The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti is very similar in performance to the AMD RX 6950 XT in a lot of gaming benchmarks and better than the previous gen RTX 3090 from NVIDIA. From some of our older benchmarks, it seems very comparable to the RTX 3090 Ti as well. So you're getting a really good performance uplift with the RTX 4070 Ti. The GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 4070 Ti AERO that we tested not only comes across as a very polished chic looking card but the additional warranty that GIGABYTE offers (provide you register) is certainly an appreciated value addition. While the initial launch might have been completely out of place, in its current avatar, the RTX 4070 Ti seems to have redeemed itself. Getting the performance of an RTX 3090 Ti for about 95K is a pretty sweet deal.
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti graphics card has received more than its fair share of attention within the launch cycle of the RTX 40 series graphics cards. Primarily because there was a massive uproar when it was originally unveiled as an RTX 4080 12 GB variant. The hullabaloo was because the 80-class cards have traditionally been top-tier cards with barely any compromises in any aspect whereas the RTX 4080 12 GB card seemed to have a few specs falling short of what has traditionally been the trend. So after getting unlaunched, NVIDIA released the card again as the RTX 4070 Ti. Nothing has changed except for the naming of the card. Everything else remains the same. Meanwhile, AMD has launched several graphics cards which have proven to be competitive in the price range. Let’s see how the new cards rank up.
Internationally, the suggested price was USD 899 for the 4080 12 GB model but that has since been dropped by USD 100 down to USD 799. However, the 4070 Ti does not have any Founders Edition cards so OEMs are going to have slightly higher-priced SKUs. After all, they do add value by customising the appearance as well as the cooling mechanism. AMD’s cards are priced at USD 899 and USD 999 for the 7900 XT and the 7900 XTX, respectively. And while they do have the equivalent of FE cards, we didn’t find any links to retail listings on the official website. The cheapest 7900 XTX that we could find online was priced at INR 110,153 while the 7900 XT was seen at INR 92,999. The cheapest RTX 4070 Ti that we saw was at INR 82,615. So the comparable GPU from the competition is a little expensive. Onto the specifications now.
Compared to the RTX 4080 16 GB SKU, the 4070 Ti has 7680 CUDA cores which is quite a reduction compared to the 4080’s 9728 CUDA cores. In all, that’s 16 Streaming Multiprocessors less for the 4070 Ti or a 21 per cent core count reduction. With the previous generation of RTX 30-series cards, we saw two RTX 3080 SKUs as well. The higher specced 12 GB card had just 256 CUDA cores higher than the RTX 3080 10 GB SKU, or about 2.9 per cent reduction. Now you can see why there was such an outrage considering how vastly different the core counts were from NVIDIA’s initial plan for the two 80-class GPUs.
Coming back to the differences in specs. We now have Gen 3 RT Cores, Gen 4 Tensor Cores, and a much narrower 192-bit bus width for the memory. Usually, newer-gen memory allows for speedier movement of data, so a narrower bus width is usually justified. However, with the 4070 Ti, the 192-bit bus is actually very low compared to the previous generation since it is paired with the same GDDR6X memory and the cumulative bandwidth is 504.2 GB/s. Whereas the RTX 3080 12 GB SKU and the 10 GB SKU both had 384-bit wide busses and the bandwidth was 1,008 GB/s and 936 GB/s respectively.
The clock speed of the reference design of RTX 4070 Ti is supposed to be 2610 MHz and the GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 4070 Ti AERO OC 12G that we have has a little extra which brings it to 2640 MHz. So our scores might not be that different from a Founders Edition card, had there been one.
GIGABYTE has a really clean design for the visuals on the packaging. Very minimalist, and straight to the point. The rear of the packaging has several of the key highlights including the cooler design, RGB lighting, and backplate being mentioned while the rest of the packaging is also very muted.
Inside the packaging, we have some documentation including the warranty card, followed by the graphics card and all the accessories. Speaking of accessories, there is a 2x 8-PIN to 12VHPWR power adapter and a metal anti-sag support bracket. Considering that the new RTX 40 cards are a little chunkier(chonkier!), this is a nice touch to see the OEMs provide matching support brackets.
Coming to the actual graphics card. The front has a nice clean white design with a very minimalist decal. There are three 100 mm cooling fans as has been the case with GIGABYTE’s WINDFORCE designs. And underneath the shroud of the fans, we see a massive heatsink spanning the entire length of the graphics card.
On the rear, there is a protective metal backplate but to aid with the cooling, they’ve put a massive cut out. So, the ‘protectiveness’ of the backplate is partial.
Overall, the card would really look good if mounted vertically but if you were to mount it the way nature intended, then you’ll need three slots.
Lastly, for the ports, we have three DisplayPort 1.4a ports and one HDMI 2.1 port. There are several cutouts for letting air flow out through the back as well.
The card is being compared against only the recently re-tested graphics cards and not any of the older graphics cards that are no longer available with us. Here’s the rig it was tested on.
TEST RIG
Processor – AMD Ryzen 9 7950X
CPU Cooler – Corsair H115i RGB PLATINUM
Motherboard – ASUS ROG CROSSHAIR X670E HERO
RAM – 2x 16 GB Kingston Renegade FURY 6000 MT/s (Set to 5200 MT/s)
SSD – WD Black SN850X 2 TB NVMe SSD
PSU – Cooler Master MWE 850 V2 Gold
The GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 4070 Ti AERO OC 12G can be seen retailing on popular PC components portals for INR 95,199 and the stock situation can be said to have practically recovered to pre-Covid levels. There is no dearth of ready stock available in the market, so you shouldn’t have any issues getting your hands on one.
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti is very similar in performance to the AMD RX 6950 XT in a lot of gaming benchmarks and better than the previous gen RTX 3090 from NVIDIA. From some of our older benchmarks, it seems very comparable to the RTX 3090 Ti as well. So you're getting a really good performance uplift with the RTX 4070 Ti. The GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 4070 Ti AERO that we tested not only comes across as a very polished chic looking card but the additional warranty that GIGABYTE offers (provide you register) is certainly an appreciated value addition. While the initial launch might have been completely out of place, in its current avatar, the RTX 4070 Ti seems to have redeemed itself. Getting the performance of an RTX 3090 Ti for about 95K is a pretty sweet deal.