During CES 2023, Nvidia officially unveiled the RTX 4070 Ti, showcasing the latest entry in the 40-series Ada Lovelace GPUs. Targeting 1440p, the RTX 4070 Ti aims to provide high framerate gaming at the highest settings in the latest titles. Starting at $799, there is no Founder’s Edition model, which means we’ll be taking a look at the ASUS TUF RTX 4070 Ti OC variant of the GPU, which comes in at $849.
Specifications
- Graphics Processing Clusters: 5
- Texture Processing Clusters: 30
- Streaming Multiprocessors: 60
- CUDA Cores: 7680
- Tensor Cores: 240 (4th Gen)
- RT Cores: 60 (3rd Gen)
- Texture Units: 340
- ROPs: 80
- Boost Block: 2730 MHz (OC Mode: 2760 MHz)
- Memory Clock: 10500 MHz
- Memory Data Rate: 21Gbps
- L2 Cache: 49152 KB
- Total Video Memory: 12 GB GDDR6X
- Memory Interface: 192-bit
- Total Memory Bandwidth: 504 GB/sec
- Texture Rate: 626 Gigatexels/sec
- Fabrication Process: TSMC 4N Nvidia Custom Process
- Transistor Count: 35.8 billion
- I/O: 3 x DisplayPort 1.4a; 1 x HDMI 2.1a
- Power Connectors: 16-pin Connector with 2 x PCIe 8-pin adapter
- Recommended PSU: 750 W
- Total Graphics Power: 285 W
- Max GPU Temperature: 90C
- Price: $849 (ASUS Website)
First Thoughts And Design
Let’s tackle the elephant in the room: you cannot look at the RTX 4070 Ti and not consider that this card, when first announced, was meant to be the lesser of the two RTX 4080 GPUs released. Back in September of 2022, Nvidia unveiled the RTX 4080 16GB and the RTX 4080 12GB. The specs on the latter model and the RTX 4070 Ti are identical - this is the RTX 4080 12GB that was unlaunched by Nvidia thanks to backlash from critics and consumers alike. The reason is that while the RTX 4080 16GB looked like a proper 80-class GPU, the specification difference between the 16GB and the 12GB variants felt much more like the normal 80-class versus 70-class differences.
As such, while the RTX 4080 12GB was meant to release at $899, the RTX 4070 Ti is set at $100 less with its asking price, sitting at $799. This also has the advantage of undercutting AMD’s recently released RX 7900 XT, which costs consumers $899.
The ASUS TUF variant we’re reviewing is built with the company’s new 11-blade Axial tech fans, as well as a die-cast shroud in a rather striking gunmetal grey. The backplate is rigid, and while the card looks compact compared to other 40-series cards, it still has plenty of room to vent the hot air coming off the GPU.
The new Axial tech fans are bigger than ASUS’ previous iteration and spin using dual-ball bearings to get more air through the GPU, keeping temps cool. The fans are also deceptively quiet, even in performance mode toggled on the dual bios board. ASUS also says the fans come to a stop when the temperatures of the board are under 50 degrees Celsius, so while watching YouTube, working, or just playing games that don’t stretch the legs of the 4070 Ti they won’t bother you.
Our ASUS TUF RTX 4070 Ti OC can also use ASUS’ GPU Tweak III to easily, erm, tweak your card to your preferred performance. The GPU also sports some tasteful RGB, with the TUF logo illuminating on the side, which is adjustable using Aura Sync.
The RTX 4070 Ti comes ready to handle the latest technologies by Nvidia as part of the Ada Lovelace architecture. This includes the use of the AV1 encoder for live streams and video editing, while games that support it can leverage the latest addition to Nvidia’s Deep Learning Super Sampling: frame generation (known colloquially as DLSS 3). We went over the main features of the Ada Lovelace architecture in our RTX 4090 review, which you can check out here if you’re interested.
Compared to the RTX 3070 Ti, which this card is replacing in the stack, the RTX 4070 Ti packs more CUDA cores (7680 to 6144), more memory (12GB GDDR6X to the 3070 Ti’s 8GB GDDR6X), as well as sports the next evolution (and more of them) in Nvidia’s Tensor and RT cores. The 2730Mhz Boost Clock far outstrips the RTX 3070 Ti’s boost clock of 1770 MHz, all while drawing marginally less power.
