Nvidia’s latest GPU, the RTX 4070 Ti promises tremendous performance versus previous-generation counterparts. But, how does it manage to stack up against the competition?
ZOTAC’s latest graphics card might not look too dissimilar to the RTX 4080 and RTX 4090 variants before it, but it houses an all-new Nvidia chip inside. The RTX 4070 Ti is based on the GA104-chip and infamously shares the same specifications as the now canceled RTX 4080 12GB model.
It’s likely that the 4080 12GB, or what we now know as the 4070 Ti was bound for release with the RTX 4080, but the renaming caused a delay, which pushed the release into 2023. This RTX 40-series GPU is no slouch, however, and still offers incredibly competitive performance against its biggest competitor, AMD.
Key specs
| ZOTAC GAMING Geforce RTX 4070 Ti AMP Extreme AIRO | |
|---|---|
| NVIDIA CUDA Cores | 7680 |
| Clock speed | 2610 MHz |
| Memory | 12 GB GDDR6X |
| Memory Interface Width | 192-bit |
| Graphics Card Power | 285W |
| Required System Power | 700W |
| Power inputs | 12WVHPWR (3x 8-pin PCIe adapter included) |
| Display outputs | 3x DisplayPort 1.4a, 1x HDMI 2.1 |
| Size | 355.5mm x 149.6mm x 72.1mm (3.5 slot) |
| Price | TBC |
Design
We’ve seen the same ZOTAC designs on the RTX 4080 and RTX 4090, so we won’t go into too much detail here. You’re getting a huge GPU, with a healthy dose of a handful of RGB adornments along the top, giving it a lovely holographic effect while off, and immersive RGB while on. Around the bottom, you also have three huge fans, which are sandwiched between a large heatsink for dissipating all of the thermal mass that you’ll be generating while using the GPU.
Along the top, you will be able to see the retention arms for the GPU, if you wanted to perform maintenance on the GPU down the line, and we think that it’s one of the better-looking cards on the market, and one that has oodles of sweeping curves.
One thing you should absolutely note is its gargantuan size. It’s a 3.5-slot GPU, and it will demand a lot of space if you were to put one in your case. Compared to more basic cooling solutions, or glaring bejeweled ones, ZOTAC has clearly put a lot of effort in here, but we still prefer the look of their previous-generation RTX 30-series designs, instead.
But, on the inside, there’s a much more interesting thing happening.
This was never meant to be an RTX 4070 Ti
The GA104 chip inside the RTX 4070 Ti was initially supposed to be inside the RTX 4080 12GB model which was unceremoniously cancelled. However, this didn’t stop Nvidia from rebadging the card in response to a consumer backlash.
Now, dressed up with a new name, The RTX 4070 Ti retains all of the same specifications that we saw in Fall 2022, but does the performance manage to match up to its price point?
Performance
The RTX 4070 Ti puts up a formidable fight against its bigger brothers, but the real story is in its comparisons to the Radeon RX 7900 XT, as they are much closer in price. This is yet another GPU to be equipped with DLSS 3, which has frame-generation technology inside it.
With 12GB of blazing-fast GDDR6X, you should also expect this GPU to perform admirably at 4K and 1440p, which is how we’ll benchmark this particular GPU.
Test system
- CPU: Intel Core i5-13600K
- CPU cooler: Cooler Master PL360 Flux
- Motherboard: ASUS ROG Z790 Maximus Extreme
- RAM: ADATA XPG Lancer RGB 32GB DDR5-6000
- Storage: Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus 4TB
- Case: Hyte Y60
- PSU: EVGA Supernova GT 1300
Our test system should manage to get huge performance out of the RTX 4070 Ti, though in easier-to-run titles, there may be signs of CPU bottlenecking.
RTX 4070 Ti 4K gaming performance
The RTX 4070 Ti, clearly trades blows with the RX 7900 XT. However, Nvidia’s more mature ray-tracing cores in addition to DLSS make it superior as a whole, when compared to Team Red’s contender.
| Game | Zotac RTX 4070 Ti AMP Extreme AIRO | RTX 4080 Founders Edition | RX 7900 XT MBA |
| Forza Horizon 5 (Ultra) | 123 FPS | 137 FPS | 107 FPS |
| Cyberpunk 2077 (Ultra, RT Ultra, DLSS Performance, Frame Generation / FSR ) | 89 FPS | 108 FPS | 44 FPS |
| Cyberpunk 2077 (Ultra, RT Ultra, DLSS off) | 29 FPS | 29 FPS | 16 FPS |
| CS:GO (High, Dust 2) | 264 FPS | 399 FPS | 340 FPS |
| Overwatch 2 (Ultra) | 272 FPS | 446 FPS | 308 FPS |
According to our benchmarking data, the RTX 4070 is 4% slower than the RX 7900 XT at 4K. The RTX 4080 is around 36% faster at 4K, too. However, this average is weighted due to the difference in performance in CS:GO and Overwatch 2.
