Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 review: an RTX 3080 challenger for $599

A solid 1440p upgrade - but Cyberpunk 2077 RT Overdrive hints at something more.

Review by Richard Leadbetter Technology Editor, Digital Foundry

Published on April 12, 2023

We've completely revised our test bench for the most recent generation of graphics hardware, in order to better reflect the future of gaming technology - that means we're zeroing in on titles using key engines and low-level gaming APIs, while we've beefed up representation for ray tracing and image reconstruction. Some of our line-up may need tweaks as the results come in, but right now, we're mostly happy with this more forward-looking approach.

Ray tracing is no longer a second class citizen and with the new wave of GPUs, we're seeing some of the most intensive GPU workloads you can get delivered at really decent frame-rates - even before we factor in image reconstruction technologies like DLSS and FSR2. We're completely rebuilding our benchmark suite based around the Core i9 13900K processor, which means that while we have relevant data in this review, we will be adding more cards as the test data comes in. For now, we're targeting the Ada Lovelace line, equivalents to the 4070 from prior gens and the most pertinent AMD alternative at a similar price-point - the RX 6800 XT in this case.

Our benchmarking system below offers a number of ways to get to the data you want, the presentation varying according to the device you're looking at right now. You'll get a basic overview of our findings on mobile, with metadata from the video capture of each GPU being translated into simple bar charts with average frame-rate and lowest one per cent measurements for easy comparisons.

On a desktop-class browser, you'll get the full-fat DF experience with embedded YouTube videos of each test scene and live performance metrics. Play the video, and you'll see exactly how each card handled the scene as it progresses. Below the real-time metrics is a bar chart, which you can mouse over to see different measurements and click to switch between actual frame-rates and percentage differences. All the data here is derived from video captured directly from each GPU, ensuring an accurate replay of real performance.

Dying Light 2

We're sticking with our introduction run for Dying Light 2 for performance benchmarking purposes, despite Techland recently adding its own official benchmark, as the intro sequence seems to offer a tougher RT workout - and also because multiple 'fades to black' in the official sequence aren't a good fit for our video capture-based workflow. At 4K resolution we're below playable frame-rates, but with DLSS and DLSS 3 frame generation, the 4070 is transformed - something we'll be looking at in more detail later.

In terms of the competitive analysis, our numbers still show the 4070 a touch off-pace compared to RTX 3080, with the established card around six percent to the better. Up against the RTX 3070, however, there's a much healthier 31 point lead, effectively mirrored when the new GPU is stacked up against the RX 6800 XT.

This game is a truly tough workout, so it's no surprise to see that the more probable upgrade path from an RTX 20-series Turing card offers much larger gains. Whether you're gaming on an RTX 2070 or 2070 Super, you're looking at a 2.2x to 2.5x performance increase, a night and day improvement.

Dying Light 2, High RT, TAA

Cyberpunk 2077

We're continuing our testing with the CD Projekt RED classic running in its ultra RT mode and prioritising 1440p performance. Though the 4070 offers 3080-class grunt, it's still not quite comfortable delivering a 4K output without the use of DLSS in this challenging title. The 4070 gets very close to the 3080 in both 1080p and 4K, but seems to fall just a touch short at 1440p - a result confirmed after multiple runs. The 3080 has a six point lead here.

Cyberpunk 2077 is an exceptionally heavy game, even without ray tracing, but with RT engaged, this puts the RDNA2-based AMD competitors out of the picture. In our testing, the 4070 offers up a 48 percentage point lead over the RX 6800 XT. It's an older card, but it's what AMD has to offer with its more mainstream RX 7000-series GPUs remaining laptop-only at present.

What's also clear from this testing is that the 20-series Nvidia offerings in the line-up fall hopelessly short of an acceptable experience - they simply do not have the required memory or the compute power to get the job done. Those upgrading from an RTX 2070 or 2070 Super are getting a card here that offers a 2.3x to 2.6x performance multiplier at 1440p.

Cyberpunk 2077, Ultra RT, TAA

Control

Summarising a new graphics product by comparing its price/performance to prior generations is an easy way to describe the kind of experience you may get when considering a new GPU, but the issue is that new generations are based on entirely different architectures that treat games in different ways. This can lead to some outlier results can either work in favour of the new product or against it. We'll see some more flattering results later on but Control is something of a nemesis for Ada Lovelace. The RTX 4070 Ti underperformed here, and so the weaker RTX 4070 is bound to suffer even more.

The so-called 'corridor of doom' is an exceptionally challenging area of Control and what we're seeing here is a 10 percentage point lead in favour of the RTX 3080, while the 4070 Ti is only 21 percent faster. Running at native 4K is not recommended in this game - that's 4090 territory without DLSS - but you'll note an even wider performance delta at 4K. Returning to 1440p, the 4070's 24 point lead over the 3070 is weak, but even so, you're still doubling performance over the older RTX 2070, with a 1.8x boost over 2070 Super.

Control at its highest settings is impactful on AMD too, as we've seen in countless reviews to date, so even here, the RTX 4070 manages to command a 28 percentage point lead over the RX 6800 XT.

Control, High, High RT, 4x MSAA

F1 22

We're running the Codemasters racer fully maxed at its ultra high setting for this one, with the full complement of RT features engaged - though it's fair to say that their impact in improving the visuals is difficult to spot in the thick of the race. What we have noted about this one in our recent RDNA 3 reviews is that relatively speaking, AMD hardware works pretty well on this one - but as AMD only has an RDNA 2 competitor, the RTX 4070 is still ahead of the 6800XT, though the 15 percent lead at 1440p is hardly revelatory.

Once again, the RTX 4070 falls a touch short of matching the established RTX 3080: in the punishing Singapore stage with heavy weather, the older card has a seven point lead. The RTX 3070 is clearly in the rearview mirror, but once again it's against the older cards where you're seeing the upgrade potential with a 1.9x to 2.1x performance increase. The numbers do close up a touch at 1080p, but the gaps also widen at 4K.