GeForce RTX 4070 Review: NVIDIA Ada Hits A More Mainstream $599
We also spent some time overclocking our MSI Ventus 3X GeForce RTX 4070 to wring out some additional performance from its GPU and GDDR6X memory...
Overclocking The MSI GeForce RTX 4070
Like previous-gen GeForces, Ada Lovelace-based GeForce RTX 40 series cards feature GPU Boost, which scales frequencies and voltages, power and temperatures permitting, based on the GPU's workload at the time. Should a temperature or power limit be reached, GPU Boost will drop down to the previous boost frequency / voltage stepping, to bring power and temperatures down gradually and not cause any significant performance swings.
When overclocking, the maximum boost clock and power limit can be tweaked and tuned to increase performance with most cards, however.
MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Hardware Monitor - Default Settings
Like previous-gen cards, the MSI Ventus 3X GeForce RTX 4070 is still voltage or power limited in most circumstances to prevent damage and ensure the card's longevity. It is those limits that will usually be the gating factor in any overclocking efforts. As you can see above, even in its stock configuration, the card was hitting a voltage limit while gaming.
With the MSI Ventus 3X GeForce RTX 4070, the power target can be increased by up to 10% and the max temperature target from 83°C to 90°C. Though the latest version of MSI's Afterburner has the option to alter voltage as well, it was greyed out with the build we used. We were still able to increase the GPU clock a fair bit, however.
MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Hardware Monitor - Overclocked
We used the frequency offsets with the power and temperature target sliders available in Afterburner to manually push the MSI Ventus 3X GeForce RTX 4070's frequencies beyond its defaults. First, we turned up the temperature and power targets to their maximum values, and then increased the GPU and memory clock offsets until the test system was no longer stable, showed on-screen artifacts, or performance peaked due to hitting the power limit. We did not, however, alter fan speeds because this card ran so cool without any modifications there.
In its stock configuation, the MSI Ventus 3X GeForce RTX 4070 boosted to over 2,800MHz while in its stock configuration (visible in the screenshot at the top of the page). While overclocked, we were able to take its GPU clock up to over 2,900MHz with a 21.4Gbps memory speed. Even while overclocked, the GPU maxed out at only 72°C, and probably had plenty of frequency headroom to spare, but the card was constantly bumping into its voltage and power limits.
With the card overclocked, we re-ran some tests and saw some moderate performance gains. In 3DMark, the overclocked MSI Ventus 3X GeForce RTX 4070 was able to overtake the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and in FarCry 6 (with RT), the overclocked 4070 pulled ahead of the RTX 3080.
Total System Power Consumption
Throughout all of our benchmarking and testing, we also monitored noise output and tracked how much power the GPUs were consuming in our test system. Our goal here is to give you an idea as to how much power each GPU used while idle and also while under a heavy workload. These power numbers were captured during FarCry 6 testing, with ray-tracing enabled, and are representative of total system power consumption:
The GeForce RTX 4070 is a very power-friendly GPU. At idle, power consumption is in-line with the other cards. While under load, however, the GeForce RTX 4070 consumed the least amount of power of the bunch. Considering how clearly the GeForce RTX 4070 outran the RTX 3070 Ti and hung with the RTX 3080, these results are a testament to the AD104's power efficiency.
Noise is not a concern with with the MSI Ventus 3X GeForce RTX 4070, either. At idle or when under light loads, the card is nearly silent. And when under a heavy, sustained workload, the card's fans do spin up, but it runs so cool and quiet they never produce anything more than a dull whir and are barely audible over the other fans in our test rig.GeForce RTX 4070 With NVIDIA And MSI Review Summary
The MSRP for GeForce RTX 4070 series cards starts at $599, which is on-par with the RTX 3070 Ti, but $100 more than the RTX 3070. At that price point, the GeForce RTX 4070 will be battling a wide array of cards currently, from the 3070 Ti and 3080, to the Radeon RX 6800 and 6900 XT, give or take a few bucks depending on deals, rebates, and what have you. There’s definitely stiff competition in this price bracket and looking back through the GeForce RTX 4070’s performance it’s not likely to compel anyone with an upper-midrange GPU from the previous gen to upgrade.
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However, for owners of the GeForce RTX 20-series or older Radeons, the GeForce RTX 4070 is a relatively affordable way to get into an Ada-based graphics card, and better enjoy the benefits of ray tracing, DLSS 3, and other benefits of the architecture, like AV1 encoding. In our graphics and game tests the GeForce RTX 4070 was clearly superior to the RTX 3070 Ti, which is where you’d expect it to land, but it shined a bit brighter in the compute and creator workloads.
