RTX 4070 Super FE gigatest: RX 7800 XT challenged at its own game

Age of Empires II: DE

The cheapest of the new GeForce RTX 4000 Super graphics cards – the RTX 4070 Super – has the biggest increase in SM blocks compared to the non-Super variants (i.e. to the RTX 4070), yet the price, at least on paper, doesn’t increase too much. The price-performance ratio is thus very attractive and attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7800 XT) even if you disregard the typical Nvidia “premium” stuff, such as significantly faster ray tracing, DLSS 3 or CUDA.

You’ve already read the specs overview for the three new RTX 4000 Super graphics cards, now it’s time to get testing. For now, then, specifically the RTX 4070 Super model. I’ll release tests for the remaining ones every week, at the time of writing only the results of the cheapest of the sped-up GeForce cards from the Ada Lovelace generation can be published. These, like the GeForce RTX 2000 (Turing) once did, carry the “Super” designation.

The main difference of the RTX 4070 Super over the RTX 4070 is the increase in SM count. It’s from 46 to 56. The increase in the number of active GPU shaders is thus more than 20% and the TDP, or more precisely TBP (Total Board Power) has risen to 220 W (from the 200 W of the RTX 4070). The memory remain GDDR6X (capacity still 12 GB), as well as the 192-bit bus through which it is connected.

Nvidia RTX 4070 Super FE in detail

The tested RTX 4070 Super we have is in the Founders Edition (FE) design, which is notable, among other things, for its rather unconventional cooler.

First of all, however, it should be noted that this is a relatively small graphics card overall, so with good compatibility with everything around. It weighs in at 1025 grams and is 224mm long and only takes up two PCIe slots (with 40mm) in height.

   

This design also has the advantage of a smaller width than most non-reference models. From the PCI Express slot on the other side, to the outer frame of the cooler housing, it is approximately 111 mm. The smaller width of the graphics card can be useful for example for dual-chamber cases with a vertically split interior, where the graphics card section is often narrower than in more “traditional” computer case concepts. So one of the reasons why the Founders Edition design can be attractive is the superior compatibility not only with cases, but also with expansion cards.

The cooler fans are 90 mm in diameter and the tips of the blades are reinforced with a circular hoop to reduce vibration. This is a fairly common phenomenon, mainly aimed at minimizing secondary noise generated by resonating of the heatsink or even the fans themselves, if they reach critical speeds where the vibrations hit resonant frequencies. And the layout of the fans is also striking here. There’s only one in the front (intake), the exhaust one is at the back.

   

So Nvidia is using a similar concept to what is used in cases. The advantage over traditional solutions with both fans being intake ones should also be that there is less dust on the PCB and therefore places that you normally can’t get to without removing the cooler.

External power supply is provided via a 16-pin, but beware. This is already the new 12V-2×6 connector, which you can recognize at first glance by the shorter signal pins. With the older connector they were almost flush with the plastic sleeve of the connector, now they are significantly recessed into the connector.

And why are the pins shorter? To prevent contact during incorrect installation (not pushing it in all the way), which then means that the graphics card does not work as a precautionary measure. The user is thus forced to return to the graphics card in the event of the connector not being inserted properly and to push the connector in properly. Replacing the 12VHPWR connector with the newer 12V-2×6 isn’t new, revisions have been occurring continuously since the summer of 2023 even on non-Super RTX 4000 models.

   

For owners of PSUs without 16-pin cables, an adapter is included that connects via two 8-pin PCIe cables. Considering the lower power draw (with a current externally of around 17 A), this is a sufficient number that also allows for a relatively large margin. The cross-section on both sides is one-to-one, and such an adapter is theoretically usable for the RTX 4090, with about twice the power draw, as well.

In any case, when installing the graphics card, always make sure that the connector is pushed all the way in when plugging in the external power cable. In addition to a tactile response, you will know that this has happened by a rather loud clicking sound. It is only when you hear it that the installation can be judged as correct.

   

Please note: The article continues with following chapters.

The cheapest of the new GeForce RTX 4000 Super graphics cards – the RTX 4070 Super – has the biggest increase in SM blocks compared to the non-Super variants (i.e. to the RTX 4070), yet the price, at least on paper, doesn’t increase too much. The price-performance ratio is thus very attractive and attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7800 XT) even if you disregard the typical Nvidia “premium” stuff, such as significantly faster ray tracing, DLSS 3 or CUDA.

The cheapest of the new GeForce RTX 4000 Super graphics cards – the RTX 4070 Super – has the biggest increase in SM blocks compared to the non-Super variants (i.e. to the RTX 4070), yet the price, at least on paper, doesn’t increase too much. The price-performance ratio is thus very attractive and attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7800 XT) even if you disregard the typical Nvidia “premium” stuff, such as significantly faster ray tracing, DLSS 3 or CUDA.

Gaming tests

The largest sample of tests is from games. This is quite natural given that GeForce and Radeons, i.e. cards primarily intended for gaming use, will mostly be tested.

We chose the test games primarily to ensure the balance between the titles better optimized for the GPU of one manufacturer (AMD) or the other one (Nvidia). But we also took into account the popularity of the titles so that you could find your own results in the charts. Emphasis was also placed on genre diversity. Games such as RTS, FPS, TPS, car racing as well as a flight simulator, traditional RPG and sports games are represented by the most played football game. You can find a list of test games in the library of chapters (9–32), with each game having its own chapter, sometimes even two (chapters) for the best possible clarity, but this has its good reason, which we will share with you in the following text.

Before we start the gaming tests, each graphics card will pass the tests in 3D Mark to warm up to operating temperature. That’s good synthetics to start with.

We’re testing performance in games across three resolutions with an aspect ratio of 16:9 – FHD (1920 × 1080 px), QHD (2560 × 1440 px) and UHD (3840 × 2160 px) and always with the highest graphic settings, which can be set the same on all current GeForce and Radeon graphics cards. We turned off proprietary settings for the objectivity of the conclusions, and the settings with ray-tracing graphics are tested separately, as lower class GPUs do not support them. You will find their results in the complementary chapters. In addition to native ray-tracing, also after deploying Nvidia DLSS (2.0) and AMD FidelityFX CAS.

If the game has a built-in benchmark, we use that one (the only exception is Forza Horizon 4, where due to its instability – it used to crash here and there – we drive on our track), in other cases the measurements take place on the games’ own scenes. From those we capture the times of consecutive frames in tables (CSV) via OCAT, which FLAT interprets into intelligible fps speech. Both of these applications are from the workshop of colleagues from the gpureport.cz magazine. In addition to the average frame rate, we also write the minimum in the graphs. That contributes significantly to the overall gaming experience. For the highest possible accuracy, all measurements are repeated three times and the final results form their average value.

