Background information

Initial reviews of the RTX 4070 Super are in!

16/1/2024

The RTX 4070 Super is the first of three RTX 40 refreshes releasing this month. First reviews report up to 18 per cent more frames per second for the graphics card.

The new GeForce RTX 4070 Super uses the same GPU as the standard version – the AD104. But unlike that one, this new release pushes the chip to its very limits. 56 of 60 streaming multiprocessors (SMs) are active. That’s ten more than the non-Super version. If you’re interested in the specs, Martin already summarised them for you at the announcement.

News + Trends
Nvidia presents GeForce RTX 4080 Super, 4070 TI Super and 4070 Super
by Martin Jud

But to really tell how much those 10 SMs contribute, tests are needed. In this article, I summarise the findings of Techpowerup and Computerbase.

Techpowerup

Reviewer W1zzard from Techpowerup concludes that the RTX 4070 Super offers 15 per cent more FPS than the non-Super version. This is in 1440p resolution, where the card feels most comfortable according to Nvidia. Good for a refresh, says W1zzard. And good for Nvidia. The RTX 4070 Super outperforms the AMD RX 7800 XT in classic Rasterizer games by seven per cent. This makes the card just as powerful as the flagship of the previous generation, the RTX 3090.

The card is also slightly more efficient than the non-Super version of the RTX 4070. This despite the fact that thermal power loss is 20 watts higher, amounting to 220 watts.

According to W1zzard, the 12 GB of VRAM is sufficient for most scenarios. He’d still have liked 16 GB, but this isn’t possible due to the narrow 192-bit memory bus. The RTX 4070 Super doesn’t support DisplayPort 2.0 either.

At 600 dollars, the recommended retail price of the RTX 4070 Founders Edition is the same as the original non-Super version. Nvidia has lowered its price by 50 dollars. A fair move, according to W1zzard.

Computerbase

Wolfgang Andermahr from Computerbase comes to similar conclusions. He emphasises that the RTX 4070 Super is better priced than the non-Super version. It’s still expensive for a 70s model, but the performance is more suitable.

Andermahr’s tests even show up to 18 per cent more FPS. With ray tracing, the RTX 4070 Super offers 45 per cent more FPS than the competitor RX 7800 XT. In terms of memory, the reviewer criticises the 12 GB. Although it’s still sufficient today, it isn’t future-proof.

In terms of energy efficiency, Andermahr notes that the RTX 4070 Super is 14 per cent more efficient than the RTX 4070. In his tests, however, it measured up to 229 watts instead of the specified maximum 220.

Regarding value for money, the RTX 4070 Super offers a slightly better ratio than the RTX 4070. It’s significantly better compared to the RTX 4070 Ti. The new Nvidia also looks good compared to the RX 7800 XT.

Both reviewers point out that the RTX 4070 Ti Super card coming out this month will feature even more performance and, above all, memory. Tests for that GPU are planned next week.

The cards go on sale on 17 January at 3 p.m. I’ll list the available models here as soon as possible.

Update 17.01.2024, 1 p.m.: Due to technical reasons, the launch of the cards has been slightly delayed. They’ll be listed as soon as the problem is fixed.

Update 17.01.2024, 3:20 p.m.: Some cards are now listed. However, their availability isn’t yet clear.