Conclusion
NVIDIA is launching the new GeForce RTX 4070, which falls in place right under the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti, offering a more affordable GeForce RTX 40 Series. The GeForce RTX 4070 Founders Edition has an MSRP of $599, and there will be AIB cards with custom designs and clock speeds, some at MSRP, and others above MSRP offering a premium experience. The GeForce RTX 4070 is based on the same die as the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti, with reduced specifications to match the price point. The GeForce RTX 4070 is geared toward offering a great 1440p gaming experience at high framerates with Ray Tracing and does support DLSS and DLSS 3 Frame Generation for higher framerates.
Performance
With the GeForce RTX 4070, we focused on the 1440p gameplay experience and tested with and without Ray Tracing, DLSS, and DLSS 3 Frame Generation. Firstly, in every single game, the GeForce RTX 4070 was at the top of the charts based on our comparisons. We chose video cards around the same MSRP price point of the MSRP price point of the new GeForce RTX 4070 FE. Our goal was to see how the GeForce RTX 4070 would perform as an upgrade from previous generation video cards which are at the same price point, or price segment. For example, if you bought a video card for $600 in the last generation, and you are now looking for one in the new generation and also want to spend $600, what would it buy you in terms of an upgrade?
Starting in Returnal the GeForce RTX 4070 allowed a playable experience near 100FPS at maximum settings. It was 23% faster than the RTX 3070 and 18% faster than the RTX 3070 Ti and 13% faster than the RX 6800. In Forspoken the GeForce RTX 4070 ended up performing way above the last generation. We were able to play at 90FPS here making it 50% faster than the RTX 3070 and 41% faster than the RTX 3070 Ti and 23% faster than the RX 6800. The RTX 4070 did really well in this game.
In Call of Duty Modern Warfare II the GeForce RTX 4070 allowed a great gaming experience at 100FPS. It was 31% faster than the RTX 3070 and 28% faster than the RTX 3070 Ti. The Radeon RX 6800 was close to matching it. In F1 2022 the GeForce RTX 4070 did an amazing job at 186FPS at the highest settings. It was 24% faster than the RTX 3070 and 17% faster than the RTX 3070 Ti. Again RX 6800 was close.
In Dying Light 2 the GeForce RTX 4070 also allowed an amazing experience at 109FPS. It was 22% faster than the RTX 3070 and 13% faster than the RTX 3070 Ti. The RX 6800 was remarkably close. In Cyberpunk 2077 we could play this game very well at maximum settings at 80FPS. The RTX 4070 was 21% faster than the RTX 3070 and 13% faster than the RTX 3070 Ti.
When it comes to Ray Tracing the GeForce RTX 4070 was also on top. We had playable performance in Returnal at 79FPS. It was 30% faster than the RTX 3070 and 22% faster than the RTX 3070 Ti. Forspoken, as intense as that game is, also performed well at 70FPS with Ray Tracing. The RTX 4070 was 59% faster than the RTX 3070 and 46% faster than the RTX 3070 Ti. F1 2022 was also playable at 72FPS and we saw 29% and 20% faster performance, versus RTX 3070 and RTX 3070 Ti. Dying Light 2 with Ray Tracing is very intense, and the RTX 4070 was the only card close to capable of being playable. Cyberpunk 2077 was intense, and not playable, but throw on upscaling and it is more than playable at 70FPS beating every GPU.
Final Points
The GeForce RTX 4070 is price competitive with the last generation’s GeForce RTX 3070 Ti. In our performance testing, the lowest performance uplift was around 13% over the RTX 3070 Ti, but for the most part, it was closer to 20% on average, with some outliers like 41% in one game. There was a slightly larger advantage over the GeForce RTX 3070, about another 10% added to that, or 30% total on average. The results actually are closer versus the Radeon RX 6800, as it was closer in several games in performance.
When we enabled Ray Tracing the GeForce RTX 4070 did outperform everything very well. It allowed a playable experience with Ray Tracing at 1440p, except for one game, but that was expected. When things are not as playable, enable DLSS, and it’s more than fine. The GeForce RTX 4070 is flexible by allowing DLSS 3 Frame Generation, DLSS support, and FSR. The big walkaway is that the GeForce RTX 4070 allows a more than enjoyable gameplay experience at 1440p.
Compared to the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, at the same MSRP price-point, gen-to-gen, the GeForce RTX 4070 improves in the following ways. It provides DLSS 3 Frame Generation support, it has a higher VRAM capacity at 12GB versus 8GB, it provides better Ray Tracing performance, it provides AV1 support, and it is around 20% faster at the same price point as the last generation, and it is smaller more efficient and runs cooler.