Computational tests

Testing the graphics card comprehensively, even in terms of computing power, is more difficult than drawing conclusions from the gaming environment. Just because such tests are usually associated with expensive software that you don’t just buy for the editorial office. On the other hand, we’ve found ways to bring the available computing performance to you. On the one hand, thanks to well-built benchmarks, there are also some freely available and at the same time relevant applications, and thirdly, we have invested something in the paid ones.

The tests begin with ComputeBench, which computes various simulations (including game graphics). Then we move on to the popular SPECviewperf benchmark (2020), which integrates partial operations from popular 2D and 3D applications, including 3Ds max and SolidWorks. Details on this test package can be found at spec.org. From the same team also comes SPECworkstation 3, where GPU acceleration is in the Caffe and Folding@Home tests. You can also find the results of the LuxMark 3.1 3D render in the graphs, and the remarkable GPGPU theoretical test also includes AIDA64 with FLOPS, IOPS and memory speed measurements.

For obvious reasons, 3D rendering makes the largest portion of the tests. This is also the case, for example, in the Blender practical tests (2.91). In addition to Cycles, we will also test the cards in Eevee and radeon ProRender renderers (let AMD have a related test, as most are optimized for Nvidia cards with proprietary CUDA and OptiX frameworks). Of course, an add-on for V-ray would also be interesting, but at the moment the editorial office can’t afford it, we may manage to get a “press” license in time, though, we’ll see. We want to expand application tests in the future. Definitely with some advanced AI testing (we haven’t come up with a reasonable way yet), including noise reduction (there would be some ideas already, but we haven’t incorporated those due to time constraints).

Graphics cards can also be tested well in photo editing. To get an idea of the performance in the popular Photoshop, we’re using a script in PugetBench, which simulates real work with various filters. Among them are those that use GPU acceleration. A comprehensive benchmark suggesting the performance of raster and vector graphics is then also used in alternative Affinity Photo. In Lightroom, there are remarkable color corrections (Enhance Details) of raw uncompressed photos. We apply these in batches to a 1 GB archive. All of these tasks can be accelerated by both GeForce and Radeon.

From another perspective, there are decryption tests in Hashcat with a selection of AES, MD5, NTLMv2, SHA1, SHA2-256/512 and WPA-EAPOL-PBKDF2 ciphers. Finally, in the OBS and XSplit broadcast applications, we measure how much the game performance will be reduced while recording. It is no longer provided by shaders, but by coders (AMD VCE and Nvidia Nvenc). These tests show how much spare performance each card has for typical online streaming.

There are, of course, more hardware acceleration options, typically for video editing and conversion. However, this is purely in the hands of encoders, which are always the same within one generation of cards from one manufacturer, so there is no point in testing them on every graphics card. It is different across generations and tests of this type will sooner or later appear. Just fine-tuning the metric is left, where the output will always have the same bitrate and pixel match. This is important for objective comparisons, because the encoder of one company/card may be faster in a particular profile with the same settings, but at the expense of the lower quality that another encoder has (but may not have, it’s just an example).

New: As of November 18, 2022, we are testing all graphics cards only in Resizable BAR active mode. There are three reasons why we will not continue with measurements without ReBAR.

The main reason is that new motherboards starting with Intel Z790 and AMD X670(E) chipset models already have it enabled, which wasn’t the case before, and the PCIe settings required ReBAR to be enabled manually. So those who don’t turn it off will be running with ReBAR active, which is a good thing from a gaming perspective where it adds performance. This is perhaps to some extent because Intel graphics cards without ReBAR don’t seem to behave correctly, and there will probably be more and more graphics cards that count on it in the future. You already know the number two reason for ReBAR-only tests.

Finally, it is also true that testing all tests twice (with and without ReBAR) with triple repeatability is extremely time consuming. However, it is still true what we have argued many times – a platform with ReBAR is less stable when it comes to measurement results. Over time, some things may change in the debugging process (from driver to driver) and may not “make sense” when compared to each other. So when you see somewhere that in other tests a slower card outperforms a more powerful one in some particular case, remember these words.

The disadvantage of measurements with active ReBAR is, in short, that all comparison tests may not always be perfectly consistent. And it is possible that there will continue to be cases where ReBAR reduces performance rather than adding to it. These are things to be reckoned with when studying results. This applies not only to our tests, but to the tests of all the others who do not retest all the older models in comparison with every new graphics card tested.

A mid-range of graphics cards with Nvidia GPU has finally been added to the Ada Lovelace generation. The intergenerational speed increase is relatively lower with the RTX 4060 Ti, but the power draw has dropped significantly and the overall operating characteristics are pleasing. Especially when it comes to designs similar to the MSI Gaming X Trio with a well oversized cooler. Three fans, power draw under 170W, and gaming performance well above the Radeon RX 6650 XT.

Methodology: how we measure power draw

We have been tuning the method of measuring power draw for quite a long time and we will also be tuning it for some time. But we already have gimmicks that we can work with happily.

To get the exact value of the total power draw of the graphics card, it is necessary to map the internal power draw on the PCI Express slot and the external one on the additional power supply. For the analysis of the PCIe slot, it was necessary to construct an in-between card on which the power draw measurement takes place. Its basis is resistors calibrated to the exact value (0.1 Ω) and according to the amount of their voltage drop we can calculate the current. We then substitute it into the formula for the corresponding value of the output voltage ~ 12 V and ~ 3.3 V. The voltage drop is so low that it doesn’t make the VRM of the graphics card unstable and the output is still more than 12/3.3 V.

We are also working on a similar device for external power supply. However, significantly higher currents are achieved there, longer cabling and more passages between connectors are necessary, which means that the voltage drop will have to be read on an even smaller resistance of 0.01 Ω, the current state (with 0.1 Ω) is unstable for now. Until we fine-tune it, we will use Prova 15 current clamp for cable measurements, which also measures with good accuracy, they just have a range of up to 30 A. But that is also enough for the OC version of the RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio. If a card is over the range, it is always possible to split the consumption measurement (first into one half and then into the other half of the 12 V conductors).

And why bother with such devices at all when Nvidia has a PCAT power draw analyzer? For complete control over the measurements. While our devices are transparent, the Nvidia’s tool uses the processor that can (but of course does not have to) affect the measurements. After testing the AMD graphics card on the Nvidia’s tool, we probably wouldn’t sleep well.

To read and record measurements, we use a properly calibrated multimeter Keysight U1231A, which exports samples to XLS. From it we obtain the average value and by substituting into the formula with the exact value of the subcircuit output voltages we obtain the data for the graphs.