The RTX 4070 Ti tramples the RX 7900 XT when it comes to ray-traced performance, and DLSS, which are its two biggest assets versus Team Red. Also, while gaming, the differences in performance for esports titles here are more than enough to sate even the most competitive players.
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RTX 4070 Ti 1440p gaming performance
At 1440p, it’s a much closer race for the RTX 4070 Ti. The GPU excels at 1440p at high framerates, making it an ideal option for those who still want all the fancy graphical bells and whistles turned on, but don’t want the hassle of dealing with how taxing 4K performance is on any given system.
| Game | Zotac RTX 4070 Ti AMP Extreme AIRO | RTX 4080 Founders Edition | RX 7900 XT MBA |
| Forza Horizon 5 (Ultra) | 146 FPS | 161 FPS | 121 FPS |
| Cyberpunk 2077 (Ultra, RT Ultra, DLSS Performance, Frame Generation / FSR ) | 162 FPS | 181 FPS | 60 FPS |
| Cyberpunk 2077 (Ultra, RT Ultra, DLSS off) | 50 FPS | 63 FPS | 31 FPS |
| CS:GO (High, Dust 2) | 399 FPS | 399 FPS | 399 FPS |
| Overwatch 2 (Ultra) | 416 FPS | 512 FPS | 406 FPS |
Here, we see the RTX 4070 Ti take the lead off of the RX 7900 XT by around 14%. This is owed to the monstrous performance gains seen in Cyberpunk 2077, in addition to a general snappiness in every other game that we tested.
Compared to the RTX 4080 however, the 4070 Ti lags behind by a smaller margin of 11%. This is a pretty minimal performance difference at this resolution and highlights that the RTX 4070 is best used at 1440p, while the sweet spot for the 4080 is at 4K.
At this price, you should hope to be getting great performance, and for us, the RTX 4070 Ti seems like one of the ideal GPUs for playing games at 1440p at high framerates.
RTX 4070 Ti synthetic benchmarks
| Benchmark | Zotac RTX 4070 Ti AMP Extreme AIRO | RX 7900 XT MBA | RTX 4080 Founders Edition | RTX 4090 Founders Edition |
| Speed Way | 5525 | 4697 | 7179 | 10310 |
| Port Royal | 14482 | 13074 | 17829 | 22598 |
| Time Spy Extreme (Graphics score) | 11274 | 12979 | 14028 | 18578 |
Using 3DMark’s benchmarking suite, we found that the RTX 4070 Ti came out ahead compared to the RX 7900 XT in ray-traced workloads, but slightly lagged behind in pure rasterization performance. We saw this happen over on the 4K gaming benchmarks too. But, when the RTX 4070 Ti is operating at 1440p, it’s very tough to beat this proposition.
Thermals & noise
Zotac has done a stellar job of making a large, powerful cooler for this GPU. Equipped with a massive cooler in addition to numerous heat pipes allows the GPU to keep cool. In our Furmark torture testing, the GPU reached a maximum of 81 degrees, which is well within normal operational values, though you may see some throttling.
In normal gaming loads, the GPU topped at around 70 degrees when pushed to the brink at 4K in Cyberpunk 2077.
Regarding noise, the GPU runs shockingly quiet, considering how much we were pushing the GPU. We barely heard a peep from it, with zero coil whine to speak of, too.
Should you buy it?
The RTX 4070 Ti is undoubtedly an impressive graphics card. We’d even say that at a base MSRP of $799, the GPU pushes the RX 7900 XT into irrelevance since the GPU mostly manages to keep pace at 1440p, and offer better driver and features for $100 less.
This particular model is one of the more expensive RTX 4070 Ti models. It is whisper quiet and has a premium cooler attached to it, too. But, considering the hundred-dollar markup that’s likely to happen thanks to its aftermarket cooler, you might want to save your cash to get an RTX 4080, instead.
Honestly speaking, the RTX 4070 Ti is only really approaching worthwhile if you manage to get it for its base MSRP pricing, any premium models then have to go up against the RTX 4080 FE, which simply wipes the floor with the RTX 4070 Ti in just about every way.
