Nvidia has just announced the “new” GeForce RTX 4070 Ti graphics card, previously known as the RTX 4080 12 GB. With buyers holding off on Nvidia’s RTX 4080 16 GB due to its absurd $1,200 price, this is the one they may go for.
Controversial History
At this point, the story of the RTX 4080 12 GB has become well-known. After a huge amount of criticism regarding the pricing, specifications, and naming, the card was “unlaunched” and pulled from any future releases. It has now returned with a new name and a slightly lower cost.
Apart from that, it is the same RTX 4080 12 GB. You still get half the core count, half as much memory, and half as much bus width as the 4090.
Although it may seem obvious, the 4090 is a halo product that does not focus on value and should not be used as a benchmark for pricing lower-spec cards. Otherwise, we could end up with a $400 RX 4050.
Keeping that in mind, not a lot has changed for the RTX 4070 Ti in that regard. Â
Specs and Performance
Nvidia claims that the 4070 Ti is faster than the RTX 3090 Ti, but they only allow comparisons for DLSS3-enabled devices, which the 3090 Ti doesn’t support. This cherry-picked comparison is skewed in the 4070 Ti’s favor with 1.5x to 2x performance improvement over the 3090 Ti.
Nvidia’s previous graph for the 4080 12GB shows how it actually stacks up against the 3090 Ti:
Here the “4080 (12 GB)” (now called 4070 Ti) appears to be able to match the 3090 Ti’s performance by around 80-100% in some games while being significantly faster in others. Again, this is Nvidia’s own marketing-focused comparison, third-party reviews will show how it actually performs.
Going by these numbers, the 4070 Ti will be significantly faster than the RTX 3080 10 GB, which was launched in 2020 at $699.
Efficiency Improvements and Other Extras
Although the rasterization performance has improved over the years, Ada Lovelace’s architectural advances have helped the 4070 Ti in other ways as well. These include improved ray tracing performance, greater power efficiency (Nvidia claims 226W of power consumption when gaming), and a media encoder that supports AV1 encoding.
Although not the best for cross-generational comparisons, DLSS3 (Deep Learning Super Sampling) has been gaining popularity and is rapidly expanding its use. This tech uses AI and software magic to assist Nvidia’s RTX GPUs and improves in-game performance significantly. DLSS 3 is its latest version and is exclusive to RTX 40-series cards.
Note that DLSS alone is a massive selling point as it can massively improve FPS and should increase the longevity of Nvidia’s GPUs.
Price and Availability
ASUS, Colorful, Gainward, GALAX, GIGABYTE, INNO3D, KFA2, MSI, Palit, PNY, and ZOTAC will sell the RTX 4070 Ti and there will be no Founders Edition from Nvidia.
It will be available from January 5th at a price of $799, down from the $899 that Nvidia originally offered.
