Nvidia’s RTX 4070 launched for $600 USD,
but is it worth paying $200 extra to get the higher tier 4070 Ti?
I’ve compared both graphics cards in 25 games at 4K, 1440p and 1080p resolutions to find out!
Both cards use the same AD104 GPU, but the Ti version has 30% more CUDA,
Tensor and RT cores. They both have 12 gigs of GDDR6X memory with the same memory bus,
speed and bandwidth, but the Ti can use more power, allowing it to reach higher clock speeds.
The PC I’m testing both graphics cards in has an Intel Core i9-13900K CPU, 32 gigs of DDR5 memory,
and either MSI’s Ventus for the RTX 4070, or MSI’s Suprim X for the RTX 4070 Ti.
Ideally both would be from the same series, but unfortunately I just don’t have a Ventus RTX
4070 Ti, and ultimately, channels like Hardware Unboxed have already shown that
there’s not that much of an FPS difference going from a lower tier graphics card to a
higher tier one. Basically you’re mostly paying for extras, like more cooling.
Despite the fairly big size difference between the coolers, the 4070 isn’t running hot or anything,
but the 4070 Ti was able to run cooler as a result of its larger cooler in these two different games.
And that’s despite the system with the 4070 Ti installed drawing 20% more power at the wall.
More power normally equals more heat, but not here due to that larger cooler on the Ti. Although the
4070 Ti is using more power, it’s also performing better in games too, which results in it being
more power efficient from a performance per watt perspective. More power also equals more
clock speed, though I didn’t find the Ti to be that far ahead of the non Ti in these games.
In Cyberpunk 2077 the RTX 4070 Ti was 25% faster than the non Ti card at 1080p,
28% faster at 1440p, and then 37% faster at 4K, granted with frame rates like this you’d either
want to lower the setting levels or enable features like DLSS, FSR or frame generation.
But then other less demanding games like Apex Legends exceed 100 FPS
at 4K max settings no problem, so it varies. Oh also quickly,
the 4070 Ti ends up with more dips in performance at 1080p, as shown by the
1% lows because it’s hitting a 300 FPS frame cap here. So maybe more FPS not always more better.
On average out of all 25 games tested, at 1080p the RTX 4070 Ti was 19 and a half percent faster
compared to the RTX 4070. This graph shows how much faster every game was on the Ti. Some of
the more CPU heavy games like Microsoft Flight Simulator, Spider-Man and Far Cry 6 barely saw
any difference at this lower resolution, because the extra GPU power just doesn’t really matter.
If we step up to the higher 1440p resolution, the 4070 Ti was now almost 24% faster in the same 25
game selection. Worst case, there’s at least a 10% gain from Flight Simulator this time,
as the GPUs start getting better utilized. More pixels at higher
resolutions typically shift the workload to become more GPU bound.
That’s why the 4070 Ti was now 26% faster on average at the higher 4K resolution. Based on
the results from these games, I’d say that both GPUs are certainly capable of some 4K gaming.
Here's how average frames rates look if we average all 25 games together, giving us a
quick and easy summary of the results. On average the RTX 4070 at 4K was able to offer above 60 FPS,
while the higher tier Ti was just above 80, and I did test games at max settings here.
Despite the 4070 Ti offering better performance, it comes at a cost, and ends up offering slightly
worse value from a cost per frame perspective when compared against the $200 cheaper 4070. I mean to
be fair, you could argue that MSI’s Suprim X costs a fair bit more at $950 right now, which would
make my specific 4070 Ti even worse value here, at the end of the day I don’t think it matters too
much. The Suprim X shouldn’t be giving me that much extra FPS compared to a cheaper version.
So then, is it worth spending more on the higher tier 4070 Ti? Honestly, not really, unless you’ve
got more money and want more performance and also want to stick with Nvidia - let me explain.
I don’t think that 12 gigs of VRAM in the RTX 4070 is too terrible for $600 USD. Certainly
not amazing, but at $800 for the 4070 Ti with same amount of VRAM, it starts getting pretty
rough. Especially if you consider that AMD’s new RX 7600 has 8 gigs of VRAM at just $300.
Then of course there are other alternatives like AMD’s RX 6950
XT with 16 gigs of VRAM for under $650. The 4070 Ti does perform a bit better there
according to Hardware Unboxed, but it’s not a massive lead and just worse value.
At least until you start taking other features into account,
like Nvidia’s superior ray tracing, DLSS and the
new addition of frame generation. Which I’m sure is exactly what Nvidia is hoping for.
But then there are even rumors that Nvidia’s upcoming RTX 4060 Ti will have a 16 gig option.
Don’t get me wrong, both of these graphics cards can certainly run modern games well at higher
resolutions, but with the 8 gigs in the RTX 3070 Ti starting to cause problems in some newer games,
just how long is 12 gigs going to be good for? Especially when you’re paying $800.
Personally, I would just want more when spending so much. So yeah, I think the 4070
isn’t too terrible in today’s pricing climate at least. And hey, I suppose compared to a year or
two ago, at least both of these are currently available at MSRP, so at least there’s that..
I didn’t include the full FPS results from all 25 games in this video as it would
just go for too long, but you can check them out for free with the link below the video,
which takes you to my patreon page. But while you’re there, maybe consider supporting our
independent testing for less than the cost of a cup of coffee. That’ll also get you
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scenes content. We’re about to travel to Taiwan for Computex to check out all the latest tech,
and we’ll be doing a few behind the scenes videos while we’re there. But no problem if you’re not
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