Chinese manufacturer Zephyr is releasing several new graphics cards, including one RTX4070 which fits the ITX form factor and has another unique design choice: a single fan.
It uses a single eight-pin power connector with a custom PCB design, an AD104-250 GPU and 12 GB of GDDR6X memory. A disadvantage, however, is that it is not overclocked, and the manufacturer makes no promises about those possibilities.
However, Zephyr makes strong claims on the effectiveness of its heat dissipation, claiming it is superior to some dual-fan cards once it reaches 2400 RPM.
According to the given specifications, it is on average eight degrees cooler and the memory temperature is 10 degrees cooler. We don’t know exactly what it’s being compared to, although it could be Zephyr’s dual-fan design.
Performance in the 3DMark benchmark is around the RTX 4070 average, with a score of 4442 compared to the 4450 average.
This could be a big win for the environment
Zephyr’s RTX 4070 single-fan graphics card is, in my opinion, exactly what manufacturers should be working towards. Instead of this constant and unsustainable push for more powerful cards, we should focus our efforts on performance efficiency so that they use fewer resources to keep them running.
This would be especially vital for data centers, which consume enormous amounts of water to remain functional, which has an equally devastating ecological impact. Imagine if, instead of powering these massive centers with Nvidia RTX 5000 series graphics cards that are gearing up to become power-hungry cards further powered by AI, you could equip centers with cards that consume far less power yet offer a comparable level of performance. to “more powerful” graphics cards.
With news that the first wave of Zephyr’s RTX 4070s sold out and a second wave was scheduled for mid-July, it seems like gamers clearly want to see more efficient cards as well. This is supported by the fact that people have DIY their own versions of the RTX 4070 Ti to use fewer fans and motherboard slots.
Hopefully, this will inspire manufacturers from other countries to refocus their efforts as well, ultimately leading to a rapid reduction in resource waste.