RTX 3090 Ti Vs RTX 3070 Ti: Should You Upgrade?

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Uzair Qureshi

At Tech4Gamers, I proudly wear the title of Comparisons Specialist. Focused on CPUs and GPUs, I bring forth a wealth of hands-on experience and a keen eye for detail to provide our audience with the latest insights and analyses.

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Pros & Cons

Comparison Table

Architectural Differences

1. Process Node: Unsurprisingly, these graphics cards utilizing the same Ampere architecture also use the same 8nm processing nodes.
2. Clock Speeds: The RTX 3070 Ti surprisingly has a higher base clock at 1575MHz than the 3090 Ti at 1560MHz. The RTX 3070 Ti, however, still loses in terms of boost clock at 1770MHz versus the 1860MHz boost of the RTX 3090 Ti.
3. TDP: The RTX 3090 Ti has one of the highest TDPs of any consumer GPU at 450 watts, which makes the 290-watt TDP of the RTX 3070 Ti look like nothing. 
4. VRAM: The RTX 3090 Ti also dwarves the RTX 3070 Ti in terms of video memory with a VRAM buffer of 24GB. The RTX 3070 Ti has a worryingly small VRAM size of just 8GB.
5. Bus Width: The RTX 3090 Ti has a wide 384-bit memory bus, whereas the RTX 3070 Ti also loses in this metric, supporting a 256-bit memory bus

We all know that the RTX 3090 Ti is the most powerful graphics card that the RTX 30-series has to offer. Meanwhile, the RTX 3070 Ti is an affordable option. How much of a difference would the RTX 3090 Ti vs RTX 3070 Ti have in performance despite the high price gap? Let’s find out.

RTX 3090 Ti Vs RTX 3070 Ti: Benchmarks At 4K

It is evident that the RTX 3090 Ti is more powerful from the spec sheet, but to gauge the full performance of both these cards, we have to take this fight to our test bench, the specs of which are mentioned below:

• CPU: Core i9-12900K
• MOBO: GIGABYTE Z690 AERO G
• CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4
• Memory: XPG Lancer RGB 32B 6000MHz DDR5 RAM
• SSD: XPG GAMMIX S70 BLADE 2TB NVMe
• Power Supply: be quiet! Dark Power Pro 13 1300W 

Hitman 3

• Starting with Hitman 3, we saw that the RTX 3090 Ti had an average framerate of 113 FPS, whereas the RTX 3070 Ti was over 50% slower, with 74 FPS on average.
• The RTX 3090 Ti sustained a minimum framerate of 91 FPS, whereas the RTX 3070 Ti had a sub-sixty framerate of 58 FPS, once again losing by over 55%.

God Of War

• Moving to a more demanding title, God of War ran smoothly at an average of 92 FPS on the RTX 3090 Ti, whereas the RTX 3070 Ti had a 60% slower performance of 57 FPS, both without the aid of DLSS.
• Conversely, 1% lows were around 50% slower on the RTX 3070 Ti than its brother, getting around 53 FPS on minimum, whereas the RTX 3090 Ti had a performance of around 80 FPS.

Forza Horizon 5

• Forza Horizon 5 showed us a 55% performance lead to the RTX 3090 Ti with ray tracing enabled, which averaged around 115 FPS, whereas the RTX 3070 Ti had an average framerate of around 74 FPS. 
• 1% lows for the RTX 3070 Ti were once again slightly below 60 frames at 59 FPS, whereas the RTX 3090 Ti had lows of around 82 FPS. The difference here was lower than we’ve seen before at about 38% in favor of the RTX 3090 Ti.

Red Dead Redemption 2

• With no DLSS, the RTX 3090 Ti averaged 84 FPS on Red Dead Redemption 2 on the highest quality presets. In contrast, the RTX 3070 Ti struggled to average 54 FPS. This maths out to an advantage of 55% for the RTX 3090 Ti.
• The difference in performance between the two cards shrunk to 47% when we measured 1% lows. The RTX 3090 Ti maintained 68 FPS, whereas the RTX 3070 Ti had around 46 FPS as its minimum.

