NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Founders Edition Video Card Review

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Gameplay Performance – RTX 4070 1440p

We are going to focus on the 1440p gameplay performance with the GeForce RTX 4070 FE video card.  We will include DLSS and FSR performance on the same graph in the games that are supported.  We will use DLSS on NVIDIA GPUs and FSR on AMD GPUs.  Ray Tracing performance will be shown on a separate page.  For video card comparisons we are using a GeForce RTX 3070 Ti FE, GeForce RTX 3070, and AMD Radeon RX 6800. Our goal with our comparisons today is to look at the GeForce RTX 4070 from the perspective of upgrading from the previous generation, at the same MSRP pricing. Our thought process is that if you bought a video card at this same price point in the last generation, what would you now be looking at in this same price point now and what would the upgrade look like?

Returnal

Returnal was launched on the PC in February of 2023 and is based on Unreal Engine 4. The game supports real-time ray tracing effects, particle systems, and volumetric rendering. We utilize the graphics preset to set EPIC graphics settings with unlocked framerate, and everything is enabled except ray tracing, we have screen-space reflections on. We use the built-in benchmark.

Returnal

In Returnal we are running at 1440p with EPIC graphics settings preset. The new GeForce RTX 4070 Founders Edition is able to provide a very playable and enjoyable 98FPS without needing upscaling. Looking at the performance of the GeForce RTX 3070, the GeForce RTX 4070 is 23% faster than the GeForce RTX 3070. Compared to the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, at the same price, the GeForce RTX 4070 is 18% faster price-to-price from gen-to-gen. Compared to the AMD Radeon RX 6800, which had an MSRP of $579, the Radeon RX 6800 does better than the 3070 Ti. In this case, the GeForce RTX 4070 is 13% faster than the Radeon RX 6800. We can also turn on upscaling, and turning on DLSS increases performance by 28% up to 125FPS.

Forspoken

Forspoken was released on January 24th, 2023, on the PC and uses the Luminous Engine. The game supports all upscaling methods, including NVIDIA DLSS, AMD FSR, Intel XeSS, and Ray Tracing. We are going to customize the settings and enable the highest graphics settings, including Ultra High Texture Memory. We use the built-in benchmark.

Forspoken

In Forspoken, we are running at 1440p with the highest settings, including textures. The GeForce RTX 4070 allows a very enjoyable 90FPS, and it is the only video card to perform this fast. In Forspoken, we have a much bigger improvement over the previous generation than we did in Returnal. The GeForce RTX 4070 is 50% faster than the GeForce RTX 3070 and 41% faster than the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti. Those are pretty big gains. The GeForce RTX 4070 is 23% faster than the Radeon RX 6800. With DLSS performance improves 31% to 118FPS. The newer architecture is doing wonders in Forspoken versus the previous generation.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare II

Call of Duty Modern Warfare II was released on October 27, 2022, on the PC and uses the IW 9.0 gaming engine. The game supports all upscaling methods, including NVIDIA DLSS, NVIDIA Image Scaling, AMD FSR 1.0, AMD Fidelity FX CAS, and Intel XeSS. We use the highest quality option of each. We customize every graphics setting to the maximum value for the best image quality and enable everything. We use the built-in benchmark.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare II

In Call of Duty Modern Warfare II we are running the game at the highest possible settings at 1440p. The GeForce RTX 4070 provides over 100FPS at 1440p for very smooth and enjoyable gameplay. Compared to the RTX 3070 the GeForce RTX 4070 is 31% faster and compared to the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti it is 28% faster. Now, the AMD Radeon RX 6800 does really well in this game and almost matches the performance of the GeForce RTX 4070 at 99FPS. We can also enable DLSS and gain 35% and achieve 140FPS at 1440p.

F1 2022

F1 2022 was released on June 28th, 2022 on the PC and uses Codemasters Ego engine.  The game supports Ray Tracing, DLSS, AMD FidelityFX, and FSR.  We are going to run the game with the highest quality settings of “Ultra High” and TAA+FidelityFX.  We will enable DLSS and FSR as needed at the Quality setting for both.  We will utilize the built-in benchmark in the Imola track, in dry conditions with a far-chasing cam.

