Every few years, we get a new generation of graphics cards – but of course, it’s only natural that not all graphics cards, or even generations, are created equal. Nvidia’s 40-series GPUs are designed with ray tracing, artificial intelligence, and other such cutting-edge features in mind, and their performance is impressive, but their price is worrisome.
In many ways, Nvidia’s mid-gen 40-series updates aim to address all of these issues. Leading the way is the RTX 4070 Super, which surpasses its immediate predecessor but doesn’t actually replace it.
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The original 4070, launched last year for $600, will remain on the market but will be priced slightly lower at $550. The 4070 Super will be launching in the old $600 price range, meaning those looking to buy a new graphics card on that budget can now opt for a new option from Nvidia that delivers 20% more cores and significantly more graphics for the same price. Improved performance was paid for just nine months ago. On paper, this doesn’t sound like a bad idea.
Under actual conditions, various PC games were tested, and the 4070 improved by 10-15% compared to the ordinary 4070. If you want to compare it to the 4070 Ti, which was next in bracket in its initial release, it trails anywhere up to 20%, depending on the title. So the improvement is there, it’s real, and it’s tangible – although it’s clear that the 4070 Super’s real target audience isn’t those who already own 40-series cards: it’s for those who skipped it due to perceived inadequacy Designed by one or two generations of people. the value of. This is the main market for this type of card.
The story is a truly impressive upgrade in this category. Although related to gaming, when running at the target resolution of 1440p, I saw a huge improvement of about 50% compared to the RTX 3070. Forza Horizon 5 on extreme settings jumped from around 95-100fps on the old card to almost 150fps. 4070 Super – And this doesn’t even have DLSS3 support.
Jumping over to Cyberpunk 2077, the story is similar with or without AI-generated assistance – using ray tracing but no DLSS, Cyberpunk jumps from 30 fps on the 3070 to 50 fps. Frame rates on previous generation GPUs were just under 60 fps when DLSS was selected, but the 4070 Super can achieve frame rates in excess of 85 fps.
If you throw AMD into the mix, things look a little different, mainly due to the differences between Nvidia and AMD’s approaches to technology like supersampling (Nvidia’s DLSS vs. AMD’s FSR) and ray tracing. Broadly speaking, Nvidia still maintains an advantage in these features.
If we go back to pure raw rasterization, comparisons between any member of the 40 series and equivalent AMD cards will be much closer, and generally in favor of AMD in terms of price/performance. But given the additional technology, Nvidia is starting to get away with it. The 4070 continues this trend. AMD’s Radeon RX 7800 XT, for example, has an MSRP $100 less, but if you want ray tracing, the extra hundo is a no-brainer—even if it means saving a little more before pulling the trigger. a period of time.
All of these benchmarks are at 1440p, a resolution Nvidia itself has made clear its “70” cards are designed for. While you can upscale to 4K, there’s no denying that the original 4070 was a 1440p card, and in terms of performance, it’s still the best choice even with this upgrade. If you want a higher resolution, ideally you should go for the 80 – and if you’re already struggling with a 4K PC monitor, you’re probably also more likely to spend a fortune on a higher-end card.
Compared to its peers, the 4070 Super excels in both performance and value. But when you start considering pricing for older generation cards, a more complex equation emerges. You can no longer buy these cards, but if you look at 2020 pricing for a similarly ranged RTX 3070, it’s still going to be expensive. Well, consider that this card is slightly faster than the RTX 3080 – even though that card launched three years ago as a high-end option… just $50 more than the 4070 Super’s MSRP. This is not so much a sign of the 4070 Super as it is the direction in which the price/performance ratio of the entire GPU field (especially Nvidia’s GPUs) is going.
As a baseline, I expect most customers looking for this generation upgrade will end up choosing the 4070 Super graphics card. Even the most cursory glance at the Steam Hardware Survey shows that 1080p remains the most popular resolution, but 1440p is the evolving standard that will inevitably supplant it over the years. 4K is a great option for those who want to be on the cutting edge – but that’s where the market is. It’s a good card for this market, and the price isn’t bad – even if I still miss the pricing from a few years ago.
Back in 2019, the RTX 20-series GPUs got a super refresh — a line that felt like an apology from Nvidia — because we knew the prices were steep when they were initially released, especially compared to performance. In the end, the best cards of this generation were largely the Super versions – something that will likely be the case again with the 40 series. For those who have had a card for more than three years, this is a natural and worthwhile upgrade. However, it remains to be seen how high the overall value will be – the full picture will emerge as the rest of the supercards are tested.
