Great gaming performance comes at a great price — is this always true? Not really, and you are surely going to find that out in this GeForce RTX 4070 Ti vs GeForce RTX 3070 Ti battle. We are going to compare both of them in detail to help you choose the right card for your rig.
Check out our RX 7900 XT vs RTX 4080 comparison if you are more interested in seeing NVIDIA versus AMD in the graphics cards battle.
Key Takeaways
- The GeForce RTX 4070 Ti was ahead of the RTX 3070 Ti by 47% and 44.4% in 1440p and 1080p benchmarks, respectively.
- In terms of power usage, GeForce RTX 4070 Ti was 16.3% and 13.4% more efficient than GeForce RTX 3070 Ti in 1440p and 4K gaming benchmarks, respectively.
- NVIDIA lists GeForce RTX 4070 Ti at $799 and GeForce RTX 3070 Ti at $599, which means GeForce RTX 4070 Ti is $200 more expensive.
- GeForce RTX 3070 Ti is based on Ampere architecture with an 8 nm process size, and the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti is based on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 4 nm process size.
Comparison Table
| Technical Specs | GeForce RTX 4070 Ti | GeForce RTX 3070 Ti |
|---|---|---|
| GPU Name | AD104 | GA104 |
| Architecture | Ada Lovelace | Ampere |
| Process Size | 4 nm | 8 nm |
| Transistors | 35,800 million | 17,400 million |
| Base Clock | 2310 MHz | 1575 MHz |
| Boost Clock | 2610 MHz | 1770 MHz |
| CUDA Cores | 7680 | 6144 |
| Tensor Cores | 240 | 192 |
| RT Cores | 60 | 48 |
| TMUs | 240 | 192 |
| ROPs | 80 | 96 |
| L1 Cache | 128 KB (per SM) | 128 KB (per SM) |
| L2 Cache | 48 MB | 4 MB |
| Memory Size | 12 GB | 8 GB |
| Memory Type | GDDR6X | GDDR6X |
| Memory Bus Width | 192-bit | 256-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | 504.2 GB/s | 608.3 GB/s |
| TDP | 285 W | 290 W |
| Suggested PSU | 600 W | 600 W |
| Release Date | January 3, 2023 | May 31, 2021 |
| MSRP | $799 | $599 |
| Best Variants | Best RTX 4070 Ti Cards | Best RTX 3070 Ti Cards |
So, we can see from the spec sheet that there are some evident differences between the two cards. Let’s discuss their main technological differences in more detail.
Architecture
The difference between the RTX 4070 Ti vs GeForce RTX 3070 Ti starts right at the architecture level. They both belong to two different architectures, one being the old one and the other being the latest from NVIDIA. GeForce RTX 3070 Ti is based on the Ampere architecture, whereas GeForce 4070 Ti is based on NVIDIA’s latest Ada Lovelace architecture.
Also Read: RX 7900 XT Vs RTX 4080
Going from the older architecture to the newer one, you are jumping an entire generation of various technologies and features. GeForce RTX 4070 Ti uses NVIDIA’s AD104 GPU and is based on a 4 nm process built at TSMC foundry. GeForce RTX 3070 Ti is based on a relatively older process size of 8 nm from Samsung.
Ada Lovelace on the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti, with 35,800 million transistors, has exactly double the number of transistors than GeForce RTX 3070 Ti’s 17,400 million transistors. As a result, you can expect improved efficiency on the newer architecture. Seemingly, Ada Lovelace will offer much better ray tracing performance due to Shader Execution Reordering.
With an improved process size, you can expect the new graphics card to offer you better performance while using the same amount of energy. Of course, we’ll find out about that in the benchmarks that will come later.
Design
When it comes to the design of the two cards, you have to keep in mind that the Founder’s Edition of GeForce RTX 4070 Ti is not available. As a result, you will have to look for third-party designs and maybe pick the one you like the most for their designs. However, you can expect NVIDIA’s most well-known board partners to come up with a three-fan design.
