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With the newly released RTX 4070, we thought it would be a good idea to compare it with its previous generation counterpart and other cards as well.
A while back I did an original keyword research study to find out which were the best GPU in 2022. Turns out that people were searching for (for the most part) budget graphics cards such as the RTX 3060 and 3050. Ranked number 3 and 4 were the RTX 3080 and RTX 3070 respectively.
RTX 4070 vs RTX 4070 Ti
Not to get confused between the two cards, the RTX 4070 Ti which was actually a renamed RTX 4080, packs 23% more CUDA cores and 16% more MHz when talking base clock as showcased below.
| Specifications | Nvidia RTX 4070 | Nvidia RTX 4070 Ti |
| Bus width | 256 bit | 192 bit |
| CUDA Cores | 5,888 | 7,680 |
| Boost Clock | 2,475 | 2,610 |
| Base Clock | 1,920 | 2,310 |
| Memory | 12GB | 12GB |
| MSRP | $599 | $799 |
In terms of actual benchmarks, the RTX 4070 Ti outperforms the newly released RTX 4070 by about 10-20%, with a median of %15, depending on the resolution and game choice.
Trading 25% of the price of the RTX 4070 Ti for %15 less performance seems like a reasonable thing to do in these uncertain economic times.
RTX 4070 vs RTX 3070
It’s also worth comparing the baseline RTX 4070 with its previous generation counterpart, the RTX 3070. Has the new generation ‘best buy’ card (xx70) kept its balance of performance price?
| Specifications | Nvidia RTX 4070 | Nvidia RTX 3070 |
| Bus width | 192 bit | 256 bit |
| CUDA Cores | 5888 | 5888 |
| Boost Clock | 2475 | 1725 |
| Base Clock | 1920 | 1500 |
| Memory | 12GB GDDR6X | 8GB GDDR6 |
| MSRP | $599 | $499 |
Just by looking at the raw numbers, the RTX 4070 has an advantage over the RTX 3070 in the base clock MHZ department of a whopping 30%, same goes for the memory which is increased from 8GB to 12GB (which is over 30%). There’s also the new GDDR6X memory and GPU architecture which makes the RTX 4070 superior to the RTX 3070.
As for actual benchmark results, the RTX 4070 seems to outperform the RTX 3070 by 30% across the board as Daniel Owen’s benchmarks show.
RTX 4070 vs RTX 3080
When compared to the previous generation xx80 series, the results are quite surprising, to say the least. The two cards seem to go head to head, 1:1, in terms of actual benchmark results as Nerd on a Budget results show.
| Specifications | Nvidia RTX 4070 | Nvidia RTX 3080 |
| Bus width | 192 bit | 320 bit |
| CUDA Cores | 5,888 MHz | 8,704 MHz |
| Boost Clock | 2,475 MHz | 1,725 MHz |
| Base Clock | 1,920 MHz | 1,500 MHz |
| Memory | 12GB GDDR6X | 8GB GDDR6 |
| MSRP | $599 | $699 |
Conclusion
The new RTX 4070 is quite a powerful graphics card in 2023 with a ‘friendly budget’ so to say. Clearly aimed at high-performance FPS for full HD or 2k resolution players, the new Nvidia GPU is the best buy in today’s market.
We are awaiting to see the real ‘budget-friendly’ model, the RTX 4060 and its price and specifications.
