PNY RTX 4070 Review: Single 8-Pin, No 16-Pin 12VHPWR

Reference clocks, slightly less than reference performance

PNY RTX 4070 card photos and unboxing
(Image: © Tom's Hardware)

Tom's Hardware Verdict

The PNY RTX 4070 mostly matches the 4070 Founders Edition, but it runs slightly hotter and has noisier fans. But if you think Nvidia's 8-pin to 16-pin adapters are stupid, PNY agrees, opting for a solo 8-pin connector.

Pros

  • +

    Basically as fast as other RTX 4070 models

  • +

    Supports all the latest Nvidia features

  • +

    Only needs a single 8-pin power connector

Cons

  • -

    Runs warmer and louder than Founders Edition

  • -

    $100 increase in generational pricing

  • -

    No frills or extras (could be seen as a positive by some)

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We showed benchmarks of the PNY GeForce RTX 4070 Verto Dual in our initial Nvidia RTX 4070 Founders Edition launch review. Then a bunch of other stuff came along, like the RTX 4060 Ti and RX 7600 launches, but now we're getting around to various third-party reviews. These are some of the best graphics cards, for gaming and other purposes, and the RTX 4070 looks to hit the sweet spot in terms of specs and pricing.

At its core, the RTX 4070 performs a lot like the previous generation RTX 3080, despite having 2GB more VRAM but a much narrower 192-bit memory interface. That's thanks to the Nvidia Ada Lovelace architecture, and specifically the inclusion of up to 8MB of L2 cache per 32-bit chunk of memory interface. The additional memory can help in a few instances, but higher resolutions also tend to prefer the increased raw bandwidth of the 3080's 320-bit interface.

Let's start with the usual specs table before getting into the specifics of the PNY card.

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Nvidia and AMD GPU Specifications
Graphics CardRTX 4070RTX 4060 TiRTX 4070 TiRTX 4080RX 7600RX 7900 XTRX 6750 XTRX 6800RX 6800 XTRX 6950 XT
ArchitectureAD104AD106AD104AD103Navi 33Navi 31Navi 22Navi 21Navi 21Navi 21
Process TechnologyTSMC 4NTSMC 4NTSMC 4NTSMC 4NTSMC N6TSMC N5 + N6TSMC N7TSMC N7TSMC N7TSMC N7
Transistors (Billion)3222.935.845.913.345.6 + 5x 2.0517.226.826.826.8
Die size (mm^2)294.5187.8294.5378.6204300 + 225336519519519
SMs / CUs46346076328440607280
GPU Cores (Shaders)5888435276809728204853762560384046085120
Tensor / AI Cores18413624030464168N/AN/AN/AN/A
Ray Tracing "Cores"46346076328440607280
Boost Clock (MHz)2475253526102505262524002600210522502310
VRAM Speed (Gbps)21182122.4182018161618
VRAM (GB)128121682012161616
VRAM Bus Width192128192256128320192256256256
L2 / Infinity Cache36324864328096128128128
ROPs644880112641926496128128
TMUs184136240304128336160240288320
TFLOPS FP32 (Boost)29.122.140.148.721.551.613.316.220.723.7
TFLOPS FP16 (FP8)233 (466)177 (353)321 (641)390 (780)43.0103.226.632.441.447.4
Bandwidth (GBps)504288504717288800432512512576
TDP (watts)200160285320165315250250300335
Launch DateApr 2023May 2023Jan 2023Nov 2022May 2023Dec 2022May 2022Nov 2020Nov 2020May 2022
Launch Price$599$399$799$1,199$269$899$549$579$649$1,099
Current Price$585$400$790$1,108$257$780$330$490$500$630

The above specs table shows the ten GPUs we'll be using for this review. The PNY RTX 4070 Verto Dual and Nvidia RTX 4070 Founders Edition have identical specs, since both use the reference clocks. There's not much more we can add.

The RTX 4070 lands at a $599.99 MSRP, and there are even cards periodically available for less than that — like right now, you can pick up the RTX 4070 from Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, or Zotac with a $50 instant rebate using code "ZIPDADS" (for Fathers' Day, if that wasn't obvious). PNY's card unfortunately isn't part of that deal. It's also "while funds last," so you may or may not be able to take advantage of that offer.

That sort of deal does speak volumes about graphics card sales in general. The past several Black Fridays and Prime Days, for example, had very few if any noteworthy GPU deals, but that's a straight $50 discount from Newegg on a graphics card that released less than two months ago. It's a safe bet that Nvidia could also drop the prices on all of its GPUs $50 or so without incurring too much pain.

Short-term sales aside, we can't help but feel the RTX 4070 should be selling for a lot less than its MSRP. It's faster than the previous generation RTX 3070, but it also comes with a substantially smaller die size. 294.5 mm^2 on TSMC 4N compared to 392.5 mm^2 on Samsung 8N likely means the AD104 chips do cost more, but Nvidia should still get about 190 chips per wafer. Even at $19,000 per 4N wafer, that's only $100 per chip (and Nvidia probably pays less than that due to the number of wafers it orders).

PNY GeForce RTX 4070 Verto Dual

PNY uses a nondescript box for its base model RTX 4070. That's fine, as most people are far more interested in the performance and graphics card than in the packaging. Inside the box sits the card in an anti-static bag... and that's pretty much it.

There's no support stand here, which, considering the card weighs 687g, shouldn't be a problem. The card's dimensions are 247x120x40 mm. Nvidia's RTX 4070 Founders Edition by way of comparison measures 244x111x40, so it's just a touch shorter in both length and height, though it's quite a bit heavier at 1021g.