The added number of fans should tell you that this card is bigger than GeForce RTX 3070 Ti in length. While GeForce RTX 3070 Ti is also a pretty long card at 10.5 inches (267 mm), GeForce RTX 4070 Ti is even longer at 11.2 inches (285 mm). Other dimensions of the cards remain the same.
GeForce RTX 3070 Ti has a design containing a blade fan on one side and another on the other. What it means is that the card will pull air from one side and blow it out from the other. As subjective as it may sound, GeForce RTX 3070 Ti looks beautiful with its beautiful matte design with an exposed fan and big-font RTX 3070 Ti branding on the face. You might also be interested in checking our RTX 4080 Vs RTX 4090 comparison.
Memory and Clock Speeds
You can’t decide on a better or a weaker card unless you know their memory and clock speeds. There is a huge difference between the two in this area. The base clock of GeForce RTX 3070 Ti is 1575 MHz and can only be boosted to a maximum of 1770 MHz. That’s a push of no more than 195 MHz.
On the other hand, GeForce RTX 4070 Ti has a base clock of 2310 MHz and can go as high as 2610 MHz, giving you an overclocking headroom of 300 MHz. Not to mention the faster memory clock speeds of 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective) paired with GeForce RTX 4070 Ti compared to 1188 MHz (19 Gbps effective) on GeForce RTX 3070 Ti.
There’s a bit of a shock on the memory side aside from the fact that the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti has 12 GB of memory compared to the small 8 GB memory of the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti. So, the shock comes in the form of memory BUS width, which is 256-bit on GeForce RTX 3070 Ti and only 192-bit on GeForce RTX 4070 Ti. It gets worse for GeForce RTX 4070 Ti because its memory bandwidth is 504.2 GB/s compared to the 603.3 GB/s memory bandwidth of the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti.
Ray Tracing and AI Acceleration
Ray tracing has become an integral part of GPU optimization and is one of the most difficult challenges that graphics processors have to handle. The solution to this problem from NVIDIA was to dedicate ray tracing cores on its newer graphics cards. In other words, the higher the number of RT cores, the better ray tracing performance you can expect.
GeForce RTX 3070 Ti has 48 RT cores compared to GeForce RTX 4080 Ti’s 60 RT cores. We also cannot ignore the fact that the new graphics card has 3rd-gen RT Cores compared to 2nd-gen RT cores on GeForce RTX 3070 Ti. In other words, there is some inherent ray tracing performance difference due to better and improved technology.
The same applies to AI acceleration for producing better and more frames while you are gaming. NVIDIA does that through its DLSS feature. On GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, AI acceleration is powered by 3rd-gen tensor cores compared to 4th-gen tensor cores on GeForce RTX 4070 Ti. Why not check our RX 6800 XT vs RTX 3070 Ti comparison before going further?
GeForce RTX 4070 Ti vs GeForce RTX 3070 Ti: Gaming Benchmarks (1440p and 4K)
How graphics cards perform in the real world can be quite different from what you assume after looking at their specifications. After looking at the specification sheet, you can see that GeForce RTX 4070 Ti is the better card out of the two, but can it display its upper hand in the gaming benchmarks? Let’s find that out.
We’ve collected the 1440p and 4K gaming benchmark data for the RTX 4070 Ti vs GeForce RTX 3070 Ti from Benchmarks for Gamers on YouTube, who has used the same testing setup for both resolutions. Here’s their test setup.
Testing PC Specifications
- GPU 1: GeForce RTX 4070 Ti
- GPU 2: GeForce RTX 3070 Ti
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X
- Motherboard: ASUS ROG Crosshair X670E Hero
- RAM: G.Skill Trident Z5 2x16GB, 6000
- CPU Cooler: MO-RA EK Quantum Velocity Full Nickel
- OS: Windows 11
1440p Gaming Benchmarks
Let’s take a look at 1440p gaming benchmarks of RTX 4070 Ti vs GeForce RTX 3070 Ti first, which is what a large portion of people would buy these graphics cards for.
Cyberpunk 2077
- GeForce RTX 4070 Ti delivered an average of 47 FPS compared to 29 FPS from GeForce RTX 3070 Ti.
