When I reviewed the RTX 4080 last year, I was in absolute amazement with how DLSS 3.0 benefited framerates without compromising the image quality, and a year later, going hands-on with the 4070 Super, which comes in at the same price at the 4070 from last year, it was much of the same in the best way possible with the card absolutely being a powerhouse for 1440p gaming and even doing well with 4K gaming.
It’s no secret that I’ve loved the Founder’s Edition versions of the NVIDIA RTX cards, especially since the 3000 series, but the 4070 Super is one of the sexiest pieces of tech that I’ve ever laid eyes on. It has a matte black design, with the previously silver bits now blacked out which makes it look all that sleeker.
It still features a dual-slot design coming in at 267 x 112 x 42 mm meaning it’ll feature in most builds (I’ve been using the H1 V2 and it’s a perfect match). Compared to the 4080 and beyond, it looks like an absolute baby and it’s still impressive that NVIDIA has been able to stick with this size and get such great performance (especially considering it’s more powerful than a 3090).
The only negative thing that can be said about the design of the 4070 Super is the fact that the cord still comes out of the middle of the unit, which isn’t an issue except for the fact that it does take away from the cleanliness of the design, which really speaks more to how nice the actual card looks.
As far as ports go, it’s a very similar offering to last year’s models with three DP ports as well as one HDMI 2.1 port, so there’s really not shortage no matter how many devices you’re looking to plug into it.
As far as hardware goes, you’ve got seven more teraflops in shader codes, 15 more in ray-tracing cores and 102 more tensor cores. The only way that this could be have been made better was to up the 12GB of VRAM to 16GB, but it would have been a big ask in the current formfactor.
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If you’ve listened to my talking about tech on our podcast or read any other hardware reviews I’ve written, I couldn’t be a bigger fan of DLSS and what it has done for PC gaming. I want it everywhere as it just takes the stress out of worrying about frame rates and getting a smooth performance and that’s never been truer than what’s on offer with DLSS 3 and the 4070 Super.
I’m not even going to try and pretend that I understand the full extent of the magic involved with DLSS 3, but basically, the 3 stands for three things: The brand new Frame Generation technology, Super Resolution (DLSS 2) as well as NVIDIA reflex. DLSS 3 is only available on the 4000 series cards thanks to the new ADA Lovelace architecture and the performance increase is instantly noticeable.
You’ll see it in the benchmarks, but what NVIDIA continues to do with DLSS 3 is simply amazing for PC performance. It’s not even worth comparing it to the likes of the 3070 or 2070 super as it just blows them out of the park when utilising the AI technology. NVIDIA says that the 4070 Super is faster than a 3090 with even a larger gap provided by DLSS 3 and the numbers don’t lie.
4K GAMING
The 4070 Super really shines whilst gaming in 1440p, but thanks to DLSS 3.0, it definitely holds its own when 4K gaming. The below benchmarks were performed with DLSS 3.0 turned on (to balanced) and graphics set to ultra with ray-tracing maxed out where possible.
- Returnal – 83 FPS
- Cyberpunk 2077 – 59 FPS
- F1 2022 – 105 FPS
- Horizon Zero Dawn – 109 FPS
- Forza Horizon 5 – 117 FPS
F1 2022, Forza Horizon 5 and Horizon Zero Dawn were all able to achieve above the 100 FPS mark which is pretty impressive for an $1,100 card.
It was only Cyberpunk 2077 that came in at 60 FPS in RT ULTRA which is still formidable given how big that world is, and absolutely playable even in 4K.
Turning DLSS 3.0 off really paints the picture of how much that technology has pushed PC gaming along, with Cyberpunk 2077 dropping to 37 FPS, Returnal still a respectable 57 FPS and Horizon Zero Dawn and Forza Horizon 5 still coming in well above the 60 FPS mark.
1440P GAMING
There’s no denying that 1440p gaming is absolutely going to be where the 4070 Super sings. The below benchmarks were performed with DLSS 3.0 turned on (to balanced) and graphics set to ultra with ray-tracing maxed out where possible.
- Returnal – 106 FPS
- Cyberpunk 2077 – 105 FPS
- F1 2022 – 100 FPS
- Horizon Zero Dawn – 151 FPS
- Forza Horizon 5 – 162 FPS
Everything that I threw at it was able to achieve above the 100 FPS mark with Horizon Zero Dawn and Forza Motorsport 5 going beyond the max 144hz that my monitor could display. Cyberpunk 2077 looked buttery smooth at 105 FPS as did Returnal.
If for some reason you’re not wanting to play with DLSS, you can expect ~100 FPS for Returnal, F1 2022, Horizon Zero Dawn and Forza Horizon 5 with even Cyberpunk 2077 hovering around the 55-60 FPS mark.
If you’re rocking a 1440p monitor and ~$1000 is roughly your budget for a GPU, there won’t be a better value for money purchase that you’ll make than the 4070 Super, unless you’re willing to take a small hit and purchase a 4070 second hand or slightly discounted.
When comparing to the 4070, you’re going to get a 15-20% increase in frame rates, which isn’t insignificant and impressive that NVIDIA was able to push that performance out of the same form-factor in just the space of a year.
In terms of actual power draw, the 4070 Super will suck up roughly 20 watts more power, but obviously still well below the power draw that you’ll get from using a 3090, so it’s impressive to say the least.
