The time has come for you to start looking for a new graphics card because the one you have now isn’t really cutting it in your favorite games. Well, the good news is that you have plenty of choices that fall within a very close price range and offer incredible gaming performance. Our GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Vs GeForce RTX 3080 Ti comparison will go into great detail about how good these cards are and which one you should pick based on the gaming performance you’re expecting. So, let’s dive right in.
Key Takeaways
- In our 4K gaming benchmarks testing 7 games, the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti had an average lead of 13 FPS, making it 15.3% better than the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti.
- The GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is a power-hungry GPU using 15.3% more power from the PSU than GeForce RTX 4070 Ti in our 4K gaming benchmarks. Please keep in mind that these figures were taken from software overlay and not NVIDIA PCAT. Hence, there can be a slight margin of error.
- Listed at $899, GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is 12.5% more expensive than the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti, which has a starting price of $799.
- GeForce RTX 4070 Ti is based on NVIDIA’s latest Ada Lovelace architecture built with a 4nm process, whereas GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is based on NVIDIA’s previous Ampere architecture built with an 8nm process.
Comparison Table
| Technical Specs | GeForce RTX 4070 Ti | GeForce RTX 3080 Ti |
| GPU Name | AD104 | GA102 |
| Architecture | Ada Lovelace | Ampere |
| Process Size | 4nm | 8nm |
| Transistors | 35,800 million | 28,300 million |
| Base Clock | 2310MHz | 1365MHz |
| Boost Clock | 2610MHz | 1665MHz |
| CUDA Cores | 7680 | 10240 |
| Tensor Cores | 240 | 320 |
| RT Cores | 60 | 80 |
| TMUs | 240 | 320 |
| ROPs | 80 | 112 |
| L1 Cache | 128KB (per SM) | 128KB (per SM) |
| L2 Cache | 48MB | 6MB |
| Memory Size | 12GB | 12GB |
| Memory Type | GDDR6X | GDDR6X |
| Memory Bus Width | 192-bit | 384-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | 504.2GB/s | 912.4GB/s |
| TDP | 285W | 350W |
| Suggested PSU | 600W | 750W |
| Release Date | January 3, 2023 | May 31, 2021 |
| MSRP | $799 | $899 |
| Best Variants | Best RTX 4070 Ti Cards | Best RTX 3080 Ti Cards |
The basic differences between the two powerful graphics processors are clear from our comparison table. Now, let’s get into other details that make them different, similar, and better than each other.
Architecture
Let’s talk about the difference that matters the most between these two NVIDIA cards. The architecture difference is huge since you are jumping from a previous generation to the next generation here when you go from the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti to the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti.
GeForce RTX 4070 Ti is one of the latest graphics cards from NVIDIA and it is based on the new Ada Lovelace architecture. It has the AD104 GPU with 35,800 million transistors. The AD104 chip, until now, has offered a maximum of 7680 CUDA cores. That’s the number of CUDA cores you are getting with GeForce RTX 4070 Ti.
There are no other cards based on the AD104 GPU at the moment, but you will soon see one coming in 2023. This architecture has been put together at the TSMC foundry using the all-new and tremendously efficient 4nm process.
On the other hand, you have the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, an extremely powerful card based on the Ampere architecture. It uses the GA102 GPU built with Samsung’s 8nm process and contains 28,300 million transistors. It’s not as efficient as AD104, but NVIDIA knows to make up for those shortcomings through other improvements.
Fortunately, if you get your hands on this card, you will be getting very close to the peak number of CUDA cores that the GA102 chip has to offer i.e. 10752. You have a long lineup of graphics cards from NVIDIA based on this GPU, such as GeForce RTX 3090, GeForce RTX 3080, GeForce RTX 3090 Ti, etc.
Don’t mind the previous architecture from NVIDIA? Are you more interested in something that’s pocket-friendly and yet still delivers? Why don’t you check out our Best RTX 3060 Ti Graphics Cards 2023 guide? It’s a budget-friendly card with some great specs and performance.
Design
There isn’t much to say about the design aspect of the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti since there isn’t one from NVIDIA. The company has relied upon its board partners to come up with their designs. You’ll have to see what companies like MSI, Zotac, and ASUS come up with in terms of the design of this card.
The GeForce RTX 3080 Ti graphics card has one of the most loved designs from NVIDIA, with one blade fan on the front and one on the back. The idea is to push out hot air from the card from the back and pull in cold air from the other side using the other blade fan.
