Nvidia’s new release, the RTX 4070, is revolutionizing the GPU market. After a long period of only releasing expensive graphics cards, Nvidia seems to have changed its pricing strategy for the RTX 4070. While it’s hard to call it cheap, it’s certainly affordable and offers performance that makes it a good mid-range option.
However, Nvidia’s latest addition to the list of best graphics cards has an unexpected rival in the previous generation of GPUs. AMD’s RX 6950 XT is similarly priced, but can it keep up with the RTX 4070? Check out our benchmarks and find out how these two cards stack up.
Prices and availability
Jacob Roach / Digital Trends
The RTX 4070 hit shelves on April 13, 2023. Nvidia didn’t make many announcements leading up to its release, well, unless you count the fact that it accidentally leaked. Nvidia’s Founders Edition is priced at $600, but some of Nvidia’s partners may release more expensive models. The two we tested ourselves cost $600.
When you consider the rest of Ada Lovelace’s offerings so far, Nvidia’s RTX 4070 is fairly reasonably priced. It’s $100 cheaper than the RTX 3080 at launch, though it’s also $100 more expensive than the RTX 3070. Still, with GPUs like the $1,600 RTX 4090 or $1,200 RTX 4080, the RTX 4070 is pretty much a steal. . It marks Nvidia’s entry into the mid-range segment of this generation, after months of only supplying the high-end segment of the market.
AMD’s RX 6950 XT is almost a year older than Nvidia’s RTX 4070 and belongs to an older generation of GPUs, but it’s the flagship of its generation. It was released on May 10, 2022 as a belated sequel to the RX 6900 XT. Retail price was set at $700 back then, but these days you can usually find the RX 6950 XT for around £.
Glasses
| GeForce RTX 4070 | Radeon RX 6950XT | |
| Architecture | ada lovelace | RDNA 2 |
| process node | 5nm TSMC | 7nm TSMC |
| cores | 5,888 | 5,120 |
| maximum hour | 2.475MHz | 2.324MHz |
| Memory | 12GB GDDR6X | 16GB GDDR6 |
| memory bus | 192 bit | 256 bit |
| TGP | 200 watts | 335 watts |
| Where to buy |
Comparing the specifications of Nvidia and AMD graphics cards is never easy. Both have such different architectures that it is not possible to compare each specification individually and draw accurate conclusions. That said, there are some differences here that are worth taking a closer look at.
Total Graphics Power (TGP) is high. While AMD cards have historically used slightly less power than Nvidia, what we see here shows an extremely moderate TGP for the RTX 4070. While the RX 6950 XT is the flagship card and can be expected to draw more power, it is good to see that Nvidia only has 200 watts. The RTX 4070 actually consumes less power than its predecessor (RTX 3070 with 220 W) and significantly less than the RTX 4070 Ti (285 W).
The RX 6950 XT has more memory and a larger bus. However, AMD continues to use the slower GDDR6 memory type instead of the GDDR6X that Nvidia switched to in the previous generation.
Specs aside, each GPU offers different features and capabilities simply because it’s an AMD or Nvidia model. The RX 6950 XT supports AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR), while the RTX 4070 offers more than just Nvidia’s Deep Learning Super Sampling 3 (DLSS). DLSS 3 is exclusive to RTX 40-series GPUs and includes frame generation, so it’s a big boost for Nvidia.
Performance
Thanks to our own tests of the RTX 4070 and RX 6950 XT, we were able to get an accurate overview of their performance. Each GPU was aimed at a different part of the market, but they’re actually pretty close when all you care about is raw numbers, in this case frames per second (fps) in different scenarios or synthetic benchmarks.
We first tested the RTX 4070 on 3DMark Port Royal and Time Spy. The difference between AMD and Nvidia is immediately visible. On the DirectX 12 Time Spy test, the RTX 4070 was approximately 14% slower than the RX 6950 XT. On the other hand, Nvidia’s GPU caught up with Port Royal very well, outperforming AMD by about 8%. As is often the case, Nvidia takes the lead when ray tracing comes into the equation, so it’s no surprise that Nvidia won Port Royal, which is a ray tracing benchmark.
Running the Blender test tells a different story: Nvidia’s advantage is huge here, and the RTX 4070 does a particularly good job compared to its predecessors. While AMD GPUs barely make it to the scale, the RTX 4070 is roughly 50% faster than the RTX 3070 Ti.
