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

Benchmarks and verdict

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.