- Despite both cards struggling with this game, GeForce RTX 4070 Ti was able to offer a 62% FPS boost over GeForce RTX 3070 Ti.
- GeForce RTX 4070 Ti was less power-hungry as it consumed 271 watts compared to the 292 watts used by its rival.
- GeForce RTX 4070 Ti impressed us with how cool it remained at 64 degrees Celsius compared to the 73 degrees Celsius recorded on GeForce RTX 3070 Ti.
Dying Light 2
- GeForce RTX 4070 Ti was again the more powerful option as it offered 67 FPS, which was 24 FPS more than what GeForce RTX 3070 Ti offered.
- The FPS performance boost offered by GeForce RTX 4070 Ti was nearly 56% in Dying Light 2.
- GeForce RTX 4070 Ti consumed 31 watts less than GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, which consumed 299 watts from the motherboard.
- GeForce RTX 3070 Ti ended up being on the hot side at 72 degrees Celsius, whereas GeForce RTX 4070 Ti was at 65 degrees Celsius.
F1 22
- GeForce RTX 4070 Ti was again the better performer and offered 30 frames more every second compared to the GeForce 3070 Ti’s average of 52 FPS.
- With 82 FPS on average, GeForce RTX 4070 Ti offered a performance boost of nearly 58%.
- GeForce RTX 3070 Ti continued to draw more power and pulled 295 watts from the motherboard compared to 271 watts drawn by its rival.
- GeForce RTX 3070 Ti was 12 degrees hotter in this test at 74 degrees Celsius.
Also Check: RTX 3050 Vs 2060
Far Cry 6
- Both cards did well in this game, but GeForce RTX 4070 Ti offered a higher FPS average of 123 compared to the 91 FPS offered by its opponent.
- The margin shrank a bit in this test, but it was still pretty big, as the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti was able to give us a performance boost of 35%.
- GeForce RTX 4070 Ti impressed and shocked us at the same time by using only 184 watts from the motherboard, which was 61 watts less than what its competitor used.
- Since it used less power, GeForce RTX 4070 Ti also ran cooler by 10 degrees at 55 degrees Celsius.
Fortnite
- Both cards struggled again with Fortnite and offered only 57 FPS and 41 FPS, with GeForce RTX 4070 Ti offering the bigger number.
- The performance boost obtained with GeForce RTX 4070 Ti was 39%.
- GeForce RTX 4070 Ti impressed us even more by using 40 watts less than its opponent and keeping its power draw to 238 watts.
- There was a temperature difference of 10 degrees between the two, with the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti being the cooler one.
Forza Horizon 5
- GeForce RTX 4070 Ti won this test with flying colors by offering 127 FPS on average compared to 80 FPS from GeForce RTX 3070 Ti.
- In this benchmark, we were able to get a nearly 59% boost in per-second frame generation from GeForce RTX 4070 Ti.
- The FPS winner also proved to be the energy-friendly option as it drew only 206 watts from the motherboard, whereas its opponent drew 233 watts.
- With GeForce RTX 4070 Ti and GeForce RTX 3070 Ti being at 57 degrees and 67 degrees Celsius, respectively, the former proved to be the thermally more stable option.
Spiderman Miles Morales
- The FPS reading on GeForce RTX 4070 Ti and GeForce RTX 3070 Ti were 65 FPS and 46 FPS, respectively.
- GeForce RTX 4070 Ti was ahead in the FPS race by 41%.
- GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, being the old chip, continued to chew more power and ended up using 228 watts to 185 watts used by GeForce RTX 4070 Ti.
- The temperature difference was also huge as GeForce RTX 3070 Ti continued to run 11 degrees hotter than its competitors at 67 degrees Celsius.
The Callisto Protocol
- The performance wasn’t great from either card, with 56 FPS being the highest average from GeForce RTX 4070 Ti.
- Since GeForce RTX 3070 Ti offered only 40 FPS, we got 40% more frames per second while using GeForce RTX 4070 Ti.
- It also continued to be less power-demanding at 154 watts compared to its opponent’s demand of 210 watts in this test.