   

We will analyze the line graphs with the waveforms for each part of the power supply separately. Although the 3.3 V value is usually negligible, it needs to be monitored. It is difficult to say what exactly this subcircuit powers, but usually the consumption on it is constant and when it changes only with regard to whether a static or dynamic image is rendered. We measure consumption in two sort of demanding games (F1 2020 and Shadow of the Tomb Raider) and one less demanding one (CS:GO) with the highest graphic details preset and UHD resolution (3840 × 2560 px). Then in 3D rendering in Blender using the Cycles renderer on the famous Classroom scene. However, in addition to high-load tests, it’s important to know your web browser consumption (which, in our case, is accelerated Google Chrome), where we also spend a lot of time watching videos or browsing the web. The usual average load of this type is represented by the FishIE Tank (HTML5) website with 20 fish and the web video in our power draw tests is represented by a sample with the VP9 codec, data rate of 17.4 mb/s and 60 fps. In contrast, we also test offline video consumption, in VLC player on a 45 HEVC sample (45.7 mb/s, 50 fps). Finally, we also record the power draw of the graphics card on the desktop of idle Windows 10 with one or two active UHD@60 Hz monitors.

A mid-range of graphics cards with Nvidia GPU has finally been added to the Ada Lovelace generation. The intergenerational speed increase is relatively lower with the RTX 4060 Ti, but the power draw has dropped significantly and the overall operating characteristics are pleasing. Especially when it comes to designs similar to the MSI Gaming X Trio with a well oversized cooler. Three fans, power draw under 170W, and gaming performance well above the Radeon RX 6650 XT.

Noise measurement…

Noise, as well as other operating characteristics, which we will focus on, we’re measuring in the same modes as consumption, so that the individual values overlap nicely. In addition to the level of noise produced, we also record the frequency response of the sound, the course of the GPU clock speed and its temperature.

In this part of the methodology description, we will present something about the method of noise measurement. We use a Reed R8080 sound level meter, which we continuously calibrate with a calibrated Voltcraft SLC-100 digital sound level meter. A small addition to the sound level meter is a parabola-shaped collar, which has two functions. Increases the sensitivity to distinguish the sound produced even at very low speeds. It is thus possible to better compare even very quiet cards with the largest possible ratio difference. Otherwise (without this adjustment) it could simply happen that we measured the same noise level across several graphics cards, even though it would actually be a little different. This parabolic shield also makes sense because, from the outer convex side (from the back), it reflects all the parasitic sounds that everyone who really aims for accuracy of the measurements struggles with during the test. These are various cracks of the body or objects in the room during normal human activity.

To ensure the same conditions when measuring the noise level (and later also the sound), we use acoustic panels with a foam surface around the bench-wall. This is so that the sound is always reflected to the sound level meter sensor in the same way, regardless of the current situation of the objects in the test room. These panels are from three sides (top, right and left) and their purpose is to soundproof the space in which we measure the noise of graphics cards. Soundproofing means preventing different reflections of sound and oscillations of waves between flat walls. Don’t confuse it with sound-absorbing, we’ve had that solved well in the test lab for a long time.

During the measurements, the sound level meter sensor is always placed on a tripod at the same angle and at the same distance (35 cm) from the PCI Express slot in which the graphics card is installed. Of course, it’s always closer to the card itself, depending on its depth. The indicated reference point and the sensor angles are fixed. In addition to the “aerodynamic noise” of the coolers, we also measure the noise level of whining coils. Then we stop the fans for a moment. And for the sake of completeness, it should be added that during sound measurements, we also switch off the power supply fan as well as the CPU cooler fan. Thus, purely the graphics card is always measured without any distortion by other components.

… and the sound frequency response

From the same place, we also measure the frequency of the sound produced. One thing is the noise level (or sound pressure level in decibels) and the other thing is its frequency response.

According to the data on the noise level, you can quickly find out whether the graphics card is quieter or noisier, or where it is on the scale, but it is still a mix of different frequencies. Thus, it does not say whether the sound produced is more booming (with a lower frequency) or squeaking (with a high frequency). The same 35 dBA can be pleasant but also unpleasant for you under certain circumstances – it depends on each individual how they perceive different frequencies. For this reason, we will also measure the frequency response of the sound graphics card in addition to the noise level, via the TrueRTA application. The results will be interpreted in the form of a spectrograph with a resolution of 1/24 octave and for better comparison with other graphics cards we will include the dominant frequency of lower (20–200 Hz), medium (201–2,000 Hz) and higher (2,001–20,000 Hz) sound spectrum into standard bar graphs. For measurements, we’re using a calibrated miniDSP UMIK-1 microphone, which accurately copies the position of the sound level meter, but also has a collar, even with the same focal length.

At the end of this chapter, it should be noted that measurements of noise and frequency response of sound will be performed on most cards only in load tests, as out of load and at lower load (including video decoding) operation is usually passive with fans turned off. On the other hand, we must also be prepared for exceptions with active operation in idle or graphics cards with dual BIOS setup, from which the more powerful one never turns off the fans and they run at least at minimum speed. Finally, as with measuring the noise level in one of the tests, we also record the frequency response of whining coils. But don’t expect any dramatic differences here. It will usually be one frequency, and the goal is rather to detect any potential anomalies. The sound of the whining coils is of course variable, depending on the scene, but we always measure in the same scene (in CS:GO@1080p).

A mid-range of graphics cards with Nvidia GPU has finally been added to the Ada Lovelace generation. The intergenerational speed increase is relatively lower with the RTX 4060 Ti, but the power draw has dropped significantly and the overall operating characteristics are pleasing. Especially when it comes to designs similar to the MSI Gaming X Trio with a well oversized cooler. Three fans, power draw under 170W, and gaming performance well above the Radeon RX 6650 XT.

Methodology: temperature tests

We’re also bringing you temperature tests. You are at HWCooling after all. However, in order to make it sensible at all to monitor temperatures on critical components not only of the graphics card, but anything in the computer, it is important to simulate a real computer case environment with healthy air circulation. The overall behavior of the graphics card as such then follows from this. In many cases, an open bench-table is inappropriate and results can be distorted. Therefore, during all, not only heat tests, but also measurement of consumption or course of graphics core frequencies, we use a wind tunnel with equilibrium flow.

Two Noctua NF-S12A fans are at the inlet and the same number is on the exhaust. When testing various system cooling configurations, this proved to be the most effective solution. The fans are always set to 5 V and the speed corresponds to approx. 550 rpm. The stability of the inlet air is properly controlled during the tests, the temperature being between 21 and 21.3 °C at a humidity of ±40 %.

We read the temperature from the internal sensors via GPU-Z. This small, single-purpose application also allows you to record samples from sensors in a table. From the table, it is then easy to create line graphs with waveforms or the average value into bar graphs. We will not use the thermal camera very much here, as most graphics cards have a backplate, which makes it impossible to measure the PCB heating. The key for the heating graphs will be the temperature reading by internal sensors, according to which, after all, the GPU frequency control also takes place. It will always be the heating of the graphics core, and if the sensors are also on VRAM and VRM, we will extract these values into the article as well.

