ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER Twin Edge OC Card Review – An Excellent Graphics Card for SFF

 
Tested by Christopher “Revenant” Moine
Senior Editor
 
Update 1-20-2024: More detailed fan tests were conducted in the thermals sections. Those test charts were added, and fan-speed normalized chart updated. These changes do not reflect a change in the overall recommendation of the card.
Update 1-21-2024: Added acoustic spectrum analysis. Added pictures confirming GPU width, fan diameter, and fan hub diameter.
 
Let’s not mince words: The GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is what the GeForce RTX 4070 should have been a year ago. It performs like a RTX 3090, uses only 220 watts, and doesn’t feel like a giant step backward in pricing compared to the generation before it. The reference model is $599, which is $100 less expensive than the $699 GeForce RTX 3080, while performing on par with the $1,499 GeForce...

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[Revenant]

What's funny is the Japanese reviewer and a couple others from Hong Kong and Taiwan seem to be getting much better temps and lower noise than we are.

It's winter in Japan and he probably had a colder ambient. I live in FL and have year round air conditioning. His test bench has 3 Noctua fans pulling heat away from the GPU. I have three MSI fans in a different position effectively moving air the opposite direction. His connection is a traditional test bench where the back of the card has more airflow. Mine is a sandwich style with a PCIe cable. It also seems he tested inside of a massive full sized case with high airflow for in-case testing. My in-case testing is in a Ghost S1 which is on the smaller side of even most SFF cases.

Too many differences to account for there. The one take away is that he seems to get about the same clock speed as we did.

As far as the caps and chokes, it's not something I dive into, unless there is a problem with them that causes a malfunction. Even then, it's better handled by someone like Buildzoid or someone with an electrical engineering background.

Personally, I'm more focused on getting them as small and quiet as possible.

 

[RainbowSerpent]

Hi there,

I was curious to know what the 4 metal cylinder-like pieces that protrude from the front of the card are.

Any assistance that could be provided would be appreciated. :-)

Thanks,
Travis

 

[Revenant]

Hi there,

I was curious to know what the 4 metal cylinder-like pieces that protrude from the front of the card are.

Any assistance that could be provided would be appreciated. :-)

Thanks,
Travis

You mean the heat pipes?

 

[Donmigs85]

Been thinking of getting an SGPC K66 case - it's a perfect fit for this card
EDIT: Actually the Mechanic Master C24 would be better. It also maxes out at 245mm for GPU support

 

[Donmigs85]

Shared my weird quirk on Reddit as well for more insights along with pics - I do wonder if it's a weird firmware/tuning bug or maybe the heatpipes and phase change material inside have to "warm up" so to speak to run cooler on the 2nd round.

 

[Revenant]

Shared my weird quirk on Reddit as well for more insights along with pics - I do wonder if it's a weird firmware/tuning bug or maybe the heatpipes and phase change material inside have to "warm up" so to speak to run cooler on the 2nd round.

I want to try to replicate it with our test model.

 

[Donmigs85]

I want to try to replicate it with our test model.

Excited to see your findings. I've never encountered anything like this with all my previous cards.

 

[Donmigs85]

I guess it's also possible this has something to do with the Zero RPM mode, if the card's been cool for a while the fans and heatsink have to work harder initially

 

[Jamboa]

My temperatures with this card at stock setting in 100% usage are 73 core, 84 hotspot and 86 memory. Fans spin 1640rpm at that time and card is using 205w of power. I', happy for it for the price I payed

 

[Jamboa]

I want to try to replicate it with our test model.

At least my card doesnt have that kind of feature. This is Twin model without OC. Maybe that bug can be just in the OC firmware?

 

[Donmigs85]

Once the warranty expires, and if the card still works, I'm also curious to see if better thermal paste and pads helps improve thermals at all.

 

[Donmigs85]

The card now seems to run consistently hotter starting this past week, maybe because it's summer in the Philippines and getting warmer. Now even at stock the core temp can hit 80-82C and hotspot can go as high as 94-99C. Once the warranty ends I'm itching to replace the paste and thermal pads to see what improvement I get, if any. It's not the temps I mind but rather the annoying fan noise if they exceed 75%.

 

[Donmigs85]

Looks like there's a white version now too https://www.zotac.com/us/product/gr...-super-twin-edge-oc-white-edition-12gb-gddr6x

 

[Revenant]

Looks like there's a white version now too https://www.zotac.com/us/product/gr...-super-twin-edge-oc-white-edition-12gb-gddr6x

Looks good.

 

[Donmigs85]

So I successfully undervolted to 0.950V at 2745 MHz and certain games/benchmarks consume around 170-180 watts, but others still push to the full 220W and the hotspot can still exceed 90C (3DMark Speed Way, for one). But generally the fans stay under 70% now at least, and only 55-60% with the games that use 180W or less.