NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 vs. 4080: Which GPU should you go for?

• Best value RTX 40 series GPU

  

  Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070

  Graphics RAM Size

  12GB GDDR6X

  Brand

  Nvidia

  Architecture

  Ada Lovelace

  Process

  5nm

  Transistors

  35.8 billion

  Shader Units

  5,888

  The cheapest card in the RTX 40 series, it gives you access to the latest tech that NVIDIA has to offer at a reasonable price.

  Pros & Cons

  • Cheapest RTX 40 series card
  • Two-slot size means you can fit it in smaller cases

  • Falters when trying to run 2k or higher resolutions, which a lot of modern systems do

  $600 at Amazon $600 at Best Buy $600 at NVIDIA

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• Great for 2k gaming

  

  Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080

  Memory Clock Speed

  1,400 MHz

  Brand

  Nvidia

  Architecture

  Ada Lovelace

  Process

  4 nm

  Transistors

  45.9 billion

  Shader Units

  9,728

  The RTX 4080 is great when it comes to 2k gaming, although if you're going to be spending this much, it might be better to aim for the 4090, or one of the higher end AMD GPUs instead.

  Pros & Cons

  • Can provide high frames when running 1080p or 1440p games
  • Better ray tracing performance

  • Is too expensive for what it offers

  $1,170 at Amazon $1,220 at Newegg

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Nvidia’s RTX 40 series had, and still has, a lot of controversy surrounding it, whether it’s the historically high price tag, or the ‘unannouncing’ of the RTX 4080 12GB model and its re-release as the RTX 4070 Ti. That said, the RTX 40 series has significant performance improvements over the RTX 30 series, and if you want to run 1440p or even 4k at 120Hz+, your best bet is the RTX 40 series. Luckily, both the RTX 4070 and 4080 have their use case and are some of the best gaming graphics cards, so let’s take a deeper look at which is the best for you.

Price, availability, and specs

The RTX 4070 is the cheapest 40 series card, with an MSRP of $599, although you’ll likely find third-party cards running you an extra 10-20% more. Luckily, we aren’t having the same production bottlenecks as we had in 2020–2021 years, so the RTX 4070 should be relatively easy to find. You also won’t likely see the high scalper prices, so certainly, shop around if you can’t find it within 20% of the MSRP. It also comes with improvements to streaming, including AV1 encoding, DLSS 3, and a surprisingly low power consumption compared to performance.

As for the RTX 4080, it’s significantly more expensive, with a whopping MSRP of $1,119, which is essentially twice the price of the 4070, although, again, third-party cards will cost 10-20% more. That puts the RTX 4080 in the ‘enthusiast’ space since most folks can’t afford that big an upgrade. It also means that the RTX 4080 is widely available, given its low demand, so you should be able to walk into any retail store and grab it off the shelf.

• 	Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070	Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080
  Brand	Nvidia	Nvidia
  Architecture	Ada Lovelace	Ada Lovelace
  Process	5nm	4 nm
  Transistors	35.8 billion	45.9 billion
  Ray Accelerators/Cores	46	76
  Stream Processors	46	76
  Base Clock Speed	1,920MHz	2,205 MHz
  Boost Clock Speed	2,480MHz	2,505 MHz
  Memory Bus	192-bit	256-bit
  Memory Bandwidth	504.2GB/s	716.8 GB/s
  Power Draw	200W	320 W

Design and features

The 40 series carries over the same looks and singular fan as the 30 series, at least when it comes to the founder's edition. The main difference is that the RTX 4070 is a dual-slot GPU, while the RTX 4080 is a triple-slot GPU, meaning you aren’t likely to fit the latter into a small form factor. Ideally, you’ll want one of the best PC cases for airflow if you plan to grab the RTX 4080, especially since you don’t want all the heat being vented directly onto other parts.

Both GPUs come with Nvidia’s fourth-gen Tensor cores, which power the new DLSS 3, their new AI-powered framerate booster that, according to Nvidia, can give you up to four times the number of frames. That means that games like Cyberpunk 2077, which is really resource-heavy, will give you better performance and frames on lower-end cards like the RTX 4070 with DLSS switched on.

Of course, DLSS tech introduces a bit of latency and is only really worth it when running 1440p or 2160p resolutions, and the big free-to-play games like Counter Strick: Global Offensive, Apex Legends, or League of Legends, don't even support it. In those cases, it’s better to go with a card that has pure power rather than better upscaling.

