NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti review: AMD has to be very worried now

Note: This review was first published on 4 January 2023.

NVIDIA has only recently released the GeForce RTX 4080 and GeForce RTX 4090, both of which offer impressive ray-tracing performance and DLSS3 and Frame Generation boost in frame rates. However, these high-performance graphics cards come with steep price tags: the RTX 4080 has an SRP of US$1199, while the RTX 4090, the green company’s flagship GPU, costs US$1599. These prices, along with the difficulty of finding cards at the suggested retail prices, have caused some gamers to hesitate.

As a result, many are looking to the new GeForce RTX 4070 Ti as a more affordable option. NVIDIA has confirmed that the 4070 Ti will have an SRP of US$799, but it will not have a Founders Edition. Instead, the pricing and availability of the 4070 Ti will depend on custom models from manufacturers like ASUS, MSI, and Gigabyte.

The RTX 4070 Ti is essentially a rebranded version of the previously announced, but subsequently cancelled, RTX 4080 12GB card. Both are actually the same cards, with the main difference being that the 4070 Ti is priced around 10% lower than the 'canned' 4080 12GB model. In terms of specifications, the 4070 Ti is lower spec-ed than the officially available 4080 16GB model, with 7680 CUDA cores (compared to 9728), a 192-bit memory bus (compared to 256-bit), and 504 GB/s memory bandwidth (compared to 736 GB/s). However, it does have a slightly higher boost clock speed of 2.6GHz (compared to 2.5 GHz) and a much lower TGP requirement at 285W compared to the 4080's 320W and the 4090's whopping 450W.

So, is NVIDIA’s RTX 4070 Ti worth the money? Based on benchmark results, it appears to be a decent option with some caveats. However, it's worth considering the other two options in the RTX 40 series as well.

For this review, I received ASUS’ ROG Strix GeForce 4070 Ti, which is built almost too similar to its Strix 4080 and 4090 siblings. In short, it’s a huge card even if its 337mm length, 124mm height, and 56mm width make it just a tad smaller than both 4080 and 4090 cards. So, fair warning if you have a small casing.

Like the other RTX 40 series GPUs, the 4070 Ti uses a 16-pin power connector, with a 2x8pin adapter included in the box. NVIDIA recommends a 700W power supply to run the card properly, despite its TGP requirement of 285W. The card also comes with three DisplayPort 1.4a and two HDMI 2.1a ports, although only four ports can be connected and used concurrently.

While I would have preferred to see the inclusion of DisplayPort 2.1, which is available on the AMD 7900 XT and XTX cards, it's not a deal breaker at this price point. DisplayPort 2.1 provides higher bandwidth for 4K/480Hz or 8K/165Hz (compared to DisplayPort 1.4a's 4K/240Hz and 8K/60Hz), but currently, most monitors are not capable of such high refresh rates, so it's not a major consideration at this time. Plus, there's probably not enough frame buffer to manage it either on this range of cards.

Performance benchmarks

For benchmarks, our graphics card test rig comes with the following specifications:

• Intel 12th Gen Core i9-12900K CPU
• ROG Maximus Z690 Hero
• Samsung 980 Pro 1TB SSD
• Kingston Fury 32GB DDR5
• Windows 11 Home 64-bit
• ASUS ROG Swift PG43UQ 4K Gaming Monitor

Since NVIDIA isn’t launching a Founders Edition card for its 4070 Ti GPU, l have decided to use ROG’s Strix GeForce RTX 4080 and RTX 4090 for comparisons instead to see where the 4070 Ti’s performance stands in the RTX 40 series. It's also a very fair comparison considering all the ASUS graphics cards are endowed with a similar cooling system, so we're ruling out card design differences. I have also included a last-gen flagship, the RTX 3090 Ti, to see how the 4070 Ti fares against it since NVIDIA claims it can match its performance.

It will also be interesting to see how AMD’s latest cards stack against it too.

Gaming benchmarks

In terms of real-world gaming performance, the Strix RTX 4070 Ti performs impressively, averaging nearly above 150fps in most games at both 1080p and 1440p resolution. In Cyberpunk 2077, the card achieved a respectable 24fps with full graphics settings and ray tracing switch on at 4K resolution. Now, this is an extremity for a mid-tier card like the 4070 Ti, and Cyberpunk is a very resource-hungry game. But considering it bested even AMD’s flagship 7900 XTX and with DLSS turned on, even achieving above 60fps, the 4070 Ti’s overall benchmark performance is applaudable.

Temperature and power

Compared to AMD's next-generation graphics cards, the efficiency and temperature control of NVIDIA's Ada Lovelace generation, as seen in the RTX 4080, RTX 4090, and now the RTX 4070 Ti, is particularly impressive. Although the listed TGP for these cards is relatively high, they rarely reach their power limit in real-world usage. Even at full load, the Strix RTX 4070 Ti peaked at just 274.5W in my 3Dmark Extreme Stress test. It also runs more efficiently than the 7900 XT, and yet faster.

Conclusion

The RTX 4070 Ti could be a popular choice for many at its US$799 price point, but it's not yet clear how prices will vary across different brands and models, as there is no Founders Edition to set a standard. At the time of this review, I was unable to find a US$799 RTX 4070 Ti, and I will probably only know the SRP of this ROG Strix GeForce 4070 Ti that I reviewed after its published.

Although, on the flip side, thinking how a 1440p graphics card can cost US$799 also made me heave a loud sigh as I am writing this. But such is the time we are living in now, I’m afraid.

But it’s not just us who must be afraid of these changing times.

For AMD, the RTX 4070 Ti is simply not good news for them, as its newest Radeon RX 7900 XT and 7900 XTX graphics cards just became less attractive – surely even for the most die-hard of AMD fans. The 7900 XT costs US$100 more and yet falls behind the 4070 Ti in most of my benchmarks, and that’s even before I talk about the uplift in performance that NVIDIA’s superior DLSS brings to the RTX 40 series card. Crucially, the 4070 Ti can even best AMD’s flagship 7900 XTX in certain games in both rasterization and ray tracing (with super sampling turned on) tests.

Clearly, if you’re looking for a next-gen mid-tier card, the 4070 Ti is your best option – for better or worse.

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