ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 4070 Ti OC Conclusion
In today’s video card review, we put the new ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 4070 Ti 12GB GDDR6X OC Edition (TUF-RTX4070Ti-O12G-GAMING) to the test. This video card heralds the new launch of NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 4070 Ti GPU as a new entrant into the GeForce RTX 40 Series. The NVIDIA MSRP is $799, however, there are no Founders Edition video cards, instead, this is an add-in-board partner launch, and therefore prices will vary based on manufacturer and SKU. The particular model we reviewed today is a custom factory overclocked card from ASUS in its TUF branding and has an MSRP of $849.99. We tested performance at 4K, 1440p, Ray Tracing, and DLSS.
GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Gameplay Experiences
We have spent a lot of time with the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti, playing games at both 1440p, and 4K, with and without Ray Tracing and DLSS. Based on our gameplay experiences we feel that the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti starts to have a performance drop off as you approach 4K gaming. We feel that this is due to constrained bandwidth. The behavior is that of a bandwidth fall-off bottleneck.
The GeForce RTX 3090 Ti, GeForce RTX 3090, and Radeon RX 7900 XT seem to handle 4K better. Those cards can hold on to performance longer, but the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti has a larger performance drop at 4K compared to 1440p between those video cards. At 1440p though, the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti does extremely well. Note that this is without upscaling taken into account, just pure native resolution performance.
When you take DLSS into account, this bandwidth constraint is relieved at 4K, and the video card is able to perform much better. Therefore it can achieve a playable 4K experience, but the use of upscaling, like DLSS, will be a common factor in providing that experience. As for 1440p, upscaling is not needed, its native 1440p experience is a very good one. It can provide a high level of performance in the most demanding games without needing any special help.
As an upgrade from something like a GeForce RTX 3070 Ti from the last generation, the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti seems to offer between a 30-60% performance uplift depending on the settings and game. We found that the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti particularly does well with DLSS performance when Ray Tracing is being used. We seem to have experienced a larger boost in DLSS performance, compared to the RTX 3090 and RTX 3090 Ti even. The DLSS performance on the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti seems to be a strong point, as well as its Ray Tracing performance over the previous generation.
GeForce RTX 4070 Ti vs Radeon RX 7900 XT Performance
Comparing the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti to the Radeon RX 7900 XT is multi-faceted. Answering which is better really depends on your use case, and what you are looking for.
If you are after pure raster performance and don’t care about Ray Tracing, the Radeon RX 7900 XT seems to offer better performance. At 1440p there was only one game where the Radeon RX 7900 XT was slower, Dying Light 2, but in every other game, it was faster than the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti at 1440p. At 4K the Radeon RX 7900 XT was faster in every game we tested.
If you do care about Ray Tracing performance, and want to use that feature in games, then the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti will offer a performance advantage. At 1440p the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti had a larger advantage in Ray Tracing performance over the Radeon RX 7900 XT, it will offer a playable gameplay experience with Ray Tracing at 1440p. At 4K, the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti still holds a performance advantage over the Radeon RX 7900 XT with Ray Tracing, but the margins are much smaller, and the Radeon RX 7900 XT catches up to the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti because the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti performance falls off a cliff when it hits 4K resolution.
The GeForce RTX 4070 Ti has some advantages, including DLSS and DLSS 3 support, which will improve that performance at 4K. Both video cards can benefit from FSR in games that support it, but only the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti can also use DLSS and DLSS 3 Frame Generation in games that support it. That does give you more upscaling options which will make a positive impact on the gameplay experience at 4K.
GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Performance Summary
Is the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti faster than a GeForce RTX 3090 Ti? It really depends on the game. At 1440p there are some games that it can be faster, but really it’s 50/50. At 4K, more often than not it is under the RTX 3090 Ti in performance. Generally speaking, performance sits between the GeForce RTX 3090 and GeForce RTX 3090 Ti, and at worse, is equal to the GeForce RTX 3090.