Similarly, both GPUs come with 2nd-gen RT cores for better Ray Tracing (also known as RTX, go figure!) and, if you’re streaming, more powerful and efficient streaming cores. Nvidia will also include AV1 encoding in the RTX 40 series, meaning you get better compression and video quality when streaming, which is a huge plus.

All of this is tied together with the new Ada Lovelace Architecture, which is built on the smaller 5nm boards and gives some impressive efficiency upgrades, making them some of the best graphics cards on the market. In fact, the TGP on the RTX 4070 and RTX 4080 is much lower per point of performance compared to the RTX 30 series, which somewhat offsets the increased costs of the card.

What this means is that regardless of whether you go for the RTX 4070 or the RTX 4080, they will look the same and have the same features.

Performance

When it comes to GPU performance, it’s always going to be a battle between frames per second (FPS) and graphical quality. Better FPS means things are less choppy, more smooth, and generally look better, especially when playing action-packed games like shooters such as Fortnite and Call of Duty. On the other hand, better graphics means things look prettier and is worth the sacrifice where a smoother experience isn’t as important, such as for games that are more narrative-focused, like The Witcher 3 or even the Resident Evil 4 Remake.

When looking at the performance of a GPU, we tend to focus on the frames per second since we can more easily control graphical settings. When you see the numbers below, they are all relative to the same graphical settings, such as resolution; the only difference is how many frames each GPU can push. The more frames, the more powerful it is, and the more leeway you have to play around with either better graphics or higher FPS

The long and short of it is that the RTX 4080 can have roughly 75% better than the RTX 4070, depending on the game. The RTX 4070 comes with 5888 CUDA cores, a boost clock speed of 2.48 GHz, and 12GB of GDDR6X, compared to the 9728 CUDA cores of the RTX 4080, 2.51Ghz boost clock speed and 16GB of GDDR6X. All the numbers presented here are based off “good” graphical settings, with the only difference being how much smoother the experience is.

For the most part, the RTX 4070 is great for 1080p gaming, netting you 150+ FPS on most games, while the RTX 4080 only gives you a 50% increase in that, so it’s not as great for the low end. That means if you want to play some Fortnite, Counterstrike, or League of Legends, all games that rely on higher frame rates, then the RTX 4070 is a great option if you're playing on FHD resolution since it gives you the best value.

On the other hand, moving up to 1440p, you’ll see the RTX 4070 mostly maxing out at 100fps, while the RTX 4080 will likely net you 150FPS and potentially up to 200 in certain games and settings.

Finally, at 4k, the RTX 4070 struggles and will often max out at 50-60FPS if you’re lucky. On the other hand, the RTX 4080 can easily hit 90 or 100FPS and might even exceed it if you’re willing to compromise a bit on the graphical settings.

So, putting all that together, the RTX 4070 excels at 1080p gaming and will manage 1440p gaming if you compromise. As for the RTX 4080, it’s the ideal 1440p GPU, and if you’re running a 4k resolution, you might find yourself compromising on the graphics to hit that ideal 120-144FPS.

Which graphics card is right for you?

Both the RTX 4070 and 4080 are hard GPUs to recommend because of their price-to-performance parity. While the 1:1 performance and price increase make sense on paper, it’s one of the things that has dampened enthusiasm for these cards. The thing is, technological advances tend to be passed on to the consumer, with the same performance being cheaper than previous generations. Given that the RTX 4070 under-performs compared to the RTX 3080 and costs only $100 or so less, the RTX 3080 would probably be a better pick over the RTX 4070.

That said, the RTX 4070 gives you DLSS 3, better power and streaming efficiency compared to the RTX 3080, and better ray tracing, so it might be worth the extra $100 from that perspective.

On the other hand, the RTX 4080 is a harder sell, if only because you might as well grab an RTX 4090 if you’re spending that much money on a GPU. The 4080 sits in a weird spot when it comes to performance, and if you’re going to be running something that needs it, such as 4k, the 4090 will just fit better. So, if you’re considering the 4080, save up and grab the 4090 instead, or go for something like the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX, which is cheaper, has better performance, and runs 24GB of VRAM instead of just 16GB. In fact, we have a breakdown of the RX 7900 XTX vs. RTX 4080, which you should look at.

And if all that doesn’t make a lick of sense to you, what it boils down to is that the RTX 4070 works for FHD gaming the best to give you the best frames and graphics. On the other hand, the RTX 4080 is just not really great anywhere for the money you’re paying; it’s better to go with the RTX 4090 to be sure you get the performance. Or even better, go for the high-end AMD GPUs like the RX 7900 XTX.

Ideally, it’s best to skip the RTX 40 series and wait for the RTX 50 series or go for the RX 7000 series instead.