NVIDIA never seems to stop pushing the boundaries of what a GPU can do, and the release of the RTX 4070 Founders Edition exemplifies this pursuit of excellence for the enthusiast gamer. Designed as a mid-range workhorse, this GPU delivers an uncompromised gaming experience at 1080p and 1440p resolutions, bringing all the latest NVIDIA features at a much more affordable price.
The innovative RTX 4070 seamlessly blends cutting-edge design and groundbreaking features to deliver unparalleled gaming performance and outstanding creative software support. Despite being released later than its more powerful siblings in the 40-series lineup, the 4070 proves to be a reliable and cost-effective solution, ensuring that adopting the ADA Lovelace architecture makes perfect sense for those looking for a valuable GPU upgrade.
Design and Specs
In keeping with the style of the rest of the 40-series family, the RTX 4070 Founders Edition features a compact and sleek design that is sure to turn heads. With dimensions that are 5% smaller than the 3060 Ti and a classic NVIDIA metallic finish, the RTX 4070 packs a lot of power into a much smaller form factor. Despite its relatively compact design, the card still has all the features you would expect from a modern GPU, including fantastic thermals to keep things cool.
| RTX 4090 24GB | RTX 4080 16GB | RTX 4070 Ti 12GB | RTX 4070 12GB | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Processor | AD102 | AD103 | AD104 | AD104 |
| Transistors | 76.3B | 45.9B | 35.8B | 35.6B |
| Die Size | 608mm² | 379mm² | 295mm² | 295mm² |
| CUDA Cores | 16384 | 9728 | 7680 | 5888 |
| Boost Clock | 2.52GHz | 2.51GHz | 2.61GHz | 2.475GHz |
| Memory Interface | 384-bit | 256-bit | 192-bit | 192-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | 1018GB/s | 742GB/s | 557GB/s | 504GB/s |
| TGP | 450W | 320W | 285W | 200W |
| PSU Recommendation | 850W | 750W | 700W | 650W |
| PSU Cables | 4x 8-pin | 3x 8-pin | 2x 8-pin | 2x 8-pin |
| Base Price | $1499 | $1199 | $799 | $599 |
| Release date | October 12th, 2022 | November 16th, 2022 | January 5th, 2023 | April 13th, 2023 |
Cooling is paramount in a high-performance GPU, and similar to other members of the Founders Edition family, NVIDIA has implemented an impressive cooling solution for the RTX 4070. The card features a dual-fan system with one fan on each side of the heatsink for efficient heat dissipation. This design and a large vapour chamber ensure the card stays cool even under heavy workloads.
Under the hood, much like the other 4070-series cards we’ve looked at, you’ll find cutting-edge technical specs for modern gaming and GPU workloads. Based on the advanced Lovelace architecture, the RTX 4070 has 5,888 CUDA cores, 184 Tensor cores, 46 Ray Tracing cores, and a base clock speed of 1,920 MHz that can be bumped up to 2,475 MHz. With a power consumption of 270W, the RTX 4070 is the epitome of efficiency, delivering unparalleled performance while consuming an impressive 16% less power than its predecessor.
Memory and bandwidth are critical to smooth gameplay and high-resolution rendering, so NVIDIA has provided this latest iteration with a decent amount of RAM. The RTX 4070 is equipped with 16GB of GDDR6X memory, a significant improvement over the 8GB of GDDR6 memory found in the RTX 3070. The 192-bit memory interface combined with a memory bandwidth of 504GB/s ensures that the card can easily handle the most demanding tasks. This is a noticeable improvement over the RTX 3070, providing more memory for the many games that push the limits of 8GB.
“In our 1080p gaming tests, the RTX 4070 Founders Edition comes out swinging and sets the new standard for mid-range gaming.”
Unfortunately, unlike other 4070 cards from third-party manufacturers, the RTX 4070 Founders Edition still requires the new 12-pin PCIe 5 connector, but thankfully there’s a 12VHPWR adapter cable in the box so you can connect two eight-pin PCIe power cables. While this has its advantages, the fact that other 4070 cards can run on a single 8-pin makes this a disappointing choice, especially for people updating their older gaming rigs.
