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Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Super review: what the RTX 4070 should have beenSupe’s on
Supe’s on
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun
It’s been two wholegraphics cardgenerations since Nvidia last tried the whole Super-branded refreshthing, and from what I recall of that sweaty 2019 summer, most of the updated RTX 20 series cards were meek rejigs ofGPUsthat didn’t really need replacing in the first place. Having tried the new RTX 4070 Super, though, it looks like Nvidia aren’t just redeeming the Super badge – they might just right the wrongs of the RTX 40 family as a whole.
Besides being a bit of a looker – more rounded edges please, graphics card makers – this Aero model also sports a nigh-unbelievably quiet triple fan cooler. Next to my own PC’sRTX 3090Founders’ Edition, which whirrs like a panicked Roomba whenever it needs to render something in three dimensions, the RTX 4070 Super Aero OC keeps to a mere whisper even when firing out frames at 4K. Which, incidentally, it’s not half bad at.
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Super review: 4K benchmarks
While Nvidia originally pitched the RTX 4070 as a 1440p machine, the RTX 4070 Super is basically 4K-ready from the off. Even at native rez, with zero aid from upscaling or DLSS 3’s frame generation, most games can zip along above 60fps, so you’re certainly looking at 100fps-plus in those that support DLSS or FSR. These results show how tidy a performance boost the RTX 4070 Super actually has over last year’s model: in a lot of cases, the difference between the two is roughly as big as that between the RTX 4070 andRTX 3070. Click, as always, to enlarge:
Even more enticingly, the RTX 4070 Super repeatedly catches up to – and sometimes slightly outpaces – the RTX 4070 Ti. True, that’s about to be shoved aside in favour of its own Super version, but the fact is that this GPU can go toe-to-toe with one that can easily cost £200 more. Not bad, not bad at all.
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Super review: 1440p benchmarks
You might even say that the RTX 4070 Super makes more sense as a ‘budget’ 4K card than it does as a devourer of 1440p. Not because it fails in this regard – again, it’s capable of major gains over the RTX 4070, especially inShadow of the Tomb RaiderandHorizon Zero Dawn. Nonetheless, its advantages narrow at this resolution, leaving the competition feeling much fiercer.
For native-rez, non-ray tracing play, the cheaper RX 7800 XT repeatedly looks like the smarter option. It matches the RTX 4070 Super’s impressive HZD peak and then some, doing the same inForza Horizon 5, and is rarely far behind otherwise.
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun
Then there’s DLSS, which even outside of framerate concerns is a better-looking upscaler than any version of FSR thus far. But it can go faster as well, as Hitman 3 demonstrated – adding Quality-level DLSS to those RT settings allowed the RTX 4070 Super to hit 91fps, utterly thumping the 69fps that the RX 7800 XT recorded with Quality FSR 2.
The arrival ofFSR 3means that Radeon GPUs now have a frame generation alternative to DLSS 3, but AMD’s version is so lacking in game support right now that the RTX 40 series’ compatibility with DLSS 3 can still be considered a win. And withDLSS 3.5’s Ray Reconstructionavailable as well, albeit injust a few gamesitself, the RTX 4070 Super comprehensively beats the RX 7800 XT on features. As such, the fact that the two are so close on ‘core’ 1440p performance matters… maybe not little, but definitely less. You still get much, much more for your money with the Super.
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun
