Nvidia’s new RTX 4070 laptop GPU is kind of a joke compared to the RTX 3070 Ti from
last year.
I’ve compared both in 25 games at 1440p and 1080p resolutions to show you all the
differences!
Both the RTX 4070 and 3070 Ti laptop GPUs have 8 gigs of GDDR6 memory, but the newer
4070 has half the memory bus size and less memory bandwidth.
The older 3070 Ti also has 28% more CUDA cores compared to the 4070.
That’s not a mistake, I didn’t get them backwards.
The 4070 does use the new Ada architecture, but still, that’s not a small CUDA core
difference.
The 4070 also has a larger power range, but with both at maximum, the 3070 Ti is actually
capable of using 10 watts more power.
Technically, both of them can go higher than this with dynamic boost.
The 3070 Ti I’ve got here maxes out at 150 watts, while my 4070 goes up to 140 watts,
so both can go 25 watts higher than what’s on the spec sheet but the 3070 Ti has that
extra 10 watts of power.
The 4070 can go down much lower though, to just 35 watts, and this is why we’re seeing
it in much thinner laptops this year compared to the 3070 Ti.
I mean ASUS are literally selling 13 inch tablet devices with the 4070 GPU inside!
But of course the compromise of less power is less performance.
We can see just how much of a difference different power levels make.
This graph shows the FPS in Shadow of the Tomb Raider at 1440p max settings based on
the GPU power limit.
The 3070 Ti was running the game at 81 FPS with an 80 watt TGP, while the 4070 was doing
this at around 65 watts.
With both at 80 watts, the 4070 was reaching a 12% higher FPS, meaning the newer 4070 is
more efficient.
At least at lower wattages, because at higher power levels the FPS gap starts to shrink,
and higher power levels are where both my gaming laptops run by default.
Now there is an important difference between the CPUs in both of these laptops.
My 4070 is paired with Intel’s 13th gen Core i9-13900HX, while the 3070 Ti has the
12th gen Core i7-12700H, so the 4070 laptop has far more cores, threads and cache.
I tried really hard to get a 3070 Ti laptop with a 12th gen HX processor, as that would
make things fairer, but it just wasn’t possible, and to be fair the Legion 5i Pro with RTX
3070 Ti is still a great performer anyway.
Although XMG’s Neo 16 has water cooling support, I’ve tested without that here to
keep things fair.
Both laptops were tested with the same memory kit installed, however 12th gen runs it at
DDR5-4800 CL40, while 13th gen runs the same sticks at DDR5-5600 CL46.
Both laptops were tested with Windows 11 22H2 fully updated, core isolation off, resizable
BAR enabled, with the same Nvidia driver and optimus disabled.
Let’s get straight into the 25 game comparison at 2 different resolutions, then after that
we’ll check out price difference.
Let’s start out with Hogwarts Legacy, which I’ve tested in Hogsmeade.
I’ve got the 1080p results down the bottom and 1440p up the top, with the RTX 3070 Ti
below the RTX 4070.
It’s not a great start for the 4070 laptop, which was only about 4 FPS faster at both
resolutions.
Both laptops are able to get an FPS increase if we turn on DLSS super resolution, but they’re
still not much different.
The bigger boost for the 4070 comes with Nvidia’s new frame generation feature enabled, which
is only available for RTX 40 series GPUs.
The differences are even smaller in Cyberpunk 2077 with ultra settings, basically a 1 FPS
difference either way, more or less the same performance.
I’ve also tested this game with the ray tracing ultra preset enabled with DLSS set
to quality mode.
The 3070 Ti actually has 28% more RT cores than the 4070, however the 4070’s are newer
3rd gen compared to the 3070 Ti’s 2nd gen RT cores.
This could in part be why the 4070 has a bit more of a lead now, but I have heard RT can
be CPU heavy, and that laptop does have a newer CPU.
Either way, there's still not much difference - at least until we turn on frame generation,
which again was able to significantly increase the frame rate.
The Witcher 3 was also tested with the ray tracing preset and with FSR set to quality
mode.
Although the average FPS between both laptops is quite close here, the 4070 laptop has much
better 1% low performance, again perhaps due to the newer RT cores, despite it having less,
or it could be the newer CPU.
Again it’s only with frame generation where the 4070 appears to perform much better, of
course assuming that it’s even fair to compare generated frames when the visuals won’t
be exactly comparable.
Some games like Dying Light 2 had a clear lead with the older RTX 3070 Ti laptop at
both resolutions, and Dead Space was doing worse on the 4070 too.
The average frame rates were almost the same at 1080p, but the 4070 laptop had more dips
in performance, as shown by the 1% lows.