Price and Features
With an MSRP of $599, the GeForce RTX 4070 Founders Edition brings the 40-series GPUs closer to a price point accessible to the average PC buyer. While this places the RTX 4070 at the high end of the mid-range market, its excellent performance and feature set offers a strong value proposition. Despite previous criticism of 40-series pricing, the RTX 4070 offers a more reasonable option for those considering an upgrade.
Like the rest of the 40-series family, the RTX 4070 Founders Edition is packed with the latest features we have come to expect from ADA Lovelace, including accelerated ray tracing technology and DLSS3. With the new 4th generation tensor cores and 3rd generation ray tracing cores, there is more power to ensure that games look and run well even with all the stunning lighting and effects turned up, but as with everything, we will have to check the benchmarks to see how well everything works for the end user experience.
In our state-of-the-art testing lab, we eagerly tucked the GeForce RTX 4070 Founders Edition GPU into our powerful be quiet! Dark Base Pro 900 test rig. Armed with a 13th gen Intel i9-13900K, an MSI 850W PSU, a whopping 64GB of SK Hynix DDR5 RAM, and a blazing fast PCIe Gen 4 2TB Kingston Fury M.2 SSD, this setup was primed to reveal the unbridled power of NVIDIA’s latest gem. Determined to paint a comprehensive portrait of its performance potential for our tech-savvy readers, we dove in to see how the RTX 4070 Founders Edition stacked up against the competition.
1080p Benchmarks
| Benchmark | RTX 3070 | RTX 4080 | RTX 4070 FE | RX 7900 XTX |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | 154 | 278 | 237 | 247 |
| Assassin’s Creed Valhalla | 88 | 169 | 148 | 209 |
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 82 | 189 | 146.2 | 155 |
| Cyberpunk 2077 + RT | 49 | 94.7 | 59.32 | 75 |
| Cyberpunk 2077 DLSS + RT | 71.89 | 140.08 | 153.2 | – |
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 | 128 | 249 | 145 | 236 |
| Rainbow Six Siege | 524 | 643 | 627 | 522 |
In our 1080p gaming tests, the RTX 4070 Founders Edition comes out swinging and sets the new standard for mid-range gaming. With an average of 146 FPS across a variety of demanding titles such as Cyberpunk 2077, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, the RTX 4070 held its own in our suite of tests. With settings cranked to Ultra, it easily outperformed the older generation models and even left some of the higher-end RTX 30-series models in the dust.
The story doesn’t end there; the RTX 4070 Founders Edition’s performance was also evident in competitive multiplayer titles like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Rainbow Six Siege. By providing a smooth and consistent frame rate, the RTX 4070 Founders Edition gives gamers a significant advantage, ensuring buttery smooth gameplay in twitch action scenarios. Granted, it won’t come close to the frames of its bigger brothers, but for the average gamer, there’s more than enough power to handle most 1080P workloads.
When incorporating ray tracing, a feature known to challenge even high-end GPUs, the RTX 4070 was able to pull it off, delivering immersive experiences without compromising performance. In games like Cyberpunk 2077, it consistently maintained frame rates around 60fps, showing detailed visuals with real-time reflections, global illumination, and impressive lighting effects, and managed to reach over 150fps with DLSS 3 enabled.
1440p Benchmarks
| Benchmark | RTX 3070 | RTX 4080 | RTX 4070 FE | RX 7900 XTX |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | 100 | 178 | 162 | 224 |
| Assassin’s Creed Valhalla | 72 | 144 | 113 | 170 |
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 63 | 124 | 80 | 128 |
| Cyberpunk 2077 + RT | 26.35 | 61 | 36.81 | 55 |
| Cyberpunk 2077 DLSS + RT | 59.2 | 117.44 | 117.42 | – |
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 | 81 | 159 | 105.5 | 171 |
| Rainbow Six Siege | 376 | 590.5 | 475 | 508.8 |
The power of the RTX 4070 Founders Edition did not stop at 1080p, as it tackled 1440p gaming with remarkable performance. Achieving well over 100 FPS on popular titles such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the RTX 4070 held its own, delivering exceptional frame rates and great visuals. With the ever-increasing demand for 1440p gaming, the GPU really showed its mettle.