Is the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti faster than a Radeon RX 7900 XT? In Ray Tracing, Yes. In raster performance, No. Generally speaking, the Radeon RX 7900 XT is faster, and in this review, it wasn’t even overclocked, yet was still beating the factory-overclocked, GeForce RTX 4070 Ti. The Radeon RX 7900 XT offers more bandwidth, and this shines through at higher resolutions, and games that benefit from that specific advantage. The one downside of the Radeon RX 7900 XT is its Ray Tracing, and for that, the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti will win every time, regardless of resolution, though some games had a narrower margin than we expected.
Which has better upscaling performance? Well, this one is a wash. The performance benefit from DLSS or FSR is rather close, and with those features utilized can boost either card from a non-playable performance to a playable performance level. For example, making 4K gaming viable with these video cards, or Ray Tracing viable at 1440p or 4K. The Radeon RX 7900 XT can only utilize FSR, but the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti has the support advantage as it can run DLSS and FSR in games that have either, or just one. The GeForce RTX 4070 Ti can also support DLSS 3 Frame Generation, to further boost performance, and the Radeon RX 7900 XT currently has nothing similar.
The Obligatory Price Rant
Now let’s rant about pricing. We would not be out of line in saying we wish the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti would be priced lower than $799.99. I think most people would agree with this assessment. This is after all an ‘xx70’ class GPU, and typically mid-range to performance GPU pricing has never been this high. The GeForce RTX 3070 Ti launched at $599.99 MSRP. It is obvious that each GPU tier has risen in price. What was mid-range pricing, is now high-end, and so forth.
What’s worse, the price and performance are going up almost linearly, and that is not preferred. Performance has increased, but so has the price, by at least 33% (and higher with AIB OC SKUs). When you take that into account, is the performance uplift from the previous generation really all that exciting? You are paying more for it. Yet, people still buy video cards at these prices. The pricing issue in general is terrible, and we don’t like it, but at the end of the day, it is up to you and your wallet.
If we compare the $799.99 MSRP to the Radeon RX 7900 XT’s MSRP of $899.99 the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti will be less expensive. The one we reviewed today is $850, and thus is cheaper than the $899 made by AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT, and this RTX 4070 Ti is factory overclocked and does overclock quite well. If you went with a reference MSRP-priced one, it would be $799.99 and therefore $100 less than the Radeon RX 7900 XT reference spec cards. Naturally, both cards do have more expensive AIB factory overclocked cards, and therefore the pricing gets more muddied and can cross each other and switch positions. It just depends on which models you spring for, and if you think that is worth it.
Final Points
ASUS has put together a well-made and well-engineered video card. The ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 4070 Ti 12GB GDDR6X OC Edition video card carries the same ASUS quality and is cooled very well. We found the cooling to be more than adequate, and it does not hold back overclocking potential. It does not run loud, and we found plenty of overclocking headroom to shoot past 3GHz with it. It can overclock quite high on GPU and memory. Overclocking will yield around a 6-9% performance boost.
We were also very excited about its power efficiency. It provides between RTX 3090 and RTX 3090 Ti performance using less power than an RTX 3070 Ti. That power efficiency should not be overlooked. NVIDIA has done wonders with Ada Lovelace’s architecture power efficiency as the die scales down. ASUS GPU Tweak III was easy to use when it comes to overclocking, and the OSD to monitor the video card in games works seamlessly. At $849.99, this TUF O12G model has it all. Optionally, there is a TUF 12G model at the $799.99 MSRP.
Discussion (19 replies)
Join Discussion →Aaaand, it's a dud. The 7900 XT now actually makes sense.
Sort of want, but will wait until under 500. 1080ti still gets job done.
Ok, so this is only tangential to the topic... but at what point do you get to call it either a monopoly or price fixing?
Now, I do not think that AMD and nVidia are colluding to raise consumer prices. I think nVidia is doing it because they can get away with it, and AMD is just playing along with "just slightly less than" pricing because their shareholders would oust them outright if they didn't.
There is no government limit on the margin a company can ask, or the profit they can pull in. That's kinda how capitalism works. But I sure hate this feeling that we are just getting utterly taken advantage of. I guess it's just a hobby, I don't have to play along - I just hate seeing it happen before my eyes.