The Ada Lovelace card is using TSMC’s latest 4nm process, packing more transistors under the hood than its Ampere counterpart. And as always, given the architectural differences between Ada Lovelace and Ampere, one-to-one comparisons on specs are always not going to tell the whole story.
ASUS TUF RTX 4070 Ti OC Gaming And Synthetic Benchmarks And Thermals
Nvidia’s marketing around the card put it up against the RTX 3090 Ti’s 1440p performance. To me, this doesn’t make any sense other than trying to justify the price increase of the 70-class card by comparing it to the most expensive class card of the last generation. Jumping from the $599 MSRP of the 3070 Ti to the $799 price tag of the 4070 Ti is a lot, but it's, unfortunately, a trend we're seeing both Nvidia and AMD employ this generation.
However, it should be noted that the performance gains touted during the CES presentation were likely with DLSS 3 enabled, much like the performance gains expressed during the initial RTX 4090 reveal. DLSS 3 allows for incredible leaps in framerate in supported titles, but that expectation should be tempered, especially in those games where DLSS 3 isn’t available.
Let’s be clear though if you were buying a 3090 Ti, even when they were on sale for as low as $1000 at one point, you likely weren’t buying it for 1440p. This was a card always marketed at 4K, and for the original MSRP, that’s what the use case should be. Considering we do not have a 3090 Ti in our bench to test this against, we’ll be looking at the 70-class jump, as well as how the RTX 4070 Ti compares to big brother 4080, as well as AMD’s last generation 1440p performer, the RX 6750 XT, and the newly released RDNA 3 cards.
The RTX 4070 Ti is aimed at 1440p performance, but we also opted to test 4K in our suite of games this time around. Since so many gamers are opting for 4K displays as it becomes more and more common, how an $849 card performs at the resolution is of interest. For the price Nvidia and ASUS are asking here, having some 4K performance might go a long way to temper the overpriced feeling. Remember, this was meant to originally be a 4080-class GPU, a 4K capable class for sure.
We put the RTX 4070 Ti through an array of gaming and synthetic benchmarks aimed at pushing it to its limits. This is also the first time we’ve reviewed a GPU on our new test bench, and every GPU reviewed moving forward by myself will be put through its paces on this bench.
Test Bench:
- CPU: Intel i9-13900K
- Motherboard: MSI MPG Carbon Wifi Z790
- RAM: XPG DDR5 32GB RAM @ 5200Mhz
- Cooling: Corsair H150i Elite LCD 360mm Liquid Cooler
- Storage: Intel 760p 2TB M.2 NVMe SSD; Samsung 970 EVO 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD
- PSU: Gigabyte P1200 80+ 1200W Platinum
- Case: ASUS ROG Strix Helios
Nvidia Cards Included:
- RTX 4080 Founder’s Edition
- ASUS TUF RTX 4070 Ti OC
- RTX 3070 Ti Founder’s Edition
AMD Cards Included:
We ran through a number of titles from various games showing different engines at work in a mixture of DX11 and DX12 tests. We also ran 3DMark’s Synthetic benchmarks at their 4K defaults to show relative performance across DX11, DX12, and Ray Tracing applications.
Where we could, we used in-game benchmarks in order to ensure our passes were as identical as possible. For games that don’t include benchmarks, such as Control, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition, and Miles Morales, we used a predefined path and replicated this as closely as we could. Fortnite was utilized by running a replay of the same section of a match, benchmarking each play through.
It should be noted that our ray tracing numbers are either with Nvidia’s DLSS or AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution enabled. As no one is really going to run ray tracing without one of these technologies running, we opted to benchmark with them to provide better, real-world accurate numbers (and as a way to declutter some of our graphs). Each was run using the Performance (quarter internal render resolution) preset. We’ve also noted on the slides whether a game was running DLSS 2 or DLSS 3 as well as FSR 1 or FSR 2. Each of these tests was run using either the beta driver supplied by Nvidia or AMD’s latest 22.12.2 Adrenalin driver. Each test was completed with ReSizeable BAR enabled.
