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To say that the RTX 4070 Ti was poorly received at launch would be an understatement. It wasn't a terrible card, but people hoped for a lot lower pricing on the 4070 Ti. Unlike some of the other GPUs, it has basically been in stock since launch day at MSRP. With the RTX 4070, Nvidia seems to be getting the message from gamers that $800 or more is too much. With inflation issues and a downward spiraling economy, a lot of people are looking to save money rather than blowing it on a graphics card upgrade.
Dropping the entry price of the RTX 40-series down to $599 with the RTX 4070 helps, no doubt, though it's still a $100 increase over the previous-gen RTX 3070. Then again, inflation isn't just hitting individuals, so increasing the generational price by 20% after two and a half years might be justifiable. Maybe. If not, kick back and wait for the other 40-series GPUs to arrive, or AMD's lower-tier RX 7000-series parts.
Compared to the previous-gen parts, the RTX 4070 ends up trading blows with the RTX 3080 across our test suite. There are times when it's 5–10 percent faster, and other instances where it's 5–10 percent slower. Of course, that's not counting DLSS 3, which can boost performance by another 30% or more. But as we've said many times, DLSS 3's Frame Generation doesn't directly translate into universally better performance. It can smooth out visuals, but it adds latency and still needs a decent base level of performance before it's acceptable.
The most impressive aspect of the RTX 4070 isn't the performance or the price, but rather the efficiency. Even though it's not clearly superior to an RTX 3080, it's close enough that we'd give it the edge. The fact that it needs 120W less power to reach the same level of performance is just the cherry on top.
Just don't go into the RTX 4070 expecting twice the performance for half the price. As Jensen put it last year, those types of gains aren't happening anymore, especially as we reach the scaling limits of Moore's Law (RIP). Instead, Nvidia is offering more of an alternative to the last generation's top GPU, the RTX 3080... now at a lower price, with significantly lower power requirements, and with some extra features like DLSS 3 and AV1 encoding support.
If you were previously eyeing an upgrade to an RTX 3070 for $500, the RTX 4070 is a far better deal. It's 33% faster across our entire test suite, not counting DLSS 3, for a 20% increase in price. And you get to choose whether or not you want to turn on Frame Generation, plus the option to stream in AV1 if that's your thing.
AMD's only answer, for now, is to point at less efficient, previous-gen offerings. "Look, the RX 6950 XT is on sale for the same price!" If you didn't pick up an RX 6000-series sometime in the past couple of years, or even some time since the end of Ethereum mining last summer, what has changed that it would suddenly make sense?
Speaking of cryptocurrency mining, while we didn't test the RTX 4070, rumblings are coming from that sector once more. Hopefully we don't repeat the cycle of sold-out GPUs, and the best-case coins are only netting a bit more than a dollar a day on a 4090. But Gaben save us if another Bitcoin price spike comes along — or if not cryptocoins, it might be ChatGPT-powered AIs buying all our gaming GPUs.
If you've been holding out for an affordable RTX 40-series GPU, the RTX 4070 is probably about as good as it will get in the near term. Sure, we'll see an RTX 4060, maybe even a 4060 Ti, and RTX 4050 as well. But we really don't like the thought of buying a GPU with less than 12GB VRAM these days, and it's tough to see Nvidia slapping more than 8GB on some of the upcoming models. Yes, they might cost less, but they'll require a lot more in the way of compromise.
If you're a mainstream gamer still hanging on to an RTX 2070, or an even older GTX 1070, and you're finally ready to upgrade, hopefully, you can scrape together the $600 needed for an RTX 4070. Of course, we can always wish for lower prices and higher performance, but with the current market conditions, the 4070 is about as good as we're likely to get.
Speaking of which, both retail availability and reviews of the custom RTX 4070 cards will arrive tomorrow.
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