The EVGA GeForce GTX 1070 Ti FTW2 Review: iCX Brings the Lights and Sensors

Meet The EVGA GeForce GTX 1070 Ti FTW2: Precision XOC

Considering that a lot of iCX features are neutered without it, Precision XOC is nigh-mandatory for, and essentially a software extension of, an iCX graphics card, which is not necessarily a negative. What makes this particularly relevant today is how the GTX 1070 Ti was positioned with respect to standardizing shipping clocks and promoting overclocking prowess. Several board partners ended up using their in-house overclocking utilities to advertise higher potential performance of their GTX 1070 Ti cards.

Naturally, EVGA incorporated Precision XOC for their semi-manual overclocking solution, developing a new single-step feature called “EVGA Precision XOC Scanner” or simply “XOC Scanner”, exclusive to the GTX 1070 Ti. While it differs from using OC ScannerX in the usual manner, it uses a series of automated OC ScannerX preset tests to apply an overclock. Simply starting Precision XOC for the first time will bring up a prompt to auto-overclock your GTX 1070 Ti, and after asking for the serial number, offer three different choices.

However, the in-application descriptions of the three options don’t make the end result very clear. In running XOC Scanner on our GTX 1070 Ti FTW2, the Quick Test results in an Offset overclock and the Full Test results in an overclocked voltage/frequency curve, but without adjusting any other element. Selecting Manual will send you to the regular Precision XOC application. But once there, running a Basic scan will bring up the three options again, while the Manual scan goes straight into voltage-frequency curve testing.

In effect, the XOC Scanner is applying the default OC Scanner settings almost like a preset, but changing the settings actually does change the parameters of the Quick and Full Test options.

In the overclocking section, we will see how these presets fare in benchmarks.

As discussed earlier, the other myriad features of the iCX system can be controlled from Precision XOC as well, namely configuration of LED colors and behavior.

To top even that, the LED Sync tool can coordinate lighting across EVGA graphics cards, closed-loop cooler, and chassis. Capping it off is the asynchronous fan control via separate sliders and fan curves.

LED Sync in action, posted by EVGA Product Manager Jacob Freeman (EVGA Forums)

But because the GTX 1070 Ti FTW2 iCX is the one EVGA GTX 1070 Ti card where eschewing Precision XOC means you’ve paid a premium for nothing, it’s almost safe to assume that Precision XOC will be used. And in that case, the auto-prompting XOC Scanner may as well be an inherent part of the GTX 1070 Ti FTW2 iCX package too, which is also not necessarily a negative. As far as how XOC Scanner works, the process is rather hands-off: you click a choice, a few tests happen, and once it’s over your card runs faster. Which sounds to be exactly what was intended.