There is very little difference between the AMP! and AMP! Extreme GTX 1070 models’ shipping container. Both use the same color scheme, both are choke full of details, and both do an admirable job of protecting their contents. Where they differ is the actual details listed. Basically, by holding both up next to each other you can easily compare and contrast… and see if the increased asking price of the AMP! Extreme is worth it or not.
The accessories included are also very similar. Not great, not terrible, best described as good for its price range but nothing special – beyond the fact that it does cover all the basses without adding needless to the asking price. Expect to find a pair of dual 6-pin to single 8-pin adapters, a pamphlet, DVD and the usual other sundries. No door knob hangers, no prints, nothing that would add little value but would increase the price.
Moving on. The card itself is rather striking. The easiest way to describe it is to imagine the standard AMP! Edition… and then upsize everything. The first and most noticeable change is the twin slot IceStorm custom cooling design is now a 2.5-slot design that is not only 25 percent thicker but also slightly longer. To be precise, the dimensions of this card are 325mm x 148mm x ~50cm vs. 300mm x 148mm x ~40cm (standard AMP! edition) – or about 35.4’ish percent bigger. Of course, the heat sink’s dual radiators are not only bigger and more effective at moving heat but the AMP! Extreme makes use of six heat pipes instead of five. This too improves the efficiency of this version of the IceStorm design… and bears more than a passing resemblance to what Zotac uses on their higher end GTX 1080 models.
To keep this larger IceStorm design… cough… ‘cool’ Zotac has opted for three 90mm fans instead of two 100mm fans. The dimensions are not the only difference. While yes each of these fans does move a touch less air than the standard AMP! edition’s (at a given speed), CFM is actually not as important as static pressure capabilities when it comes to thick cooler designs. Much like a large but low static pressure fan will not do much good on a CPU radiator, typical fans usually don’t do too well on 2.5-slot video cards.
Zotac is well aware of this issue and taken an interesting approach to overcoming static pressure with a rather unique fan blade approach they call EKO. What EKO fan design boils down to is that the inner portion of each blade is a two piece affair – basically increasing each blade’s abilities by about 30 percent. This design increases static pressure, increases air movement and does both while not noticeably increasing noise. What this means is these three fans can easily push a ton of air and push it hard. This is easily one of the best approaches you will find on 2.5-slot GTX 10-series cards… and plays a big part in why the AMP! Extreme is so capable. Of course, and it almost goes without saying, these fans will stop when temperatures are low enough (e.g. during idle periods), and thanks to the beefy dimensions of the card actually take a nice while to spin up even during gaming – as this IceStorm cooler can handle a lot of heat before needing active cooling.
As we made mention in the Gigabyte AORUS review when dealing with three fans there are two basic ways of handling air current eddies and dead zones. Gigabyte goes the more exotic route and makes the central fan counter-rotate. ZOTAC has not. Instead they have opted for a split radiator design. This does reduce surface area and does not fully eliminate high(er) pressure zones at the edges of where two fans’ air flow meets. With typical fans that would be a major negative, but the EKO fans are so powerful that these dead zones really do not matter they just bull right on through. The reduction in surface area also do not really matter as each rad is thicker than most… and the central ‘gap’ allows a ton of air from the central fan to make it down to the PCB without first being heated up. This helps keep the RAM ICS and VRM components from overheating much, much more optimally than on the standard AMP! edition.
The only downside to this upsized approach to cooling is this card is big. So if your motherboard can not properly handle a 2.5-slot design, or your case can’t handle the length of the card, this is not the right card for you. Yes, it is big; and yes it takes a bit of planning to ensure it will not cause more trouble than its worth.
Underneath this custom heatsink and fan combination is also a beefed up all digital 8-phase VRM that really can handle the insane 375 watts of power this card can theoretically call on thanks to its dual 8-pin connectors (150+150+75). Of course, this card is ‘only’ rated for 250 watts… but this does mean that even when overclocked it is doubtful the card will draw any more than a mere trickle from the PCIe slot. This is pretty much is the epitome of ‘overkill’ for a piddly little GP104-200 core, but a great boon for miners. Also upgraded is the RAM ICs. While yes ZOTAC does do some factory binning for the GDDR5 on the standard AMP! edition, only the best of the best get selected for the AMP! Extreme. This is why they actually apply a factory overclock to them. So instead of 8GHz they run at 8.2GHz… right out of the box. This may not sound like much, and really isn’t considering how good they ICs are, this does place the AMP! Extreme in rarefied company as many competing flagship models do not even come with factory RAM overclocking – even those that cost more than the ZOTAC AMP! Extreme.