ASUS TUF RTX 4070 Ti OC Synthetic Benchmarks
The ASUS TUF RTX 4070 Ti OC in FireStrike Ultra benchmark has the card sitting behind both the RTX 4080 and the AMD RX 7900 XTX and XT, which makes some sense as this is pushing the card to its limits with a 4K benchmark test. However, the numbers are still impressive and blasts by the last-gen variants from both AMD and Nvidia.
TimeSpy Extreme’s benchmark shows similar results, though the RTX 4070 Ti takes a lead over the slight more expensive RX 7900 XT in this test. The result is also comfortably ahead of the 3070 Ti and the 6750 XT, with the last-gen cards solidly behind the new-gen offerings.
As always, though, these numbers only tell part of the story. How does this all hold up in real-world gaming applications?
ASUS TUF RTX 4070 Ti OC Rasterized Gaming Benchmarks
The ASUS TUF RTX 4070 Ti OC is a 1440p performer according to Nvidia, and it definitely plays out that way. In the games we tested, we never saw framerates dip below 60 at the highest presets for each of our titles in our testing. The closest we see is the 92 FPS in Cyberpunk 2077, the most demanding game in our bench. When compared to the RTX 4080, we see the more expensive card somewhat bottleneck in titles, but still maintaining a lead over the RTX 4070 Ti overall, with an 11% improvement for 41% more money.
The AMD RX 7900 XTX, meanwhile, is more impressive at a 22% increase in performance for a 17% increase in cost. The RX 7900 XT, though, is a statistical deadheat with the RTX 4070 Ti, and is a smidge more expensive. Games such as The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt see the RTX 4070 Ti beat out the 7900 XT by 20% (114fps to 91fps), though the AMD card sees gains in F1 2022, Control and Fortnite to pull even overall.
Compared to the last-gen RTX 3070 Ti Founder’s Edition, we see not only that the RTX 4070 Ti beats it each time around, but also that the Ampere card is still really great at raster performance if you aren’t ready to make the full leap to Ada Lovelace. Titles like Control see a 45% increase when going from the RTX 3070 Ti’s 77fps to the 4070 Ti’s 112fps, while Cyberpunk enjoys a 39% increase in performance from the 3070 Ti.
While the RTX 4070 Ti isn’t marketed as a 4K card, it can punch in that weight class, performing quite well at 4K, especially when pitted against the more expensive RX 7900 XT. Whale the RX 7900 XTX and RTX 4080 are duking it out for top spot between each other, the RTX 4070 Ti trades blows with the RX 7900 XT, with the latter card only coming out 3% better on average across our testing.
When compared to the RTX 3070 Ti and RX 6750 XT, the margins widen, with the RTX 4070 Ti seeing an increase of 32% and 37% in performance on average, respectively. Games such as Fortnite, using the new Unreal Engine Lumen enhancements, see the RTX 4070 Ti pull away from the 3070 Ti by 32%, with the RTX 4070 Ti performing on average 32% better than the last-gen card.
ASUS TUF RTX 4070 Ti OC Ray Tracing Benchmarks
Port Royal, 3DMark’s ray tracing benchmark, shows the RTX 4070 Ti taking the lead over the AMD RX 7900 XT, though lagging ever so slightly behind the RX 7900 XTX. Compared to the RTX 3070 Ti, the new 70-class card sees a 63% improvement from the Ampere result.
Running the tests using DLSS or FSR, we see real-world results from each card as players are going to be using them. Both techniques have come a long way since their first inception years ago, and as a result, the 40-series and the 7900-series cards spit out very playable numbers at both 1440p, while 4K is a bit more complicated.
When comparing the 4070 Ti and the 4080, there is likely a bottleneck occurring thanks to the render resolution when using DLSS Performance. Given that the internal render resolution is 720p, the faster RTX 4080 FE is just being underutilized. That being said, it still spits out respectable numbers, though we do see the RTX 4070 Ti eke out a win overall in Cyberpunk 2077.
