Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 review: Highly efficient 1440p gaming

Price When Reviewed

$599

Finally, Nvidia’s 70-class GeForce graphics playing cards get greater than 8GB of reminiscence. And lastly, there’s a member of the RTX 40-series probably value shopping for aside from the $1,600 flagship. Meet the 12GB GeForce RTX 4070. It’s hitting the streets for $599 on April 13.

The GeForce RTX 4070 delivers exceptionally quick 1440p gaming efficiency whereas sipping energy, a mixture that allow Nvidia create an adorably tiny Founders Edition model of the GPU. Those body charges climb even greater in video games that assist Nvidia’s DLSS upscaling expertise, and astronomically greater in video games embracing DLSS 3 Frame Generation—even with ray tracing flipped on. Exceptional software program options like Nvidia Broadcast, Reflex, and RTX Video Super Resolution assist sweeten the pot.

The RTX 4070 could also be value contemplating but it surely’s not a slam-dunk suggestion. Paying $599 for a 70-class graphics card explicitly marketed for 1440p gaming deeply aches, particularly when Nvidia made technical choices that actively harm the GPU’s 4K gaming prowess. We’d additionally prefer to see 16GB of reminiscence in a $600 graphics card in 2023. Still, whereas the RTX 4070 prices $100 greater than its predecessor, it’s nowhere close to as insultingly overpriced because the $800 RTX 4070 Ti and $1,200 RTX 4080 are.

With these broad-strokes impressions out of the best way, let’s dig into the small print.

Further studying: The best graphics cards for PC gaming

What are the GeForce RTX 4070’s specs?

Nvidia’s $599 GeForce RTX 4070 makes use of a cut-down model of the 4N “Ada Lovelace” AD104 GPU discovered within the RTX 4070 Ti. Here’s a have a look at its core specs:

• Graphics Processing Clusters: 4
• Texture Processing Clusters: 23
• Streaming Multiprocessors: 46
• CUDA Cores: 5888
• Tensor Cores: 184 (4th Generation)
• RT Cores: 46 (third Generation)
• Texture Units: 184
• ROP Units: 64
• Base Clock: 1920MHz
• Boost Clock: 2475MHz
• Memory Clock: 10500MHz
• Memory Data Rate: 21Gb/s
• Total Video Memory: 12GB GDDR6X
• Memory Interface: 192-bit
• Total Memory Bandwidth: 504GB/s
• Transistor Count: 35.8 billion
• Connectors: 3x DisplayPort, 1x HDMI
• Power Connectors: 2x PCIe 8-pin cables (adapter in field) OR 300W or better PCIe Gen 5 cable
• Power Supply Required:650W

This all represents strong advances over the expertise inside final technology’s $499 RTX 3070 and $599 RTX 3070 Ti, although it’s a big step again from the 4070 Ti’s would possibly—that card runs roughly 15 to 25 % quicker, relying on the sport and backbone. The efficiency hole widens barely at 4K decision.

You don’t really need the GeForce RTX 4070 for 4K gaming anyway—a conclusion that’s supported by Nvidia’s choice to market this GPU round enjoying video games at 100 frames per second at 1440p decision. As we mentioned extensively within the RTX 4070 Ti’s review, Nvidia geared up the AD104 GPU utilized by each 4070 playing cards with a surprisingly slim 192-bit reminiscence bus, which constrains general reminiscence bandwidth. The RTX 4070 comes with GDDR6X, quicker reminiscence than its predecessor, in addition to a a lot bigger L2 cache (36.8K) for retaining extra duties on the GPU itself. Both of these assist increase reminiscence efficiency however I wouldn’t purchase this card for 4K gaming—solely 1440p.

By distinction, the RTX 3080—which, once more, was a higher-tier card that value $100 lower than the 4070 Ti—wielded a 320-bit bus, which is typical for a high-end GPU. Even the already-pandemic-overpriced $600 RTX 3070 Ti had a 256-bit bus. You needed to go all the best way all the way down to the $330 RTX 3060 to search out an Nvidia GPU with a 192-bit bus final technology.

From PCWorld’s RTX 4070 Ti overview

That goes doubly so given its 12GB reminiscence capability—a very welcome improve over the 8GB that Nvidia’s 70-class remained caught on for the reason that GTX 1070’s launch in 2016. That stated, with games gobbling ever-increasing amounts of VRAM now that the most recent console technology (and 16GB of shared reminiscence) are the usual, I’d be nervous about shopping for a graphics card for 4K gaming with lower than 16GB of reminiscence. The RTX 4070’s 12GB must be fantastic for many video games at 1440p, although notice that flipping on ray-tracing results eats closely into VRAM as properly.

Brad Chacos/IDG

Brad Chacos/IDG

This is a tremendously energy-efficient graphics card, which let Nvidia craft a smaller, completely cute dual-slot model of its Founders Edition board. Nvidia’s fantastic-looking FE designs deal with nearly each a part of the cardboard as a heatsink and make the most of unorthodox flow-through fan cooling. That all holds true with the RTX 4070 FE—it’s simply a lot smaller than its triple-slot siblings. This beast will likely be common in high-end small form-factor gaming builds.

Nvidia geared up the RTX 4070 Founders Edition with a single HDMI 2.1 port in addition to three DisplayPort 1.4a connections. It additionally makes use of the brand new 16-pin 12VHPWR connector regardless of its comparatively modest energy calls for—you solely want a 650W provide—so be ready to have a look at the ugly too-short adapter plugs in your case if you happen to don’t wish to spend money on a new ATX 3.0 power supply (or a minimum of customized 12VHPWR cords). FE playing cards don’t embrace further options like dual-BIOS switches or customizable RGB lighting.

Brad Chacos/IDG

As an RTX 40-series “Ada Lovelace” graphics card, the GeForce RTX 4070 additionally helps Nvidia’s staggering arsenal of options, together with DLSS, DLSS 3 Frame Generation, Nvidia Broadcast, RTX Video Super Resolution, excellent ray-tracing prowess, Nvidia Reflex, and extra. Nvidia’s software program stack is a main feather in its cap. It’s value noting that whereas the RTX 4070 helps AV1 encoding, new to GeForce this generation, product supervisor Justin Walker informed me the 4070 solely features a single AV1 encoder moderately than the pair present in higher-priced RTX 40-series choices.

Got it? Good. Let’s get to the benchmarks.

Our take a look at system

We take a look at graphics playing cards on an AMD Ryzen 5900X PC used solely for benchmarking GPUs. We now take a look at with PCIe Resizable BAR (also referred to as Smart Access Memory on Ryzen programs) energetic, as most fashionable gaming PCs launched within the final 4 years assist the performance-boosting characteristic, both natively or through a motherboard firmware replace. Nvidia additionally recommends turning on the non-compulsory “Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling” possibility in Windows to let the RTX 40-series stretch its legs to the fullest, so we’ve made that tweak as properly. Most of the {hardware} was offered by the producers, however we bought the storage ourselves.

We take a look at quite a lot of video games spanning varied engines, genres, vendor sponsorships (Nvidia, AMD, and Intel), and graphics APIs (DirectX 9, 11, DX12, and Vulkan), to attempt to symbolize a full vary of efficiency potential. Each recreation is examined utilizing its in-game benchmark, sanity checked by Nvidia’s FrameView tool, on the highest attainable graphics presets except in any other case famous, with VSync, body charge caps, real-time ray tracing or DLSS results, and FreeSync/G-Sync disabled, together with some other vendor-specific applied sciences like FidelityFX instruments or Nvidia Reflex. We’ve additionally enabled temporal anti-aliasing (TAA) to push these playing cards to their limits.

