The GeForce RTX 2070 Super graphics card seems to be the popular GPU in the current RTX Super lineup. It offers better performance per dollar compared to the RTX 2080 (Super) and RTX 2080 Ti. We have another RTX 2070 Super to show you and this time we are going to check out the GALAX GeForce RTX 2070 Super EX (1-Click OC) graphics card. Yup, “[1-Click OC]” is actually part of the name of their graphics card. It simply means that with just 1 click on GALAX’s Xtreme Tuner software, the graphics card will be overclocked (a bit). Well, let’s not delay further and let’s check out what this graphics card can do in our GALAX RTX 2070 Super EX review below.
GALAX GeForce RTX 2070 Super EX Review
By this time, we have a very solid idea how the new GeForce RTX 2070 Super would perform. This isn’t our first RTX 2070 Super review after all. It’s a great 1440p gaming graphics card and also great to pair with a 1080p or 1440p high refresh rate gaming monitor.
The GALAX GeForce RTX 2070 Super EX [1-Click OC] is based on NVIDIA’s 2070 Super GPU. These “Super” graphics cards are basically a beefed up or improved version of their non-Super predecessors. It’s not just a bump up in specs or clock speed, but the RTX 2070 Super uses a different GPU chip from the non-Super 2070.
The RTX 2070 Super features a derivative of NVIDIA’s TU104 GPU chip. It has 40 Streaming Multiprocessors, 2560 CUDA cores, 320 Tensor cores and 40 RT cores. The specs are basically a bit higher than its predecessor the RTX 2070. According to NVIDIA the RTX 2070 SUPER is faster than the former flagship GeForce GTX 1080 Ti GPU, and it is also up to 24% faster (16% average) overall than the standard GeForce RTX 2070 at 2560×1440 resolution.
NVIDIA decided not to increase the base price of the RTX 2070 Super, still at $499, despite the increased specs and performance. It basically replaces its predecessor on the same price range; and no price premium for the Founders Edition as well. I guess, NVIDIA wants to compete with AMD’s current mid-range graphics card, the RX 5700 XT, better.
Now, let’s take a closer look on the GALAX RTX 2070 Super EX and see what features it has to offer. When I got the graphics card, I was quite interested to see its noise and thermal performance. Basically, all the RTX 2070 Super graphics card in the market have the same core components. It’s really the aesthetics, cooler shroud, and some added features that sets them apart from one another. Let’s check out below after the specs table.
GALAX GeForce RTX 2070 Super EX Specifications
| GPU | Galax RTX 2070 Super EX | NVIDIA RTX 2070 Super | NVIDIA RTX 2070 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fab. Process / Architecture | 12 nm FFN / TU104 | 12 nm FFN / TU104 | 12 nm FFN / TU106 |
| Transistor Count | 13.6 Billion | 13.6 Billion | 10.8 Billion |
| Streaming Multiprocessors | 40 | 40 | 36 |
| CUDA Cores | 2560 | 2560 | 2304 |
| Tensor Cores | 320 | 320 | 288 |
| RT Cores | 40 | 40 | 36 |
| Texture Units | 160 | 160 | 144 |
| Texel fill-rate | 283.2 Gigatexels/sec | 283.2 Gigatexels/sec | 233.3 Gigatexels/sec |
| ROP Units | 64 | 64 | 64 |
| Rays Cast | 7 Giga Rays | 7 Giga Rays | 6 Giga Rays |
| Base Clock | 1605 MHz | 1605 MHz | 1410 MHz |
| Boost Clock | 1815 MHz | 1770 MHz | 1620 MHz |
| Tensor FLOPS | 72 TFLOPS | 72 TFLOPS | 60 TFLOPS |
| Memory Interface | 256-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit |
| Memory Data Rate | 14 Gbps | 14 Gbps | 14 Gbps |
| Memory Bandwidth | 448 GB/sec | 448 GB/sec | 448 GB/sec |
| Memory Size / Type | 8 GB GDDR6 | 8 GB GDDR6 | 8 GB GDDR6 |
| Max L1 Cache Size | 2560 KB | 2560 KB | 2304 KB |
| Total Graphics Power (TGP) | 215 Watts | 215 Watts | 175 Watts |
| Power Connectors | 8-pin + 6-pin | 8-pin + 6-pin | 8-pin |
| Recommended PSU | 650 Watts | 650 Watts | 550 Watts |
| MSRP (at launch) | ??? | $499 | $499 |
Packaging and Closer Look
Above you see the box of the GALAX RTX 2070 Super EX; it has a green gradient color theme. Some of the features are listed at the back of the box. The box also includes a molex to PCIe connector. Although, I highly recommend that you use at least a 650W 80 Plus certified PSU that already has a PCIe power connector. Usually they do, especially from trusted brands like Seasonic, Corsair, EVGA and etc.