Cyberpunk 2077

• Using medium-to-high settings, DLSS quality, and medium ray tracing, the RTX 3090 Ti averaged 51 FPS, whereas the RTX 3070 Ti managed to get 30 FPS on average. We witnessed the RTX 3090 Ti obtain a 70% lead over its little brother.
• The 1% lows also gave us disappointing results, with the RTX 3090 Ti being playable with an FPS of 32 FPS, whereas the RTX 3070 Ti maintained sub-cinematic lows of 23 FPS. The difference here was around 39%.

Dying Light 2

• With DLSS set to Quality and Ray tracing set to Ultra, the RTX 3070 Ti averaged only 33 FPS. Whereas, the RTX 3090 Ti was much more playable at 62 FPS and maintained a lead by over 87% in Dying Light 2.
• Lows were also terrible on the lower-tier card, maintaining a stuttery 18 FPS. The RTX 3090 Ti, however, was much more playable with a minimum of 41 FPS, providing over two times the performance of the RTX 3070 Ti.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020

• Finally, testing Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 on both cards yielded better results for our team, giving the RTX 3090 Ti a 77 FPS framerate average, whereas the RTX 3070 was 60% slower with 48 FPS on average.
• 1% lows were as expected on both cards. The RTX 3090 Ti got a minimum of 59 FPS, whereas the RTX 3070 Ti maintained 38 FPS.

RTX 3070 Ti Vs RTX 3090 Ti: Overall Gaming Performance

We observed that the RTX 3090 Ti had an average framerate of 84 FPS with various levels of DLSS and RT, while the RTX 3070 Ti had an average of around 52 FPS. This gave the RTX 3090 Ti an overall 60% lead in average framerates. 1% lows were ahead by 53% on the more expensive card, whereas the RTX 3070 Ti had lows of around 42 FPS. 

Power Consumption

The RTX 3090 Ti averaged a power draw of 433 watts, whereas the RTX 3070 Ti consumed around 60% less power than its big brother, taking around 270 watts on average. Both cards had an equivalent performance per watt of 0.19 frames/watt, therefore the performance of these cards varies linearly to their difference in power for us.

Thermal Efficiency

Speaking of thermal levels, the RTX 3090 Ti had an average peak temperature of around 70°C in our intensive testing at 4k, whereas the RTX 3070 Ti had a peak temperature of around 66°C. This makes the RTX 3070 Ti 5.8% operate cooler than the RTX 3090 Ti on average in our charts. 

Price And Availability

We observed that the RTX 3090 Ti is being sold at a 5.1% higher rate than its MSRP. However, some of its models are still being sold for its launch price. As for the RTX 3070 Ti, it has seen around a 12.5% price increase where some of its variants can be found for as low as $659. Still, the RTX 3070 Ti is 102.4% cheaper than the RTX 3090 Ti.

RTX 3070 Ti Vs RTX 3090 Ti: Which One Should You Go For?

RTX 3090 Ti: For us, the RTX 3090 Ti ranks among the best graphics cards if you aim to play games at 4K. It delivers extreme performance, with well over 100 FPS on games on the highest settings. However, with Ray Tracing enabled, we saw the performance drop so we recommend tuning the resolution down to 1440p while enabling Ray Tracining. 

RTX 3070 Ti: As for the RTX 3070 Ti, we witnessed that it competes as the budget card, pushing its limits at 4K and delivering decent performance although it is the best 1440p card. Moreover, the RTX 3070 Ti showed lower power consumption and better thermal statistics, making it an ideal card to choose against its rivals. 

We reckon that the RTX 3090 Ti is an ultimate beast mode of a card with relentless performance at all resolutions while the RTX 3070 Ti is an affordable high-performing 1440p card. So it would be the go-to card for premium results and performance.

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• RTX 3060 Ti Vs. RTX 3070 Ti

Uzair Qureshi

[Comparisons Specialist]

I’m a passionate computer hardware expert specializing in CPUs and GPUs. With a lifelong curiosity for hardware and extensive hands-on experience, I provide valuable insights, practical advice, and in-depth analysis on these components. Engaging with the hardware community, I exchange knowledge and stay at the forefront of technological advancements.

Get In Touch: uzair@tech4gamers.com