NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Founders Edition, 12GB GDDR6X, HDMI, 3x DP

Eigentlich wollte ich den gestrigen Launch der GeForce RTX 4070 samt der verbundenen Mehrbelastung erst einmal verarbeiten und mich dann auf die Einzelreviews der verschiedenen Karten stürzen, aber es gibt wirklich Dinge, die einem in der geballten Macht echt zu denken geben. Der normale Reviewer wird es wohl mangels Sensibilisierung für technische Nachlässigkeiten nicht sehen und der Kunde natürlich erst recht nicht (wie auch), nur sind mir in den letzten Tagen bei allen hier vorliegenden „MSRP-Karten“ Dinge aufgefallen, die man so eigentlich nicht akzeptieren muss.

Was macht man, um als Hersteller die Aufmerksamkeit auf ein neues Produkt zu erhöhen? Man teilt den Launch so einer GeForce RTX 4070 12 GB einfach auf und lässt zunächst die Karten veröffentlichen, die auch zur UVP angeboten werden. So schön, so unspannend, denn am Ende sind all diese Karten ja irgendwie gleich. Bis auf eine, denn die ist wesentlich gleicher als die anderen. Und das ist NVIDIA hauseigene Founders Edition. Doch während bei allen der sogenannten „MSRP-Karten“ das Power Limit fest auf 200 Watt gedeckelt ist, lässt die Founders Edition noch einmal 20 Watt mehr zu und ist damit eigentlich eine verkappte OC-Karte, die man nur erst manuell auf diesen Sockel stellen muss.

Während bei AMD noch keinerlei Vorbereitungen dazu zu erkennen sind, arbeitet sich NVIDIA immer weiter die Produktpalette hinunter. Heute kommt die GeForce RTX 4070 hinzu, die als günstigstes Ada-Lovelace-Modell die neusten Funktionen der GeForce-RTX-40-Serie in einen erschwinglicheren Preisbereich bringen soll. Zum heutigen Tage schauen wir uns die Founders Edition sowie die GeForce RTX 4070 Windforce 3 OC von Gigabyte an. Morgen dürfen wir dann auch über die weiteren Modelle berichten, bzw. entsprechend testen.

Mit der GeForce RTX 4070 schickt Nvidia Ada Lovelace ab 659 Euro in die Händlerregale. Die Grafikkarte soll RTX-3080-Leistung bei einer besseren Effizienz liefern. Ob dies gelingt, testet ComputerBase anhand von Nvidias Founders Edition. Im Vergleich müssen sich neben der RTX 3080 auch die RTX 4070 Ti und die RX 6800 XT stellen.

Flüssiges WQHD-Gaming und das fortschrittlichste Feature-Set für 659 Euro: Nvidias Geforce RTX 4070 bringt das "Ada-Lovelace"-Paket in freundliche Preisbereiche - von der Erschwinglichkeit früherer 70er-Grafikkarten fehlt aber jede Spur. PCGH prüft im großen Test der Geforce RTX 4070, ob Nvidias gehobene Mittelklasse diese Summe wert ist.

Actually, I wanted to digest yesterday’s launch of the GeForce RTX 4070 and the associated additional load first and then dive into the individual reviews of the various cards, but there are really things that make you think in the concentrated power. The normal Reviewer will probably not see it for lack of sensitization for technical carelessness and the customer of course not at all (how also), only I have noticed things in the last days with all “MSRP cards” present here, which one does not have to accept so actually.

What do you do to raise awareness of a new product as a manufacturer? You simply split the launch of such a GeForce RTX 4070 12 GB and first release the cards that are also offered at the MSRP. So beautiful, so unexciting, because in the end all these cards are somehow the same. Except for one, because it is much more equal than the others. And this is NVIDIA’s own Founders Edition. However, while the power limit of all so-called “MSRP cards” is capped at 200 watts, the Founders Edition allows 20 watts more and is thus actually a disguised OC card that only has to be manually set to this socket.

A lot of people will argue that they can just get a used RTX 3080 or RTX 3090 at the same or if not lower price instead of spending on a new RTX 4070. A lot of people will also cite that the RTX 3070 launch price was $399 and the new RTX 4070 is at $599. It’s your choice on how you want to spend your money but you’ll be missing out on DLSS 3, AV1 video encoding, new RTX video super-resolution also known as RTX VSR that is also coming to VLC player, and other AI-accelerated features on content creation tools.