The vast majority of people will choose the RTX 4070 for gaming, which is why we spent most of our time checking out how the RTX 4070 and RX 6950 XT perform in gaming scenarios. While the RTX 4070 is marketed as a 1440p graphics card, AMD has always made it clear that the RX 6950 XT is designed to run 4K games. Actually, the two GPUs aren’t that far apart in 4K performance.
Across our entire 4K test suite, the RTX 4070 managed to maintain an average of 50.3 fps. That’s just inches behind the RTX 6950 XT, which averaged 52.2 fps. Still, AMD wins here, but the gains vary from game to game. Overall, the RTX 4070 performs well at 4K for a GPU designed for 1440p – it was about 35% faster than the RTX 3070 Ti.
This head-to-head rivalry ends when we introduce Nvidia’s DLSS 3. Not all games support it, but for those that do, the technology delivers some pretty crazy results for whatever GPU it runs on. Even the mid-range RTX 4070 has significant advantages. IN cyberpunk 2077 At 4K with DLSS 3 running, the RTX 4070 managed 86 fps while the RX 6950 XT maintained an average of 42.5 fps, just a hair below the RTX 4070 without DLSS 3.
Going down to 1440p, the two graphics cards are still pretty close, although oddly enough, the RX 6950 XT has less of an advantage at 4K than it does at 1440p. Still, the RTX 4070 averages 92.5 fps in the most demanding games right now, and that’s a very comfortable spot at maximum settings. The RX 6950 XT is 6% faster at 97.9 fps.
Along those lines, we found that the RTX 4070 did a better job of handling our test suite at 1440p than it did at 4K, so actual performance is better than it appears at first glance. At 4K, it had to rely on older titles to boost the numbers; at 1440p, it ran fine in all the games we tested it on, including cyberpunk 2077, Forza Horizon 5, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Gears Tactics, Horizon Zero Dawn, Red Dead Redemption 2, Bright Memory, and Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition.
We don’t recommend buying an RTX 4070 if you’re only going to be gaming at 1080p; there are better cheap graphics cards out there to help you do that. Regardless, we tested this resolution just to see how it stacks up.
The RTX 4070 hits some high frame rates here, like 143-inches Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, but always behind or on par with the RX 6950 XT. That being said, the difference is not that significant and the Nvidia GPU can compete with other Nvidia cards. The RTX 3080 Ti falls behind in almost all tests, which is good news for Nvidia. Of course, that also means that AMD outperforms those GPUs as well.
As mentioned, Nvidia is still the king of ray tracing and it comes as no surprise to see the RTX 4070 beat AMD by a fair amount when ray tracing is enabled. IN Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition at 1440p, the RTX 4070 gets 85.5 fps compared to AMD’s 79.5. AMD can top it with the RX 7900 XT, but that card is also significantly more expensive than the RTX 4070.
Well done Nvidia
Jacob Roach / Digital Trends
Nvidia’s RTX 4070 and AMD’s RX 6950 XT are similar GPUs in many ways. They trade blows in gaming scenarios, and both are decently priced – the RX 6950 XT is typically just $50 more expensive, and that’s not even true of all RTX 4070 models. Some will certainly hit the $650 mark, which which makes price almost not an issue.
Still, it’s hard to forget that the RX 6950 XT is a previous generation GPU. It’s powerful and designed for 4K, so it’ll run just about any game you throw at it, but it lacks some of the technologies Nvidia managed to cram into the RTX 40 series. It’s also outclassed by its more expensive next-gen counterparts, the RX. 7900 XTX and the RX 7900 XT.
In terms of pure gaming, you probably won’t see much of a difference between the RTX 4070 and the RX 6950 XT. AMD is better in some titles and Nvidia wins in others; Overall, the cards are very close, with AMD claiming a slight advantage. However, again it is very important to consider ray tracing.
Without ray tracing, Nvidia’s RTX 4070 was about 15% slower overall. This makes it pretty simple: if you care about ray tracing, you should stick with Nvidia. Similarly, the introduction of DLSS 3 makes the RTX 4070 an attractive option that unlocks a lot of potential in games that support it.
If you don’t mind the somewhat weaker ray tracing and lack of DLSS 3, AMD’s RX 6950 XT is still a safe bet, but if you care about both of those things, Nvidia’s RTX 4070 is a great return to the lineup. and much cheaper. Alternative to other RTX 40 series graphics cards.
editor’s recommendations
Categories: GAMING
Source: newstars.edu.vn