Card Layout and Photos
I spoke about it with the other 50-Series Founders Edition cards but each time they release a new one I am always impressed that Nvidia has managed to change the design up but still keep the same overall styling and feel. This time around the RTX 5070 Founders Edition has dropped down in size significantly. It is a two-slot card just like the others, but the card dimensions have dropped down to what I would call a standard card size. It has a 112 mm card height which puts it right over the top of the rear PCI bracket and at 242 mm in length I wouldn’t call it compact but it isn’t long. It has the same dual fan design and the cast metal fan shroud has that same infinity loop shape that is visible on both sides of the card and peaks out on the top and bottom as well. It has black for all of the filler plates and the loop has a very dark grey finish that goes great with the black fans.
Like with the other Founders Edition cards, the RTX 5070 Founders Edition has a dual fan design with two axial fans pushing air down into the cooler. If you look closely though the left and right sides are very different even with the cooler layout. On the left the heatsink behind the fan is horizontal, the air on this side is pushed out the PCI bracket and towards the other side of the card. The right side on the other hand has a horizontal heatsink. This side is a blow-through design with the heatsink itself exposed on the backside. Both fans are the same size which is 90mm edge to edge with a little under 2mm of a gap between the edge to the shroud. They have 7 blades and a dark grey center cap. They also have an outer ring all the way around that connects all of the blades to give them more stability.
The top edge of the card has a few things going on. On the blow-through end, it has GeForce RTX etched on it but with no backlighting. Next to that, at the end of the PCB, you have the 16-pin 12x6 power connection. Nvidia learned from the last generation and has this plug now recessed down into the card slightly and set at an angle. This helps prevent issues with the connection being pushed up against a side panel straining the connection. They have also switched to 12x6 which looks the same as the 12VHPWR and uses the 12VHPWR cable from your PSU. The 12x6 has longer pins to help get a better connection for the power pins and shorter sense pins to help pick up an issue when it isn’t plugged in all the way.
Looking at the top and bottom edges as well as the end of the RTX 5070 Founders Edition, the metal shroud wraps on all three of these edges. Other than the two smaller vents in the center on the top and bottom none of these edges will have air venting out. That leaves the blow-through area and the PCI bracket end of the card which is interesting to see. The end of the card does have threaded mounting holes for cases that have those support brackets.
The back side of the RTX 5070 Founders Edition looks similar to the design we have seen on the other 50 Series Founders Edition cards but both sides aren’t a full blow-through design like on the other cards. Only the left side does that. They still have the black heatsink on both sides and the infinity loop shape. Up in the top solid section they have the RTX 5070 model name and if you look closely you can see the Nvidia branding on the bottom right corner of the X center shape.
For display connections, the RTX 5070 Founders Edition has the same four connections that most cards these days have. You get three Display Port connections and one HDMI port. The HDMI is down at the bottom near the PCIe slot. The PCI bracket has a nice black finish like all of this generations Founders Edition cards have had which is great to see, and with all of the display connections along the PCB there is room for four large vent holes as well and we can see that Nvidia has taken advantage of this with the heatsink directly behind it and pushing air out this direction, this is where a lot of the air from the left fan is going. It’s not a full blow-through design but the card design has the left sides cooling running out here and out on the blow-through end.
The RTX 5070 Founders Edition is what we would consider a full-sized card 3 generations ago but with cards getting larger I did get a shot with the RTX 5070 Founders Edition sitting next to the RTX 5080 for comparison. They both have the same 2-slot thickness but the RTX 5080 is huge in comparison.