We run every benchmark a minimum of thrice and checklist the typical consequence for every take a look at. Outside of esports, we’ve restricted our benchmarks to 4K and 1440p resolutions, as these are the pure suits for these juggernaut GPUs (regardless of the 4070 Ti’s paltry bus width). We take a look at options like ray tracing and DLSS in a separate part, as upscaling options like DLSS and AMD’s rival FSR tweak the look of video games to assist them run quicker.  

We’re going to indicate these benchmarks with out particular person recreation commentary. In addition to being attentive to how the RTX 4070 performs in relation to the 4070 Ti, 3080, and 3070, additionally notice the way it compares in opposition to AMD’s Radeon RX 6800 XT and 6900 XT—two last-generation fashions which might be quicker and extra memory-packed than Nvidia’s new providing, and might typically be discovered for much less on the road. Nvidia’s GPUs womp in ray tracing and additional options, although they lag behind Radeon in uncooked esports body charges.

How quick is the GeForce RTX 4070?

Brad Chacos/IDG

Brad Chacos/IDG

Brad Chacos/IDG

Brad Chacos/IDG

Brad Chacos/IDG

Brad Chacos/IDG

Brad Chacos/IDG

Brad Chacos/IDG

Brad Chacos/IDG

Brad Chacos/IDG

How is the RTX 4070’s ray tracing and DLSS efficiency?

In addition to conventional gaming checks, we individually benchmark how graphics playing cards carry out with ray tracing enabled on the highest attainable settings (although we follow Ultra, not Psycho, in Cyberpunk 2077).

Since ray tracing tanks body charges, we additionally take a look at how Nvidia and AMD’s DLSS and FSR upscaling applied sciences, respectively, handle to claw again efficiency utilizing their Balanced high quality presets, which straddle the road between optimizing for higher picture high quality and quicker body charges. We’ve additionally chosen benchmarks that present how Nvidia’s new DLSS 3 Frame Generation can supercharge body charges and visible smoothness even additional by inserting AI-generated frames between each GPU-rendered body. Nvidia says DLSS 3 is being adopted 7x quicker than DLSS 2 was and it could ship really transformative visible smoothness in video games that assist it, but it surely’s solely accessible for brand new RTX 40-series choices.

Note that DLSS and FSR each work by rendering a body at a decrease decision, then scaling it to suit your display utilizing software program smarts. They even have a number of totally different high quality presets accessible. Comparing DLSS vs. FSR in uncooked body charge isn’t as apples-to-apples as evaluating native gaming efficiency, in different phrases, however nonetheless value inspecting as they’re options most players will use in the true world. That warning goes doubly so for DLSS 3’s radical AI body technology, which may typically generate artifacts and different slight inconsistencies, as Hardware Unboxed’s glorious video above reveals.

The charts beneath present native 1440p efficiency; native 1440p with ray tracing extremely energetic; upscaled DLSS/FSR Balanced mode efficiency with ray tracing extremely energetic; and, for RTX 40-series GPUs solely, DLSS 3 Frame Gen efficiency with ray tracing extremely energetic. You may also activate DLSS/FSR or DLSS 3 with out ray tracing energetic for even quicker body charges however we solely examined that situation in Red Dead Redemption 2 as a result of there are solely so many hours within the day, y’all.

Brad Chacos/IDG

Brad Chacos/IDG

Brad Chacos/IDG

Brad Chacos/IDG

Brad Chacos/IDG

Is the GeForce RTX 4070 energy environment friendly?

We take a look at energy draw by looping the F1 22 benchmark at 4K for about 20 minutes after we’ve benchmarked the whole lot else (to heat up the GPU) and noting the best studying on our Watts Up Pro meter, which measures the facility consumption of our whole take a look at system. The preliminary a part of the race, the place all competing vehicles are onscreen concurrently, tends to be essentially the most demanding portion. 

This isn’t a worst-case take a look at; it is a GPU-bound recreation operating at a GPU-bound decision to gauge efficiency when the graphics card is sweating arduous. If you’re enjoying a recreation that additionally hammers the CPU, you can see greater general system energy attracts. Consider your self warned.