- GeForce RTX 4070 Ti was incredibly impressive at just 50 degrees Celsius, whereas GeForce RTX 3070 Ti was at 63 degrees Celsius.
Also Check: RTX 3060 Ti Vs RTX 3070 Ti
The Witcher 3
- We were able to squeeze 30 FPS from GeForce RTX 3070 Ti and 45 FPS from GeForce RTX 4070 Ti.
- The latter offered a 50% performance boost over the older chip in frame generation speeds.
- GeForce RTX 3070 Ti continued to take a toll on the power supply by consuming 288 watts, which was 37 watts more than what its rival used.
- The temperature rose a bit on GeForce RTX 4070 Ti chip but was still at 62 degrees Celsius, which was 7 degrees cooler than GeForce RTX 3070 Ti.
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide
- GeForce RTX 4070 Ti was 18 FPS ahead of its competition by offering 53 FPS on average.
- The performance boost we gained on the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti was 51.4% in this case.
- GeForce RTX 3070 Ti offered fewer frames per second but was using more power at 275 watts compared to only 242 watts used by its rivaling graphics chip.
- A temperature difference of 10 degrees existed between the two, wherein GeForce RTX 3070 Ti was the hotter one.
4K Gaming Benchmarks
GeForce RTX 4070 Ti was a formidable force in the 1440p benchmarks. Let’s see how it performs against GeForce RTX 3070 Ti in the 4K gaming benchmarks.
A Plague Tale: Requiem
- The performance from either card wasn’t very impressive as GeForce RTX 4070 Ti offered only 42 FPS, and GeForce RTX 3070 Ti offered only 31 FPS on average.
- Based on these FPS figures, GeForce RTX 4070 Ti gave us nearly 36% more frames per second than its competition.
- GeForce RTX 4070 Ti was also the more power-friendly option and used only 274 watts, whereas its rival used 300 watts.
- GeForce RTX 3070 Ti was hotter at 74 degrees Celsius, whereas its competition was 10 degrees cooler.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
- In this test, we got 75 FPS and 52 FPS on average from the 40xx and 30xx graphics chips, respectively.
- By generating 75 FPS, GeForce RTX 4070 Ti offered us a boost of more than 42%.
- GeForce RTX 3070 Ti used 274 watts from the PSU, whereas GeForce RTX 4070 Ti used only 228 watts.
- GeForce RTX 4070 Ti was impressively cooler at just 58 degrees Celsius, whereas its rival was 71 degrees Celsius.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
- Both graphics cards did great in this test, but GeForce RTX 4070 Ti was ahead by offering 86 FPS.
- Since GeForce RTX 3070 Ti offered 56 FPS, we got an FPS performance boost of nearly 54% from the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti.
- GeForce RTX 3070 Ti continued to take a heavier toll on PSU as it used 269 watts.
- GeForce RTX 4070 Ti was 18.3% cooler than its rival, which was at 71 degrees Celsius.
Cyberpunk 2077
- We got 45 FPS from GeForce RTX 4070 Ti and only 32 FPS from GeForce 3070 Ti in this benchmark.
- A nearly 40.6% FPS boost was obtained while playing this game on GeForce RTX 4070 Ti.
- By drawing 294 watts from the system, GeForce RTX 3070 Ti used 27 watts more than GeForce RTX 4070 Ti.
- The temperature was also cooler on the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti chip at just 62 degrees Celsius.
Kena: Bridge of Spirits
- GeForce RTX 4070 Ti continued to be the more powerful graphics chip by offering 71 FPS compared to 50 FPS from its rival.
- The improvement in frame generation for GeForce RTX 4070 Ti was 42%.
- GeForce RTX 4070 Ti was also using 32 watts less from the PSU by keeping its usage at 266 watts compared to its competition.
- GeForce RTX 3070 Ti couldn’t recover and was also the hotter graphics chip at 74 degrees Celsius, which is 12 degrees hotter than its rival.
Spider-man: Miles Morales
- The two chips did their best, but the maximum FPS average was 79 FPS achieved by GeForce RTX 4070 Ti.