This GPU’s prowess extended even further when it came to ray tracing and DLSS at 1440p. When playing games like Cyberpunk 2077 with ray tracing and DLSS enabled, the RTX 4070 impressively delivered frame rates north of 100 fps, reinforcing its value proposition for those looking to indulge in nicer graphics and higher resolutions.
4K Benchmarks
| Benchmark | RTX 3070 | RTX 4080 | RTX 4070 FE | RX 7900 XTX |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | 65 | 134 | 84 | 131 |
| Assassin’s Creed Valhalla | 52 | 97 | 67 | 108 |
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 32 | 79.5 | 37.14 | 80.8 |
| Cyberpunk 2077 + RT | 7.94 | 29.3 | 17.73 | 31.3 |
| Cyberpunk 2077 DLSS + RT | 36.65 | 80.2 | 72 | – |
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 | 52 | 119 | 63.5 | 125 |
| Rainbow Six Siege | 201 | 468.1 | 243 | 383.1 |
While the RTX 4070 Founders Edition isn’t specifically designed for 4K gaming enthusiasts, it does a surprisingly good job at this demanding resolution. Similar to what we saw when we looked at the COLORFUL GeForce RTX 4070, the Founders Edition delivered an average of 65 fps in graphics-intensive titles like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, capturing crisp and stunning visuals every step of the way.
Ray tracing, as would be expected and we have seen with other cards in the 40-series family, brought Cyberpunk 2077 to a much less impressive 17.73 FPS, thankfully DLSS the features packed in the Ada Lovelace series GPUs, we managed to see the game deliver 72, with no noticeable degradation in quality or latency. This is not a card built to deliver native 4K ray tracing, but NVIDIA has done the work to make it possible, and something people on a budget can utilize and enjoy.
Creative Software
The RTX 4070 Founders Edition GPU is a gaming powerhouse and proves its versatility by excelling in creative software tasks. Thanks to its Ada Lovelace architecture, next-generation CUDA cores, and Tensor cores, this GPU is a reliable and powerful asset for content creators across multiple disciplines.
In multi-threaded rendering applications such as Blender, 3ds Max, and Cinema 4D, the RTX 4070 significantly accelerates rendering times, resulting in faster project completion and more efficient workflows. The ability to render detailed 3D models and complex scenes in real-time is a game changer for artists, allowing them to iterate faster and achieve more polished results.
Likewise, video editing and visual effects professionals can rely on the RTX 4070 Founders Edition to handle demanding workloads in software such as Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, and DaVinci Resolve. By taking advantage of GPU acceleration, the RTX 4070 Founders Edition speeds up timeline previews, real-time playback, and effects rendering, giving editors more time to fine-tune their projects and perfect their craft. Like all members of the 40-series GPU family, the RTX 4070 also features AV1 encoding, further expanding the toolset for creators looking to get the most out of their GPU.
Photographers and graphic designers will also benefit from the RTX 4070’s impressive performance. With support for CUDA-accelerated features in programs like Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom, artists will enjoy more responsive brush strokes, faster filter applications, and near-instant file exports.
The Competition
In head-to-head comparisons, the RTX 4070 completely outperformed many 30-series cards and AMD offerings in both gaming performance and creative software, making it a compelling option. With significantly better ray tracing capabilities and overall higher frame rates, the GeForce RTX 4070 was a solid choice, especially for the price.
With support for NVIDIA Reflex, the RTX 4070 Founders Edition stands out as an ideal choice for gamers looking to gain an edge in competitive titles with lower latency and responsive gameplay. In addition, the card’s higher GDDR6 memory allocation and enhanced NVENC and AV1 support give content creators the flexibility to stream and record gameplay in stunning quality without compromising performance.
For those patiently waiting out the GPU shortage or current gamers looking to upgrade, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Founders Edition is a compelling choice to enhance their gaming experience. With top-notch gaming performance, creative software capabilities, and highly sought-after support for ray tracing and DLSS, this GPU ticks all the boxes and then some.
While it may not be explicitly aimed at the hardcore 4K gaming crowd, a reasonable price and a host of impressive features make it an attractive proposition for everyone else. The GeForce RTX 4070 is easily one of the best-designed and most powerful GPUs available today, hitting a very competitive sweet spot for immersive and high-fidelity gaming. Investing in this GPU is worthwhile for those looking to enjoy the latest and greatest games without breaking the bank.