PNY uses a dual-fan configuration, as implied by the model name. Each fan is 85mm in diameter, so smaller than some cards. More importantly, there's no integrated rim to improve static pressure and airflow. That gives Nvidia's reference card a double advantage: Its 91mm fans have more area, and they include a rim around the outside diameter.

The radiator also carries this same approach of not going hog-wild on cooling capacity. There are plenty of heatsink fins, but only three heatpipes running through them. The RTX 4070 only has a 200W TGP (Total Graphics Power), so the cooling should be sufficient, but as we'll see later, this modest setup ultimately results in higher fan speeds and noise levels.

As with most recent Nvidia GPUs, you get three DisplayPort 1.4a outputs and a single HDMI 2.1 port. With DSC (Display Stream Compression), you can get "visually lossless" 4K at 240Hz. Some might quibble about how good the image truly looks, but having tested it, we don't have any complaints — and most of the time, at 4K you won't be pushing framerates anywhere near the 240 Hz maximum refresh rate.

Jarred Walton

Jarred 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.

  • Yet another disappointing card, in a series filled with overpriced mediocrities - 4090 being the only exception.
    Reply
  • atomicWAR
    Great write up. I expected worse performance from the rumors floating around the web that single 8 pin cards were less performant. Yes its average clocks were a hair less at 2738 vs 2745 but that can be down to the silicon lottery at that point. Still not thrilled with the price with the alloted vram but all in all I am pleasantly surprised the card performs as well as it does.
    valthuer said:
    Yet another disappointing card, in a series filled with overpriced mediocrities - 4090 being the only exception.
    Yes and no...price and vram yes but as stated performance is decent compared to the 12vhpwr cards. But your not wrong the 4090 is the only real exception this gen. 60 percent performance for a 6% mark up. Seems fair to me...the rest of the stack not so much.
    Reply
  • atomicWAR said:
    Yes and no...price and vram yes but as stated performance is decent compared to the 12vhpwr cards.
    Unfortunately, decent performance means little to nothing, when it comes down to just 12 GBs of RAM.

    That's just not a decent amount for today's standards.

    Trust me, i've owned a 4070 Ti for approximately 5 months and had the opportunity to run some extensive tests. Bottom line, i expected more.

    At 4K max settings, it gets kicked out of games like Far Cry 6 (released on 2021) and Resident Evil 4 (remake), due to insufficient memory.

    If that's the kind of performance we get from a Ti, i don't expect a 4070 to be any better.

    Also a factor: is it gonna be any good for the games that will be released in these next few months? I don't think so.
    Reply
  • atomicWAR
    valthuer said:
    Unfortunately, decent performance means little to nothing, when it comes down to just 12 GBs of RAM.

    That's just not a decent amount for today's standards.

    Trust me, i've owned a 4070 Ti for approximately 5 months and had the opportunity to run some extensive tests. Bottom line, i expected more.

    At 4K max settings, it gets kicked out of games like Far Cry 6 (released on 2021) and Resident Evil 4 (remake), due to insufficient memory.

    If that's the kind of performance we get from a Ti, i don't expect a 4070 to be any better.

    Also a factor: is it gonna be any good for the games that will be released in these next few months? I don't think so.
    Agreed. Vram needs a boost.
    Reply
  • mrv_co
    I gave up on waiting for a 7700 XT and picked one of these up since it fit nicely in my SFF case without any modification or additional expenditures. It’s a solid step up over my 5700 XT for 1440p gaming. No complaints so far.
    Reply
  • Ricky Zeng
    mrv_co said:
    I gave up on waiting for a 7700 XT and picked one of these up since it fit nicely in my SFF case without any modification or additional expenditures. It’s a solid step up over my 5700 XT for 1440p gaming. No complaints so far.
    I'm in a very similar position. I got a 6600XT after traded-in my RX580 during the peak of pandemic / mining craze. Now waiting for a 7700/7800 as upgrade but the PNY 4070 dual fan version is really tempting, as it's one of very few that fits my A4 SFF case yet delivers good performance gains.

    I reckon tech product (CPU/GPU, or any kind of prime movers) advancement comes in from two aspects: raw power, and efficiency. If we got improvement from both that's real lucky and not happening all the time. But I'm content as long as we got improvement from at least either one. Similar performance as 6800XT with way less power draw and smaller form factor? Count me in.
    Reply
  • Karo96
    valthuer said:
    Unfortunately, decent performance means little to nothing, when it comes down to just 12 GBs of RAM.

    That's just not a decent amount for today's standards.

    Trust me, i've owned a 4070 Ti for approximately 5 months and had the opportunity to run some extensive tests. Bottom line, i expected more.

    At 4K max settings, it gets kicked out of games like Far Cry 6 (released on 2021) and Resident Evil 4 (remake), due to insufficient memory.

    If that's the kind of performance we get from a Ti, i don't expect a 4070 to be any better.

    Also a factor: is it gonna be any good for the games that will be released in these next few months? I don't think so.
    But it's not a 4K card.
    We can agree on that it should offer more Vram for future proofing. And the price is a little to steep. But a card that draws less than 200 Watts on a 1440p system is very welcome.
    Reply
  • Winterson
    Admin said:
    The PNY RTX 4070 delivers similar performance to Nvidia's reference design, but with higher temperatures and noise levels. The only real draw is its use of a single 8-pin power connector.

    PNY RTX 4070 Review: Single 8-Pin, No 16-Pin 12VHPWR : Read more
    It is also the most powerful graphics card that is a dual slot one. All the more powerful graphics card eat up 3 slots with their width. My alternative to the RTX 470 was to buy a new computer that had space for a 2.2 or wider video card.

    $3,300 for a new computer or $600 for the RTX 4070 was not a difficult choice to make. The new computer would also force my use of Windows 11 and I will buy an Apple computer before giving up my privacy to Microsoft and its minions.
    Reply