- With a boost of more than 46% in frame generation, GeForce RTX 4070 Ti was the better of the two graphics cards.
- GeForce RTX 4070 Ti also proved to be more optimized as it consumed only 243 watts, whereas GeForce RTX 3070 Ti used 279 watts.
- A difference of 13 degrees existed between the two chips, with the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti running 13 degrees Celsius hotter.
Similar Guides: RTX 3070 Ti vs RTX 2080 Ti
The Callisto Protocol
- The dominance in the FPS race continued from GeForce RTX 4070 Ti as it produced 85 FPS compared to only 56 FPS from the competition.
- The frame generation from GeForce RTX 4070 Ti was nearly 52% better than what its rival offered.
- GeForce RTX 3070 Ti proved to be the more power-hungry chip as it drew 283 watts from the board, whereas its competition did only 249 watts.
- GeForce RTX 4070 Ti was the more optimized chip and was 12 degrees cooler than GeForce RTX 3070 Ti.
The Witcher 3
- GeForce RTX 3070 Ti couldn’t regain its lost grace and offered 48 FPS compared to 63 FPS from its rival.
- In this benchmark, GeForce RTX 4070 Ti was 31% better than GeForce RTX 3070 Ti in terms of frame rate and production speed.
- The power draw difference was as big as 55 watts in this scenario, wherein GeForce RTX 4070 Ti consumed less power.
- GeForce RTX 4070 Ti was also much cooler at 56 degrees Celsius whereas GeForce RTX 3070 Ti was 72 degrees Celsius.
Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands
- The FPS average remained at 59 FPS for GeForce RTX 4070 Ti and 43 FPS for GeForce RTX 3070 Ti.
- Every second, GeForce RTX 4070 Ti produced 16 more frames than GeForce RTX 3070 Ti.
- Despite offering better frame rates, GeForce RTX 4070 Ti was the better of the two by consuming 31 watts less from the power supply.
- It was also the cooler one at 63 degrees Celsius, whereas its competitor was at 75 degrees Celsius.
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide
- We end up getting 48 FPS from GeForce RTX 4070 Ti and 32 FPS from GeForce RTX 3070 Ti.
- Despite the numbers looking small, it was an improvement of 50% on the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti’s side in terms of frame production.
- GeForce RTX 3070 Ti continued to use more power and ended up usurping 294 watts in this benchmark compared to 268 watts by GeForce RTX 4070 Ti.
- The temperature of GeForce RTX 4070 Ti and GeForce RTX 3070 Ti was 64 degrees and 74 degrees Celsius, respectively.
Overall Gaming Performance
Let’s analyze the performance of the two cards separately for 1440p and 4K gaming benchmarks.
1440p
In terms of the number of frames produced per second, the biggest difference occurred while playing Forza Horizon 5, wherein GeForce RTX 4070 Ti offered 47 more frames every second. The smallest difference was The Witcher 3, in which GeForce RTX 4070 Ti was only 15 FPS ahead, but it turned out to be 50% better than what GeForce RTX 3070 Ti gave us.
The overall results after 10 games at 1440p gave us an average of 72 FPS from GeForce RTX 4070 Ti and 49 FPS from GeForce RTX 3070 Ti. Based on those numbers, it was an overall 47% performance boost for GeForce RTX 4070 Ti compared to GeForce RTX 3070 Ti.
4K
The smallest FPS difference of only 11 FPS occurred while playing A Plague Tale: Requiem. On average, GeForce RTX 4070 Ti offered us 65 FPS in 4K gaming, whereas the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti offered us 45 FPS.
These results were still in line with what we saw in the 1440p gaming benchmarks, and as a result, we got a performance boost of 44.4% in frame rate while playing games at 4K using GeForce RTX 4070 Ti.
Considering performing gaming benchmarks on your own? Our Gaming PC Benchmarks (How To Benchmark Gaming PC) guide will be a great start for you.
Power Usage
Let’s see the power usage statistics based on the 1440p and 4K gaming performance of the two cards.