The front cooler shroud feels sturdy and solid, but it’s actually a combination of metal and plastic. Still well constructed enough to feel solid on hand. The back plate is metal and it has a silver or grey accent. I’m not sure if GALAX is required to place that caution sign on the back plate. That portion is (really) hot when in full load and most graphics cards don’t have that sign. It somewhat ruins the aesthetics, but perhaps they are forced to place the warning sign.
The RTX 2070 Super EX also features two 100mm fans with RGB lighting. The RGB lighting can be controlled via GALAX’s Xtreme Tuner software. The fans also feature a “silent extreme technology”; it’s silent when running and stops spinning when in idle or light load situations.
On the output ports, the GALAX RTX 2070 Super EX doesn’t have a USB Type-C port or the VirtualLink connector. It only has an HDMI 2.0b port and three DisplayPort 1.4; so you might want to consider that if ever you plan to connect a VR headset directly to the GPU.
The two 100mm fans offer a maximum of 70.1 CFM and a 4.31mmAq of air pressure; more air pressure than previous generations. The GALAX RTX 2070 Super EX has larger heatsink fin surface area of 464000mm2 with 5 high performance composite heat pipes to cool the GPU.
GALAX didn’t include any cover or protection for the output ports and the NVLink connector. I wish they included covers or caps to protect these contact pins.
The Xtreme Tuner is basically GALAX’s own GPU utility, you can download here. With it, you can monitor the GPUs stats, control the fan speed, customize the RGB lighting and overclock the graphics card. You will need this to take advantage of the “1-click OC” feature. But I find the overclock to be less aggressive; as it only adds 15MHz on the GPU clock speed. I find it too conservative, but you can manually overclock the GPU higher if you really need to.
The Test Setup
In testing and benchmarking the GALAX GeForce RTX 2070 Super EX, the system I used is powered by an 8th Gen. Intel Core i7-8700K, overclocked to 4.9 GHz. The CPU is installed on an MSI MEG Z390 ACE motherboard. Below are the rest of the system specifications:
Operating System: Windows 10 Pro 64bit ver. 1903
Motherboard: MSI MEG Z390 ACE
Processor: Intel Core i7-8700K
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i RGB Platinum AIO
Memory: Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB DDR4-3200MHz
Graphics card: GALAX GeForce RTX 2070 Super EX
Storage Drives: WD Black SN750 NVMe SSD, Crucial MX500 2TB
Power Supply: Seasonic 850W Prime Titanium
Chassis: Thermaltake Core P5
When I tested the GALAX GeForce RTX 2070 Super EX, I was using the GeForce driver version 436.30 for Windows 10 64bit. All games were tested in three resolutions, namely: 1920×1080 or full HD, 2560×1440 or WQHD and 3840×2160 or 4K ultra HD. For the synthetic benchmarks, I used the benchmark tools from 3DMark and Unigine 2.
I also used the following games to test the graphics card: Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Ghost Recon: Wildlands, Metro Exodus, Middle Earth Shadow of War, Monster Hunter World, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt. Ray tracing benchmarks are seen on Battlefield V’s and Metro Exodus graphs.
Below are GPUz and GPGPU screenshots of the GALAX GeForce RTX 2070 Super EX:
Noise and Temperature
The Galaxy RTX 2070 Super EX only has two 100mm fans, paired with a big chunk of aluminum fin stack. So even though it has two fans, it can passively cool the GPU on idle to light load situations, producing no sound at all. While in full load, the graphics card is still silent. Similar to the other RTX 2070 Super we have tested and reviewed before this. So, noise is not a problem at all and it has a very good acoustics as well.
