NVIDIA recently released the RTX 3070 Ti graphics card, which sits right between the RTX 3070 and the RTX 3080. The $200 price difference between the RTX 3070 and the RTX 3080 is fairly reasonable for the performance gap, but the RTX 3070 Ti makes no sense at all.
NVIDIA has bumped the specs for the RTX 3070 Ti as you'd typically expect, and yes, it has the faster GDDR6X memory too, but the performance doesn't translate well in the real world. Here, we'll discuss the two reasons we dislike the RTX 3070 Ti.
1. Single-Digit Improvement in Frame Rate
The RTX 3070 Ti packs 256 more CUDA cores, eight additional Tensor cores, and two extra RT cores compared to the standard RTX 3070, but these specifications don't convert well into actual frame rates while gaming. After all, FPS numbers are what matter the most to any gamer.
As you can tell from the video below, at 4K resolution, where the GPU is straining the most, the RTX 3070 Ti managed just 3 FPS more than the standard RTX 3070 in Assassin's Creed Valhalla.
In Red Dead Redemption 2 at similar settings, the RTX 3070 Ti improved upon the RTX 3070 by just 5 FPS, whereas the RTX 3080 managed 15 FPS more on average. It didn't do well in Cyberpunk 2077 either, managing just a 4 FPS improvement over the standard RTX 3070.
As you can see, these numbers are underwhelming. The performance difference between the RTX 3070 and the RTX 3070 Ti is much lower than the gap between the RTX 3070 Ti and the RTX 3080. If you really want a serious jump in performance, you'll be better off with the more expensive RTX 3080.
2. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti's Is Expensive
The RTX 3070 Ti costs $599, which is $100 more than the standard RTX 3070 and $100 less than the RTX 3080 FE. At first glance, the price tag makes perfect sense since it sits between those two GPUs in the performance department. However, we need to look at this from a different perspective.
NVIDIA needs to understand that we don't need a new graphics card for every hundred dollar increment. You basically spend 20% more on the RTX 3070 Ti to get a sub-10% boost in average frame rates.
Someone who's more budget-minded would get the standard RTX 3070 and overclock it to get RTX 3070 Ti-grade performance while saving a hundred dollars. And an enthusiast who wants the best frame rates would rather spend a hundred more dollars and grab the RTX 3080.
The RTX 3070 Ti Is a Hard Pass for Most People
The new RTX 3070 Ti GPU offers minuscule upgrades in performance for its asking price. We feel our opinions would be totally different if NVIDIA priced it at around $550 instead. Keep in mind that AMD's RX 6800 officially costs $579 and performs better in most games. At the moment, NVIDIA finds itself in a tough spot with the RTX 3070 Ti, and we cannot recommend it to anyone with all these other options around.