1440p
The smallest power consumption difference was 21 watts while playing Cyberpunk 2077, whereas the biggest power consumption difference was 61 watts while playing Far Cry 6. In both cases, GeForce RTX 4070 Ti used less power.
Overall power consumption in 10 games for GeForce RTX 4070 Ti was 227 watts compared to 264 watts for GeForce RTX 3070 Ti. As a result, GeForce RTX 4070 Ti proved to be 16.3% more power-efficient than GeForce RTX 3070 Ti.
4K
The biggest difference was 55 watts in favor of GeForce RTX 4070 Ti while playing The Witcher 3. On average, the difference in power usage was 34 watts, with GeForce RTX 3070 Ti using 34 watts more.
Based on the average power usage statistics from both graphics cards, it is concluded that GeForce RTX 4070 Ti is 13.4% more power-efficient than GeForce RTX 3070 Ti while playing games at 4K resolution.
Thermal Statistics
We’ll analyze their thermal stability based on our 1440p and 4K gaming benchmarks.
1440p
Based on overall test results, there was a difference of 9 degrees between the RTX 4070 Ti vs GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, with the former being 9 degrees cooler. The biggest temperature difference occurred while playing The Callisto Protocol, wherein GeForce RTX 3070 Ti ran 13 degrees Celsius hotter than GeForce RTX 4070 Ti.
On average, we found GeForce RTX 4070 Ti to be 15% more thermally stable than GeForce RTX 3070 Ti.
4K
While playing The Witcher 3, GeForce RTX 4070 Ti ran 16 degrees cooler than GeForce RTX 3070 Ti. The difference in temperatures remained in double-digits in all 10 tests.
With an average temperature of 61 degrees Celsius compared to 73 degrees Celsius on GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, GeForce RTX 4070 Ti proved to be nearly 20% more thermally stable than its rival.
Do you think a liquid CPU cooler will be a great next addition to your PC setup? Read our guide that explains how to install a liquid CPU cooler in easy steps.
Pricing and Availability
The pricing of graphics cards has become quite abstract in recent years as chip shortage has caused the prices of the cards to go higher with time. According to NVIDIA, the price of the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti should start from $599.
You might be able to get the Founder’s Edition at that price from NVIDIA’s website. However, the same card may be listed at a much higher price on other websites. The Gigabyte version of the same card can be as high as $980.
GeForce RTX 4070 Ti starts at $799 on NVIDIA’s website. Do keep in mind that there is no founder’s edition of this card available for you. As a result, you will have to rely on ZOTAC, Gigabyte, ASUS, etc., to get a deal.
Yet again, based on the website you choose for buying this card, you may end up spending much more than that. Don’t be surprised if you find the MSI or ZOTAC version of the same card listed at $1000.
RTX 4070 Ti vs RTX 3070 Ti: Which One’s Force You?
There are many differences between the RTX 4070 Ti vs GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, and in our tests, we were able to discover that GeForce RTX 4070 Ti uses less power, offers higher FPS, and produces less heat.
In terms of its FPS performance, it offered us a 47% performance boost in 1440p gaming and a 44.4% performance boost in 4K gaming. In terms of power consumption, it is 16.3% and 13.4% better in 1440p and 4K settings, respectively.
GeForce RTX 4070 Ti offers better thermal stability, too, as it produced 15% less and 20% less heat in 1440p and 4K gaming benchmarks, respectively, compared to GeForce RTX 3070 Ti.
However, you will be paying $200 more for this graphics card, which is 33.4% higher than the price of the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti. As a result, the final decision will come down to long-term and short-term gains and how much you are willing to spend right now.
They are both great cards in their own right, and you can’t go wrong with either one of them.
Frequently Asked Questions
If you are a hardcore gamer who wants the best graphical and FPS performance, the extra $200 for the RTX 4070 Ti is totally justified.
There is a significant performance difference between the two graphics cards, with the GeForce 4070 Ti offering an average of 50% better FPS.
Yes, according to NVIDIA, both cards support 8K resolution, which is 7680x 4320, to be precise.
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