Since NVIDIA’s board partners rely heavily on their unique cooling systems to hike up the prices of the cards they offer, you will see a triple-fan design from most of them when you shop for GeForce RTX 4070 Ti.
The one thing to keep in mind is that you’ll need a lot of space in your PC case to accommodate any of these cards because even GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is quite a long card at 11.2 inches (285mm).
Memory And Clock Speeds
Quite surprisingly, GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is the stronger card on the spec sheet when it comes to clock speeds. Other than the clock’s maximum reach, other things seem more impressive on GeForce RTX 3080 Ti.
Let’s talk about what GeForce RTX 4070 Ti does better first. It has a base clock of 2310MHz and a boost clock of 2610MHz, which means you have a 300MHz headroom for overclocking. GeForce RTX 3080 Ti has a base clock of 1365MHz and a boost clock of 1665MHz, which also means a headroom of 300MHz for overclocking.
However, if you calculate the difference between the overclocked speeds of both GPUs, you’ll find out that your GeForce RTX 4070 Ti can be 945MHz faster than GeForce RTX 3080 Ti when both are running at boosted clock speeds.
In terms of memory or VRAM, GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is just too good. They both have 12GB of GDDR6X memory, but GeForce RTX 3080 Ti has a 384-bit memory BUS compared to the 192-bit memory BUS on GeForce RTX 4070 Ti. Also, with a bandwidth of 912.4GB/s compared to 504.2GB/s, GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is 408.2GB/s faster than GeForce RTX 4080 Ti.
Interested in seeing GeForce RTX 3080 Ti go up against a 40XX series GPU with better clock speeds, RAM, and more CUDA cores? If yes, we highly recommend you check out our detailed RTX 4090 Vs RTX 3080 Ti comparison and find out.
Ray Tracing And AI Acceleration
Ray tracing and AI-accelerated graphics are available on both graphics cards. However, GeForce RTX 4070 Ti has more to offer here because it has a new architecture with the next generation of RT cores and tensor cores than the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti does.
You can enable DLSS while playing your favorite games on GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, but the added frames will be supported by 3rd-gen tensor cores compared to 4th-gen tensor cores on GeForce RTX 4070 Ti.
The same applies to the ray-tracing performance of the two cards. You have dedicated RT cores on both GPUs, and GeForce RTX 3080 Ti has 80 of them compared to 60 RT cores on GeForce RTX 4070 Ti. However, GeForce RTX 4070 Ti has 3rd-gen RT cores compared to 2nd-gen RT cores on GeForce RTX 3080 Ti.
Interested in AMD instead? Check out our RX 7900 XTX Vs RX 6900 XT gaming benchmarks comparisons to see how two of the best AMD graphics cards perform in your favorite games.
RTX 4070 Ti Vs RTX 3080 Ti 4K Gaming Benchmarks
You can never give a verdict about a card unless you have tested it in your favorite games at high resolution and ultra-settings. Doing so gives you a clear idea of how strong a graphics card is. That’s what we are going to do by testing GeForce RTX 4070 Ti and GeForce RTX 3080 Ti in 7 games at 4K resolution and ultra-settings. We have chosen Exploring Benchmark on YouTube for providing us with these benchmarks, and here’s the rig they are using.
Testing PC Specifications
- OS: Windows 10 pro
- CPU: INTEL i9 13900K
- Motherboard: Asus ROG Strix Z790 – E Gaming
- Cooler: Corsair ICUE H150I ELITE
- GPU 1: Asus TUF Gaming RTX 4070Ti 12GB
- GPU 2: Asus TUF Gaming RTX 3080 Ti 12GB
- SSD: Samsung 980 PRO 2TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2
- HDD: WD Blue 4TB Desktop Hard Disk Drive
- PSU: Corsair HX1500i 1500 Watt 80 Plus Platinum
- RAM: Corsair Dominator RGB 32GB DDR5 6000MHz
Now that we know the testing setup let’s get down to some real-world 4K gaming benchmarks.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
- GeForce RTX 4070 Ti started off strong with an impressive 90 FPS on average compared to 75 FPS delivered by GeForce RTX 3080 Ti.
- The overall improvement in FPS performance was 20% on GeForce RTX 4070 Ti compared to GeForce RTX 3080 Ti.
- There was no big difference in the consumption of power between the two cards, with the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti using only 3 watts less than the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti at 260W versus 263W, respectively.
- The temperature difference was also negligible as the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti operated at 60° Celsius compared to GeForce RTX 3080 Ti operating at 62° Celsius.
