Performance Conclusion
Let’s just jump right into talking about where the GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition lines up according to our testing. We tested at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K comparing 7 video cards against this one. We also had a whole page comparing Ray Tracing and DLSS performance. We used no less than 12 games, and therefore have a very large picture of how this new video card stacks up.
1080p
At 1080p we did experience some CPU bottlenecking in games, as expected on the higher-end cards. Some games, like MS Flight Sim 2020 are just going to be that way regardless. However, we still experienced very high performance out of the GeForce RTX 3070 FE video card. In every game, it was always faster than the GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER FE video card. In every game, it was closer in performance to the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti FE video card. In some games it was even faster, in others, it was equal, or just under. The differences though were always small, and close.
In every game, the GeForce RTX 3070 FE performed 40-50% faster than the GeForce RTX 2070 FE. The games that were more bottlenecked had less of course, but on average, it was that much faster. Every game was more than playable at 1080p with maximum settings on the GeForce RTX 3070 FE. The lowest performance (sans MS Flight Sim) was in the 70’s FPS wise in the most demanding games. The RTX 3070 FE owns 1080p performance.
1440p
At 1440p the situation improved even more for the GeForce RTX 3070 FE. The bottlenecking wasn’t as bad and the RTX 3070 FE can stretch its muscles. Once again, we saw the GeForce RTX 3070 FE perform much faster than the GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER FE in every game. It was once again closer to GeForce RTX 2080 Ti FE performance than anything. In some games, it was actually faster, in others equal or just under, but remained very close. Compared to the GeForce RTX 2070 FE we saw the GeForce RTX 3070 FE performing more consistently in the 50% range of performance faster.
The GeForce RTX 3070 FE also allowed us to play every game here at the highest in-game settings at 1440p with plenty of performance. In the more demanding games, it was closer to the 60FPS mark, but then that is perfect for gameplay. Only MS Flight Sim was slower, but it was performing as expected. At the end of the day, we think 1440p is the ideal resolution for the GeForce RTX 3070 FE gaming experience.
4K
4K is where it starts to get interesting. For the longest while, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti FE has been the best card for 4K gaming and offered the best performance. The GeForce RTX 3070 FE offers near or equal performance, but it does have one limitation at 4K, VRAM. The GeForce RTX 2080 Ti FE has 11GB of VRAM for 4K, while the GeForce RTX 3070 FE only has 8GB. It has the performance, but this one limitation may hold it back more at 4K than an actual RTX 2080 Ti would at 4K.
That all said, performance is right on the heels of the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti FE in all of our testing. It’s much closer to RTX 2080 Ti performance than anything else. It far exceeds everything else. There are some games where literally the GeForce RTX 3070 FE and GeForce RTX 2080 Ti FE are 1 or 2 frames (avg) apart from each other. It doesn’t seem to be holding it back right now, in these games, at 4K. We can’t account for future, unreleased games, however.
Compared to the GeForce RTX 2070 FE the RTX 3070 FE averages in the high 50% range of faster performance. In terms of performance, the framerates are playable in most games. Some demanding games though are not, at maximum settings. Control for example, is not playable on the RTX 3070 FE at the highest settings, you would have to back off one notch on the graphics settings.
You would also need to back off on some settings, most likely SMAA 4X back to just SMAA in Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Metro Exodus is another game where “Extreme” is not playable at 4K on the RTX 3070 FE. Red Dead Redemption 2 will also have to be lowered in graphics settings at 4K. We should note though, this is also true with the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti FE in these games. Only the RTX 3080 FE offers playable performance in those games with max settings.
Summarizing Performance
I think the best way to really summarize this for you is to take the average of every game at each resolution and give you a total average performance advantage that the GeForce RTX 3070 FE offers.
Adding up all the RTX 3070 over RTX 2070 data, the final total average together says that the GeForce RTX 3070 FE is 46% faster (on average) compared to the GeForce RTX 2070 FE. That’s the performance upgrade uplift it provides on average. Now, a couple of games did bring down that average, MS Flight Sim 2020 and Far Cry 5. If we remove those outliers, then the average changes to 50%. That makes sense to us, baring any CPU bottlenecks you should see an upgrade performance lift in the 50% range if you upgrade a GeForce RTX 2070 FE to a GeForce RTX 3070 FE.