Nvidia has enormous pricing power because of RTX & DLSS3
At the premium price points ($500 plus) people most likely go by added features rather than outright raster performance
What is surprising is that: even in below $500 prev gen GPUs, higher price Ampere cards outsell equivalent but much cheaper RDNA 2 cards
If more people purchase Navi 22 cards (RX 6750 XT, 6700 XT, RX 6700) instead of Ampere, than Nvidia might get the message !!
DLSS3 itself isn't a real selling point. It exists, and it has a purpose - but not for most gaming scenarios. DLSS2 is still the main DLSS technology and remains more competitive overall, especially in situations where RT is used with heavy loads overall.
If nvidia pushes DLSS3 as hard as they pushed DLSS, we'll see support in most upcoming games.
Besides, 100% performance increase does sound like a big selling point.
Thanks, @Brent_Justice for the very thorough review which answered nearly every question I could have about this card.
Well, it seems the card lies between the RTX3090 and 3090Ti, but men the thing gets bandwidh starved at 4k
I'm really impressed just becauese looking at the specs I really didn't think it would do that good.
Great review!
I figured Nvidias "faster than 3090ti" claims were going to be all fluff, but it does at least get close most of the time, and actually succeeds in others.
Still, not quite sure I'd be happy with the value proposition $799 is a lot for a mid range card.
If I could make a request, if it isn't too much of a main in the ass, Minimum/1%/0.1% framerates are very relevant and would add a lot of information to your reviews. I'd even argue that minimum frames are MORE relevant that average frames.
Sure?
DLSS 1.0 was pretty bad - but showed the promise of intelligent upscaling.
DLSS 2.0 has more or less delivered on that promise. My opinion, of course; I find DLSS 2.0 to be more than close enough to justify any perceived degradation in visuals. Granted I have no problem using FSR / FSR 2.0 where exclusively available, whether I'm gaming on an AMD GPU or that's just what the game in question supports.
DLSS 3.0 is 'frame doubling'. This works great for pre-recorded media (if you like the effect itself), but for real-time applications it means that there's a definite insertion of additional input latency attached with usage. So, for DLSS 3.0 to even be useful in a particular situation, performance already has to be high enough for real-time interaction. Whereas DLSS 2.0 taking you from an arbitrary 20FPS to 35FPS, or 60FPS to 90FPS and so on can significantly impact the quality of the experience, DLSS 3.0 (that is, the 'frame generation' part of it) needs you to be running at 60FPS+ in the first place.
And there's a place for that - many games that aren't as user-response dependent can benefit, thinking anything turn-based or perhaps RPG and adventure-style games. Some simulators as well.
But for anything where optimizing for input latency is already a concern, DLSS 3.0 is a non-starter.
No one should be! But it's still the cheapest entry point for the level of technology Nvidia is bringing to the table.
BTW seems to me the cards are unnecessarily big. It seems the PCB is about 2/3 the size of the card.
I wonder if they reused parts from its bigger brothers to save R&D and inventory costs.
It's a tradeoff. It costs more per unit, but it saves having to develop new parts.
Yeah, I'm sure. There are already about 50+ games announced that will support DLSS3. If someone know how to shove new technology down your throat, that's nvidia. BTW thanks to nvidia reflex, latency is actually lower than without DLLS3. Not saying its going to be great, but by now DLSS already gained high praise and is considered a must have for many gamers, DLSS3 at least deserves a chance.
Anyway AMD is also having its own frame interpolation/frame creation technology coming soon. We'll see.
I haven't owned a Nvidia GPU newer than my 2016 Pascal Titan X, so I ahve not personally played with DLSS yet.
Can all titles that support DLSS3 also run DLSS2? In other words is it backwards compatible or an option?
Because I too tend to think - from what I have read and seen, through not through personal experience) that DLSS2 was the pinnacle of the tech.
Pretty sure the answer is yes. Brent has a write-up on it in his 4090 review that also goes a little more in-depth about the frame generation feature. It's about midway down the first page.
https://www.thefpsreview.com/2022/10/11/nvidia-geforce-rtx-4090-founders-edition-review/