In idle to light load situation, the fans do not spin at all. Although, I observed that it would spin for a few seconds and stop. Not sure why it’s doing that though. As you can see from the screenshot above, the GPU load is around 51% and the temperature is hovering around 51° Celsius.
At full load, the two 100mm fans kicks in and goes up to around 60% of fan speed. Actually, it’s just below 60% or around 1600 RPM. During my tests, the GPU temperature never went beyond 70° Celsius. It’s not as cool as Gigabyte’s RTX 2070 Super Gaming OC, but the thermal performance is similar to MSI’s RTX 2070 Super Gaming X. Overall, the GALAX RTX 2070 Super EX’s cooling solution works and I don’t see any (major) problems with it. It’s basically doing a great job at cooling the GPU.
Now let see if GALAX’s RTX 2070 Super EX is also on par with the other RTX 2070 Super on the market.
GALAX RTX 2070 Super EX Synthetic Benchmark Results
In this page I’ll show you the synthetic benchmark results of the GALAX GeForce RTX 2070 Super EX first. The next following pages are for the 1080p benchmark results, then 1440p benchmark results and finally the 2160p or 4K UHD benchmark results. Some of you might not be interested in synthetic benchmarks, but there are others who would like to see them. You can use the table of contents to skip to the benchmark results that you would like to see first.
For the synthetic benchmark results, I include 3DMark Fire Strike, 3DMark Fire Strike Extreme, 3DMark Fire Strike Ultra, 3DMark Time Spy and 3DMark Time Spy Extreme. I’ve also included Unigine 2’s Superposition benchmark at 1080p, 1440p and 2160p resolution. Below are the scores that I got for the Galax RTX 2070 Super EX.
Based on the synthetic benchmarks results I got, the Galax RTX 2070 Super EX performs similarly with the other RTX 2070 Super from MSI and Gigabyte. No surprise in that, as it should be performing neck and neck with the other RTX 2070 Super.
This is expected and it should be, since they are powered with the same RTX 2070 Super GPU after all. Gigabyte’s RTX 2070 Super seems to perform just a tad better. Perhaps this is because Gigabyte’s graphics card runs cooler; thus, it can reach higher boost clock speed and/or sustains higher boost clock speeds.
1080p Gaming Benchmark Results
For the game benchmark results, the games listed below are arranged in alphabetical order. The games included in this test are: Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Ghost Recon Wildlands, Metro Exodus, Monster Hunter World, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Middle Earth Shadow of War, and the Witcher 3.
The graphs you will see below are all for 1080p benchmark results. You may also click on the image to see a larger view of the graphs. Go ahead and check out the 1080p game benchmark results we got for the GALAX GeForce RTX 2070 Super EX.
Like in the synthetic benchmarks, the Galax RTX 2070 Super EX is similarly with the other RTX 2070 Super. They are just trading blows, a few frames win or a few frames loose, from one game to the next. But generally, if you look at the graphs, they are on the same performance category.
The RTX 2070 Super might be a bit too much for 1080p gaming, especially if you are just playing eSport title games; or your monitor is limited to 60Hz and not a high refresh rate monitor. It’s best suited for 1440p gaming.
1440p Gaming Benchmark Results
The 1440p game resolution is the intended target resolution for a GeForce RTX 2070 Super. The format is the same, the games are also arranged in alphabetical order. Below are the game benchmark results that we got with the GALAX GeForce RTX 2070 Super EX. All games are tested in their respective ultra or highest graphics quality.
The Galax RTX 2070 Super EX is just enough to handle AAA games at 2560×1440 resolution. However, depending on how graphics intensive a game is, you might want to tone down the graphics quality a bit if you want to reach around 120 or 144 fps to match a high refresh rate monitor.
Again, like the other RTX 2070 Super graphics cards, it can push well above 60 fps even at ultra graphics setting. This makes the RTX 2070 Super a good graphics card for 1440p (high refresh rate) gaming resolution.
Up next let’s check out the results we got in 2160p game resolution. This isn’t really a graphics card intended for 4K UHD gaming; but just in case you are interested, go ahead and check out the results.
2160p Gaming Benchmark Results
The GeForce RTX 2070 Super graphics card was not designed for 3840 x 2160 or 4K UHD gaming. You can game at this resolution with the said graphics card, but you will have to (significantly) lower the graphics quality, depending on how graphics intensive the game is, just to hit 60 fps.
