;
Process technology: 8 nm;
GPU frequency: 1500 MHz;
GPU Boost frequency in games: 1785 MHz;
Number of shader processors: 5888;
Video memory: 8 GB;
Video memory type: GDDR6;
Video memory bus width: 256 bit;
Video memory frequency: 14000 MHz (1750 GHz QDR);
Порты: 3 x DisplayPort 1.4a, HDMI 2.1;
Additional power connector: 2 x 8-pin;
TDP parameter: 240W;
Dimensions: 300 x 135 x 60 mm.

Packaging and delivery set

According to the intention of the manufacturer RTX 3070 iCHILL X3 is obliged to impress the user from the first minutes of owning a video card. This is why this graphics adapter comes in an incredibly large cardboard box with an RTX 3070 iCHILL X3 image on the front panel.

Together with the RTX 3070 iCHILL X3 graphics card, the user will find:

a buyer’s gratitude card;
€ 20 coupon for Steam Wallet;
video card installation guide;
minimum power supply guide;
decorative plexiglass cover;
Allen key and cover screw;
two cables for sync RGB lighting.

Appearance and features

From the first moments after unboxing, the RTX 3070 iCHILL X3 graphics card feels incredibly large, if not huge. This impression is formed due to the height of the graphics adapter at 135 mm. This shape of the graphics adapter is dictated not only by the overall cooling system, but also by the built-in RGB backlight module.

The RTX 3070 iCHILL X3 is 300mm long, which leaves this graphics adapter open to relatively compact gaming cases. A metal backplate is used to protect the graphics card PCB. Here, this plate is not an empty sheet of metal, but has a nice design in the form of stylish inscriptions and ventilation holes.

The RTX 3070 iCHILL X3 is 60mm thick, which requires three expansion slots to fit into a PC case. Such a massive sandwich turned out due to the use of a serious video card cooling system, namely a thick radiator.

However, the RTX 3070 iCHILL X3 is designed to effectively purge PCB components when the fans are running. Therefore, from the ends of the graphic adapter, the CO casing is made half-open for free air flow.

The RTX 3070 iCHILL X3 Connector Interface Panel is ready to offer the user three DisplayPort 1.4a and one HDMI 2.1. On the other side of the graphics adapter are a pair of connectors for RGB sync and external ARGB tape.

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It should be noted in the design of the RTX 3070 iCHILL X3 and the through-blowing of the radiator with an extreme CO fan. For this, the backplate in this place has many triangular cutouts, similar to what can be seen in solutions of other video cards from Inno3D. The RTX 3070 iCHILL X3 uses a pair of 8-pin connectors to power the RTX 3070 iCHILL X3, allowing the card in theory to draw up to 375W of power. However, the real appetites of this graphics adapter are much more modest, limited at the BIOS firmware level to 260 watts.

Cooling system

The cooling system design utilizing a massive heatsink and three fans is the main root cause of the RTX 3070 iCHILL X3’s monstrous look. The purpose and objectives of this CO is low temperatures of the graphics processor and memory chips.

The thickness of the two-piece radiator with many aluminum fins is 25 mm. The design uses 6mm copper heat pipes and a metal plate to remove heat from the memory chips.

The RTX 3070 iCHILL X3 GPU has direct contact with the CO heatpipes. The thermal paste print shows that all 6 cooling tubes are involved in contact with the GPU.

Another element in the cooling design of the RTX 3070 iCHILL X3 is the metal graphics card backplate. With the help of thermal spacers, heat is removed from the VRM area and memory chips on the back of the PCB to this plate.

Printed circuit board

The RTX 3070 iCHILL X3 video card is made on a black printed circuit board, which in shape and location of the element base largely repeats the reference RTX 3070. The slight increase in PCB length is dictated by the need to place additional power connectors and RGB connectors for the video card on the RTX 3070 iCHILL X3.

The density of the component base on the RTX 3070 iCHILL X3 is impressive from both the front and back of the PCB.

The main component of the RTX 3070 iCHILL X3, which guarantees this graphics card high gaming performance, is the GA104-300-A1 GPU. This GPU is made using an 8 nm process technology at the Samsung factory. According to the markings on the GPU die, it was produced in the 34th week of 2020.

The computing power of this GPU is provided by the presence of 5888 CUDA cores, 96 ROP units and 184 texture units. From the factory, the GPU on the RTX 3070 iCHILL X3 is overclocked and can run at 1785 MHz under gaming load. The 8GB GDDR6 memory communicates with the GPU over a 256-bit bus, clocked at 14,000 MHz with a bandwidth of 448 GB / s.

The RTX 3070 iCHILL X3 power system consists of 12 power cells distributed between the GPU and MEM in a 10 + 2 formula. For all mosfets and power cascades, heat is removed to the radiator using silicone thermal pads.

On the back of the RTX 3070 iCHILL X3 GPU are four 470uF SP-CAPs.

A pair of uP9512R and uP1666Q PWM controllers from uPI Semiconductor are used to control the power of the video card.

The IS25WP016 chip is responsible for storing the BIOS firmware on the RTX 3070 iCHILL X3.

Firmware and RGB lighting

As the proprietary software for the RTX 3070 iCHILL X3, the manufacturer recommends using the TuneIT program, which can be downloaded for free from the official Inno3D website. This utility has a whole range of options for overclocking the graphics adapter, as well as adjusting the operation of the cooling fans.

Also in the program interface there is flexible functionality for controlling RGB backlighting RTX 3070 iCHILL X3. It includes several ready-made lighting profiles at once, as well as the ability to manually adjust RGB to the taste and preferences of the user.

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Another useful feature of TuneIT is the ability to check and update the BIOS firmware for the video card installed in the system.

