Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

The RTX 4070 Super is a huge jump over the RTX 4070. But which should you buy?

Nvidia RTX 4070 Super.
Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

Nvidia’s RTX 4070 is one of the best graphics cards you can buy, and it’s quickly dropping in price at the start of 2024. You might be tempted to pick one up, but with Nvidia’s RTX 4070 Super now here, the choice isn’t as simple as it once was.

We’ve had a chance to fully test the RTX 4070 Super now, as you can read about in our RTX 4070 Super review. Coming in at the same price as the original model, this Super refresh manages to exceed expectations in just about every way. And it’s definitely the card you’ll want to pick up in this price bracket.

Recommended Videos

Pricing and availability

The RTX 4070 Super on a pink background.
Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

Let’s get the RTX 4070 out of the way. The card launched early last year for a list price of $600, and it’s still widely available at retailers for that price. Later in the year, Nvidia dropped the price to $550 in response to AMD’s RX 7800 XT. You can still find models in stock at $550, and sometimes even for less.

Get your weekly teardown of the tech behind PC gaming
Check your inbox!

Those sales are what make the RTX 4070 so attractive right now. At the time of writing, for example, there’s this , and over the holiday shopping season, I found models as low as $515.

Nvidia officially announced the RTX 4070 Super during its keynote at CES on January 8, following months of rumors about the RTX 40-series refresh. The RTX 4070 Super officially launched on January 17, and it will retain the same $600 list price that previously belonged to the RTX 4070. We’ve seen about half a dozen models available at that price, too.

Following the announcement about the new GPUs, Nvidia’s officially cutting the price of the RTX 4070 down to $550, so some savings are guaranteed.

Specs

Although the RTX 4070 and RTX 4070 Super share a name, the Super model has a big spec boost. Starting with what’s the same, the RTX 4070 Super delivers the same 12GB of GDDR6X memory we see on the base model and the same bus width.

RTX 4070 Super RTX 4070
GPU AD104 AD104
Interface PCIe 4.0 PCIe 4.0
CUDA cores 7,168 5,888
Boost clock 2,475MHz 2,475MHz
Memory 12GB GDDR6X 12GB GDDR6X
Memory speed 21 Gbps 21 Gbps
Memory bus 192-bit 192-bit
TDP 220W 200W

The big change comes in the number of CUDA cores. The RTX 4070 has 5,888 CUDA cores, while the RTX 4070 Super bumps up to 7,168 CUDA cores. That’s almost as many as the RTX 4070 Ti and nearly a 22% increase over the base RTX 4070. The power consumption has been tweaked to reach 220 watts — a minor increase over the card’s predecessor.

The card’s boost clock remains unchanged, maxing out at 2,475MHz, as does the 21Gbps bandwidth. While not everything has changed, the changes we’re getting are enough to push the RTX 4070 into a whole new league of graphics cards. In fact, with the updated specs, the RTX 4070 Super is not far off from being a replacement for the non-super RTX 4070 Ti.

Performance

Average 1440p gaming performance for the RTX 4070 Super.
Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

Both the RTX 4070 and RTX 4070 Super target a 1440p resolution, but the RTX 4070 Super is much faster at that resolution. As you can see above, across our test suite of games, the RTX 4070 Super is somewhere around 11% faster. Keep in mind that these numbers are without Nvidia’s DLSS 3.5, which is available on both cards.

The more impressive comparison is to the RTX 4070 Ti, an $800 graphics card Nvidia will soon be retiring. The RTX 4070 Super is a stone’s throw away from that GPU, just for $200 less.

Average performance of RTX 4070 Super at 4K.
Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

Although these are both 1440p graphics cards, they have aspirations for 4K. While the RTX 4070 fell just short of the 4K mark, the RTX 4070 Super now provides playable performance at that high resolution. It’s close to a 10% jump over the RTX 4070, edging closer to that fated mark of 60 frames per second (fps) in the most demanding games.