This resolution is really demanding as it is equivalent to four 1080p resolution. You’ll need at least an RTX 2080 Super or better yet an RTX 2080 Ti just to play games at a smooth playable frame rate.
But if you are going to play eSport title games and other similar non-graphics intensive games, the RTX 2070 Super would be able to drive them at this resolution. As for non-gaming activity, the RTX 2070 Super doesn’t have any problems when paired with a 4K UHD monitor.
Below are the results that I got for the GALAX GeForce RTX 2070 Super EX at 3840×2160 resolution. All games are at their ultra or highest graphics quality as well.
Just like with the other RTX 2070 Super, the GALAX RTX 2070 Super EX delivers around ~35 fps to 50 fps, give or take depending on the game, at 2160p resolution. It’s still playable, but not the smoothest gaming experience. Like I said, you will have to sacrifice graphics quality if you want to play games at this resolution with an RTX 2070 Super.
That’s the end of our game benchmark results for the Galax RTX 2070 Super EX. Now to conclude this review.
GALAX GeForce RTX 2070 Super EX Review Conclusion
This is our third GeForce RTX 2070 Super graphics card review. So, I already have an idea how the GALAX RTX 2070 Super EX would perform. It performs similarly with the other RTX 2070 Super cards. It also performs close and sometimes on par with an RTX 2080 (non-Super) graphics card.
The performance difference between the RTX 2070 Super and RTX 2080 (Super) isn’t significantly huge. But there is a $200 price difference between the RTX 2070 Super and RTX 2080 Super. Obviously, the RTX 2070 Super has the better value.
As for its AMD competition, the Radeon RX 5700 XT isn’t really going after the RTX 2070 Super. The Radeon RX 5700 XT is priced similarly with NVIDIA’s RTX 2060 Super, its main competitor. Based on our review of the RX 5700 XT, we found that the 5700 XT is generally faster than the RTX 2060 Super. It’s even on par with the RTX 2070 Super, depending on the game’s engine or if it is an AMD sponsored tittle.
Nevertheless, the RTX 2070 Super is generally faster than the Radeon RX 5700 XT and has a better set of features than the 5700 XT. Radeon cards don’t have ray tracing capabilities and that is one advantage of the RTX cards. More and more developers are already implementing ray tracing in their games. It will only be a matter of time until we see majority of the games in the market to feature real-time ray tracing or similar graphic effects.
Between the RX 5700 XT and RTX 2070 Super, I think the latter is the better option or value. Not unless you really need the RX 5700 XT for a specific purpose, our you simply want an AMD graphics card. Not to mention, I personally can’t recommend a stock RX 5700 XT graphics card.
The blower style simply runs hot and loud. You’ll have to choose from some of the best Radeon RX 5700 XT on the market if you want something cool and quiet. And most of these cards are already priced close or similarly to an RTX 2070 Super.
GALAX’s RTX 2070 Super EX is a good solid graphics card. It’s inaudible during idle to light load situations and silent even at full GPU load. Despite having only two 100mm fans, its think aluminum fin stack is able to absorb the heat from the GPU efficiently.
During my tests, the Galax RTX 2070 Super EX’s temperature never went beyond 70° Celsius and fan speed is only running below 60%. As a result, the graphics card runs cool and generally silent. Temperature could even get lower (or higher) depending on your ambient temperature. But overall, I find the cooling solution on this graphics card to be effective.
The Galax RTX 2070 Super EX can play games comfortably at 1080p (high refresh rate) up to 1440p resolution even at high or ultra graphics quality. It can play some games at 4K UHD as well, although you will have to tone down the graphics quality to achieve higher frame rates. If you have a 1080p 144Hz-240Hz monitor, or a 1440p 60Hz-144Hz monitor, this card would be an ideal partner for your gaming monitor.
In terms of aesthetics, I think it looks good but beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The color scheme is neutral so I don’t think you’ll have a problem pairing it up with your system. Whether you will like the “What’s Your Game” line on the middle-side of the graphics card, or not, is totally up to you.
Overall, the GALAX GeForce RTX 2070 Super EX [1-Click OC] gets our recommendation. But it may not be as available in the US, compared to Asia and European countries.