In the dark, the RGB lighting on the side of the RTX 3070 iCHILL X3 looks amazing and incredible. The addressable LED module smoothly processes soft color transitions, allowing you to showcase the rainbow effect in all its glory.

Test stand

Processor – AMD Ryzen 7 5800X (8-core)
Motherboard – Gigabyte B550I Aorus Pro AX
Cooling system – Noctua NH-U12S Chromax.black
Thermointerface – Arctic MX-2
RAM – G.Skill Trident Z Royal DDR4-4266 8Gb * 2 @ 4400cl18
Storage – M.2 SSD Samsung 970 Pro + M.2 SSD Intel 660p
Power Supply – Corsair RM850x 850W
Case – Open stand
Монитор – TV LG, 47″, 1920×1080, 2560×1440/3840×2160 (NVIDIA DSR)
Operating system – Windows 10 Pro 64-bit 20H2
Drivers – GeForce 457.51.

Testing of the RTX 3070 iCHILL X3 graphics card was conducted on a system with a powerful AMD Ryzen 7 5800X gaming processor. As RAM, we used two 8 GB modules, operating at a frequency of 3200 MHz.

Testing was carried out on an open test bench. For high-quality power supply of the components of the test assembly, we used a power supply unit with 80 + Gold certification represented by Corsair RM850x.

Temperatures, noise, power consumption and overclocking

Before we start testing the RTX 3070 iCHILL X3 in detail, let’s take a look at the specifications of this graphics adapter. They correspond to those declared by the manufacturer. The graphics card is limited by a power consumption limit of 240W in normal mode using the BIOS firmware. For overclocking the RTX 3070 iCHILL X3, the power limit can be increased by software to a maximum of 260W.

One of the first things the RTX 3070 iCHILL X3 can impress with is the extremely low idle GPU temperature. And this is when the CO fans are completely stopped, which gives the RTX 3070 iCHILL X3 silent operation mode.

Loading the graphics card with a 10-minute run of Furmark heats the RTX 3070 iCHILL X3 GPU up to 68 ° C, but no more. At the same time, the GPU frequency under such a load is confidently kept at the level of 1845 MHz. The cooling fans spin up to 52% of their potential, or 1785 rpm.

Looking for a stable overclocking RTX 3070 iCHILL X3 leads to the following result. The graphics processor of the video card was able to work confidently at a frequency of 1935 MHz, and the GDDR6 memory at a frequency of 15400 MHz. At the same time, GPU heating did not exceed 71 ° C at 59% of the rotational potential of the CO fans.

To achieve this overclocking RTX 3070 iCHILL X3, the GPU frequency was increased by +80 points, and the MEM frequency by +700 points in MSI Afterburner.

Despite the fact that the fans of the RTX 3070 iCHILL X3 cooling system had to spin up to 1750-2050 rpm under gaming load, the overall noise level from a distance of 30 cm was acceptable for comfortable gaming.

Together with an AMD Ryzen 7 5800X processor and an RTX 3070 iCHILL X3 graphics card, the entire system consumed no more than 410 watts under load. This allows us to say that a high-quality power supply unit with a capacity of 600 W or more will be sufficient for such a video card, regardless of the processor model.

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Performance

The first benchmark to evaluate the performance of the RTX 3070 iCHILL X3 was 3D Mark TimeSpy in Basic and Extreme versions. In both cases, overclocking the video card by +80 MHz for the chip and +1400 MHz for the memory allowed us to increase the final result by + 5%.

Slightly over 4% of the performance after overclocking the RTX 3070 iCHILL X3 could be seen in the 3D Mark Port Royal benchmark, which measures performance in a scene using rays.

The RTX 3070 iCHILL X3 graphics card clearly demonstrated the benefits of using DLSS technology in the 3D Mark NVIDIA DLSS feature test. The gain from overclocking the graphics adapter was 2-4 frames per second, and from using DLSS, more than a double increase in frames.

Work with Ray Tracing technology in 2K-resolution was tested in the same graphics package 3D Mark. The RTX 3070 iCHILL X3 graphics card was able to render over 30fps on average at these settings.

A more realistic idea of the performance of the RTX 3070 iCHILL X3 could be obtained in real-life games. Despite the fact that NVIDIA itself is positioning a video card of this class for 2K gaming, in some game projects the RTX 3070 iCHILL X3 was also capable of 4K mode. The graphs indicate the average number of frames per second, and at 4K resolution such game projects as Wolfenstein: Youngblood, Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Far Cry 5 became “playable” with the RTX 3070 iCHILL X3.

Switching to 2K gaming has significantly increased the average FPS in all games used. In particular, Red Dead Redemption II and Metro Exodus became “playable” on the RTX 3070 iCHILL X3, in which the video card was able to provide stable 50-60 frames / s.

In the popular FullHD resolution, the most difficult games for the RTX 3070 iCHILL X3, Red Dead Redemption II and Metro Exodus, have already become more comfortable in terms of FPS> 60. As for the other three games in the face of Wolfenstein: Youngblood, Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Far Cry 5, in these game projects the average FPS bar on the RTX 3070 iCHILL X3 video card exceeded a stable 144 frames / s.

Conclusion

Inno3D GeForce RTX 3070 iCHILL X3 is a gaming graphics card for full 2K and FullHD gaming without compromise. As testing has shown, this graphics adapter has not only an efficient cooling system, but also a very beautiful RGB backlighting. Not shining with ultra-high overclocking, the RTX 3070 iCHILL X3 impresses with its moderately low operating noise and an interesting appearance. What this video card really lacks now is that it will be on sale again, and at the recommended price of 53,999 rubles. Otherwise, the Inno3D GeForce RTX 3070 iCHILL X3 is a balanced solution for modern gamers and RGB fans.