Nvidia’s new RTX 4070 finally topples the prices of the company’s Ada Lovelace generation, but it also presents a decades-old dilemma for gamers looking for the best graphics card: is the extra performance worth spending more for?
The best alternative is the RTX 4070 Ti, which sits on the edge of Nvidia’s mid-range and high-end offerings. It’s clearly a more powerful graphics card, as you can read in my RTX 4070 Ti review. Still, I’d recommend most buyers stick with the RTX 4070. Here’s why.
two different classes
Jacob Roach / Digital Trends
The RTX 4070 and RTX 4070 Ti may share the same name, but they are in completely different classes in terms of specs and performance. If you recall, Nvidia canceled the release of its 12GB RTX 4080, which was eventually repackaged as the RTX 4070 Ti. As you can see from the specification below, it comes with a much higher core count and is capable of much better performance.
| RTX 4070 | RTX 4070Ti | |
| Architecture | ada lovelace | ada lovelace |
| process node | TSMC N4 | TSMC N4 |
| CUDA cores | 5,888 | 7,680 |
| Ray Tracing Cores | 46 3rd generation | 60 3rd generation |
| tensor nuclei | 184 4th generation | 240 4th generation |
| increase clock speed | 2.475MHz | 2610MHz |
| VRAM | 12GB GDDR6X | 12GB GDDR6X |
| memory clock | 10500MHz | 10500MHz |
| Memory data rate | 21Gb/s | 21Gb/s |
| bus width | 192 bit | 192 bit |
| Total Graphics Power (TGP) | 200W | 285W |
| Where to buy |
But that is not to say that it is a strict victory. The RTX 4070 is less powerful on paper and in practice, but it’s also $200 cheaper. The RTX 4070 Ti has a list price of $800, while the RTX 4070 costs $600. Also, Nvidia never released a Founder’s Edition design for the RTX 4070 Ti. The RTX 4070 not only has a $600 Founder’s Edition design, but also several third-party models for sale.
The RTX 4070 is still new, so we’ll have to see where prices end up once the launch boom wears off. For the RTX 4070 Ti, you can find several models in stock for a retail price of $800, though most models fetch between $850 and $900. I suspect this will happen with the RTX 4070 as well, with cards selling for $50 to $100 above list price. Still, it’s too early to tell now.
Jacob Roach / Digital Trends
Although the RTX 4070 and RTX 4070 Ti have different core counts and clock speeds, they share a memory interface. Both cards come with 12GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, which is great given the recent VRAM limitations some modern games have faced. In this two-way battle, it also uses the RTX 4070. It’s not as powerful, but at least the cheaper card won’t have VRAM issues like many 8GB cards do right now.
A clear worthy victory
Both the RTX 4070 and RTX 4070 Ti are angled like 1440p graphics cards, but have enough power to handle 4K. Across my entire test suite, the RTX 4070 Ti is roughly 17% faster than the RTX 4070 at 4K. This also includes ray tracing games, which I’ll cover in the next section.
That’s nothing to write home about, but the RTX 4070 Ti is also 33% more expensive than the RTX 4070 at retail. None of the cards I tested were overclocked, so the difference in performance and price could swing a few points either way. Still, it’s clear that the RTX 4070 Ti is the point of diminishing returns in Nvidia’s current-gen lineup.
There are games where the extra power available from the RTX 4070 Ti makes all the difference. IN horizon zero dawn and red Dead Redemption 2, for example, the extra power helps give the RTX 4070 Ti a 15% advantage in 4K. And in assassin’s creed valhalla, The RTX 4070 Ti is ahead with a solid 11%.
There are games where the gap narrows, like Forza Horizon 5. The RTX 4070 Ti only leads around 8% in 4K, and cyberpunk 2077, lower 7%. It’s also important to put these numbers in context; in case of cyberpunk 2077, that 7% gap is only a difference of three marks.
At 1440p, the scale is similar. The RTX 4070 Ti shows slightly better performance with an 18% advantage over the RTX 4070, and those advantages are starting to matter a little more. IN cyberpunk 2077, for example, the RTX 4070 Ti is almost 16% faster, which is an increase from 82 frames per second (fps) to over 95 fps.
However, it’s important to remember that CPU bottlenecks can come into play at this resolution. In case of red Dead Redemption 2, for example, the advantage of the RTX 4070 Ti is reduced to 12%. Bottlenecks are not common at 1440p, but appear in games that rely more on CPU performance.
There’s no question that the RTX 4070 Ti is a more powerful graphics card, but as my benchmarks show, the added touch performance isn’t enough to outweigh the price increase. However, when you start to take ray tracing into account, the story becomes something else.
Air tracking complicates things
If you’re more into ray tracing gaming, the RTX 4070 Ti starts to look more appealing. IN Endless Bright Memory at 4K, the card is roughly 31% faster than the RTX 4070, keeping pace with the price increase. The same is true in Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition and cyberpunk 2077, where the RTX 4070 Ti has a 28% and 26% advantage, respectively, in 4K.
This is not just a situation where very few frames are rendered in these highly demanding games. Even at 1440p, the RTX 4070 Ti maintains its lead over the RTX 4070 in ray tracing titles, just slipping by Cyberpunk 2077. At 1440p it falls to the flagship by 24%. What a thing.
You won’t often play a ray tracing game that doesn’t include Nvidia’s Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS), so while comparing raw numbers is scientifically sound, it’s not necessarily practical. Both the RTX 4070 and RTX 4070 Ti enjoy Nvidia’s DLSS frame generation, which helps improve performance in these demanding games by a wide margin.
With DLSS enabled from both cards, the RTX 4070 Ti continues to lead. That track starts to matter less. Often DLSS 3 is the clear difference between playable and unplayable, and it only matters in demanding ray tracing games like Cyberpunk 2077. It would be much easier to dismiss the RTX 4070 if it didn’t have DLSS 3, but it does. And that doesn’t bode well for the RTX 4070 Ti.
The sweet spot of value
Jacob Roach / Digital Trends
The RTX 4070 Ti is more powerful than the RTX 4070, but the cheaper card is too powerful to ignore its price. While a performance edge is still a plus, it’s hard to say that the RTX 4070 Ti provides a noticeably better gaming experience than the RTX 4070, especially when you consider that both cards have access to DLSS 3.
The RTX 4070 Ti’s ray tracing power is what leads the way, but again, DLSS 3 pretty much negates that advantage. And in non-air-tracking games, the overall advantage of around 17% drops to around 12%, all for a 33% price increase.
Frame hunters will be better off with the RTX 4070 Ti, but for my money I’d take the RTX 4070 any day.
editor’s recommendations
Categories: GAMING
Source: newstars.edu.vn