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We measure real-world power consumption using Powenetics testing hardware and software. We capture in-line GPU power consumption by collecting data while looping Metro Exodus (the original, not the enhanced version) and while running the FurMark stress test. We also check noise levels using an SPL meter. Our test PC remains the same old Core i9-9900K as we've used previously, to keep results consistent.
We also test on our newer 13900K and 7950X platforms using PCAT v2 hardware, which gives a wider view of power use and efficiency. We'll start with the gallery of our PCAT results — FPS/$ uses the official MSRPs for the RTX 40-series, and current "approximate" retail prices for the previous generation GPUs. That means $1,100 for the 3090 Ti (the cheapest price you could easily find for a few months before it was basically discontinued), $900 for the 3080 Ti, $700 for the 3080 10GB, $830 for the 6950 XT, and $640 for the 6800 XT.
There's a lot of data in the above tables, but we'll mostly focus on the 4070 Ti results. Maximum power use is officially rated for 285W on the reference 4070 Ti, but the Asus card may have a slightly higher limit. We didn't get anywhere close to 285W on average across our entire test suite, but PTR, MEE, and MSFS all got to that level at 4K.
Efficiency ends up favoring the RTX 4080 and 4090 still, with the 4070 Ti in third place. AMD's new 7900 XTX/XT cards come in a bit behind the 4070 Ti, while the RTX 30-series and RX 6000-series cards are relatively similar.
The value proposition meanwhile puts the RTX 4070 Ti at the top for 1080p, 1440p, and 4K — looking purely at GPU price versus performance. That's interesting and does perhaps put it in a slightly better light, as the $799 MSRP almost seems justifiable. Of course, the next best values are the RTX 3070 Ti and RX 6800 XT, and they're not too far behind the 4070 Ti.
Average clocks while gaming were consistently in the 2.8 GHz range, with quite a few of the results apparently hitting the maximum 2,850 MHz on the Asus card. As we've seen with other Ada Lovelace GPUs, Nvidia's rated boost clock is quite conservative and most games will exceed it by about 200 MHz. Temperatures meanwhile topped out at around 65C for the 4070 Ti, and in quite a few cases ended up below 60C. Lengthier gaming sessions might get closer to 70C after a while, though case and airflow will be a factor.
Our previous power testing results are still valid, though they're limited to two scenarios: FurMark and Metro Exodus. The RTX 4070 Ti ended up at the top of the power chart if we just look at power use for these high-end GPUs, with the 3070 Ti coming out slightly ahead of it in FurMark testing. We also measured 265W average power use at 1440p, though as you can see from the PCAT table, that's not the worst-case scenario.
Clock speeds and temperatures basically match our PCAT results as well, though we don't have fan RPMs from PCAT. The Asus 4070 Ti stayed cool and quiet, with the fans maxing out at about 1700 RPM in FurMark and staying under 1500 RPM for most games. More important than fan speed is the resulting noise level.
We check noise levels using an SPL (sound pressure level) meter placed 10cm from the card, with the mic aimed right at the center fan. This helps minimize the impact of other noise sources like the fans on the CPU cooler. The noise floor of our test environment and equipment is around 32 dB(A).
After running Metro for over 15 minutes, the RTX 4070 Ti settled in at a fan speed of 42% and a noise level of 41.2 dB(A). That's about as quiet as any high-end GPU we've tested during the past couple of years, with only cards rated at less than 200W producing less noise. We also tested with a static fan speed of 75%, which caused the 4070 Ti to generate 54.1 dB(A) of noise.
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