NVIDIA RTX 4070 Super review: 1,440p powerful for $599

No, NVIDIA’s mid-range RTX 40-series GPUs aren’t getting cheaper, but at least the new RTX 4070 Super offers more performance for $599.We called the original RTX 4070 "1,440p gaming leader," This still holds true for the Super Edition. It’s much faster, especially in ray tracing, which it’s borderline close to (due to being replaced by its own super variant as well). Combined with the power of DLSS3 upgrade, the 4070 Super is a more powerful 4K gaming card.

So what makes the RTX 4070 Super so special? Basically, raw power. It has 7,168 CUDA cores, compared to 5,888 cores on the 4070 and 7,680 cores on the 4070 Ti. Its base clock speed is a bit higher than before (1.98GHz compared to the 4070’s 1.92GHz), but it has the same 2.48GHz boost clock and 12GB GDDR6X VRAM as the original.

The difference between the RTX 4070 Super and the regular model is immediately noticeable.On my desktop, powered by a Ryzen 9 7900X with 32GB RAM, I was able to run Cyberpunk 2077 4K video with Ultra graphics and DLSS, average frame rate 78 fps. At these settings, the RTX 4070 sometimes struggled to stay above 60 fps. NVIDIA’s new GPU shows its limitations in the following ways cyberpunk In RT Overdrive mode (which enables intensive on-the-fly path tracing), I only saw an average of 51 fps when using DLSS and frame generation. (CD Projekt says mode is for RTX 4070 Ti and above, or 3090 at 1080p/30fps).

While the original RTX 4070 was a card that occasionally allowed you to play 4K games, the 4070 Super makes that possibility much more frequent (as long as you can use DLSS). Of course, you need to have reasonable expectations (you won’t get 4K/120fps), and ideally have a G-Sync monitor to smooth out performance.

When it comes to 1,440p gaming, the RTX 4070 Super is truly a superstar.exist cyberpunk In Overdrive ray tracing mode using Ultra graphics settings, I saw an average frame rate of 157fps — almost enough for a 165hz 1,440p monitor. To my eye, the entire experience looked much smoother than the 4K Overdrive result, and as usual, I found it difficult to tell the difference between 4K and 1,440p textures during actual gameplay.

Again, I’d rather keep the 160fps/1,440p average Halo: Infinite Graphics performance is at its peak compared to the 83fps I achieved in 4K mode. The game doesn’t get the benefit of DLSS either, so there’s no upgrade magic in these numbers.

In most of our benchmark tests, the RTX 4070 Super performed somewhere between the 4070 and 4070 Ti. For example, in 3DMark Timespy Extreme, the new GPU scored 9,830 points, while the 4070 scored 8,610 points and the 4070 Ti scored 10,624 points. In some cases, such as the Port Royal ray tracing benchmark, it’s closer to the 4070 Ti (which also bodes well for the 4070 Super’s overclocking potential). NVIDIA’s Advanced Cooling Settings "Founder’s Edition" The card continues to work wonders, too: the 4070 Super idles at about 40 degrees Celsius and typically tops out at 66 degrees Celsius under heavy load.

Photography: Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

The RTX 4070 Super is clearly a big step forward from the original card, and an even better value at $599. If you’re running a 20-series NVIDIA GPU, or even some of the lower-end 30-series options, this is a solid upgrade. Its value is expected to gradually decline: the original 4070 now sells for $550 on NVIDIA’s website, while used models are selling for far less on eBay.

While we’ll continue to miss the days when “mid-range” described $300 GPUs, NVIDIA is giving gamers even more reasons to buy the $599 RTX 4070 Super. It’ll handle all your 1,440p gaming needs, and it’ll also deliver decent 4K performance.

This article was originally published on Engadget: https://www.engadget.com/nvidia-rtx-4070-super-review-a-1440p-powerhouse-for-599-160025855.html?src=rss

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