A mid-range of graphics cards with Nvidia GPU has finally been added to the Ada Lovelace generation. The intergenerational speed increase is relatively lower with the RTX 4060 Ti, but the power draw has dropped significantly and the overall operating characteristics are pleasing. Especially when it comes to designs similar to the MSI Gaming X Trio with a well oversized cooler. Three fans, power draw under 170W, and gaming performance well above the Radeon RX 6650 XT.

Test setup

Note: Nvidia GeForce 546.52 Game Ready graphics drivers are used at the time of testing, Windows 10 Enterprise OS build is 19043.

The cheapest of the new GeForce RTX 4000 Super graphics cards – the RTX 4070 Super – has the biggest increase in SM blocks compared to the non-Super variants (i.e. to the RTX 4070), yet the price, at least on paper, doesn’t increase too much. The price-performance ratio is thus very attractive and attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7800 XT) even if you disregard the typical Nvidia “premium” stuff, such as significantly faster ray tracing, DLSS 3 or CUDA.

3DMark

For the tests we’re using 3DMark Professional and the Night Raid (DirectX12) is suitable for comparing weaker GPUs, for more powerful ones there is Fire Strike (DirectX11) and Time Spy (DirectX12).

The cheapest of the new GeForce RTX 4000 Super graphics cards – the RTX 4070 Super – has the biggest increase in SM blocks compared to the non-Super variants (i.e. to the RTX 4070), yet the price, at least on paper, doesn’t increase too much. The price-performance ratio is thus very attractive and attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7800 XT) even if you disregard the typical Nvidia “premium” stuff, such as significantly faster ray tracing, DLSS 3 or CUDA.

Age of Empires II: DE

Test platform benchmark, API DirectX 11; graphics settings preset Ultra; no extra settings.

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The cheapest of the new GeForce RTX 4000 Super graphics cards – the RTX 4070 Super – has the biggest increase in SM blocks compared to the non-Super variants (i.e. to the RTX 4070), yet the price, at least on paper, doesn’t increase too much. The price-performance ratio is thus very attractive and attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7800 XT) even if you disregard the typical Nvidia “premium” stuff, such as significantly faster ray tracing, DLSS 3 or CUDA.

Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla

Test platform benchmark; API DirectX 12; graphics settings preset Ultra High; no extra settings.

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The cheapest of the new GeForce RTX 4000 Super graphics cards – the RTX 4070 Super – has the biggest increase in SM blocks compared to the non-Super variants (i.e. to the RTX 4070), yet the price, at least on paper, doesn’t increase too much. The price-performance ratio is thus very attractive and attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7800 XT) even if you disregard the typical Nvidia “premium” stuff, such as significantly faster ray tracing, DLSS 3 or CUDA.

Battlefield V

Test platform custom scene (War stories/Under no flag); API DirectX 12, graphics settings preset Ultra; TAA high; no extra settings.

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The cheapest of the new GeForce RTX 4000 Super graphics cards – the RTX 4070 Super – has the biggest increase in SM blocks compared to the non-Super variants (i.e. to the RTX 4070), yet the price, at least on paper, doesn’t increase too much. The price-performance ratio is thus very attractive and attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7800 XT) even if you disregard the typical Nvidia “premium” stuff, such as significantly faster ray tracing, DLSS 3 or CUDA.

Battlefield V with DXR

Test platform custom scene (War stories/Under no flag); API DirectX 12, graphics settings preset Ultra; TAA high; extra settings DXR.

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Note: The game also supports DLSS, but as it’s an older title and there are many tests, we will not address it in standard tests. However, measurements on request are possible if you ask for it.

The cheapest of the new GeForce RTX 4000 Super graphics cards – the RTX 4070 Super – has the biggest increase in SM blocks compared to the non-Super variants (i.e. to the RTX 4070), yet the price, at least on paper, doesn’t increase too much. The price-performance ratio is thus very attractive and attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7800 XT) even if you disregard the typical Nvidia “premium” stuff, such as significantly faster ray tracing, DLSS 3 or CUDA.

Borderlands 3

Test platform benchmark; API DirectX 12, graphics settings preset Ultra; TAA; no extra settings.

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The cheapest of the new GeForce RTX 4000 Super graphics cards – the RTX 4070 Super – has the biggest increase in SM blocks compared to the non-Super variants (i.e. to the RTX 4070), yet the price, at least on paper, doesn’t increase too much. The price-performance ratio is thus very attractive and attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7800 XT) even if you disregard the typical Nvidia “premium” stuff, such as significantly faster ray tracing, DLSS 3 or CUDA.

Control

Test platform custom scene (chapter Polaris); API DirectX 11, graphics settings preset High; no extra settings.

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The cheapest of the new GeForce RTX 4000 Super graphics cards – the RTX 4070 Super – has the biggest increase in SM blocks compared to the non-Super variants (i.e. to the RTX 4070), yet the price, at least on paper, doesn’t increase too much. The price-performance ratio is thus very attractive and attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7800 XT) even if you disregard the typical Nvidia “premium” stuff, such as significantly faster ray tracing, DLSS 3 or CUDA.

Control with DXR and DLSS

Test platform custom scene (chapter Polaris); API DirectX 12, graphics settings preset High; extra settings DXR.

   

DXR (native)

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DXR with DLSS (performance)

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The cheapest of the new GeForce RTX 4000 Super graphics cards – the RTX 4070 Super – has the biggest increase in SM blocks compared to the non-Super variants (i.e. to the RTX 4070), yet the price, at least on paper, doesn’t increase too much. The price-performance ratio is thus very attractive and attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7800 XT) even if you disregard the typical Nvidia “premium” stuff, such as significantly faster ray tracing, DLSS 3 or CUDA.

Counter-Strike: GO

Test platform benchmark (Dust 2 map tour); API DirectX 9, graphics settings preset High; 4× MSAA; no extra settings.

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The cheapest of the new GeForce RTX 4000 Super graphics cards – the RTX 4070 Super – has the biggest increase in SM blocks compared to the non-Super variants (i.e. to the RTX 4070), yet the price, at least on paper, doesn’t increase too much. The price-performance ratio is thus very attractive and attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7800 XT) even if you disregard the typical Nvidia “premium” stuff, such as significantly faster ray tracing, DLSS 3 or CUDA.

Cyberpunk 2077

Test platform custom scene (Little China); API DirectX 12, graphics settings preset Ultra; no extra settings.