Brad Chacos/IDG

Despite flinging out improbable body charges, the GeForce RTX 4070 completely sips energy. No complaints, simply admiration.

We take a look at thermals by leaving GPU-Z open in the course of the F1 22 energy draw take a look at, noting the best most temperature on the finish.

That supreme energy effectivity let Nvidia craft an adorably tiny Founders Edition mannequin. It isn’t the good or the quietest GPU round, and customized fashions will little question attain loftier numbers (albeit in a lot bigger packages), but it surely’s nonetheless a lot cool and many quiet. Again, no complaints.

Should you purchase the GeForce RTX 4070?

It relies on what you need in a graphics card, and what you’re keen to spend on it.

Brad Chacos/IDG

The GeForce RTX 4070 delivers distinctive 1440p gaming efficiency in even essentially the most strenuous video games, with best-in-class ray tracing efficiency if you wish to flip these cutting-edge lighting options on. Nvidia’s killer software program stack enhances each facet of the GPU, from creation to streaming to gaming, with options like Nvidia Reflex, Broadcast, RTX Video Super Resolution, and DLSS 3 Frame Generation really bettering your day-to-day expertise. If you discovered your self nodding alongside to our defense of the 4070 Ti by a 1440p gamer, you’re the prime viewers for the $200-cheaper RTX 4070.

The RTX 4070 additionally helps AV1 encoding, not like previous-gen GPUs, whereas its unimaginable energy effectivity let Nvidia make its Founders Edition mannequin good and tiny. It’ll match into most any system.  

It’s not a slam dunk although. Nvidia’s choice to equip the RTX 4070 with a 192-bit bus and 12GB of reminiscence stop us from with the ability to advocate it for long-term 4K gaming, particularly with reminiscence necessities solely rising in fashionable video games. (We applaud the bump in reminiscence from 8GB to 12GB, however $600 graphics playing cards actually ought to have 16GB or extra in 2023.)

If you desire a 4K graphics card round this value vary, full with extra reminiscence, contemplate AMD’s last-generation Radeon RX 6800 XT or 6900 XT as an alternative (or the 6850 XT and 6950 XT variants). Both include 16GB of VRAM, huge reminiscence buses, and run as quick or quicker than the RTX 4070, particularly at 4K decision. Radeon GPUs additionally excel at esports body charges. The 6950 XT could be discovered for as little as $650 nowadays, whereas the 6800 XT can be found around $570. Alternatively, the new Radeon RX 7900 XT is a possible consideration at $850. You hand over AV1 encoding, DLSS, and Nvidia’s glorious ray tracing chops and additional options, nevertheless. Avoid the $800 4070 Ti for 4K gaming.

You’re giving up one thing with both facet nowadays. It stays a reasonably bleak time for $500-plus graphics playing cards.

Brad Chacos/IDG

As I stated proper up prime, the $599 GeForce RTX 4070 is the one present Nvidia 40-series graphics card doubtlessly value your cash apart from the flagship RTX 4090. That’s as a result of Nvidia didn’t jack its value as painfully because the $800 RTX 4070 Ti and $1,200 RTX 4080, not as a result of it’s a great worth. The $599 RTX 4070 is $100 greater than its predecessor, and $100 lower than the RTX 3080. In most video games, the RTX 3080 trades blow or is a handful of frames quicker than the RTX 4070. Sure, the RTX 4070’s energy effectivity and DLSS 3 Frame Gen options are deeply spectacular certainly, however in uncooked gaming efficiency, Nvidia’s 40-series continues to supply stagnant gen-on-gen worth, 2.5 years after the 30-series launched. Not each recreation will assist options like DLSS or FSR.

Buy the GeForce RTX 4070 in order for you a fairly sized, extremely environment friendly 1440p gaming beast, full with entry to all the most recent and biggest Nvidia software program options—and if you happen to’re keen to spend $600 on a graphics card like that. Avoid it for long-term 4K utilization, and comparison shop before you buy as last-gen graphics playing cards could provide higher worth.