Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Ti review: a next-gen GPU that's worth the asking price?

Rasterisation analysis - part three.

Review by Richard Leadbetter Technology Editor, Digital Foundry

Published on Jan. 4, 2023

Rasterisation tests - and include the bulk of our entire benchmarking - comes to a conclusion on this final page of tests. In terms of the titles we've got lined up for you, we have a quartet of very different games and engines on display. Hitman 3's Glacier engine is super-performant without RT enabled, while Forza Horizon 5 screams on higher-end GPUs like these to the point where even at 4K, the RTX 4090 is GPU-limited. Red Dead Redemption 2? It's not often that we get a new Rockstar game and the tech on display in this one is still exceptional. Finally, we have Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the benchmarker's friend. Just so we're clear, all of the cards featured here are good for 4K gaming, so that is the focus of our commentary - but 1440p results are also provided.

Once again, if you're jumping straight to this page without looking at prior results, we should stress that our benchmarking system offers a number of ways to get to the data you want, the presentation varying according to the device you're using. 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 an interactive 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.

Hitman 3

Thus far, the RTX 4070 Ti has managed to power ahead of the RTX 3080 to varying degrees - but there have been some scenarios (especially in rasterisation) where the gains haven't been entirely convincing. However, that doesn't describe the situation in Hitman 3, where the narrative we set up earlier in this review continues as the 4070 Ti offers up a big 25 percent performance advantage over the RTX 3080. The Glacier engine seems to thrive on the latest GPUs then, but that extends to AMD as well. This title loves RDNA 3, so the RX 7900 XT is once again a good 23-24 percent ahead.

Looking at how the 4070 Ti sits within the Ada Lovelace stack so far, RTX 4080 is only 17-18 percent ahead, while the RTX 4090 is a good 71 points clear. Looking at the best of the last-gen cards, RTX 3090 Ti barely manages to retain its lead over the 4070 Ti - it's just two percentage faster.

HITMAN 3, ULTRA, DX12, TAA

Forza Horizon 5

The resurgence in the 4070 Ti's fortunes continues as we look at Playground Games' excellent Forza Horizon 5, where there's another good-sized improvement for the RTX 4070 Ti over the classic RTX 3080. A 21 percent performance advantage for a card that costs 14 percent more isn't bad in the current economic climate, and its fortunes are also boosted by the fact that RDNA 3 under-performs on this one. The RX 7900 XT retains its lead, but a seven percentage point advantage over 4070 Ti isn't exactly game-changing.

When we stack up the 4070 Ti against other RTX 4000 cards, there's definitely a sweet-spot in terms of price vs performance on this one. The RTX 4080 is only circa 22 percent faster, while even the RTX 4090 - which is almost certainly CPU limited - is only 51 points to the better. This game is another that favours the Ada Lovelace architecture as the 4070 Ti even manages to beat RTX 3090 Ti by a couple of points here.

FORZA HORIZON 5, EXTREME, DX12, 2X MSAA

Red Dead Redemption 2

The run of good results we've seen with RTX 4070 Ti comes to an end as we look at Red Dead Redemption 2 - which has caused some scalability problems for both AMD and Nvidia in prior tests. Unfortunately, this one is another game where the 4070 Ti can't deliver a double-digit lead over the RTX 3080 - it's just over nine percent to the better in our testing. This game caused problems for AMD too, especially in how poorly the 7900 XT compared in relation to XTX, but even so, it still squeaks out a nine to ten percentage point lead over RTX 4070 Ti.

There's clear water between RTX 4070 Ti, 4080 and 4090 though - but it does look like 4070 Ti sits in the price vs performance sweetspot judged by its counterparts. Based on launch MSRPs, RTX 4080 costs 50 percent more but delivers just 24 percent more performance, while the 4090's MSRP is literally double but offers up only 62 percent more performance. Compared against Nvidia's last-gen flagship, RTX 3090 Ti around ten percent faster than 4070 Ti while RTX 3090 inches ahead with a two-point lead.

RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2, MAX, VULKAN, TAA

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

The results close out with a look at Shadow of the Tomb Raider, which does have a tendancy to throw up some interesting results and this one is no exception. The RTX 4070 Ti does what it needs to do here up against the RTX 3080 with a 17 percentage point lead, which also puts it in an interesting place against the competing Radeon RX 7900 XT - RDNA 3 only delivers a five percentage point lead in this title.

There's healthy scalability across the RTX 4000 line as we compare 4070 Ti to 4080 and 4090, with the higher end offerings delivering a 29 percent and an 80 percent lead. Once again, the 4070 Ti sits in the price/performance sweetspot - though we should expect that bearing in mind how expensive the other Ada Lovelace cards are. Looking at the RTX 3090 Ti, it has a reasonable lead at circa eight percent, meaning that the 4070 Ti is narrowly pushing ahead of the RTX 3090.