RTX 4070 Super performance in Returnal at 1440p.
Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

The RTX 4070 Super is clearly faster, and it’s not much more expensive. What about ray tracing, though? As you can see above, we see a massive jump in Returnal at 1440p. The RTX 4070 Super is around 18% faster than the base RTX 4070 in this demanding title. It’s not far off AMD’s RX 7900 XT, which is a much more expensive GPU.

This is a good showcase of what DLSS Frame Generation can do, as well. With it turned on, we measured 178 fps in Returnal with the same graphics settings. Both the RTX 4070 Super and RTX 4070 have access to DLSS 3.5 with Frame Generation, but the RTX 4070 Super provides a higher base frame rate. That means it will also have a higher frame rate after Frame Generation is applied.

RTX 4070 Super or RTX 4070?

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

Nvidia’s RTX 4070 Super brings an increase in performance at the same recommended list price as the RTX 4070. The older model’s price is expected to drop, though, with some cards already falling into the $515 range. Does that mean the RTX 4070 Super isn’t worth it?

If you’re sold on the RTX 4070 and spot a good deal on one — particularly a card around $500 — you should pick it up. However, if you haven’t found a deal, you’re better off with the Super model. It’s much faster and at the same list price as the original model. With both cards at their list price, the RTX 4070 Super wins every time.

Nvidia’s RTX 4070 Super isn’t replacing the base model. While the RTX 4080 Super and the RTX 4070 Ti Super are set to replace their counterparts, the RTX 4070 will coexist alongside its Super counterpart.

Jacob Roach
Lead Reporter, PC Hardware
Jacob Roach is the lead reporter for PC hardware at Digital Trends. In addition to covering the latest PC components, from…
You’ll need to win the lottery for a chance to buy the RTX 5090
The RTX 5090 sitting on a pink background.

Nvidia's RTX 5090 is almost here, but the January 30 release date doesn't necessarily mean immediate availability on the shelves. So far, it seems like stock levels will be highly limited for a while, which prompts some retailers to get creative. One Japanese retailer is now hosting a lottery, and the prize is a ticket that allows you to spend $2,000 and more on Nvidia's best graphics card. Meanwhile, even MSI confirms that availability is going to be pretty scarce.

The store, called "Goodwill Nagoya Osu," said that it'll begin selling the RTX 5090 on January 31, but you can't just walk in and shell out some of your hard-earned cash on a GPU. You'll have to gamble and hope for the best. Sales begin at 11 a.m., but only those who are lined up outside the store at 10.20 a.m. will be given a ticket. This peculiar ad was spotted by VideoCardz.

Read more
Campers are already setting up for the RTX 5090 release
Tents outside of Micro Center for the RTX 5090 release.

Tents are already starting to pop up outside of the Tustin, California Micro Center location in anticipation of the RTX 5090 release later this week. As you can read in our RTX 5090 review, it's undoubtedly the best graphics card you can buy, but the campers might not be in it for the frames.

Photos of the campers were shared on the unofficial Micro Center subreddit (spotted by IGN), where two tents are currently set up outside of the Tustin location. Micro Center has discouraged eager customers from camping outside of its locations, though it shared a lengthy video about buying an RTX 5090 or RTX 5080 on release day. In that video, Micro Center says "we suggest coming early."

Read more
AMD’s new integrated graphics are almost 70% faster than an RTX 4070
AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su holding up a chip at Computex 2024.

AMD's new integrated graphics look mighty powerful. According to AMD's marketing materials, the upcoming Ryzen AI Max+ 395 chip with Radeon 8060S integrated graphics is upwards of 68.1% faster than a laptop RTX 4070, which is currently our pick for the best graphics card for laptops.

You can see the results below. AMD tested the Radeon 8060S in a variety of games at 1080p with the High graphics preset. In most games, the margins are tight. However, you can see some significant leads for AMD in titles like Cyberpunk 2077, Baulder's Gate 3, Hitman 3, and especially Borderlands 3, where that 68.1% increase comes from, as highlighted by Notebookcheck.

Read more