Throughout most of 2023 and 2024, Nvidia’s RTX 4070 and RTX 4070 Super were two of the best graphics cards available.
However, these GPUs are now far more difficult to get hold of, having been superseded by the RTX 5000 series cards.
But if you get the chance to buy the RTX 4070 or the RTX 4070 Super, should you take the opportunity?
Pricing and availability
Let’s get the RTX 4070 out of the way. The card launched early 2023 for a list price of $600, and it’s still widely available at retailers for that price. Later that year, Nvidia dropped the price to $550 in response to AMD’s RX 7800 XT. However, because of the rarity of this line, and various contibuting factors, you probably won’t find a new RTX 4070 for under $800.
At the time of writing, for example, there’s this ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 4070 , at a price that might well cause a budgetary setback on your upgrade or new PC build.
Nvidia officially announced the RTX 4070 Super during its keynote at CES 2024, following months of rumors about the RTX 40-series refresh. This initially resulted in Nvidia officially cutting the price of the RTX 4070.
Specs
Although the RTX 4070 and RTX 4070 Super share a name, the Super model has a big spec boost. Starting with what’s the same, the RTX 4070 Super delivers the same 12GB of GDDR6X memory we see on the base model and the same bus width.
| RTX 4070 Super | RTX 4070 | |
| GPU | AD104 | AD104 |
| Interface | PCIe 4.0 | PCIe 4.0 |
| CUDA cores | 7,168 | 5,888 |
| Boost clock | 2,475MHz | 2,475MHz |
| Memory | 12GB GDDR6X | 12GB GDDR6X |
| Memory speed | 21 Gbps | 21 Gbps |
| Memory bus | 192-bit | 192-bit |
| TDP | 220W | 200W |
The big change comes in the number of CUDA cores. The RTX 4070 has 5,888 CUDA cores, while the RTX 4070 Super bumps up to 7,168 CUDA cores. That’s almost as many as the RTX 4070 Ti and nearly a 22% increase over the base RTX 4070. The power consumption has been tweaked to reach 220 watts — a minor increase over the card’s predecessor.
The card’s boost clock remains unchanged, maxing out at 2,475MHz, as does the 21Gbps bandwidth. While not everything has changed, the changes we’re getting are enough to push the RTX 4070 into a whole new league of graphics cards. In fact, with the updated specs, the RTX 4070 Super is not far off from being a replacement for the non-super RTX 4070 Ti.
Performance
Both the RTX 4070 and RTX 4070 Super target a 1440p resolution, but the RTX 4070 Super is much faster at that resolution. As you can see above, across our test suite of games, the RTX 4070 Super is somewhere around 11% faster. Keep in mind that these numbers are without Nvidia’s DLSS 3.5, which is available on both cards.
The more impressive comparison is to the RTX 4070 Ti, an $800 graphics card Nvidia will soon be retiring. The RTX 4070 Super is a stone’s throw away from that GPU, just for $200 less.
Both are
Although these are both 1440p graphics cards, they have aspirations for 4K. While the RTX 4070 fell just short of the 4K mark, the RTX 4070 Super now provides playable performance at that high resolution. It’s close to a 10% jump over the RTX 4070, edging closer to that fated mark of 60 frames per second (fps) in the most demanding games.
The RTX 4070 Super is clearly faster, and it’s not much more expensive. What about ray tracing, though? As you can see above, we see a massive jump in Returnal at 1440p. The RTX 4070 Super is around 18% faster than the base RTX 4070 in this demanding title. It’s not far off AMD’s RX 7900 XT, which is a much more expensive GPU.
This is a good showcase of what DLSS Frame Generation can do, as well. With it turned on, we measured 178 fps in Returnal with the same graphics settings. Both the RTX 4070 Super and RTX 4070 have access to DLSS 3.5 with Frame Generation, but the RTX 4070 Super provides a higher base frame rate. That means it will also have a higher frame rate after Frame Generation is applied.
RTX 4070 Super or RTX 4070?
Nvidia’s RTX 4070 Super brings an increase in performance at the same recommended list price as the RTX 4070. The older model’s price is expected to drop, though, with some cards already falling into the $515 range. Does that mean the RTX 4070 Super isn’t worth it?
If you’re sold on the RTX 4070 or 4070 Super and spot a good deal on one, you should pick it up. Unsurprisingly, the RTX 4070 Super offers the better performance, but in terms of availability, you should consider instead the RTX 5070 Ti. This has better availability, is available at around the same price, and offers that extra bit of future-proofing .