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The cheapest of the new GeForce RTX 4000 Super graphics cards – the RTX 4070 Super – has the biggest increase in SM blocks compared to the non-Super variants (i.e. to the RTX 4070), yet the price, at least on paper, doesn’t increase too much. The price-performance ratio is thus very attractive and attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7800 XT) even if you disregard the typical Nvidia “premium” stuff, such as significantly faster ray tracing, DLSS 3 or CUDA.

Cyberpunk 2077 with DLSS

Test platform custom scene (Little China); API DirectX 12, graphics settings preset Ultra; extra settings DLSS (performance).

DLSS (performance)

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The cheapest of the new GeForce RTX 4000 Super graphics cards – the RTX 4070 Super – has the biggest increase in SM blocks compared to the non-Super variants (i.e. to the RTX 4070), yet the price, at least on paper, doesn’t increase too much. The price-performance ratio is thus very attractive and attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7800 XT) even if you disregard the typical Nvidia “premium” stuff, such as significantly faster ray tracing, DLSS 3 or CUDA.

Cyberpunk 2077 with DXR

Test platform custom scene (Little China); API DirectX 12, graphics settings preset Ultra; extra settings Ray Tracing on (Ultra).

DXR

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DXR with DLSS (performance)

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The cheapest of the new GeForce RTX 4000 Super graphics cards – the RTX 4070 Super – has the biggest increase in SM blocks compared to the non-Super variants (i.e. to the RTX 4070), yet the price, at least on paper, doesn’t increase too much. The price-performance ratio is thus very attractive and attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7800 XT) even if you disregard the typical Nvidia “premium” stuff, such as significantly faster ray tracing, DLSS 3 or CUDA.

DOOM Eternal

Test platform custom scene; API Vulkan, graphics settings preset Ultra Nightmare; no extra settings.

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The cheapest of the new GeForce RTX 4000 Super graphics cards – the RTX 4070 Super – has the biggest increase in SM blocks compared to the non-Super variants (i.e. to the RTX 4070), yet the price, at least on paper, doesn’t increase too much. The price-performance ratio is thus very attractive and attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7800 XT) even if you disregard the typical Nvidia “premium” stuff, such as significantly faster ray tracing, DLSS 3 or CUDA.

F1 2020

Test platform benchmark (Australia, Clear/Dry, Cycle); API DirectX 12, graphics settings preset Ultra High; TAA; extra settings Skidmarks blending off*.

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*on GeForce graphics cards, the Skidmarks blending option is disabled. This option is missing on AMD graphics cards. However, the overall quality of Skidmarks is otherwise set to High on both GeForce and AMD.

Note: The game also supports DLSS 2.0 and FidelityFX for upscaling and sharpening, but due to the relatively low hardware requirements in the native settings, we will not address them in standard tests. However, measurements on request are possible if you ask for it.

The cheapest of the new GeForce RTX 4000 Super graphics cards – the RTX 4070 Super – has the biggest increase in SM blocks compared to the non-Super variants (i.e. to the RTX 4070), yet the price, at least on paper, doesn’t increase too much. The price-performance ratio is thus very attractive and attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7800 XT) even if you disregard the typical Nvidia “premium” stuff, such as significantly faster ray tracing, DLSS 3 or CUDA.

FIFA 21

Test platform custom scene (Autumn/Fall, Overcast, 9pm, Old Trafford); API DirectX 12, graphics settings preset Ultra; no extra settings.

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The cheapest of the new GeForce RTX 4000 Super graphics cards – the RTX 4070 Super – has the biggest increase in SM blocks compared to the non-Super variants (i.e. to the RTX 4070), yet the price, at least on paper, doesn’t increase too much. The price-performance ratio is thus very attractive and attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7800 XT) even if you disregard the typical Nvidia “premium” stuff, such as significantly faster ray tracing, DLSS 3 or CUDA.

Forza Horizon 4

Test platform custom scene; API DirectX 12, graphics settings preset Ultra; 2× MSAA; no extra settings.

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The cheapest of the new GeForce RTX 4000 Super graphics cards – the RTX 4070 Super – has the biggest increase in SM blocks compared to the non-Super variants (i.e. to the RTX 4070), yet the price, at least on paper, doesn’t increase too much. The price-performance ratio is thus very attractive and attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7800 XT) even if you disregard the typical Nvidia “premium” stuff, such as significantly faster ray tracing, DLSS 3 or CUDA.

Mafia: DE

Test platform custom scene (from the Salieri’s Bar parking lot to the elevated railway gate); API DirectX 11, graphics settings preset High; no extra settings.

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The cheapest of the new GeForce RTX 4000 Super graphics cards – the RTX 4070 Super – has the biggest increase in SM blocks compared to the non-Super variants (i.e. to the RTX 4070), yet the price, at least on paper, doesn’t increase too much. The price-performance ratio is thus very attractive and attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7800 XT) even if you disregard the typical Nvidia “premium” stuff, such as significantly faster ray tracing, DLSS 3 or CUDA.

Metro Exodus

Test platform benchmark; API DirectX 12, graphics settings preset Extreme; no extra settings.

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The cheapest of the new GeForce RTX 4000 Super graphics cards – the RTX 4070 Super – has the biggest increase in SM blocks compared to the non-Super variants (i.e. to the RTX 4070), yet the price, at least on paper, doesn’t increase too much. The price-performance ratio is thus very attractive and attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7800 XT) even if you disregard the typical Nvidia “premium” stuff, such as significantly faster ray tracing, DLSS 3 or CUDA.

Metro Exodus with DXR and DLSS

Test platform benchmark; API DirectX 12, graphics settings preset Ultra; extra settings DXR.

DXR (native)

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DXR with DLSS (performance)

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The cheapest of the new GeForce RTX 4000 Super graphics cards – the RTX 4070 Super – has the biggest increase in SM blocks compared to the non-Super variants (i.e. to the RTX 4070), yet the price, at least on paper, doesn’t increase too much. The price-performance ratio is thus very attractive and attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7800 XT) even if you disregard the typical Nvidia “premium” stuff, such as significantly faster ray tracing, DLSS 3 or CUDA.

Microsoft Flight Simulator

Disclaimer: We do not use the results from this game to calculate the average gaming performance. This is because the performance of the game often changes due to updates, and when this happens, we start building the results database from scratch. To check the consistency of the MFS results, we run a test scene with the MSI RTX 3080 Gaming X Trio before testing each new graphics card.

Test platform custom scene (Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Air Traffic: AI, February 14, 9:00 am) autopilot: from 1000 until hitting the terrain; API DirectX 11, graphics settings preset Ultra; TAA; no extra settings.

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The cheapest of the new GeForce RTX 4000 Super graphics cards – the RTX 4070 Super – has the biggest increase in SM blocks compared to the non-Super variants (i.e. to the RTX 4070), yet the price, at least on paper, doesn’t increase too much. The price-performance ratio is thus very attractive and attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7800 XT) even if you disregard the typical Nvidia “premium” stuff, such as significantly faster ray tracing, DLSS 3 or CUDA.

