Zotac AMP Extreme GTX 1070 Review

Let’s start with the elephant in the room. This is not an inexpensive video card for its class. It is also as thick as a bowl of oatmeal. Yes this is neither a cheap nor small form-factored card. If you want the absolute best bang for your buck it is a bit of tough upsell. This is not really the fault of the AMP! Extreme GTX 1070 and rather is because ZOTAC’s engineers got the AMP! Edition so right. This is the better card, but for some the differences are not enough to warrant the extra cost. The same holds true for those who have smaller PC cases. The Zotac MINI or even MSI AERO series are going to be a heck of a lot more optimal with a heck of a lot less headaches.

Counteracting this is the fact that this GTX 1070 really does act more like a factory GTX 1070Ti than the typical GTX 1070. Yes even at ‘factory’ specifications this card is a veritably pixel pushing beast. When the incredible overclocking overhead is taken into consideration buying lower quality GTX 1070Ti is hard to justify. Furthermore, this card can offer everything that even more expensive GTX 1070’s like the EVGA For The Win or ASUS STRIX of the marketplace can do and do it at slightly lower asking price.

That is the flip side of the ZOTAC AMP! Extreme. It is not meant to be the absolute best value for everyone. Instead it is meant to be the best value for enthusiasts who want to push the boundaries of sanity. Yes if you want to go plaid… this is the card to do it with. This cards fantastic cooling ability, fantastic core binning, and yes fantastic value for its true class is pretty darn hard to argue with.

So if you want the best of the best in the GTX 1070 series… this is the card to reach for. It will give you enough performance that you can easily weather the RTX 20-series storm and do so without spending the typical ‘flagship’ price tag. That is the – no so – ‘secret’ to this card. You either want the best and are willing to spend a couple dollars more for it… or you are not. Either way the AMP! Extreme is a beast. It is a cool running. It is quiet. It is a powerhouse. It is even rather pretty (and this is coming from people who are not overly enamored with the ‘LEDS ON EVERTHING” trend).

So if you want to pay retail for a GTX 1070 right now this is one of the few we would be totally fine in recommending. Of course, if you come across one of these bad boys on the used market… expect to pay even less than you would for EVGA, MSI, or ASUS’ version. The AMP! Extreme does go cheaper as Zotac is still not as well recognized as they should. This does mean lower resale value, but by the time you want to upgrade the difference is going to be moot – as the card is going to be two gens old and all GTX 1070 are going to be worth less than dirt (just like GTX 970s are dirt cheap now). So as long as you are OK with spending about a couple bucks more than the incredibly great value ZOTAC AMP! Edition… yes the AMP! Extreme is the card to get. If not, then you know which card we have looked at previously that is ‘perfect’ for you.