I’m not going to do a long write up on this because this launch can be summoned up as this:
1. This card is too expensive. As LTT put it, it’s 27% faster than a RTX 3070 while costing 20% more than a RTX 3070.
2. It’s roughly as fast as a RTX 3080.
3. Frame Generation doesn’t improve the latency of a game, and in fact can make it worse. It improves smoothness of image but not play.
4. It should have had 16GB of memory on a 256bit bus for the price their asking. 12GB is too little for a card over $500.
5. It uses 200 watts or lower in gaming.
Being under 200 watts for RTX 3080 performance is the only real upside here. This means we could, manufactures willing, see it in sub 200mm long GPUs and perhaps even sub 180mm long cards. The reduced wattage also means reduced heat output which makes it more viable for SFF cases with limited cooling. Still, it’s a very expensive card compared to performance gains of the past. Nvidia seems to want to compare it to the RTX 1080, but I don’t think that’s a fair comparison. For example:
The GTX 980Ti with 6GB of memory debuted for $649. The GTX 1070 with 8GB of memory debuted for $379 and had the same if not better performance.
The GTX 980 4GB was $549 at launch, and the GTX 1080 was ALSO $549 at launch with 8GB of memory. The 1080 offered nearly double the performance!
So if we use the GTX 1080 as our reference we should see double the performance of a RTX 3070 for the same price right? Sadly no.The RTX 4070 only offers a 25% (or thereabout ) improvement to actual and not fake performance, while raising the price by 20%. We don’t even get a decent amount of memory for the price as 12GB is the bare minimum these days.
Personally, I’m just skipping the 4000 series all together. This has been quite frankly the most disappointing GPU series since the original GeForce 5000 series.
Here are the reviews in no particular order. Keep in mind that these are only Founders Edition cards because Nvidia has not lifted the embargo on AIB partner models. This is a marketing tactic to push the less expensive Founder Edition into the news cycle versus the more expensive AIB models. Expect a real price of $750 for those.
