After a lot of anticipation, the cheapest GPU in the RTX 40-Series, the RTX 4070, is here. The RTX 4070 is firmly aimed at 1440p gaming and hopes to deliver a value proposition for gamers who can't afford to spend over a thousand dollars on the latest and greatest from Nvidia.

But how well does it compare to its last-gen sibling, the RTX 3070? More importantly, is upgrading to the RTX 4070 really worth it?

RTX 4070 vs. RTX 3070: Prices and Specs Compared

For starters, the cards are priced $100 apart. The RTX 4070 starts at $599, while the RTX 3070 launched at $499, although current pricing may differ.

So what do the extra 100 bucks get you in terms of specs?

For starters, more GPU memory; 12GB GDDR6X in the RTX 4070 as compared to 8GB GDDR6 in the RTX 3070. The RTX 4070 also consumes less power at 200W TGP and has a higher boost clock at 2.48GHz as compared to the RTX 3070's 220W TGP and slower 1.73GHz boost clock. However, the RTX 4070 has a smaller memory interface width, coming in at 192-bit compared to the RTX 3070's 256-bit.

They have identical CUDA, ray tracing, and Tensor core counts at 5,888, 46, and 184, respectively. However, thanks to the RTX 4070's newer Ada Lovelace architecture, this identical core count can make a generational difference as the ray tracing and Tensor cores are upgraded to their third and fourth generations, respectively.

There's a huge difference between the RTX 4070's 4nm TSMC manufacturing process to the RTX 3070's 8nm Samsung one, which results in significantly better performance and power efficiency. You only need a 650W PSU to run the RTX 4070, compared to the 750W required for the RTX 3070. As long as you have enough power, there's no need to upgrade your PSU for the entire RTX 40-Series lineup.

Other notable differences appear when you look at the Nvidia features both cards offer. You get DLSS 3 on the RTX 4070, compared to DLSS 2 on the RTX 3070. While both cards do offer the same Nvidia features but thanks to the next-generation hardware and software improvements on the RTX 4070, you get better overall performance.

RTX 4070 vs. RTX 3070: Gaming Performance, Benchmarks, and Feature Support

As mentioned before, Nvidia is marketing the card towards 1440p gaming, and that's where it shines the most. The Ada Lovelace architecture combined with DLSS 3 really makes the RTX 4070 comes to life.

Compared to its previous generation sibling, the GPU will give you more FPS in just about every game you throw at it. One of the most notable exceptions is CS:GO, where the RTX 3070 managed 536 FPS compared to the RTX 4070's 487 FPS. However, at those framerates, you're basically limited by how fast your monitor can go, and 487 FPS is plenty, even if you have a top-of-the-line 240Hz monitor.

Early RTX 4070 reviews show that you can expect more than 30 FPS improvements in pretty much any game across the board. While it still stays behind its more powerful 4070 Ti variant, the RTX 4070 can even compete with the RTX 3080 at 1440p.

DLSS 3 also adds massively to the card's performance. Early reviews show a 25% jump in Forza Horizon 5 jumping from 127 FPS on DLSS 2 to 159 FPS on DLSS 3. You get even more impressive gains in Cyberpunk 2077, coming in nearly double the performance in going from 68 FPS with DLSS 2 to 120 FPS on DLSS 3.

However, when you bump the resolution up to 4K, the card struggles to keep up. That's not to say it doesn't outperform the RTX 3070 at 4K, but other options in the Nvidia lineup, specifically the RTX 3080 and RTX 4070 Ti, start pulling ahead. That said, the two cards are $100 and $200 more expensive, respectively.

Benchmarks also show a significant improvement over the RTX 3070. Early reviews show the RTX 4070 scoring 8,610 in 3D TimeSpy Extreme over the RTX 3070's 6,226. In the Blender benchmark, the RTX 4070 once again scored nearly double that of the RTX 3070, coming in at 6,020 and 3,500, respectively.

Streamers will also be happy, thanks to AV1 video codec support. Additionally, Nvidia claims that the RTX 4070 is around 40% more efficient when it comes to H.264 encoding compared to the previous generation. That means it'll take less bandwidth when streaming, making lives easy for anyone that streams at 1440p or even 4K.

There isn't much of a difference between the two cards when it comes to what Nvidia tech and software wizardry they support either, but the RTX 4070 outperforms its predecessor thanks to the newer architecture and generationally ahead cores.

Is the Upgrade to RTX 4070 Worth It?

The RTX 3070 was pretty much the sweet spot for 1440p gaming, and the same stands true for the RTX 4070. If you're an older GTX 10-Series or RTX 20-Series GPU and are happy gaming at 1440p, the RTX 4070 makes a compelling case.

There's DLSS 3, better ray tracing (with Nvidia claiming a 16x jump in performance over the five years), and AV1 encoding support, making the card good for anyone from gamers and streamers to even content creators that need to deal with GPU-heavy creative programs.

You could try waiting for AMD to announce its rivaling Radeon lineup or for the upcoming Nvidia RTX 4060 to see how those cards will fare up, but at 599, the RTX 4070 can easily be your top pick for a new mid-range GPU.

Speaking of price, the RTX 4070 Ti has stayed relatively close to its MSRP of $799, and the trend suggests that the RTX 4070 will follow suit. That's great news for anyone affected by the scalper problem that plagued the RTX 30-Series' launch, as cards will readily be available and won't require you to massively overpay.

Play PC Games, Not With Your Bank Account

The RTX 4070 is the most affordable RTX 40-Series GPU yet, finally making Nvidia's much-talked-about Ada Lovelace architecture accessible to the masses. The card performs well for what it's meant for (that is, 1440p gaming), is more power efficient, and will fit in more cases thanks to its smaller size.

Despite Nvidia's rather controversial move to change the power adaptor on the RTX 40-Series, new PSUs (and PSU specifications) aren't a cutthroat requirement, which means the upgrade path also becomes easier.