This is also true for the Radeon RX 5700 XT. This uplift is slightly higher compared to it, closer to the 55%-60% range in terms of performance uplift compared to the RX 5700 XT.
As we saw, we are within small differences around the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti FE performance. It seems the rumors might have been a little exaggerated about how fast the GeForce RTX 3070 FE would be over the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, however. In our experience, some games do show the GeForce RTX 3070 FE to be faster than the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti FE, but only by about a couple of percent.
More often the GeForce RTX 3070 FE was equal to, or right below GeForce RTX 2080 Ti FE performance by around 4-6%. Some games had very similar performance, and at the maximum, it was -8% under, so nothing major. The GeForce RTX 3070 FE was always closer to GeForce RTX 2080 Ti FE performance than RTX 2080 SUPER FE performance.
Ray Tracing and DLSS Performance
An important question is can the GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition handle the burden of turning on Ray Tracing. We tested this at the ideal resolution for gaming on the GeForce RTX 3070 FE, 1440p. At 1440p we enabled only Ray Tracing to see if it can handle it, sans DLSS.
In Control the GeForce RTX 3070 FE can certainly handle the highest Ray Tracing setting at 1440p and provides playable performance at 51FPS average. This is 54% faster than the GeForce RTX 2070 FE, and very close to GeForce RTX 2080 Ti FE performance. In Wolfenstein Youngblood the answer is also yes, the GeForce RTX 3070 FE provides 122FPS and is almost a whopping 70% faster than the GeForce RTX 2070 FE! That’s a huge increase with Ray Tracing turned on. The GeForce RTX 3070 FE is also 2% faster than the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti FE with Ray Tracing turned on.
In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, we also found this game playable with Ray Traced Shadows Turned On, averaging 52FPS on the GeForce RTX 3070 FE. This is 58% faster than the GeForce RTX 2070 FE and -5% under RTX 2080 Ti FE performance. Finally, Metro Exodus it does struggle with the highest Ray Tracing quality enabled, averaging 45FPS. This could be playable to most, but you’ll probably see times where this drops into the ’30s. We’d probably want to drop the quality by one notch at this level of performance. Still, this is 63% faster than the RTX 2070 FE and -5% under RTX 2080 Ti FE.
Next, we wanted to check DLSS performance. To do this we actually increased each game up to 4K and left Ray Tracing enabled. Then we turned on DLSS. DLSS renders at 1440p and up-samples to 4K. This turned out to be the key to allowing somewhat playable performance with Ray Tracing enabled at 4K. In Control it’s at 48FPS, and playable, which is 56% faster than RTX 2070 FE. It is exactly on par with RTX 2080 Ti FE performance. Wolfenstein Youngblood has no problems being playable at 166FPS, which is faster than the RTX 2080 Ti FE and 53% faster than RTX 2070 FE.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider is also playable with DLSS at 52FPS average, it is however -12% under the RTX 2080 Ti, but 49% faster than the RTX 2070 FE. Finally, Metro Exodus is not playable, even with DLSS, at 38FPS. Only the RTX 3080 FE is playable. We would need to downgrade the quality preset or Ray Tracing quality on the RTX 3070 FE. Still, it is 57% faster than the RTX 2070 FE and just under RTX 2080 Ti.
Ray Tracing and DLSS Summary
The GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition handles Ray Tracing much better than the GeForce RTX 2070 FE did. On that video card, we couldn’t even really use Ray Tracing, it was just too slow. The GeForce RTX 3070 FE fixes that. We now have usable levels of Ray Tracing in games at 1440p no less. 4K, out of the question, even with DLSS helping it’s a bit too much of a burden in most games. At the ideal 1440p resolution though, Ray Tracing is now a reality.
DLSS can also help more if used at 1440p. Let’s say a new game comes out that is incredibly demanding, especially with Ray Tracing. If it supports DLSS all you have to do is enable it in the game and it will render lower than 1440p but up-sample it. That should then make 1440p with Ray Tracing enabled in the game very playable. DLSS is the thing that will take you over the edge of playability at 1440p with Ray Tracing in demanding games on the GeForce RTX 3070 FE. However, if DLSS is not supported it is nice to know you may still be able to achieve some level of Ray Tracing being enabled on the GeForce RTX 3070 FE at 1440p.