F1 2022

In F1 2022 we are running the game at 1440p with the absolute highest settings. The GeForce RTX 4070 plays this game at a phenomenally playable 186FPS, so you just won’t have any problems here with incredible performance. The GeForce RTX 4070 is 24% faster than the GeForce RTX 3070 and 17% faster than the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti. F1 2022 is another game where the Radeon RX 6800 does extremely well, and it nearly matches the GeForce RTX 4070 in performance. DLSS can be applied if you really need more framerate at 221FPS. This game also supports DLSS 3 Frame Generation, but we are already getting really high playable framerates. We’ll try it when we get to Ray Tracing performance.

Dying Light 2

Dying Light 2 was released in February 2022 on the PC and uses Techland’s C-Engine.  The game supports Ray Tracing, DLSS, and FSR2.  We have updated the game to the 1.90 patch. We use the built-in preset to set “HIGH QUALITY” which sets the highest game graphics, without Ray Tracing.  We manually enable DX12 and ASYNC Compute.  We use the built-in benchmark.

Dying Light 2

In Dying Light 2 we are running at 1440p with the highest settings. The GeForce RTX 4070 is able to provide a playable experience of over 100FPS. Compared to the GeForce RTX 3070 the RTX 4070 is 22% faster and compared to the RTX 3070 Ti the RTX 4070 is 13% faster, the smallest margin so far in our testing. The AMD Radeon RX 6800 is performing very well in this game and again is right on the heels of the RTX 4070. The RTX 4070 is only 9% faster than the RX 6800. We can turn on DLSS and performance increases 32% and we get 144FPS.

Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077 was released in December of 2020 and uses the REDengine 4. We have the game patched to version 1.61 and utilize the built-in benchmark. We test using the Graphics Preset option to set graphics settings, mainly “Ultra”.  This game supports DLSS and FSR2.

Cyberpunk 2077

As demanding as Cyberpunk 2077 is at “Ultra” settings, the GeForce RTX 4070 tears through it 82FPS without needing to enable upscaling. The GeForce RTX 4070 is 21% faster than the GeForce RTX 3070 and 13% faster than the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti. The GeForce RTX 4070 is only 5% faster than the Radeon RX 6800, the RX 6800 is very competitive in some games. We can also enable DLSS with a 12% uplift.

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REVIEW OVERVIEW

Gaming Performance
9
Power Efficiency
10
Build and Cooling
10
Price Value
7

SUMMARY

We reviewed the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Founders Edition video card, offering a more affordable RTX 40 Series GPU geared for 1440p high framerate gaming. Its gaming performance was very fast, surpassing the previous generation at the same price point by a good margin. It does so with great power efficiency, offering a cool running well built video card with exceptional savings on power demands. It offers more features than the previous generation, but the price point is elevated in this category compared to the previous generation, raising the price segment for this tier of GPU.
Brent Justicehttps://www.thefpsreview.com
Former managing editor of GPUs at HardOCP for 18 years, Brent Justice has been reviewing computer components since the late 90s, educated in the art and method of the computer hardware review, he brings experience, knowledge, and hands-on testing with a gamer-oriented and hardware enthusiast perspective. You can follow him on Twitter - @Brent_Justice You can sub to his YouTube channel - Justice Gaming https://www.youtube.com/c/JusticeGamingChannel You can check out his computer builds on KIT - @BrentJustice https://kit.co/BrentJustice

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We reviewed the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Founders Edition video card, offering a more affordable RTX 40 Series GPU geared for 1440p high framerate gaming. Its gaming performance was very fast, surpassing the previous generation at the same price point by a good margin. It does so with great power efficiency, offering a cool running well built video card with exceptional savings on power demands. It offers more features than the previous generation, but the price point is elevated in this category compared to the previous generation, raising the price segment for this tier of GPU.NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Founders Edition Video Card Review