I think this is because the 4070 laptop also has a HX processor with more cores, while
the 3070 Ti is paired with a CPU that has less cores, because my 4080 and 3080 ti laptops
had similar poor 1% lows and those also had HX processors too.
If we enable DLSS on both laptops, then the 4070 now had a higher average frame rate at
1080p, and was able to match the 3070 Ti at 1440p, but again the 1% lows are still worse,
however again I believe this is due to my CPU difference rather than the GPUs.
Microsoft’s Flight Simulator was better on the 4070, but we’re talking about a 3
to 4 FPS difference in a game that’s known to be CPU heavy, so it’s hard to say how
much of this is simply a result of going from 12th to 13th gen CPU.
Enabling DLSS on both laptops was able to give the 4070 a bit more of a lead, particularly
at the lower 1080p resolution, but again frame generation is really needed for the 4070 to
see a noteworthy improvement.
A Plague Tale Requiem had basically no difference between the two laptops, you wouldn’t even
notice these changes when actually playing.
FPS can be increased on both laptops by setting DLSS to quality mode, but at 1440p they’re
still performing basically the same.
Yet again it’s only with frame generation enabled where the 4070 really sees any sort
of difference against the 3070 Ti.
Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered shows a large gain on the 4070 laptop at 1080p, however
as this is a CPU heavy game I suspect this difference is more likely a result of the
jump from 12th gen H to 13th gen HX processor.
At 1440p where we’re presumably more GPU bound there’s no difference at all.
Interestingly if we set DLSS to quality mode on both laptops, the 4070 was able to do much
better compared to the 3070 Ti, something that wasn’t really happening to this degree
in the previous games with DLSS enabled.
Frame generation gave a little boost to average FPS on the 4070 at 1080p, but the 1% low suffered,
and then at 1440p frame gen on was actually performing worse - something I also observed
in my 3080 Ti vs 4080 comparison with this same game.
So maybe the games bugged.
Apex Legends was basically the same on both laptops again, a 3 FPS difference depending
on the resolution we’re testing, while Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 had a bit more of
a lead with the 4070, but again we’re talking about 5 FPS at 1080p and 3 FPS at 1440p, nothing
major at all.
Look, I’m not going to waste your time and talk through the rest of the 15 games that
I’ve tested, because by now you get the idea that there’s not a whole lot of difference
in most cases.
I’ll instead just quickly skip through the rest of the results on screen now, so feel
free to pause the video if you want a closer look at any of the games tested.
I think it’s important to test a wide selection of games so that we can get an accurate picture
of the average performance differences to make the fairest possible conclusion.
In other words, more data equals more better.
Let’s look at those average differences next.
On average over all 25 games tested, at 1440p the RTX 4070 laptop GPU was around one percent
slower when compared to the RTX 3070 Ti laptop GPU, kind of pathetic.
As we can see, results really vary and depend on the specific game.
Games like Dead Space and Dying Light 2 were 9 to 10% slower with the 4070, while DOOM
and Hogwarts Legacy were 7% faster on the 4070.
But yeah once you average a bunch of games out, the 4070 actually ends up a little behind
the 3070 Ti.
There’s not much difference at all.
The 4070 was 3% faster than the 3070 Ti at the lower 1080p resolution, however the CPU
and memory differences between the two laptops would play a more important role compared
to the more GPU bound 1440p resolution earlier.
At this resolution just 7 of the 25 games tested were faster on the 3070 Ti, though
another 7 were only zero to two percent faster on the 4070, no real difference and within
the margin of error range.
The most CPU heavy games like Spider-Man and Far Cry 6 up the top saw the biggest gains,
but these would be less due to the GPU difference, so realistically without those holding up
the average the 4070 is barely scraping a win.
Here’s how frame rates look if we instead take the average of all 25 games at all resolutions
at max settings.
I think this better allows us to visually see the overall differences as a quick summary.
Here’s how the difference looks if we instead compare the RTX 4070 with DLSS on quality
mode and frame generation enabled against the RTX 3070 Ti with DLSS on quality mode
- so DLSS 3 vs DLSS 2.
The 3070 Ti does not support frame generation, this feature is only able to offer a boost
to the 4070.
At 1080p the 4070 was now 73% faster than the 3070 Ti, and 53% faster at 1440p, but
in a much smaller 6 game selection, as not as many games support frame generation.
Let’s discuss the price difference next.
Prices of both will change over time, so refer to the links below the video for current updates.
Or check out my gaminglaptop.deals website to get the best deal on your next gaming laptop!
We update it daily so you can save money on the best laptop sales.
Right now, the same Legion 5i Pro with RTX 3070 Ti graphics that I’ve tested in this
video is on sale for $1400 USD at B&H on our deals site.
XMG’s Neo 16 is also sold as the Mech-16 GP in the US, so for comparable pricing we’re
looking at $2000 USD for the 4070 laptop I tested.
