Skip to main content

Nvidia’s RTX 4070 Ti is destroying AMD, even though it shouldn’t

Despite the fact that the RTX 4070 Ti has been reviewed poorly, Nvidia’s latest GPU seems to be doing well in terms of sales numbers — at least as far as the European market is concerned.

According to newly published sales figures, Nvidia managed to sell a huge quantity of RTX 4070 Ti GPUs. It effortlessly defeated its biggest rival, AMD, even though the AMD RX 7900 XT is the better value. Regardless of how it’s reviewed, the RTX 4070 Ti seems to be the king of all the new graphics cards that have out in 2023 so far.

Recommended Videos

https://twitter.com/TechEpiphany/status/1616843689824849921

The data comes from TechEpiphany on Twitter, which talked about the sales of AMD, Intel, and Nvidia graphics cards at a German retailer, Mindfactory. Those numbers are not limited to the RTX 4070 Ti. Other cards from Nvidia have also been selling well, such as the ever-so-popular RTX 3060, as well as the Lovelace-based RTX 4080 and RTX 4090. However, the new GPU beats all of these by a significant amount of sales.

In the third week of January, Mindfactory noted 545 sales of the RTX 4070 Ti. Also on the podium are the RTX 3060 (485 units sold) and the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT (410 units sold). This generation of graphics cards is only just getting started in the popular midrange segment, so it’s no wonder that the majority of the list is made up of cheaper, last-gen cards such as the RTX 3060 Ti and the RX 6600.

Things get interesting as we move down the list, though. It takes a while for AMD’s RDNA 3 cards to make an appearance, and once they do, it’s in fairly small quantities. The RX 7900 XTX only sold 300 units, and the RX 7900 XT, which is cheaper, but a worse value, only mustered 200 units.

Intel doesn’t have a horse in the GPU race for this generation yet, and it might not have one for a while, so the only numbers to take into account are those of Arc Alchemist. The Arc A380 and the Arc A770 sold 20 units combined, which is a sad, but not unexpected figure.

The market is begging for affordable GPUs

The RTX 4070 Ti graphics card on a pink background.
Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

Of course, these numbers are a very small sample that isn’t necessarily indicative of the situation of the worldwide market at all. But assuming the rest of the world follows suit, there seem to be a few important reasons for the trend.

AMD’s RDNA 3 range so far is good, but the pricing of the RX 7900 XT makes it an unlikely pick — it’s a far worse deal than the flagship RX 7900 XTX. When the AMD RDNA 3 duo was initially released, the RX 7900 XT was doomed to lower sales. After all, the RX 7900 XTX, with an MSRP of $1,000, is simply a better value.

The release of the RTX 4070 Ti had the chance to shake things up for AMD, though — Nvidia kind of did AMD a favor, in a way. Comparing the RTX 4070 Ti to the RX 7900 XT reveals that the Nvidia card is actually slower than the AMD counterpart, which could give AMD’s less-than-stellar GPU an opportunity. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case.

Brand loyalty certainly plays a part. Nvidia controls the vast majority of the market, and many people continue buying Nvidia GPUs instead of trying AMD because their previous cards did a good job, so they don’t feel a need to change. Similarly, AMD often gets a bad rep for buggy drivers, and although that claim is kind of outdated, it’s still there.

Radeon logo on the RX 7900 XTX.
Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

The pricing offered by Mindfactory also works in Nvidia’s favor. It’s cheaper than both the RX 7900 XTX and the RX 7900 XT. This isn’t always the case in the U.S., but the list price of the RTX 4070 Ti is $100 lower than that of the RX 7900 XT. Coincidentally, it’s also $100 lower than it was when the GPU was first released as the RTX 4080 12GB, only to be “unlaunched” a while later.

While the RTX 4070 Ti is slower than both AMD cards, it does offer access to DLSS 3 and historically better ray tracing (although our own testing puts it somewhat on par with AMD). That’s enough for many gamers to choose it over AMD, even if the performance margins are very close.

No matter the reason, the really interesting part here is that previous-gen cards continue dominating the sales charts. This shows how much the market is begging for more affordable midrange cards. Perhaps when Nvidia launches the RTX 4060 and the RTX 4070 at some point in the future, and AMD hopefully follows with cards of its own, they will start topping the charts in place of the RTX 3060 and the RX 6700 XT.

Monica J. White
Monica is a computing writer at Digital Trends, focusing on PC hardware. Since joining the team in 2021, Monica has written…
AMD RX 9060 XT might not be the Nvidia-beating GPU we first thought
The RX 7600 XT graphics card on a pink background.

A new leak tells me that AMD's RX 9060 XT may repeat the same mistake as the RX 7600 XT, all the while missing out on a chance to win against rival Nvidia. While AMD's RX 9060 XT may not compete against some of the best graphics cards, it's going to be a mainstream card, which is great news for gamers. The downside, as is often the case, might lie in VRAM.

As shown in this listing filed with the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC), Acer has just registered several new trademarks for its upcoming GPUs. This includes the Acer Predator Bifrost RX 9060 XT OC in two variants: One with 8GB VRAM and one with 16GB.

Read more
AMD’s new GPU offers RTX 5070 Ti performance for $150 less
Several AMD RX 9000 series graphics cards.

After a long wait, the future of AMD's best graphics cards is finally here. The company just announced the RX 9000 series, comprised of two new GPUs: The RX 9070 XT and the RX 9070. Both are set to launch on March 6 at $599 and $549, respectively. If AMD lives up to the expectations performance-wise, these GPUs might be an absolute mainstream hit.

AMD's focus throughout the presentation was the fact that gamers buy mainstream GPUs more often than behemoths along the lines of the RTX 5090. To that end, AMD cited its own research, saying that 85% of gamers buy GPUs that cost less than $700. At the same time, higher resolutions are slowly becoming mainstream, with more and more people buying 1440p and 4K monitors. The needs of gamers have gone up, now including solid performance in ray tracing, but keeping it affordable is important too.

Read more
Nvidia’s RTX 5060 Ti might give AMD an unexpected edge
Logo on the RTX 4060 Ti graphics card.

Although still yet to be announced, Nvidia's RTX 5060 Ti is coming -- and according to leakers, it's coming soon. The card is said to be launching in two different models, much like the RTX 4060 Ti. However, the RTX 40-series equivalent really struggled to find its place among the best graphics cards.

I've been keeping tabs on various leaks related to the RTX 5060 Ti, and although there are some good news, it does seem that Nvidia is essentially creating an updated carbon copy of the RTX 4060 Ti. If there's one party that will benefit from such a decision, it's AMD with its competing graphics cards. For gamers, the RTX 5060 Ti might end up being a GPU that sounds great on paper but comes with its own challenges.
The RTX 5060 Ti will have a lot in common with its predecessor

Read more