Conclusion
In today’s review, we directly compared the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Founders Edition and AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT head-to-head. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Founders Editon launched recently with a $599 MSRP, but we know AIB cards can be more expensive with custom configurations.
With AMD not having yet released its RDNA 3 equivalent in this price range, the only recourse we have is to find out how the GeForce RTX 4070 compares to AMD’s last generation, RDNA 2, two-and-a-half-year-old Radeon RX 6800 XT. The reason being, prices have fallen drastically since its release. AMD’s pricing has always held closer to MSRP in this last generation, versus NVIDIA GPUs. Now, two years later, prices have plummeted on AMD GPUs, and considering they actually have more VRAM (16GB), they become very viable comparisons, even now.
Performance
Starting in Returnal the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT edged out the GeForce RTX 4070 by 3%. Both video cards allowed a playable experience at near 100FPS, and you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between the two. Upscaling also added performance equally. Forspoken also ran very well on both video cards at 1440p and max settings. While the Radeon RX 6800 XT was very playable at 80FPS, and no problem at all, the RTX 4070 did outperform it by 11% in this game. Upscaling also boosted framerates over 100FPS on both cards.
In Call of Duty Modern Warfare II, both video cards allow a more than playable experience over 100FPS at 1440p with maximum settings. In this game, the Radeon RX 6800 XT outperforms the GeForce RTX 4070 by 11%, and with FSR pushes it up to 150FPS. In F1 2022 both video cards easily play well at nearly 200FPS. The Radeon RX 6800 XT outperforms the GeForce RTX 4070 by 14% and with FSR a whopping 263FPS. This game is easily playable at 4K on these cards as well.
As demanding as Dying Light 2 is, we can play at over 100FPS on both video cards at 1440p with the highest settings. Here we also find the Radeon RX 6800 XT faster than the GeForce RTX 4070 by 7% in performance. Finally, Cyberpunk 2077 is demanding of course, but both video cards can play this game well at over 80FPS with “Ultra” settings. Once again Radeon RX 6800 XT outperforms GeForce RTX 4070 by 8%.
In Ray Tracing, the performance scaling flip flops. In Returnal with ray tracing the GeForce RTX 4070 is 38% faster than the Radeon RX 6800 XT. However, it should be noted the Radeon RX 6800 XT is still very playable with ray tracing at 60FPS, and with FSR boosts that close to 80FPS. The same is true for Forspoken as well, the GeForce RTX 4070 is faster than the Radeon RX 6800 XT, but in this game, the margin is much narrower at 13%. The Radeon RX 6800 XT keeps up very well with the RTX 4070 here and is still at playable performance with ray tracing.
In F1 2022 the GeForce RTX 4070 is 20% faster than the Radeon RX 6800 XT. However, both video cards are playable, including the Radeon RX 6800 XT at 60FPS. In addition, FSR can boost that past 100FPS with ray tracing enabled. In Dying Light 2 we finally get a challenge for the two video cards, and neither is playable without upscaling. However, RTX 4070 is faster than the RX 6800 by 33%. With DLSS or FSR though, the cards are playable, RX 6800 XT is at 60FPS gameplay with ray tracing. Finally, Cyberpunk 2077 is not playable with “Ultra” Ray Tracing, and RX 4070 is much faster. You do need upscaling with ray tracing at 1440p, and only the RTX 4070 with DLSS is playable.
Performance Summary
Here is the important takeaway, both the GeForce RTX 4070 and Radeon RX 6800 XT provide a playable gameplay experience at 1440p rasterization, no ray tracing. You don’t need upscaling to enjoy the 1440p gameplay experience on either card at 1440p. Even when a video card came in second place, it was still more than playable, at playable framerates, at the game’s highest in-game settings. Generally speaking, the Radeon RX 6800 XT seems to be faster than the GeForce RTX 4070 in rasterization.
The GeForce RTX 4070 has a ray tracing performance advantage. In all games, the RTX 4070 is going to be faster at ray tracing compared to the Radeon RX 6800 XT. The caveat is that the Radeon RX 6800 XT isn’t bad in all games, as one might assume. The Radeon RX 6800 XT did allow a playable gameplay experience with ray tracing in Returnal, and Forspoken, and F1 2022. In fact, in Forspoken, it was very close to RTX 4070. Newer games with ray tracing seem to be performing better on RDNA 2, than older games with ray tracing. Plus, in the cases where ray tracing is not fast enough on the Radeon RX 6800 XT, you can optionally enable FSR upscaling, which in the case of Dying Light 2 did push it up to playable territory. The same is true with DLSS on the RTX 4070 of course.
Final Points
In summary, the Radeon RX 6800 XT has some advantages worth considering, as well as some disadvantages. In favor of the Radeon RX 6800 XT is the lower pricing right now compared to the GeForce RTX 4070. The Radeon RX 6800 XT offers more than competitive rasterized performance compared to the GeForce RTX 4070. The Radeon RX 6800 XT has 16GB of VRAM, which will allow games that have already come out this year, plus new games to come, to run smoother. It will also allow games to run better at 4K. A disadvantage of the Radeon RX 6800 XT is its ray tracing performance, it just cannot touch the RTX 4070 on that front. In addition, it does not have DLSS or AV1 encoding.
The GeForce RTX 4070 also has advantages and disadvantages. The GeForce RTX 4070 has better ray tracing performance, DLSS, and DLSS 3 frame generation support, as well as AV1 encode support. You also cannot beat the power efficiency of the GeForce RTX 4070. It sips power and pulls less than the RTX 3070 and 100W+ less than the RX 6800 XT. One disadvantage people will argue is the 12GB VRAM capacity. It is not suitable for 4K gaming and puts the RTX 4070 squarely as a 1440p video card. So these are things you have to weigh, as a gamer.
You need to look at what things are more important to you, and then pick the card that fits your gameplay style and what you are after. Both video cards are viable for gaming at 1440p also keep in mind that AMD has yet to release its midrange RDNA 3 variants, so you may feel a bit behind on generations considering the Radeon RX 6800 XT is a two-and-half-year-old video card by now, and will only keep aging. But that 16GB VRAM does feel nice, the real question is, is that enough to sway you into buying older hardware? Or, and I would argue, maybe it is better to wait and see what AMD comes up with next with midrange RDNA 3 GPUs to compete with RTX 4070 and the like. At least then, you’ll be on new technology.