So based on those prices, it’s no surprise that the more expensive 4070 which performs
about the same was offering much worse value in terms of cost per frame.
Things change a little bit if we instead focus on the frame generation results.
Something I’m sure Nvidia would love us to only pay attention to.
The 4070 actually ends up better value at 1080p despite the big price gap, but the 3070
Ti was still ahead at 1440p, as frame gen seemed to make a bigger difference at 1080p
in my tests.
The two laptops I’ve tested with aren’t the best for comparing price as they have
different features, so I’ve also tried to find other models with these GPUs to compare.
MSI’s GE67 with i7-12800HX and RTX 3070 Ti graphics goes for $2037 USD right now,
while the newer GE68 with i9-13950HX and RTX 4070 graphics is $2700.
To be fair this does have double the RAM and storage too which increases the cost.
The ASUS Zephyrus M16 is another example.
With RTX 3070 Ti we’re looking at $2150 USD, though I think it’s gone on sale for
less than this.
The newer model with RTX 4070 graphics actually costs $200 less money.
Razer’s Blade 17 from last year is currently on sale for $2900 USD with RTX 3070 Ti graphics,
while the new Blade 18 with newer CPU, bigger screen and RTX 4070 graphics is $300 more
expensive.
So the price can vary quite a bit, and in those last three cases, each company has also
updated the chassis this year and included a number of other improvements, which don’t
come for free.
So we can’t easily say that any price increase is simply due to the GPU change.
Most new gaming laptops with RTX 4070 graphics do appear to be more expensive compared to
last gen 3070 Ti options.
That might not always be the case, but until the 3070 Ti is discontinued older models are
just more likely to get nice discounts.
Without Nvidia’s frame generation, the RTX 4070 basically performs the same as the RTX
3070 Ti.
The difference is kind of a joke without frame gen on the 4070 due to it having fewer CUDA
cores, a lower maximum power limit and half size memory bus with less memory bandwidth.
So in many ways it’s kind of cut down.
So the question really does become “is it worth spending more money on the 4070 to get
frame generation?”
At the start of the year there were just 17 games with DLSS 3 frame generation support.
Which will presumably increase as time goes on.
I couldn’t find a completely updated list, but it seems like there might be as many as
30-40 games that support DLSS 3 out now.
I’ve played plenty of games with frame generation on at this point, and overall I think it’s
a positive feature that offers a nice improvement.
The games I’ve played aren’t latency sensitive though, which it may not be ideal for.
I’m 16 hours into Hogwarts Legacy and I’ve had frame generation and DLSS on quality mode
the entire time, and it still looks epic and plays great, regardless of what you might
think about “fake frames”.
It’s just difficult to put a dollar value on a new feature like this this early.
As nice as it may be in supported games, it’s difficult to recommend that people buy it
on the hope of a future promise, which is more game supporting it.
If frame gen start appearing everywhere and offers a nice boost, then yeah it will probably
make more sense to go for the 4070.
Assuming the two laptops were completely identical and it was just the GPU difference, I could
see myself being willing to pay $100, maybe $200 more to get frame generation.
But that’s just me.
Given 4070 laptops seem to be $2000 or so, 5-10% more money for 50% or so smoother gameplay
in DLSS 3 supported titles doesn’t sound too bad to me.
Unfortunately in the real world, it seems like the price gap is usually much bigger
than this in most cases.
The main problem right now is that not a whole lot of games have support, so I think it kind
of depends on whether or not you want to buy a laptop that has frame generation support
as some level of “future proofing”, as much as I hate to use that term.
Because with both of these otherwise performing the same without frame generation, you really
are banking on Nvidia bringing frame generation to more games.
When I previously compared the RTX 4080 and 3080 Ti, the 4080 was around 30% faster without
frame generation.
Quite a big difference compared to the nothing we’re getting here.
When the 3070 Ti came out last year, it was closer in performance to the RTX 3080 than
the 3070 below it.
So this makes me think that this time around Nvidia may be being more intentional with
leaving a gap between the 4070 and 4080, perhaps for a future RTX 4070 Ti laptop.
Of course I have no idea if this will happen, I’m just speculating at this point, but
if the past is anything to go by we might not see it until early 2024.
As the 3070 Ti didn’t come out until 12 months after the 3070.
This also means that if you’re looking for a decent gen on gen improvement then you’re
probably going to be looking for at least an RTX 4080 laptop, and not the 4070.
I’ll compare the 4070 against the 4080 soon so we can find out if it’s worth paying
more money to get the 4080, which I suppose could also be Nvidia’s play.
So subscribe for that, until then you can check out how much faster the RTX 4080 is
compared to the best from last gen, the RTX 3080 Ti, so I’ll see you in that video next!