Also like the premium models from others the core clock the AMP! Extreme comes with is rather… pardon the pun… extreme. Just like a FTW2 / STRIX OC / etc. the base clock is set to 1632Mhz and the boost is set to a whopping 1835MHz. Expect this to be mere suggestions as the core will auto-overclock well beyond this already high setting.
Beyond all the above differences the AMP! Extreme also differs from the standard AMP! edition in one other area. This area is in the overall aesthetics department. First and foremost is while it does use the ‘CARBON EXOARMOR’ (aka fake carbon fiber covering the metal alloy) the metal top fascia is even more angular and aggressive looking. Some will find it a touch too aggressive, but most will find it attractive as it does not have any ‘racing stripes’ or other ‘1337 gamer’ nonsense. Mainly though most will like it because it houses not two LED chevron styled lightbars and a Logo lightbar (like on the standard AMP! Edition) but five: two chevrons at each end and a very large lightbar over the middle fan. All of course are backstopped by the LED ‘Spectra’ lighting, and looks surprisingly nice.
We are usually not a fan of video cards with a multitude of LEDs but these lightbars do lend an elegance to the AMP! Extreme that is usually sorely lacking with ‘Las Vega Strip(er)’ models that go for the “more is more” approach to LEDs… with blinking lights scattered liberally over the card as if attached via a shotgun. Instead these lightbars actually help accentuate a custom builds overall color pallet without being garish or even overly noticeable. Instead, mix in some Ballistix Tactical TRACER RGB enabled RAM, and the proper motherboard, and maybe a LED strip or two and the AMP! Extreme could easily help ‘finish’ that uber custom PC build you are working on. This is a fine line and one that few get right… and why we dislike most overtly LED enabled video cards.
With all that said the LED lightbars are not perfect. Specifically, the central lightbar does double duty as a ZOTAC logo and a ‘Push the Limit’ logo. This double duty results in a noticeably less clean look than the ‘Zotac’ only LED logo on the standard AMP! Edition (as seen in the background in the above photo). As such there is still room for improvement in the ZOTAC engineering department.
Moving on. One area that is similar between the AMP! and AMP! Extreme is the excellent heatsink backplate ZOTAC uses. Just like the standard AMP! Edition the Extreme version uses a battle plate thick backplate that actually curves up and around the side of the card to catch waste air from the fans (ie turn what is usually at best a passive heatsink and at worst just there for aesthetics into an actively cooled heatsink). Unlike the standard AMP! this backplate curves up two sides of the card and further allows the backplate to whisk even more heat from the back of the card. Color us impressed, and we wish other manufacturers’ premium models did the same thing.
Also worth pointing out is the ‘Power Boost’ cut out in the backplate. Like with the standard AMP! model this is a supercapacitor that reduces ripple and allows for cleaner, more stable power when pushing the limits of overclocking. When you go from idle mode (say just using windows or 2D games) to actual gaming this super-cap will keep the power from ‘dipping’ / ‘drooping’ during the sudden ‘start up’ demand that can plague some cards when the overclock is pushed beyond the limits of sanity. Most will never notice this inclusion, but that is actually a good thing as you will notice the lack of sudden ‘blue screens’ that can occur due to vdroop on insane overclocks with lesser cards.
Sadly, the input/output options are the same as the standard AMP! edition. In fact, it basically is the same 2-slot layout with the top fascia covering the third slot on the back of the card. This is a bit of misstep as it is a missed opportunity for more air to escape out the back of the card. Over all though, it is hard to argue with the design team’s point of view… as a surprising amount of air will be pushed out the back of the case. Not ‘blower style’ levels… but a fair amount.
