NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 vs. RTX 3070: Which GPU should you buy?

Although a newer graphics card is obviously better than in old one in many ways, even last-generation GPUs can rank among the best graphics cards, mainly because old GPUs are often discounted and have better bang for buck. The RTX 3070 is now finally available at its $500 since it launched in late 2020, but is it worth buying over the $600 RTX 4070? The short answer for most users is that the 4070 is probably the better card to buy, and there are quite a few reasons why.

Price, availability, and specs

Both the 3070 and the 4070 are currently available at their MSRPs of $500 and $600 respectively, though you might have trouble finding some 3070s at $500. Many models retail around the $550 mark, which is just a $50 savings over $600 4070s, which aren't exactly hard to find. Given how close these two GPUs can be when it comes to pricing, only the cheapest 3070s are worth buying. Even with a price gap of just $100, it makes a big difference on the spec sheet in some crucial areas.

There are a couple of areas where the 3070 looks a little better than the 4070: it's cheaper and has a bigger memory bus. Also, the core count of these two cards is identical. However, that's more than offset by the 4070's massively higher clock speed, larger VRAM, and slightly higher memory bandwidth (even though the 4070 has a slimmer bus, its GDDR6X memory is clocked much higher). On paper, it certainly looks like the 4070 is worth the $100 extra.

Design and features

The Founders Edition models of the 3070 and 4070 are pretty similar, taking up almost the exact same amount of space and carrying the distinct reference cooler theme Nvidia has used since the 30 series. However, the 4070's cooler is more akin to the RTX 3080 and RTX 4080, with each fan covering altering sides of the graphics card, whereas the 3070's two fans are both on the same side. In testing conducted by Tom's Hardware, under full load the 4070 runs at about 60 to 63 degrees, while the 3070 runs just about at 69 degrees, though this is mostly because the 3070 consumes more power.

As for performance in laptops, it's complicated. The 4070 desktop GPU and the 4070 laptop GPU are not actually the same at all, and when it comes to core count and VRAM, the 4070 mobile is much closer to the RTX 4060 Ti 8GB. This pseudo-4070 is still more power efficient than the 3070 however, and since laptops are very power limited, power efficiency is a big deal and directly impacts performance.

Inside the processor itself, there are only two notable features the 4070 has that the 3070 doesn't. DLSS 3, or DLSS with frame generation, is exclusive to the 40 series and probably will be for the foreseeable future. By using AI to create new frames based on ones that the GPU actually rendered, DLSS 3 can just about double the framerate in supported games, and on paper that's a great performance boost.

But here's the catch: AI-made frames need to be inserted between two already rendered frames, and the AI also needs to duplicate UI elements. Instead of showing you the newest frame immediately, it has to be held back so the AI can show you one of its frames first, and that imposes a severe latency penalty, which is going to feel very weird when combined with a high framerate since high framerates usually mean low latency. Additionally, AI isn't very good at replicating UI elements, particularly text, and you will regularly see weird graphical glitches and flickers in the UI.

The other feature the 4070 boasts is AV1 encoding, which is even more niche but also potentially a game changer for anyone who streams or records gameplay. AV1 encoding is even more efficient and better looking than the popular H.264 encoder, and it's already getting important support in streaming apps like OBS and platforms like YouTube. As of the time of writing, Twitch doesn't support AV1 encoding, but when it does, it will make AV1 a big ticket feature for the 4070.

RTX 4070 vs. RTX 3070: Performance

Considering these two cards aren't too different when it comes to design or features, it really comes down to performance. Given that the 3070 is about 80% of the cost of the 4070, ideally it would also have about 80% of the performance of the 4070, at least so it can be of equal value. According to reviews from Tom's Hardware and Techspot, the 3070 can't quite live up to that ideal however, and only has about 75% of the performance of the 4070 at 1440p and 4K. That also means the 4070 is about 30% faster than the 3070.

But things can be very dismal for the 3070. In games like The Last of Us Part I, Resident Evil 4, and A Plague Tale: Requiem, the 3070 can see extremely poor performance at the highest quality settings, especially if ray tracing is turned on. This is because the 3070 only has 8GB of VRAM, and with 12GB the 4070 currently shows no problems in the latest games. Although many are concerned about the amount of VRAM 40 series cards like the 4070 Ti and 4060 Ti come with, 12GB seems sufficient for the 4070's level of performance, at least for now.

This all doesn't really matter in games where you want a super high framerate, like esports titles such as Rocket League and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. The 4070 will offer higher visual quality at the same framerate, but you're not playing these games for visuals. Additionally, these games almost never support DLSS at all, so frame generation won't make a big difference either.

Which graphics card is right for you?

In the end, the 4070 is certainly the better value even if you can find a 3070 at $500. It's about 30% faster for just 20% more, plus it comes with 50% more VRAM, and two features you might find useful. The 3070 certainly isn't obsolete, but it's simply not a particularly good value at current retail pricing. It becomes more compelling at $400 to $450, but it's unlikely that you'll ever find a 3070 retailing for that little.

Better value Nvidia 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

Nvidia's GeForce RTX 4070 is a midrange card in the RTX 40 series based on the Ada Lovelace architecture.

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

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At the same time, the 3070 also has a tough time competing with other cards, such as the RTX 4060Ti 16GB, which is about as fast as the 3070 with double the memory; the RX 6800 XT, which costs about as much as the 3070 with the performance of the 4070 and 4GB more VRAM; and the RX 6700 XT, which retails for about $350 but performs like the 3070. It's true that the 4070 is a bit behind AMD cards in terms of raw performance-to-price, but has advantages in efficiency and features. The 3070 just can't carve out a space of its own in the current environment.

Only worth buying at $450 or less

NVIDIA RTX 3070

Nvidia's GeForce RTX 3070 is a midrange RTX 30 series card from 2020, good for 1080p and 1440p gaming. It only has 8GB of VRAM however, which can be limiting at high graphics settings.

$570 at Amazon $600 at Newegg $570 at Best Buy

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Ultimately, the 4070 is simply the better card in almost every respect, and if you can afford to pay $500 for the 3070, odds are you can justify spending $600 for the 4070. At least, you definitely should buy the 4070 over the 3070 if you're choosing between the two. If $500 is the most you can spend, there are better options like the RTX 4060 Ti 16GB and the 6800 XT.