GeForce RTX 4070 GPU Review: It Hits the Bull’s-Eye of the Middle
Lori Grunin/CNET
Nvidia’s latest throwdown in the GPU arena, the GeForce RTX 4070 seems like the most well-rounded meat-and-potatoes gaming card choice you can get — at least for the moment. It’s a first-rate option for upgrading to high-speed, highest quality 1080p through entry 4K gaming, hitting all of 1440p in between. Covering that much ground means you should be safe for a few years until you’re ready to upgrade again. It’s good for 4K video editing, most streaming and entry-level pro and AI-assisted graphics. The size and power requirements make it a good fit for midsize systems. And starting at $600, it’s the least expensive way to hit all those targets.
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Founders Edition
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Like
- Well-rounded performance for the money
- Only takes two slots
Don’t Like
- Needs adapter or PCIe 5 power connectors
The step-up?RTX 4070 Ti outperforms it, sometimes by quite a bit, thanks to its faster GPU clock and more cores across the board, which makes the 4070 Ti a tempting competitor for the same gaming performance classes as the RTX 4070. But it’s at least $200 more (although who knows what the 4070’s price range will settle at once the third-party boards start to ship on April 13), recommends a class higher of power supply and takes up more space. Though the 4070 Ti only needs a half-slot more width, that means it will block an entire second slot on many motherboards, and it might not even fit in some smaller systems.
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Founders Edition
| Memory | 12GB GDDR6X |
|---|---|
| Memory bandwidth (GBps) | 504.2 |
| Memory clock (GHz) | 11 |
| GPU clock (GHz, base/boost) | 1.92/2.475 |
| Memory data rate/Interface | 21Gbps/192 bits |
| RT cores | 46 |
| CUDA Cores | 5888 |
| Texture mapping units | 184 |
| Streaming multiprocessors | 46 |
| Tensor Cores | 184 |
| Process | 4nm |
| TGP/min PSU (watts) | 200/650 |
| Max thermal (degrees) | 194F/90C |
| Bus | PCIe 4.0×16 |
| Size | 2 slots |
| Launch price | $600 |
| Ship date | April 12, 2023 |
AMD’s RX 7900 XT and RX 7900 XTX?also outperform the RTX 4070, but they’re even more expensive than the RTX 4070 Ti and can’t keep up with the RTX 4070 for ray tracing. They’re also 2.5 slots thick like the 4070 Ti. And though it sounds tempting to opt for a last-generation GeForce model, they aren’t really cheaper unless you drop below an RTX 3070. But at that point you’ve also dropped down to a different performance class.
The RTX 4070 FE’s power connector.
Lori Grunin/CNET
One reason to go for an RTX 40-series class card over an older generation is the jump from DLSS 2 to DLSS 3, Nvidia’s performance optimization technology, that the newer Ada architecture made over Ampere. DLSS 3 delivers significant gains over its predecessor. The downside is that there aren’t a lot of DLSS 3-supporting games out yet — only about 50, which isn’t much out of the universe of thousands of games. But it does bump DLSS 2 performance over the RTX 30-series as well.
It was a bit odd that Nvidia didn’t release a home-grown Founders Edition of the 4070 Ti, but it returned to tradition with the 4070; the Founders Editions are notable for having guaranteed as-launched prices, though they also tend to sell out fast for that reason.
There’s little novel about the RTX 4070 FE’s design relative to the rest of the line. The one notable distinction is the power connector, which like the others needs either the bundled adapter or PCIe 5.0 PSU cables/adapters, but only uses a single 12-pin connection (rather than two). ?
Like its siblings, the RTX 4070 FE has three DisplayPort 1.4 connections and one HDMI 2.1.
Lori Grunin/CNET
Companies release the highest priced, highest performing model, wait a little while to see how many people snap it up, then release a slightly cheaper, slightly less powerful model, rinse and repeat. And none do it more consistently than Nvidia. That makes offering informed buying advice harder than necessary: We know that slower, cheaper GPU models are coming, but not how much slower or how much cheaper.?
I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a 4060 Ti in our future that makes an incremental drop that’s worth the performance sacrifice for the price savings, the way the RTX 4070 did subsequent to my review of the RTX 4070 Ti. But for the moment, the GeForce RTX 4070 seems to strike the best balance of performance for the money, and one that should keep you happy for a few years.
Relative performance of other GPUs
Shadow of the Tomb Raider gaming test (1440p)
RTX 4070
163
RTX 3080 Ti
167
RX 7900 XT
182
RTX 4070 Ti
195
RTX 4070 (DLSS 2, Quality)
198
RX 7900 XTX
209
RTX 4080
220
RTX 4090
235
Note:
Longer bars indicate better performance (FPS)
3DMark Time Spy graphics test
RTX 4070
18,013
RX 7900 XTX
19,760
RTX 4070 Ti
22,731
RX 7900 XT
24,814
RTX 4080
28,275
RX 7900 XTX
29,413
RTX 4090
35,467
Note:
Longer bars indicate better performance
3DMark Fire Strike Ultra
RTX 4070
10,413
RTX 3080 Ti
12,635
RTX 4070 Ti
13,707
RX 7900 XT
16,879
RTX 4080
17,619
RX 7900 XTX
19,760
RTX 4090
24,407
Note:
Longer bars indicate better performance
Guardians of the Galaxy (1440p at maximum quality with ray tracing)
RX 7900 XT
83
RTX 4070
89
RX 7900 XTX
93
RTX 3080 Ti
102
RTX 4070 Ti
109
RTX 4080
136
Note:
Longer bars indicate better performance (FPS)
Procyon Video
RX 7900 XT
8,259
RTX 4070
8,383
RTX 4070 Ti
8,479
RX 7900 XTX
8,494
RTX 3080 Ti
8,792
RTX 4080
9,250
RTX 4090
9,678
Note:
Longer bars indicate better performance
SpecViewPerf 2020 SolidWorks (4K)
RTX 4070
154.28
RX 7900 XT
165.46
RX 7900 XTX
184.8
RTX 4070 Ti
189.64
RTX 3080 Ti
191.52
RTX 4080
233.84
RTX 4090
304.66
Note:
Longer bars indicate better performance (FPS)
3DMark Speed Way (DX12 Ultimate)
RTX 4070
4,479
RX 7900 XT
4,534
RTX 4070 Ti
5,429
RX 7900 XTX
5,891
RTX 4080
7,168
RTX 4090
9,813
Note:
Longer bars indicate better performance
3DMark DXR (DirectX Ray Tracing)
RX 7900 XT
42.06
RX 7900 XTX
49.16
RTX 4070
51.82
RTX 3080 Ti
54.96
RTX 4070 Ti
67.95
RTX 4080
85.01
RTX 4090
136.05
Note:
Longer bars indicate better performance (FPS)
Test PC configuration
| Custom PC | Microsoft Windows 11 Pro (22H2); 3.2GHz Intel Core i9-12900K; 32GB DDR5-4800; 2x Corsair MP600 Pro SSD; Corsair HX1200 80 Plus Platinum PSU, MSI MPG Z690 Force Wi-Fi motherboard, Corsair 4000D Airflow midtower case |
|---|