Compared to the RX 7900 XTX, they are pretty well even, with the RTX 4070 Ti winning in games like Control (though this is thanks to DLSS as Remedy’s title doesn’t support FSR), and even Cyberpunk 2077 (the 4070 Ti enjoying a 25% increase in performance versus the 7900 XTX). However, titles like Fortnite and F1 2022, the AMD card takes the win by wide margins. The RX 7900 XT, however, suffers here, losing out by 12% on average compared to the RTX 4070 Ti.
A note on our 4K numbers: For The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition, you might notice that there is a zero for the RX 7900 XT. In our testing we experienced issues with this title and our AMD RDNA 3 cards, where each card would crash continually after only about five to ten seconds of playtime. This only happened on the RDNA 3 cards with this title, and only when ray tracing was turned on.
We ran this test countless times, wiping drivers and reinstalling them, installing the title on a separate drive, rolling back drivers and more. We were able to get runs out of the 1440p and 4K passes for the RX 7900 XTX, as well as a 1440p pass on the RX 7900 XT. However, the 4K run on the RX 7900 XT just would not stop crashing. We reached out to our AMD rep about this issue, but did not hear back in time for publication, though this is likely due to the holiday break, reported issues surrounding the Reference cards, and then CES kicking off. We will notate here if and when we hear from them.
At 4K, things get even more interesting. The RTX 4080 Founder’s Edition shows what it’s really capable of, beating the ASUS TUF 4070 Ti OC by a 22% increase in performance on average across our titles. And while the AMD RX 7900 XTX enjoys a slim 6% improvement on average, it’s pared-down variant doesn’t fare nearly as well, though this number is exacerbated thanks to the incomplete test of The Witcher 3 on the 7900 XT. However, the RTX 4070 Ti, at 4K, beats out the 7900 XT across the board in every single title, with the exception of F1 2022, which seems to love AMD.
Compared to the last generation 3070 Ti, we see the improvement gen-on-gen from the 2nd generation RT cores to the 3rd generation used in the 4070 Ti. Across the board we see a 78% increase in performance on average, with some titles such as The Witcher 3 going from an unplayable 11fps to 42 fps with DLSS 2, a 248% increase just from gen-on-gen in this one game alone.
DLSS 3 vs DLSS 2
However, you can’t look at ray tracing performance nowadays without also looking at DLSS 3, Nvidia’s frame generation solution that boosts framerates in titles that support the feature today. While not every DLSS title has frame generation just yet, more and more games are being added, such as Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition, and Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales.
When comparing the numbers with DLSS 3 gains, the performance for the RTX 4070 Ti jumps, especially compared to the last generation cards and the RDNA 3 offerings. At 1440p we see a 57% increase on average when enabling DLSS 3 versus AMD’s RX 7900 XT, while the jump gen-on-gen with the RTX 3070 Ti sits at 124%.
At 4K the RX 7900 XT closes the gap some, though it’s still being bested by the less expensive RTX 4070 Ti. The gains at 4K on average compared to the 3070 Ti, though, see the ASUS TUF RTX 4070 Ti OC jump 147% increased performance.
ASUS TUF RTX 4070 Ti OC Temperatures And Power Consumption
One thing I’ve noticed with Ada Lovelace is just how quiet and cool these GPUs run. On the RTX 4090 and RTX 4080, it’s thanks to a rather massive heatsink with its impressive fans and airflow throughout the card.
While the ASUS TUF RTX 4070 Ti OC isn’t a small card, it’s also not massive compared to its 40-series brethren. That said, the Axial fans from ASUS are putting in the work. Despite going beyond its boost clock, topping out at a speed of 2865MHz in our testing, the RTX 4070 Ti has stayed deceptively cool. In our bench, it never broke higher than 65 degrees Celsius, pretty impressive when you consider the use it was put under in our bench.
As far as power, we used Nvidia’s PCAT to measure the exact power draw of the GPU during testing. While the RTX 4070 Ti is rated at 285W, it never hit that mark, topping out at 250W during our Cyberpunk 2077 and Control tests.
