How Much Does It Cost?
Too damn much! Jokes aside, NVIDIA has announced their 3070 Ti Founders models will start at $599 so expect to pay a good couple hundred dollars more for the Gigabyte RTX 3070 Ti AORUS MASTER 8G. AIB cards are also a bit more expensive, especially the top models so this is nothing new really, just a shame things cost more when the prices are already inflated as much as they currently are. We’ve said it many times now, there is so much going on that is leading to all these increases and well, it just sucks! However, there is not much we can do but try to wait it out and hope that it will get better in the future.
Overview
The Gigabyte RTX 3070 Ti AORUS MASTER 8G is an absolute beast if I’ve not said it enough times yet! This card is not only the biggest 3070 Ti we have tested, it was also the best performing and rightly so. The AORUS MASTER is Gigabyte’s top of the range model and it is easy to see why! It definitely has a lot to offer in terms of looks with its multiple RGB zones, MASSIVE cooler and customizable LCD screen. If you are looking for the best of the best when it comes to the new 3070 Ti’s, this one definitely needs to be on the list to look into and check out. Gigabyte has done an amazing job with this card and seems to have ticked all the boxes necessary to make it one of the better ones available on the market.
NVIDIA LHR
NVIDIA has added a hashrate limiter to their latest 3080 Ti and now 3070 Ti range of GPUs. The idea is to decrease the Eth hashrate so that the cards aren’t as attractive to miners, which should in turn mean more of them make their way into the hands of gamers. While there are still a few other issues causing GPU shortages and increased prices, it is nice to see NVIDIA at least trying to help things along and make sure gamers can get their hands on some new GPUs. From our in-house testing, what we have seen is the 3070 Ti based cards are hashing at about half of the speed we would expect to see from them so whatever NVIDIA is doing is working.
Should I Buy One?
How long is a piece of string? At this point in time, I would say if you are in desperate need of an upgrade then yeah, these are good cards and will last you for a good few years. However, if your current GPU does the trick and you just have the upgrade itch just to get something newer, it may be worth holding out. This isn’t anything against the Gigabyte RTX 3070 Ti AORUS MASTER 8G itself but the whole market is currently a mess! Maybe we can get Elon Musk to say GPU mining is dead and hope that it might help reduce the price of cards a little bit or at least flood the market with second-hand cards. I mean, got to be worth a shot right? We don’t have much to lose the way I see it. Regardless, the Gigabyte RTX 3070 Ti AORUS MASTER 8G is an amazing card and if prices were where they should be, I would have no issues with recommending you buy one ASAP.