Red Dead Redemption 2 (Vulkan)

Test platform custom scene; API Vulkan, graphics settings preset Favor Quality; no extra settings.

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The cheapest of the new GeForce RTX 4000 Super graphics cards – the RTX 4070 Super – has the biggest increase in SM blocks compared to the non-Super variants (i.e. to the RTX 4070), yet the price, at least on paper, doesn’t increase too much. The price-performance ratio is thus very attractive and attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7800 XT) even if you disregard the typical Nvidia “premium” stuff, such as significantly faster ray tracing, DLSS 3 or CUDA.

Red Dead Redemption 2 (Dx12)

Test platform custom scene; API DirectX 12, graphics settings preset Favor Quality; no extra settings.

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The cheapest of the new GeForce RTX 4000 Super graphics cards – the RTX 4070 Super – has the biggest increase in SM blocks compared to the non-Super variants (i.e. to the RTX 4070), yet the price, at least on paper, doesn’t increase too much. The price-performance ratio is thus very attractive and attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7800 XT) even if you disregard the typical Nvidia “premium” stuff, such as significantly faster ray tracing, DLSS 3 or CUDA.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

Test platform custom scene; API DirectX 12, graphics settings preset Highest; TAA; no extra settings.

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The cheapest of the new GeForce RTX 4000 Super graphics cards – the RTX 4070 Super – has the biggest increase in SM blocks compared to the non-Super variants (i.e. to the RTX 4070), yet the price, at least on paper, doesn’t increase too much. The price-performance ratio is thus very attractive and attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7800 XT) even if you disregard the typical Nvidia “premium” stuff, such as significantly faster ray tracing, DLSS 3 or CUDA.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider with DXR

Testovacia platforma benchmark; API DirectX 12, prednastavený grafický profil Highest; extra nastavenia DXR.

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Note: This game also supports DLSS and FidelityFX CAS, but since this is an older title and there are more than enough tests, we will not address this setting in standard tests. However, testing on request is possible if you ask for it.

The cheapest of the new GeForce RTX 4000 Super graphics cards – the RTX 4070 Super – has the biggest increase in SM blocks compared to the non-Super variants (i.e. to the RTX 4070), yet the price, at least on paper, doesn’t increase too much. The price-performance ratio is thus very attractive and attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7800 XT) even if you disregard the typical Nvidia “premium” stuff, such as significantly faster ray tracing, DLSS 3 or CUDA.

Total War Saga: Troy

Test platform benchmark; API DirectX 11, graphics settings preset Ultra; 4× AA, no extra settings.

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The cheapest of the new GeForce RTX 4000 Super graphics cards – the RTX 4070 Super – has the biggest increase in SM blocks compared to the non-Super variants (i.e. to the RTX 4070), yet the price, at least on paper, doesn’t increase too much. The price-performance ratio is thus very attractive and attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7800 XT) even if you disregard the typical Nvidia “premium” stuff, such as significantly faster ray tracing, DLSS 3 or CUDA.

Wasteland 3

Test platform custom scene; API DirectX 11, graphics settings preset Ultra; no extra settings.

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The cheapest of the new GeForce RTX 4000 Super graphics cards – the RTX 4070 Super – has the biggest increase in SM blocks compared to the non-Super variants (i.e. to the RTX 4070), yet the price, at least on paper, doesn’t increase too much. The price-performance ratio is thus very attractive and attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7800 XT) even if you disregard the typical Nvidia “premium” stuff, such as significantly faster ray tracing, DLSS 3 or CUDA.

Overall gaming performance

Priemerný výkon počítame tak, aby mala každá hra na výsledku rovnakú váhu. Ako presne sa dopracovávame k výsledku sa dozviete v tomto článku.

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Performance per euro

The cheapest of the new GeForce RTX 4000 Super graphics cards – the RTX 4070 Super – has the biggest increase in SM blocks compared to the non-Super variants (i.e. to the RTX 4070), yet the price, at least on paper, doesn’t increase too much. The price-performance ratio is thus very attractive and attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7800 XT) even if you disregard the typical Nvidia “premium” stuff, such as significantly faster ray tracing, DLSS 3 or CUDA.

CompuBench 2.0 (OpenCL)

Test platform benchmark; API OpenCL; no extra settings.

Game Effects

Advanced Compute

High Quality Computer Generated Imagery and Rendering

Computer Vision

The cheapest of the new GeForce RTX 4000 Super graphics cards – the RTX 4070 Super – has the biggest increase in SM blocks compared to the non-Super variants (i.e. to the RTX 4070), yet the price, at least on paper, doesn’t increase too much. The price-performance ratio is thus very attractive and attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7800 XT) even if you disregard the typical Nvidia “premium” stuff, such as significantly faster ray tracing, DLSS 3 or CUDA.

SPECviewperf 2020

Test platform benchmark; API OpenGL and DirectX; no extra settings.

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SPECworkstation 3

The cheapest of the new GeForce RTX 4000 Super graphics cards – the RTX 4070 Super – has the biggest increase in SM blocks compared to the non-Super variants (i.e. to the RTX 4070), yet the price, at least on paper, doesn’t increase too much. The price-performance ratio is thus very attractive and attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7800 XT) even if you disregard the typical Nvidia “premium” stuff, such as significantly faster ray tracing, DLSS 3 or CUDA.

FLOPS, IOPS and memory speed tests

Test platform benchmark; app version 6.32.5600; no extra settings.

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The cheapest of the new GeForce RTX 4000 Super graphics cards – the RTX 4070 Super – has the biggest increase in SM blocks compared to the non-Super variants (i.e. to the RTX 4070), yet the price, at least on paper, doesn’t increase too much. The price-performance ratio is thus very attractive and attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7800 XT) even if you disregard the typical Nvidia “premium” stuff, such as significantly faster ray tracing, DLSS 3 or CUDA.

LuxMark

Test platform benchmark; API OpenCL; no extra settings.

Blender@Cycles

Test platform render BMW and Classroom; renderer Cycles, 12 tiles; extra settings: OpenCL for Radeon and CUDA for GeForce, the way most people will use it. OpenCL with GeForce is always slow because path tracing does not support GPU acceleration and is calculated by the CPU. Nvidia OptiX is tested separately on supported cards (GeForce RTX) and the results are drawn separately.

The cheapest of the new GeForce RTX 4000 Super graphics cards – the RTX 4070 Super – has the biggest increase in SM blocks compared to the non-Super variants (i.e. to the RTX 4070), yet the price, at least on paper, doesn’t increase too much. The price-performance ratio is thus very attractive and attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7800 XT) even if you disregard the typical Nvidia “premium” stuff, such as significantly faster ray tracing, DLSS 3 or CUDA.

