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Much like the RTX 3080, the RTX 4070 can legitimately handle 4K gaming, as long as you're not hoping to max out all of the settings — especially in ray tracing games. Here's the big picture.
Perhaps because of the 192-bit interface, even with 12GB of VRAM, the RTX 4070 trails the RTX 3080 by a couple of percent. Averaging 40 fps overall, it's really mix of games that remain very playable (most of the rasterization suite) and games that fall well short of being smooth (most of the ray tracing suite).
If you're hoping to game at 4K with the RTX 4070, you'll definitely want to consider using DLSS or some other upscaling algorithm, which we'll cover on the next page. It's the difference between sub-30 fps and potentially 60+ fps in the most demanding games.
In our rasterization suite, the RTX 4070 falls behind most of the other GPUs in our charts — it ties the RX 6800 XT and leads the RX 6800, RTX 3070 Ti, and RTX 3070, but nothing more than that.
Average performance across the suite is 55 fps, with only three of the nine games clearing 60 fps. A Plague Tale: Requiem ranks as the most demanding of the rasterization games, and the 4070 only manages 35 fps.
You can check our full GPU benchmarks hierarchy for comparisons with other graphics cards, and if you do that you can also see that the RTX 4070 beats the first generation RTX 2080 Ti quite soundly. That's no surprise as the RTX 3070 basically ties the 2080 Ti at 4K. So, in a bit more than four years, Nvidia has improved performance over its best GPU by about 33% while cutting the price in half.
Maxed out settings, with ray tracing, at 4K, without upscaling? Yeah, good luck. Of the six DXR games in our suite, only Spider-Man can consistently break 30 fps. That's hardly shocking, considering even the RTX 4080, which costs twice as much, only manages 41 fps.
But then, these results are precisely why Nvidia started working on DLSS clear back before the RTX 20-series even saw the light of day! The first iteration wasn't all that great, but it paved the way for substantially better results over the past four years. So let's not belabor the poor native 4K results and instead move on to our upscaling tests.
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Current page: GeForce RTX 4070: 4K Gaming Performance
Prev Page GeForce RTX 4070: 1080p Gaming Performance Next Page GeForce RTX 4070: DLSS 2, DLSS3, and FSR 2 UpscalingJarred Walton is a senior editor at Tom's Hardware focusing on everything GPU. He has been working as a tech journalist since 2004, writing for AnandTech, Maximum PC, and PC Gamer. From the first S3 Virge '3D decelerators' to today's GPUs, Jarred keeps up with all the latest graphics trends and is the one to ask about game performance.
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Elusive Ruse If there were no previous gen high-end GPUs available this would be a good buy but at this price you can just buy a new AIB 6950XT.Reply -
PlaneInTheSky So it offers similar performance to the 3080 and launches at an only slightly lower MSRP.Reply
Going by price leaks of some AIB, we will be lucky if we're not going backwards in price / performance.
In 2 years time since the 3080, performance per $ has barely increased.
The 12GB VRAM is depressing too, considering a RX 6950XT offers 16GB for the same price.
DLSS 3.0 doesn't interest me in the slightest since it's just glorified frame interpolation that does nothing to help responsiveness, it actually adds lag.
It's hard to get excited about PC Gaming when it is in such a terrible state. -
PlaneInTheSky In Europe, price/performance of Nvidia GPU generation-generation has basically flatlined now.Reply
3080 MSRP: €699
4070 MSRP: €669
That's the state PC gaming is in now. In 2 years time, no improvement in price/performance.
It is a good example of what happens in a duopoly market without competition. -
peachpuff
That's really sad, how many gold plated leather jackets does jensen really need?PlaneInTheSky said:In 2 years time since the 3080, performance per $ has barely increased.
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DSzymborski The 4070 is releasing at a significantly lower price than the 3080. $699 in September 2020 is $810 in March 2023 dollars. $200 over the 4070 MSRP of $599 is a significant amount. Now, few 4070s will be available at $599, but then few 3080s were actually available at $699 (which, again, is $810 in current dollars).Reply
The 3070 was released at an MSRP of $499, which is $578 in March 2023 dollars. -
Exphius_Mortum Title of the article needs a little adjustment, it should read as followsReply
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Review: Mainstream Ada Arrives at Enthusiast Pricing -
Elusive Ruse @JarredWaltonGPU thanks for the review, I saw that you retested all the GPUs with recent drivers which must have taken a huge effort (y)Reply
PS: Are you planning to add or replace some older titles with new games for future benchmarks? -
btmedic04 Hey look, a 1.65% performance improvement per 1% more money card when compared to the 3070. It's disappointing that's where we are at with gpus these daysReply -
healthy Pro-teen
A duopoly at best, it's almost a monopoly. AMD will probably undercut it by a small amount, get middling reviews and then heavily discount the GPU only when most people have already decided on the 4070. 6950XT is discounted right now and offers better value and the average gamer doesn't know it, so 4070 will sell regardless.PlaneInTheSky said:In Europe, price/performance of Nvidia GPU generation-generation has basically flatlined now.
3080 MSRP: €699
4070 MSRP: €669
That's the state PC gaming is in now. In 2 years time, no improvement in price/performance.
It is a good example of what happens in a duopoly market without competition.