Also Read: RTX 4070 Ti Vs RTX 3070 Ti
Cyberpunk 2077
- The GeForce RTX 4070 Ti comes out as the winner yet again by offering 11 frames more than the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti i.e. 62 FPS vs 51 FPS.
- Based on 62 FPS from the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti and 51 FPS from the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, we got an FPS performance boost of nearly 22% from the former.
- It was a huge nosedive by the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti as it sucked 322 watts from the power supply compared to only 251 watts pulled in by the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti.
- The GeForce RTX 3080 Ti was able to surprise us in the temperature wars as it was 6° cooler than the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti i.e. 61° Celsius vs 67° Celsius, respectively.
Forza Horizon 5
- Both GeForce RTX 4070 Ti vs GeForce RTX 3080 Ti performed well in this test, and the FPS difference shrank to only 9 FPS, with the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti delivering 125 FPS against the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti’s 116 FPS.
- With a difference of only 9 FPS per second, the improvement in framerates with the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti was almost 8% over GeForce RTX 3080 Ti.
- The chip optimization while manufacturing the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti is evident from the fact that this card was using 22 watts less than the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti in this test.
- While the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti was producing less heat and was only 50° Celsius, the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti wasn’t too far off at 52° Celsius.
God Of War
- Despite having more CUDA cores and faster memory bandwidth, the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti offered an average of 86 FPS compared to 99 FPS from the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti.
- We got 15.1% more frames every second from GeForce RTX 4070 Ti than we did from GeForce RTX 3080 Ti.
- The difference in power consumption was huge again as the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti consumed 24.1% less power at 249 watts compared to 309 watts used by the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti.
- There was no temperature difference at all, and both GPUs were 66° Celsius in this benchmark task.
Hitman III
- We noticed an average of 124 FPS from the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti, whereas there was a 108 FPS average from the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti.
- We obtained a 15% per-second frame generation improvement while playing Hitman III on GeForce RTX 4070 Ti compared to the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti.
- The usage of power was very impressive yet again on the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti, which put a load of 280 watts on the power supply, whereas the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti put a load of 326 watts on the PSU.
- The GeForce RTX 4070 Ti ran 3° hotter at 67° Celsius compared to the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti which was 64° Celsius.
Horizon Zero Dawn
- Our GeForce RTX 4070 Ti never let GeForce RTX 3080 Ti recover and was able to put up an impressive 97 FPS on the screen compared to its sibling’s 79 FPS average.
- By offering us 18 more frames every second against GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, our GeForce RTX 4070 Ti was able to muster up a win with a 23% improvement framerate improvement.
- Things only worsened for the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti as it used 61 watts more from the PSU by keeping its power workload at a whopping 280 watts compared to the 219 watts used by its competition.
- After several benign losses, the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti was finally able to get on the board with a 3° victory as it ran decently at 63° Celsius compared to the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti’s 66° Celsius.
Similar Comparisons: RX 7900 XTX Vs RTX 3080 Ti
Spider-Man
- The FPS on average for the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti was 63 FPS compared to an average FPS of 52 FPS from the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti.
- With a lead of 11 FPS, the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti delivered an impressive performance that was 21% better than what the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti was able to give.
- It was an amazing comeback for the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti as it used 262 watts, which meant only 1W more than what its sibling used in this test.
- The temperature difference between the two was little to none, as the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti ran only 1° hotter than the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti.
Overall Gaming Benchmarks
The results of our GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Vs GeForce RTX 3080 Ti 4K gaming benchmarks were quite clear, and we didn’t have to second-guess the fact that the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti was the better card out of the two in terms of framerates.
If we look at the winning rate of the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti, it was 100% as there was not a single game in which its FPS was lower than GeForce 3080 Ti. However, the results continued to fluctuate from one test to another.
The biggest FPS difference was Horizon Zero Dawn, wherein our GeForce RTX 4070 Ti had a lead of 18 frames every second, amounting to an improvement of 23% over the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti. It was also the biggest percentage difference between the performances of the two cards.
We witnessed the smallest FPS difference while playing Forza Horizon 5 wherein GeForce RTX 4070 Ti offered only 9 frames per second more than the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti.
The overall average FPS we got from the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti in 7 games at 4K was 94 FPS, and from the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti was 81 FPS. Thus, a difference of 13 FPS on average resulted in 16% better FPS performance from the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti compared to its competition.
Power Usage And Thermal Statistics
The difference in power usage between the two cards was night and day, with GeForce RTX 4070 Ti being the better one out of the two proving some impressive optimization of the new chip and architecture from NVIDIA.