Blender@Radeon ProRender

Test platform render BMW and Classroom; renderer Radeon ProRender, 1024 samples; no extra settings; API OpenCL.

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Blender@Eevee

Test platform animation render Ember Forest; renderer Eevee, 350 frames; extra settings OpenCL.

The cheapest of the new GeForce RTX 4000 Super graphics cards – the RTX 4070 Super – has the biggest increase in SM blocks compared to the non-Super variants (i.e. to the RTX 4070), yet the price, at least on paper, doesn’t increase too much. The price-performance ratio is thus very attractive and attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7800 XT) even if you disregard the typical Nvidia “premium” stuff, such as significantly faster ray tracing, DLSS 3 or CUDA.

Photo editing

Adobe Photoshop: Test platform PugetBench; no extra settings.

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Affinity Photo: Test platform built-in benchmark; no extra settings.

Adobe Lightroom: Test platform custom1-gigabyte archive of 42 raw photos (CR2) taken with DSLR; no extra settings.

The cheapest of the new GeForce RTX 4000 Super graphics cards – the RTX 4070 Super – has the biggest increase in SM blocks compared to the non-Super variants (i.e. to the RTX 4070), yet the price, at least on paper, doesn’t increase too much. The price-performance ratio is thus very attractive and attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7800 XT) even if you disregard the typical Nvidia “premium” stuff, such as significantly faster ray tracing, DLSS 3 or CUDA.

Broadcasting

OBS Studio and XSplit: Test platform F1 2020 game benchmark; extra settings – enabled encoders AMD VCE/Nvidia Nvenc (AVC/H.264), output resolution 2560 × 1440 px (60 fps), target bitrate 19,700 kbps..

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The cheapest of the new GeForce RTX 4000 Super graphics cards – the RTX 4070 Super – has the biggest increase in SM blocks compared to the non-Super variants (i.e. to the RTX 4070), yet the price, at least on paper, doesn’t increase too much. The price-performance ratio is thus very attractive and attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7800 XT) even if you disregard the typical Nvidia “premium” stuff, such as significantly faster ray tracing, DLSS 3 or CUDA.

Password cracking

Test platform Hashcat; no extra settings. You can easily try the tests yourself. Just download the binary and enter the cipher you are interested in using in the command line according to the numeric code.

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The cheapest of the new GeForce RTX 4000 Super graphics cards – the RTX 4070 Super – has the biggest increase in SM blocks compared to the non-Super variants (i.e. to the RTX 4070), yet the price, at least on paper, doesn’t increase too much. The price-performance ratio is thus very attractive and attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7800 XT) even if you disregard the typical Nvidia “premium” stuff, such as significantly faster ray tracing, DLSS 3 or CUDA.

GPU clock speeds

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The cheapest of the new GeForce RTX 4000 Super graphics cards – the RTX 4070 Super – has the biggest increase in SM blocks compared to the non-Super variants (i.e. to the RTX 4070), yet the price, at least on paper, doesn’t increase too much. The price-performance ratio is thus very attractive and attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7800 XT) even if you disregard the typical Nvidia “premium” stuff, such as significantly faster ray tracing, DLSS 3 or CUDA.

GPU temperature

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VRAM temperature

Note: If the measured value is missing for the selected graphics card, it means that it cannot be detected by the internal sensor.

The cheapest of the new GeForce RTX 4000 Super graphics cards – the RTX 4070 Super – has the biggest increase in SM blocks compared to the non-Super variants (i.e. to the RTX 4070), yet the price, at least on paper, doesn’t increase too much. The price-performance ratio is thus very attractive and attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7800 XT) even if you disregard the typical Nvidia “premium” stuff, such as significantly faster ray tracing, DLSS 3 or CUDA.

Net graphics card power draw

Performance per watt

The cheapest of the new GeForce RTX 4000 Super graphics cards – the RTX 4070 Super – has the biggest increase in SM blocks compared to the non-Super variants (i.e. to the RTX 4070), yet the price, at least on paper, doesn’t increase too much. The price-performance ratio is thus very attractive and attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7800 XT) even if you disregard the typical Nvidia “premium” stuff, such as significantly faster ray tracing, DLSS 3 or CUDA.

Analysis of 12 V rail power supply (higher load)

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The cheapest of the new GeForce RTX 4000 Super graphics cards – the RTX 4070 Super – has the biggest increase in SM blocks compared to the non-Super variants (i.e. to the RTX 4070), yet the price, at least on paper, doesn’t increase too much. The price-performance ratio is thus very attractive and attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7800 XT) even if you disregard the typical Nvidia “premium” stuff, such as significantly faster ray tracing, DLSS 3 or CUDA.

Analysis of 12 V rail power supply (lower load)

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The cheapest of the new GeForce RTX 4000 Super graphics cards – the RTX 4070 Super – has the biggest increase in SM blocks compared to the non-Super variants (i.e. to the RTX 4070), yet the price, at least on paper, doesn’t increase too much. The price-performance ratio is thus very attractive and attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7800 XT) even if you disregard the typical Nvidia “premium” stuff, such as significantly faster ray tracing, DLSS 3 or CUDA.

Analysis of 3,3 V rail power supply

The cheapest of the new GeForce RTX 4000 Super graphics cards – the RTX 4070 Super – has the biggest increase in SM blocks compared to the non-Super variants (i.e. to the RTX 4070), yet the price, at least on paper, doesn’t increase too much. The price-performance ratio is thus very attractive and attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7800 XT) even if you disregard the typical Nvidia “premium” stuff, such as significantly faster ray tracing, DLSS 3 or CUDA.

Noise level

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The cheapest of the new GeForce RTX 4000 Super graphics cards – the RTX 4070 Super – has the biggest increase in SM blocks compared to the non-Super variants (i.e. to the RTX 4070), yet the price, at least on paper, doesn’t increase too much. The price-performance ratio is thus very attractive and attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7800 XT) even if you disregard the typical Nvidia “premium” stuff, such as significantly faster ray tracing, DLSS 3 or CUDA.

Frequency response of sound

Measurements are performed in the TrueRTA application, which records sound in a range of 240 frequencies in the recorded range of 20–20,000 Hz. For the possibility of comparison across articles, we export the dominant frequency from the low (20–200 Hz), medium (201–2,000 Hz) and high (2,001–20,000 Hz) range to standard bar graphs.

However, for an even more detailed analysis of the sound expression, it is important to perceive the overall shape of the graph and the intensity of all frequencies/tones. If you don’t understand something in the graphs or tables below, you’ll find the answers to all your questions in this article. This explains how to read the measured data below correctly.

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* With the Sapphire RX 6900 XT Toxic LE, as with the only tested graphics card, the spectral analysis also includes the sound of the water pump.