ASUS TUF RTX 4070 Ti OC Final Thoughts
So what does this all mean? The ASUS TUF RTX 4070 Ti fits the bill for what it’s targeting: high-performance 1440p gaming with all the bells and whistles enabled. In every single one of our tests, the 4070 Ti came out swinging, easily crushing 1440p and putting up respectable 4K numbers.
In fact, it’s those 4K results that impress most. While the RTX 4070 Ti isn’t being marketed as a 4K card, it hits well above the weight class Nvidia is marketing it as here. With regular rasterized games, the RTX 4070 Ti keeps up with the more expensive RX 7900 XT, which is targeted as a 4K performer, staying well within the margin for error on average across our tests.
In my own gaming, I noticed incredible performance in games like Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker and Valheim, among others. I’m one of those weirdos who keep all skill effects turned on during Duty runs, so my screen is often filled with a kaleidoscope of color when playing FFXIV. Nowhere did the MMO struggle when running on the 4070 Ti. Valheim, a title that doesn’t necessarily run all that well, especially when there are a lot of structures or portals around you on your server, never really broke a sweat either.
But it’s when I turned on DLSS 3 in titles like Warhammer 40,000: Darktide that the card really shined. Games like Darktide use its ray tracing implementation to sell much of the atmosphere of the game. The volumetric lighting and fog set a mood that is just lost when ray tracing is disabled, so being able to hop in with DLSS 3, and get incredibly responsive controls and high framerates at 4K on the RTX 4070 Ti was just awesome.
It shows too that while DLSS 3 is great at all classes of 40-series cards, it really is going to benefit these middle-range GPUs in the stack, letting them punch above their weight class in games that support the feature. Turning on DLSS 3, I never really felt like I was missing anything playing on this compared to the RTX 4090 thanks to GSync on my 120Hz monitor. Everything was smooth, and zooming through Night City in Cyberpunk 2077 with DLSS 3 enabled makes the world feel more alive than ever, and finishing up the Bloody Baron’s quests on The Wicher 3 using its impressive ray tracing update, with high refresh rates, made me feel like I was playing a whole new game.
However, at $799 for the entry models of the RTX 4070 Ti (and $849 for our ASUS TUF variant), that is a lot for 1440p. A $200 increase over the last MSRP of a 70 Ti class of GPU from Nvidia, you are getting a great upgrade when ray tracing is concerned. It’s also a good 4K card made great in titles that support frame generation. Thankfully, more games are adding the feature, but the caveat is there.
It is a testament to how good the Ampere line of cards were, though, when the raster benchmarks don't feel as impactful as the ray tracing gains. While the RTX 4070 Ti is a better card whether you're using ray tracing or not, for some the less expensive RTX 3070 Ti still puts up respectable enough raster numbers to make the decision to upgrade a more difficult one.
Compared to the more expensive RTX 4080, I think the 4070 Ti is a no-brainer. If you want the RT performance of Nvidia but don’t want to spend on a card that is just poorly priced, the RTX 4070 Ti is a fantastic option. And when we pit it against the RX 7900 XTX and XT, it just further makes me confused about who the RX 7900 XT is for, something I mentioned in my review of those cards. Even at $50 less on the ASUS TUF model, the 4070 Ti is a clear winner against the more expensive XT, and with the forward-facing DLSS 3, it should definitely be considered if you were already looking at RDNA 3 thanks to its price.
All told, the ASUS TUF RTX 4070 Ti OC is a fantastic card that hits the boxes it aims for: it performs admirably at 1440p when using max settings in some of the most demanding titles out there, and even is a serviceably 4K card should you upgrade monitors before GPUs. DLSS 3 allows this card to punch even higher, giving incredible performance in the titles that support the feature. And compared to the more expensive AMD RX 7900 XT card, the RTX 4070 Ti trades blows and even blows the RDNA 3 away in some use cases, making the cheaper MSRP more appealing, despite it being rather high for a 1440p card.
The ASUS TUF RTX 4070 TI OC is a great GPU, and one that should be on your list if you’re looking to upgrade to a new-gen GPU this time around.
Full Disclosure: The product discussed was provided by the manufacturer for the purposes of this review.