The Founders Edition does have a few downsides, but none of them are big issues. Like with the other 4000 Series Founders Editions the power connection is near the center on the top of the card and it is mounted facing directly up. Combined with the need for the power adapter for some this can get tight quickly in some cases and will also be hard to hide. I wish the design had the angled plug like the RTX 3080 which helped keep strain off of the connection as well. Thankfully this card is a lot smaller at least which will have fewer case issues. The other big issue for me is overall availability of the Founders Edition specifically. Like with other FE cards, it will be on the Nvidia website, Best Buy, and Microcenter which does give you options but I miss the days where this design was available at MSRP at all retailers. I’m a big fan of the all-metal construction and build quality of the cooler and would like to see if be easier to get.

For 1080p or 1440p gamers, the GeForce RTX 4070 is a relatively affordable, power-friendly way to score a current-gen GPU with a leading edge feature set. Its 12GB of memory may be a limiting factor in the future as games get more complex and visual fidelity increases, but as it stands today the GeForce RTX 4070 offers huge leaps in efficiency and good performance. If you’re looking to upgrade a previous-gen system with a modern GPU or are building a new, mainstream system, the GeForce RTX 4070 is a solid mid-range option.

We’re not sure whether or not NVIDIA will have a tough sell with the RTX 4070, but aside from its price, it packs a lot of performance in its modest frame. It uses reasoanble amounts of power (especially in comparison to the top-end Ada), and perks like Frame Generation alongside the 12GB frame buffer make it a worthy option.

The GeForce RTX 4070 founder edition graphics card offers nice performance and visual quality, adding to that improved power efficiency and low thermals, making it an energy-friendly option. It effortlessly handles high-resolution gaming and creative workflows, the VRAM capacity (12GB) we deem is very acceptable. When choosing between the RTX 4070 and Radeon RX 7900 XT, it's important to consider factors such as raytracing performance and DLSS3, which the RTX 4070 excels at. However, a Radeon RX 7900 XT offers much faster rasterizer engine performance with an additional L3 cache, making it a strong(er) contender for the RTX 4070. The GeForce RTX 4070 is priced at $200 lower, so perhaps it offers more value. In this respect, we feel the card is competing more with the 6800/6900 XT than the 7900XT, though. Performance-wise, you can compare the card with RTX 3070 Ti / 3080 performance levels depending on where you measure. Overall, the RTX 4070 series edition is an interesting option for those looking for a visually appealing graphics card, as the founder editions sure look nice, also. This graphics card has plenty of oomph up-to even Ultra HD gaming (especially with DLSS3 / Frame generation enabled) with the option for a mild overclock. As such it comes recommended. Pricing, however, remains a sore point.

The RTX 4070 won't set the world on fire and it's hardly a love letter from Nvidia to the gamer - but it's certainly a capable piece of kit. In a world where RTX 3080 continues to hold its original 2020 pricing, the cost of the RTX 4070 is fine - if not exceptional - and its no-fuss form factor and frugal power consumption are positives too. And with the arrival of Cyberpunk 2077's RT Overdrive upgrade, there is the sense that PC gaming is once again reaching for the stars, and with decent settings management, RTX 4070 can still deliver a worthwhile experience.

To wrap things up. NVIDIA have a fine product. It doesn’t blow me away, for the reasons I’ve stated, but for anyone rocking a 20 series, or a 3070, or even a 3070 Ti, you’re going to be in for a real treat, and with more games adopting DLSS3 now than ever, it’s only going to get better, and the RTX 4070 might just end up being NVIDIA’s best GPU yet. For me, it just needs a little more time to mature.

For the sake of equality and an apples-to-apples comparison we tested the RTX 4070 FE on both 1440 and 4K, and our graphs are sorted by average FPS in the 4K resolution. That's something to bear in mind if you're the type of person to merely glance at our graphs. Even so we think the RTX 4070 is much closer to the RTX 4070 Ti than we expected it to be, especially given the price difference. Although it's not the be-all and end-all of gaming tests, we think the fact that this card, specifically not aimed at 4K gamers, still got over 60 FPS in Cyberpunk 2077 with RT and DLSS turned on speaks volumes about how good the underlying performance of the card is.

Averaged over the 25 games in our test suite, at 1440p resolution, the new RTX 4070 is able to beat last generation's RTX 3080 by a wafer-thin margin. This puts the card 26% ahead of the GeForce RTX 3070—a relatively small gen-over-gen gain (RTX 4090: +64%, RTX 4080: +49%, RTX 4070 Ti: +44%). It is still a substantial improvement, especially when you consider other factors like DLSS 3 and efficiency. Compared to AMD's offerings, the RTX 4070 matches the Radeon RX 6800 XT almost exactly, and is 6% behind the RX 6900 XT. AMD hasn't released any Radeon RX 7000 graphics card competitive to the RTX 4070 yet, actually they haven't released any graphics card this year.