The cheapest of the new GeForce RTX 4000 Super graphics cards – the RTX 4070 Super – has the biggest increase in SM blocks compared to the non-Super variants (i.e. to the RTX 4070), yet the price, at least on paper, doesn’t increase too much. The price-performance ratio is thus very attractive and attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7800 XT) even if you disregard the typical Nvidia “premium” stuff, such as significantly faster ray tracing, DLSS 3 or CUDA.

Conclusion

The significant increase in the functional SM block count (the RTX 4070 Super already has 7168) over the RTX 4070 and only a minimal price increase – at least on paper, we’ll see what the reality will be in stores – puts this graphics card in a very good position.

Gaming performance increase over the RTX 4070 averages 7–13% depending on resolution (the higher the resolution, the greater the difference), while power draw is only up to 3 % higher. This suggests that the power efficiency has improved with the RTX 4070 FE. This will also be due to the fact that Nvidia hasn’t pushed GPU clock speeds to the extreme, and with the Founders Edition they’re comparable in practice to those of the Asus Dual RTX 4070. Sure, this will vary design to design, and OC models will be a bit faster and also more power-hungry.

In the case of the RTX 4070 FE, however, we can note attractive efficiency. It is 50–55% higher than that of the Radeon RX 7800 XT Nitro+, which is really noticeable. And while we’re on the subject of competition, let’s elaborate a bit on the headline statement of this article – the RTX 4070 Super FE challenges the RX 7800 XT at its own game. All other characteristics aside, AMD graphics cards typically have a significantly better price/performance ratio when you disregard the things that GeForce clearly dominates in (i.e. mainly in higher ray tracing performance and lower power draw, or rather higher efficiency). But now that gaming performance-to-price ratio is pretty close to the Sapphire RX 7800 XT Nitro+ even with pure rasterization graphics. And that’s even counting with the “European price” of 660 EUR.

Sure, the Radeon has still better price/performance ratio outside of RT graphics, but only by some 8–9% at otherwise comparable speed. Of course, the RX 7800 XT is still more likely to be the cheaper graphics card. Both are suitable for QHD or even higher resolution monitors as long as you can accept upscaling technologies (DLSS and FSR). The RTX 4070 Super (like all GeForce RTX 4000 graphics cards) is attractive because of its support for DLSS 3 (with Frame Generation), where Ray Reconstruction is also available in version 3.5. We covered this technology in detail as part of our tests of Cyberpunk 2077 in RT Overdrive settings. The difference in frame rate is dramatic, with DLSS on “performance” when Frame Generation is enabled about two-and-a-half-fold, and that’s because of, among other things, the support for Ray Reconstruction (new with DLSS 3.5) while maintaining decent image quality. Judge for yourself from the photo comparison. DLSS 2.x and DLSS 3 is supported approximately by 380 games to date (AMD FSR 2 and FSR 3 is supported by less than half of titles).

If you don’t care about gaming performance and you’re picking a workstation graphics card, the RTX 4070 Super is a pretty good option for lower budget builds. For example, we already have a pretty dense comparison set in Blender where, with the Cycles renderer, the RTX 4070 Super under CUDA has about twice the speed of the RX 7800 XT (OpenCL). And with OptiX (Nvidia’s API that accelerates tensor cores), the GeForce’s lead is even bigger. But under OpenGL there are already situations where, for example, in Autodesk applications (CATIA, Creo, Energy, Medical or Siemens NX), the Radeon is noticeably faster. The results achieved in SolidWorks are even. For Affinity Photo, be sure to rather reach for the RTX 4070 Super and for Adobe Photoshop? Depends on the filter. Some are faster with the RX 7800 XT, others with the RTX 4070 Super.If you’re using Davinci Resolve, the performance of GeForce RTX 4000 (4060 and 4090) is well illustrated by recent thematic tests. AV1 encoding support is also worth mentioning (also applies to Radeon 7000).

The power draw under load ranges from 165–200 W depending on the application. With lighter workloads (video decoding, accelerated web browsing, etc.), the RTX 4070 FE Super can be said to be a significantly lower-power card compared to the RX 7800 XT Nitro+. While idle, and even with high-speed monitors or in multi-monitor systems, the Radeon is the one that is lower-power. But that’s only by a hair. The RTX 4070 Super, like other GeForce RTX 4000 graphics cards, only supports DisplayPort 1.4a, version 2.0 remains an exclusive benefit of AMD graphics cards.

The RTX 4070 Founders Edition cooler is very decent considering its smaller size. Compared to the Asus Dual 4070 with only slightly lower power draw, the temperature is indeed a bit higher, but it’s still low enough, and the tuning is along the lines of not making the operation too noisy. And it has been successful. Although it is not a downright silent card, we can talk about being average, which is a very good result considering the smaller size.

We’re awarding the RTX 4070 Super FE graphics card with the “Smart buy!” editorial award. That’s mainly due to the attractive price-performance ratio in the mid-range.

English translation and edit by Jozef Dudáš

For cooperation in providing the tested hardware, we would like to give special thanks to the Datacomp e-shop

• Contents
• Nvidia RTX 4070 Super FE in detail
• Table of parameters
• Methodology: performance tests
• Methodology: how we measure power draw
• Methodology: noise and sound measurement
• Methodology: temperature tests
• Test setup
• 3DMark
• Age of Empires II: DE
• Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla
• Battlefield V
• Battlefield V with DXR
• Borderlands 3
• Control
• Control with DXR and DLSS
• Counter-Strike: GO
• Cyberpunk 2077
• Cyberpunk 2077 with DLSS
• Cyberpunk 2077 with DXR (and DXR with DLSS)
• DOOM Eternal
• F1 2020
• FIFA 21
• Forza Horizon 4
• Mafia: DE
• Metro Exodus
• Metro Exodus with DXR and DLSS
• Microsoft Flight Simulator
• Red Dead Redemption 2 (Vulkan)
• Red Dead Redemption 2 (Dx12)
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider with DXR
• Total War Saga: Troy
• Wasteland 3
• Overall gaming performance and performance per euro
• CompuBench (OpenCL)
• SPECviewperf 2020 and SPECworkstation 3
• FLOPS, IOPS and memory speed tests
• 3D rendering 1/2 (LuxMark and Blender@Cycles)
• 3D rendering 2/2 (Blender@Radeon ProRender and Eevee)
• Photo editing (Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom and Affinity Photo)
• Broadcasting (OBS and Xsplit)
• Password cracking
• GPU clock speeds
• GPU and VRAM temperatures
• Net graphics card power draw and performance per watt
• Analysis of 12 V rail power supply (higher load)
• Analysis of 12 V rail power supply (lower load)
• Analysis of 3,3 V rail power supply
• Noise level
• Frequency response of sound
• Conclusion