I upgraded from a GTX 1060 6GB to an ASUS Turbo GTX 1070 8GB for $50. My system has a Ryzen 7 8700F and 16GB of DDR5-6000 memory. In 3DMark Time Spy, I'm getting an overall score of 6600, with a graphics score of 6124 and a CPU score of 11,811. I've tried a +325 memory overclock, and the GPU reaches about 1920 MHz while hitting 80°C. Is there anything practical I can do to improve the graphics score, or am I already near the limit for this blower-style card?
4 Answers
For $50, that’s a pretty good upgrade from a 1060. The 1070 is an older midrange card, so there isn’t much more modern performance to unlock. If you want a substantial jump, upgrading to something like an RX 6600 XT or newer card will make a much bigger difference than squeezing out a few extra Time Spy points.
The blower cooler is the main limitation here. At around 80°C, the card may reduce its boost clock, and pushing the overclock further could add heat for very little performance. Improving case airflow, cleaning the cooler, or replacing thermal paste might help if temperatures are worse than expected, but I wouldn’t chase benchmark points aggressively.
You can use a tool such as MSI Afterburner to adjust the power limit, core clock, and memory clock, then test stability with a benchmark. Increase settings gradually and stop if you see crashes, artifacts, or rising temperatures. Don’t keep increasing the clock just because a stress test has not crashed yet—80°C on a single-blower card is already warm, and stability in actual games matters more than one benchmark score.
That graphics score is actually a little above what a stock GTX 1070 usually manages, so the result doesn’t look unusually low. You may only be able to gain a small amount through tuning.
I paid $50 for it and was coming from a GTX 1060 6GB, so I’m mostly happy with the upgrade. I was just wondering whether the score suggested a problem.