GeForce RTX 4070 Super Review: NVIDIA Delivers More Performance And Value

We also spent some time overclocking the GeForce RTX 4070 Super Foudners Edition to see what kind of additional performance we could squeeze out of it its GPU and GDDR6X memory...

Overclocking The GeForce RTX 4070 Super

Like previous-gen GeForces, Ada Lovelace-based GeForce RTX 40 series cards feature GPU Boost, which scales frequencies and voltages dynamically within pre-determined power and temperature limits, based on the GPU's workload and other environmental factors. 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. If there is power and thermal headroom, however, the GPU will boost as high as it can for as long as it can. When overclocking, the maximum boost clocks and power limit can be tweaked to increase performance with most cards.

Like previous-gen mainstream GeForces, the GeForce RTX 4070 Super is typically voltage or power limited in most circumstances to prevent damage and ensure the card's longevity. It is these limits that will usually be the gating factors in any overclocking efforts. As you can see above, even in its stock configuration, the card was hitting a power limit while gaming.

With the GeForce RTX 4070 Super, the power target can be increased by up to 9% and the max temperature target from 83°C to 88°C. Though the latest version of MSI's Afterburner has the option to alter voltage as well, increasing the GPU voltage will only force the card to hit the power limit faster. ~3GHz GPU clocks are still possible without tweaking the voltage, though.


We used the GPU and memory frequency offsets, along with the power and temperature target sliders available in Afterburner, to manually push the GeForce RTX 4070 Super Founders Edition's frequencies beyond stock. 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 in that regard.

In its stock configuration, the GeForce RTX 4070 Super boosted to about 2.8GHz (visible in the screenshot at the top of the page). While overclocked, however, we were able to take its GPU clock to just under 3GHz (2,970MHz) with a 21.3Gbps memory speed. Even while overclocked, the GPU maxed out at only 71°C, and probably had frequency headroom to spare.


With the GeForce RTX 4070 Super overclocked, we saw some moderate increases in performance. The increases were enough to allow the GeForce RTX 4070 Super to overtake the Radeon RX 7900 XT in Speedway, however, and gain a couple of frames per second in Returnal.

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 Luxmark and F1 23 testing, with ray-tracing enabled, and are representative of total system power consumption.

The GeForce RTX 4070 Super proved to be a reltiavely power friendly graphics card. As you'd expect, power consumption lands in between the GeForce RTX 4070 and RTX 4070 Ti. The more impressive comparisons, however, are against the Radeons. Despite offering clearly better performance than the Radeon RX 7800 XT, and sometimes catching the Radeon RX 7900 XT, the GeForce RTX 4070 Super uses significantly less power. The GeForce RTX 4070 Super is a great example of the power efficiency of NVIDIA's Ada Lovelace GPU architecture. The card runs cool, stays quiet, and uses a moderate amount of power relative to the competition.

GeForce RTX 4070 Super Review Summary & Conclusion

After months of rumors and leaks, and NVIDIA’s official announcement at CES a couple of weeks back, the GeForce RTX 4070 Super was somewhat of a known quantity heading into today’s launch. We are, however, impressed overall and think NVIDIA is going to shake things up with the introduction of its GeForce RTX 40-series “Super” GPUs.

The GeForce RTX 4070 Super will be hitting store shelves shortly after you read this, with Founders Edition -- and similarly configured partner boards – commanding an MSRP of $599. That’s slightly higher than the GeForce RTX 4070’s introductory price, but nearly $200 below the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti. Radeon RX 7800 XT cards are currently for sale in the $520 - $580, and Radeon RX 7900 XT starts around $780, with some models breaking the $900 mark. Looking back through the numbers, the GeForce RTX 4070 Super puts a hurting on the Radeon RX 7800 XT and often hangs with the Radeon RX 7900 XT, particularly when ray tracing is in the mix. At $599, the GeForce RTX 4070 Super is a very solid value in its price segment, and puts significant pressure on AMD. We suspect AMD and its partners will have to react somehow, especially in terms of Radeon RX 7900 XT pricing.

While we tried to show an array of compute, rendering, encoding, graphics, and gaming workloads in our testing, NVIDIA offers a ton of additional functionality with the GeForce RTX 40 series that must be considered as well. From RTX Video Super Resolution, to AV1 encoding, to AI-accelerated tools for various content creation applications, NVIDIA Broadcast, and others, GeForce RTX 40 series cards aren’t just for gaming. The combination of NVIDIA’s extensive software support, with the GeForce RTX 4070 Super’s relatively strong performance, and competitive pricing make it a compelling option in its product segment. If you’re looking for a GPU in this price range, the GeForce RTX 4070 Super should be at the top of your short list.