NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER Founders Edition Video Card Review

Conclusion

In this review we took a look at NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER Founders Edition, launching at $599 and taking the place of the original GeForce RTX 4070. The GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER offers more performance, at the same price point, creating a value proposition. This is the first of three new GeForce RTX 40 series SUPER GPUs and will be available after January 17th.

The GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER uses the same AD104 die as the GeForce RTX 4070, but with many more SMs, CUDA Cores, RT Cores, Tensor Cores, and ROPs, as well as a TGP boost and base clock boost. The GeForce RTX 4070 has 46 SMs, 5,888 CUDA Cores, 46 RT Cores, 184 Tensor Cores, 64 ROPs and 184 TMUs. The GeForce RTX 4070 SUPRER bumps up to 56 SMs, 7,168 CUDA Cores, 56 RT Cores, 224 Tensor Cores, 80 ROPs, and 224 TMUs. In addition, the base clock gets a boost from 1920MHz up to 1980MHz, though it has the same 2475MHz boost clock. The memory subsystem stays the same at 12GB of GDDR6X at 21Gbps for 504GB/s. However, the L2 cache size gets a nice bump up from 36MB to 48MB, and the TGP increases from 200W to 220W.

Performance Summary

In our performance testing, we put the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER Founders Edition through its paces in 7 games, focusing on the 1440p gameplay experience. The 1440p gameplay experience is what the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER targets and we also tested Ray Tracing performance at 1440p and of course DLSS upscaling performance. 

For our comparisons, we used a GeForce RTX 4070 Founders Edition to see the performance differences there. For the AMD competition, we used the Radeon RX 7800 XT, which does have a lower MSRP at $499, so that’s a $100 cheaper video card. It is, however, the closest AMD competition at the moment, as the Radeon RX 7900 XT is much more expensive, comparatively. We do also see many Radeon RX 7800 XT’s online with higher pricing, due to factory overclocks and custom designs, that narrow the price gap.

Compared to RTX 4070

In our performance testing, there wasn’t a single game that the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER wasn’t able to provide a playable gameplay experience at 1440p. The GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER delivered a playable experience in every game at 1440p without the need for upscaling, even in new games like Alan Wake 2 and Starfield, and the venerable Cyberpunk 2077. When we enabled DLSS upscaling, the performance just got better, and really high framerates and low latency were possible at 1440p with maximum game settings.

Since 1440p was playable in every game, it comes down to the performance difference between the GeForce RTX 4070 and of course the Radeon RX 7800 XT. First, let’s take an average percentage of performance that the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER brings compared to the GeForce RTX 4070. 

If we take every game we tested at 1440p (without Ray Tracing) and do an average of the uplift, we find that the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER (on average) has a performance uplift of 19% over the GeForce RTX 4070. This ranges from 13% on the lower end of the spectrum to 28% on the higher end of the spectrum, it is very game-dependent. Typically we are seeing performance advantages in the upper teens, to lower 20’s percentage with the performance improvement of the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER over the GeForce RTX 4070. That’s quite significant considering it is slotting in at the same price point.

When it comes to Ray Tracing performance at 1440p, it’s more of a mixed bag, this is going to be extremely game dependent, some games are tougher to run, and others aren’t, with Ray Tracing. Alan Wake 2 wasn’t playable until we used DLSS upscaling, and neither was Cyberpunk 2077 until we used DLSS upscaling. The good news is, in those games, with DLSS it was perfectly playable and super smooth with low latency. Otherwise, every other game was very playable with Ray Tracing at maximum game settings without needing upscaling, but of course that was an option as well if you needed a smoother experience.

If we take the average of every game with Ray Tracing, the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER had an average uplift of 16% over the GeForce RTX 4070 with Ray Tracing performance. This is a bit less than it was in rasterization, but still a decent uplift with Ray Tracing.

Compared to RX 7800 XT

Let’s now look at how the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER compares to the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT. Keep in mind that the RX 7800 XT is a $100 cheaper video card at $499, but custom cards can be a bit more expensive into the $550 range, which does close the gap somewhat. In all of our gameplay testing, the Radeon RX 7800 XT also allowed a playable experience at 1440p without the need for upscaling, with the games maxed out at maxed-out settings. In fact, the Radeon RX 7800 XT was quite a bit more competitive than the GeForce RTX 4070, beating it in almost all games, and offering a better experience. However, that changes when we introduce the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER into the comparison.

The GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER does beat the Radeon RX 7800 XT in every game, but that gap is very narrow in several to the point that it delivers the same gameplay experience. In Starfield, the Radeon RX 7800 XT is right on the heels of the RTX 4070 SUPER, and the experience is the same. In Cyberpunk 2077, the Radeon RX 7800 XT is delivering nearly the same performance as the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER. Other games are really close, and it would be hard to tell the difference between the two video cards.

If we take the overall average of performance differences between the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER and Radeon RX 7800 XT, we find that the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is on average 9% faster than the Radeon RX 7800 XT. That is much more narrow compared to the GeForce RTX 4070 and places the cards very close to one another. Consider that the Radeon RX 7800 XT is at least $50 cheaper, and sometimes more, up to $100 cheaper, which makes the Radeon RX 7800 XT look like a good value with more VRAM (16GB).

Now, the same cannot be said when it comes to Ray Tracing performance, this is where the Radeon RX 7800 XT falls well behind. The one exception worth mentioning is Alan Wake 2, however. When using the “Low” Ray Tracing option (without Path Tracing) the Radeon RX 7800 XT is able to match the GeForce RTX 4070, but the newer RTX 4070 SUPER is still faster by 16%. At any rate, once you use High Ray Tracing the RX 7800 XT falls way behind, and the same is true for every other game with Ray Tracing. Taking the average once again, the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is on average 47% faster than the Radeon RX 7800 XT in Ray Tracing performance.

The Challenge

The real challenge for the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is going to be the Radeon RX 7800 XT. It is within 10% of the performance of the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER in raster performance, yet is at the very least $50 cheaper, if not $100 cheaper. The MSRP is $499, and you can find the Radeon RX 7800 XTs available at $509 right now at Newegg, which is a pretty big difference compared to the $599 pricing of the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER. The Radeon RX 7800 XT is also clearly the better card compared to the GeForce RTX 4070, as they are priced similarly, but the Radeon RX 7800 XT is a lot faster and has more VRAM. 

Consider the VRAM argument as well. 1440p with High-Ultra game settings, and with Ray Tracing, is where VRAM matters the most. The Radeon RX 7800 XT technically offers more VRAM with 16GB, at a lower price. One can argue that at $599 16GB should be the minimum for a video card priced at this level in 2024 and into 2025. If you are purchasing this video card now, you will most likely have it for a couple of years, and VRAM will matter more and more if you are forward-looking to games in 2024 and 2025 for the continued best experience.  

When it comes to Ray Tracing performance, the Radeon RX 7800 XT struggles and this is a big negative for it, the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER will offer better performance with Ray Tracing at 1440p. The other thing is DLSS, only the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER supports DLSS upscaling DLSS 3 Frame Generation and DLSS 3.5 Ray Reconstruction for Ray Tracing. NVIDIA still leads the way in upscaling image quality, frame generation image quality, and Ray Tracing reconstruction image quality, period. 

These are major features and a major advantage the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER has over the Radeon RX 7800 XT. We also have to talk about efficiency, the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER uses much less power, and is more efficient, the Radeon RX 7800 XT is a power hog, comparatively. If these features are worth $50-100 more for you, that’s only a decision you can make.

The GeForce RTX 4070 is getting an official price drop to $549. Unfortunately, for it, the Radeon RX 7800 XT does beat it in every game, the Radeon RX 7800 XT is just the faster and better card at this price point. You can get a Radeon RX 7800 XT for $509, so it is cheaper than the GeForce RTX 4070 still and offers better performance with more VRAM at 16GB at a lower price. In all honesty, it is our opinion that the GeForce RTX 4070 should have been dropped to $499, maybe we will see deals or online retailers adjust prices down accordingly if the Radeon RX 7800 XT starts getting more attention.

Final Points

With the launch of the GeForce RTX 40 series SUPER GPUs, you are going to hear a lot of: “This is what it should have been from the beginning.” While that can be said, it is more nuanced and layered than this. NVIDIA has addressed its segmentation and pricing and is now offering a better price-performance offering and overall creating a more desirable lineup for its GPUs. It is certainly a value increase at these price points. 

In our testing, the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is a bigger performance uplift from the GeForce RTX 4070 than rumors were suggesting. We are seeing it make a pretty significant difference in performance compared to the GeForce RTX 4070. The fact that NVIDIA is giving you 20% more performance, at the same price point is positive, and a good move, it creates a performance and pricing value increase in this price segment from the RTX 40 series lineup.

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