Yet again, the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti’s winning rate in power usage statistics was 100%, as it never used more watts than the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti in any of the benchmarks. We recorded the smallest difference of 1W between the two while playing Spider-man.
The biggest power consumption difference between the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti and the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti was 71 watts while playing Cyberpunk 2077. On three occasions, the difference in power usage between the two GPUs was higher than 60 watts, with the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti always using more power.
Overall power usage in 7 games at 4K for the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti was 249 watts, and for the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti was 287 watts. This means a difference of 38 watts on average, making the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti more than 15% more power-efficient than the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti.
It’s hard to say which one was better in terms of heat control. The fact that they both heated up or stayed cool to quite a similar level was a bit dilemmatic. Should we say the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti is more efficient as it produced better FPS results while keeping cool?
Or should we say the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti was more efficient since it always used more power in 7 games but ended up tying the thermal statistics with the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti? The most important thing to know here is that the differences in temperature were negligible.
The biggest temperature difference was 6° while playing Cyberpunk 2077, wherein GeForce RTX 3080 Ti was 6° cooler than its sibling. However, they were both within the safe temperature ranges even in that benchmark, so the difference doesn’t count much.
After calculating their temperatures in 7 games while playing at 4K ultra settings, we came to a draw as the average temperature of the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti, and the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti was 62° Celsius.
Pricing And Availability
Due to the chip shortage that has continued for several months now, the price listed by the manufacturer might not mean much to any potential buyer. However, you should still know that NVIDIA lists the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti at a starting price of $899.
This $899 card is the founder’s edition with no gimmicks, bells and whistles, and over-the-top cooling features. If you want to get your hands on GeForce RTX 3080 Ti with several enhancements from NVIDIA’s board partners, you’ll have to head over to Amazon or other retailers.
Once you’re there, be prepared to pay a price of up to or in excess of $1,100 for your GeForce RTX 3080 Ti. Now, since NVIDIA hasn’t designed an original version of its GeForce RTX 4070 Ti, you’ll have to rely on commonly-known board partners like MSI, Gigabyte, ASUS, PNY, and more.
NVIDIA lists the starting price of its GeForce RTX 4070 Ti at $799, but that becomes irrelevant when you are bound to purchase the card from a board partner. An MSI version of the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti with enhanced cooling and boosted clock speed can easily be bought for $949.
If we were to compare the MSRPs of both cards, GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is $100 more expensive than GeForce RTX 4070 Ti. In other words, you’ll be paying 12.5% more to buy a GeForce RTX 3080 Ti than you would for a GeForce RTX 4070 Ti.
Do you hate having limited options? Are you open to exploring other non-VIDIA graphics cards? If yes, we recommend you check out our guide detailing the best RX 7900 XTX graphics cards you can find in the market today.
Which One’s For You?
It’s a decision that should be left for you to make because you can take into account all the factors that affect your purchase. What is it that you are seeking, and what is it that you can let go of today?
Memory clock speeds, RAM bandwidths, and BUS widths are better on the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti. It also has more CUDA cores, RT cores, and tensor cores, with better TMUs and ROPs than GeForce RTX 4070 Ti.
However, GeForce RTX 4070 Ti has a better core clock and base clock. Furthermore, it offers you a more optimized architecture i.e. Ada Lovelace, which is the successor of Ampere. As a result of this generation/architecture jump, you are getting next-gen ray tracing and AI acceleration on the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti.
To sum up their performance in our 4K gaming benchmarks, the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti was the winner of the FPS battle by offering a 16% improvement over the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti in framerates.
It is also 15.3% more power-efficient than the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and could save you some energy bills. Last but not least, their thermal statistics were quite identical to the benchmarks, so you won’t be spending any extra money on cooling costs with either card.
At the end of our GeForce RTX 4070 Ti vs GeForce RTX 3080 Ti comparison, it is important to mention that GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is 12.5% more expensive than its successor GeForce RTX 4070 Ti.
Frequently Asked Questions
While they may have a similar size, since GeForce RTX 4070 Ti doesn’t have a founder’s edition, its size will vary from manufacturer to manufacturer.
Not really! You always have to look at their real-world performance to decide. In the benchmarks we analyzed, GeForce RTX 4070 Ti was better in the FPS and power usage head-to-head.
Yes, both GeForce RTX 4070 Ti and GeForce RTX 3080 Ti support DirectX 12 Ultimate.
According to NVIDIA’s website, both graphics cards should be able to support up to 4 monitors.
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