The GeForce RTX 4070 Ti is the rebirth of the RTX 4080 12GB that was announced in September of last year before quickly being “unlaunched” and reworked into the graphics card we have today. Priced at $799 MSRP ($849 for the specific card we’re reviewing), it strikes a middle ground between the upcoming RTX 4070 ($749) and the RTX 4080 ($1199) with performance that’s “faster than the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti.” That claim relies on DLSS to get there, but there’s no mistaking that the 4070 Ti is a powerful card that offers more than enough power for the majority of gamers, even on 1440p monitors.
Nvidia chose not to release a Founders Edition version of this card at launch, which means there are multiple versions to choose from, each with their own unique features. On the test bench today is the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Gaming OC 12G, an aftermarket card which adds a beefy triple-fan cooler and minor factory overclock to give it a performance edge. Without the RTX 4070 to compare to, it’s too early to say whether it will ultimately be a great value but as of today, it’s the most affordable way to buy into the RTX 40-series. If you’re gaming below 4K, or with games that use DLSS, it’s a safe buy for great gaming performance.
Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Gaming OC 12G – Design and Features
The Gigabyte RTX 4070 Ti Gaming OC 12G is part of Gigabyte’s self-branded line of video cards. These exist above the Eagle series, which are the most affordable, and below the Aorus line, which is the most expensive and flashy of the bunch. Existing in the middle tier allows the card to be more affordable while still offering extras like dual BIOS support and RGB lighting.
That price premium nets you faster clock speeds, a better cooler, and improved looks thanks to its RGB-ringed fans and backlit logo. The card measures 13.2 long and 5.5 inches wide, taking up 2.5 slots. Like the rest of the 40-series line-up, it’s a monster and comes with its own support bracket to prevent it from sagging.
The 4070 Ti is built on the same Ada Lovelace architecture as the RTX 4080 and 4090 but uses a scaled-back AD104 graphics processor. It features 7680 CUDA Cores, 240 Tensor Cores, and 60 Ray Tracing Cores, which is 21% less than the RTX 4080. It comes with 12GB of DDR6X memory but exists on a 192-bit bus clocked to 21 Gbps, which caps bandwidth at 504 GBps, roughly a third less than the RTX 4080. The core clock speed is admittedly a little higher at 2,610 MHz (the 4080 starts at 2,505 MHz), and especially so on the Gaming OC 12G at 2,640 MHz, though with GPU Boost’s intelligent clock speed scaling, the speeds on the box matter less than they did a few generations ago.
The scaled-back processing power compared to the RTX 4080 and 4090 allows it to be more power-efficient, however, drawing only 285 watts of power and requiring a 750 watt power supply. It still uses a single 12-pin power connector, but the reduced draw allows it to go back to a dual 8-pin pig-tail adapter if your PSU isn’t new enough to match the new standard.
The Gaming OC adds its own unique twist with a large, triple-fan cooler and dual BIOS support. The cooler uses Gigabyte’s Windforce system, which consists of three 100mm fans (rimmed in RGB light rings) and a heatsink that’s almost twice as long as the actual circuit board. Copper heatpipes draw heat away from the components and into a vapor chamber where it can then be swept away through the large cutout in the back of the card.
It’s an effective system, this oversized heatsink with a vent in the backplate, that has proved itself time and again since its debut last generation. In our testing, the card reached a peak temperature of 65 degrees Celsius under load but typically only hit in the upper 50s while actually gaming. The fans are a bit noisy out of the box and were clearly audible over my PC’s case fans, but this can be eased by flipping the dual BIOS switch and setting the fan into Quiet mode. This drops from around 1800 RPM to around 1400 RPM, and makes them noticeably quieter. There’s enough thermal headroom where doing so really doesn’t make a difference to in-game frame rates either.
Around the back, the IO panel offers connectivity for three DisplayPort 1.4 devices and a single HDMI 2.1 port. The maximum resolution is 7680x4320 (8K) split between four displays. The port selection is identical to the rest of the 40-series line-up and offers no major surprises.
Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Gaming OC 12G – Performance
Given the pricing of the RTX 4070 Ti and that it started its life as an RTX 4080, one of the big things I wanted to see in my testing is how this card – even with Gigabyte’s mark-up – would compare to the actual RTX 4080 while costing $350 less. Nvidia’s positioning against the RTX 3090 Ti, a card that still costs upwards of $1800, was another particular point of interest. Likewise, how it would stack up against AMD’s RX 7900 XT and 7900 XTX models was particularly compelling.
Starting with 3DMark Fire Strike Ultra, the RTX 4070 Ti delivers respectable results. It lands smack in the middle between the RTX 3090 Ti and the RTX 3080 Ti. The RTX 4080 and AMD’s RX 7900 XT and 7900 XTX all outperform it by a significant margin, but each is also substantially more expensive, so this is to be expected.
Moving onto Unigine Heaven, the card falls behind a touch. It’s a hair behind the RTX 3080 Ti here and significantly behind the RTX 3090 and 3090 Ti. It does manage to outperform the $900 RX 7900 XT at 1440p and 4K resolutions, however.
When it comes to ray tracing specifically, Nvidia’s triple-core architecture pays dividends. The RTX 4070 Ti is bested only by the RTX 4080 in the Boundary and 3DMark Ray Tracing Test benchmarks. The RTX 3090 Ti pulls ahead in Port Royal, but overall, the 4070 Ti wins out here. The RX 7900 XT and XTX fall far behind in Boundary and the Ray Tracing Test, and while things are close in Port Royal, it’s clear that the 4070 Ti wins out.
Moving onto game benchmarks, we have a set stable of games we have put dozens of cards through the gamut with. Across these four games, the RTX 4070 Ti put up some impressive results. It averaged 4% faster than the RTX 3090 at 1080p and 5% faster at 1440p but was within a few frames at 4K. Against the RTX 3080 Ti, that lead was extended to 7% and 9% respectively, but like the RTX 3090 evened out at 4K resolution. It wasn’t quite as fast as the RX 7900 XTX and was extremely close to the XT, but pulled ahead by 6% at 4K resolution. Against the RTX 3090 Ti, the RTX 4070 Ti was indeed faster in some cases, though almost always slower at 4K in these games.
With a wider selection of games at 4K, the RTX 4070 Ti proves that it’s able to offer great frame rates at this resolution. With the help of DLSS 3.0 and frame generation, Cyberpunk 2077 was silky smooth at 83 FPS, pulling far ahead of any of its RTX 30 counterparts. Without DLSS, it generally went tit-for-tat with the RTX 3090 and was entirely playable at 4K, ultra settings.
The big takeaway here is that the RTX 4070 Ti is surprisingly performant, even at 4K without DLSS. It trades blows with AMD’s current flagship in rasterization, but when you turn on ray tracing or, even better, DLSS, it performs better overall. Unless you’re running a high refresh rate 4K monitor and are playing games that don’t support DLSS, the RTX 4070 Ti is the most compelling RTX 40-series yet.
