Nvidia RTX 4070 Ti Super review: not very super (2024)

I had high hopes for the RTX 4070 Ti Super after the RTX 4070 Super impressed me earlier this month. Nvidia’s first RTX 40-series Super card provided some solid performance boosts at both 4K and 1440p — around 15 percent and 17 percent, respectively. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said about the RTX 4070 Ti Super.

While the pricing remains the same $799 as the original RTX 4070 Ti it’s replacing, so does the performance. At 1440p on the RTX 4070 Ti Super, I initially found nearly 3 percent better performance over the original RTX 4070 Ti and around 5 percent at 4K. Nvidia had promised 10 percent, so something had clearly gone wrong here.

Less than two days before this review was due to go live, Nvidia found a problem with the cards that some reviewers were testing. “We have discovered an issue with the MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER 16G Ventus 3X GPUs where performance was approximately 5 percent below expected figures on other RTX 4070 Ti SUPER SKUs,” said Nvidia spokesperson Lars Weinand.

Nvidia supplied a VBIOS update, noting that performance still wasn’t up to the promised 10 percent figure. “MSI are continuing to work on updates,” according to Nvidia. The VBIOS update hasn’t made a big difference, but after testing an Asus TUF RTX 4070 Ti Super, I’ve found an improvement of around 5 percent performance over the original RTX 4070 Ti at 1440p and around 9 percent at 4K. That’s better than the troubled MSI card but still not good enough.

Hardware

I’m disappointed Nvidia hasn’t returned with a Founders Edition card for this refreshed GPU. Much like the original RTX 4070 Ti, I’ve been testing a third-party card from MSI. Nvidia is leaving it up to its board partners to supply the cards for the RTX 4070 Ti Super, with the design varying per manufacturer. While I appreciate the diversity of choice available with third-party boards, the Founders Edition cards are well-made and sleekly designed.

MSI’s RTX 4070 Ti Super 16G Ventus 3X uses a triple-fan layout with a copper baseplate and heat pipes to cool the heat from the GPU and memory modules. Like other RTX cards, there’s a zero-RPM mode to stop the fans when temperatures are low, so it keeps your PC quiet if you’re not playing games or stressing the GPU.

This is a fairly typical layout for the RTX 4070 Ti Super, and most third-party cards seem to be going with the triple-fan design. At the rear, there are also the usual three 1.4 DisplayPorts and a single HDMI 2.1 port.

Overall, it’s still a big card, much like RTX 4080 and RTX 4090 variants, but I’m glad to see 16GB of VRAM instead of the 12GB that shipped on the original RTX 4070 Ti. That’s good news for futureproofing and playing at 4K.

Nvidia also hasn’t bumped the power requirements here, so the RTX 4070 Ti Super pulls the same up to 285 watts as the original, 35 less than an RTX 4080. Nvidia still recommends a 750-watt power supply; the latest ATX 3.0 PSUs come with native support for the new PCIe 5.0 12VHPWR connector that Nvidia uses. I’d recommend this or a third-party cable so you can avoid the chunky power adapter that ships in the box and converts two regular eight-pin PCIe power connections into this new 12-pin connector.

1440p benchmarks

For 1440p testing, I paired the RTX 4070 Ti Super with AMD’s latest Ryzen 7 7800X3D processor and Samsung’s 32-inch G7 monitor. This monitor supports refresh rates up to 240Hz as well as Nvidia’s G-Sync technology, so it’s a good test to see if any games can max out this refresh rate.

I put the RTX 4070 Ti Super head-to-head with the previous model, some other RTX 40-series cards, AMD’s Radeon RX 7900 XT and XTX, and some previous-generation cards. Tests are performed in a variety of AAA games with max or ultra settings to stress GPUs as much as possible.

Every game managed to hit 100fps or above on average, apart from Metro Exodus Enhanced on extreme settings — which is a stress test for most GPUs with the exception of the RTX 4090.

The RTX 4070 Ti Super is around 5 percent faster than the RTX 4070 Ti before it. As I mentioned earlier, this is super disappointing. It’s barely an improvement over the card it’s replacing, and really, all you’re getting here at 1440p is 16GB of VRAM instead of 12. Obviously, RTX 4070 Ti owners won’t be upgrading to this anyway, but I was hoping to see closer to the 10 percent that Nvidia promised here at 1440p.

VBIOS updates might help in the future on the MSI card, but the Asus model I tested after this review was first published didn’t improve things enough at 1440p. It’s still a fine option for 1440p, but I was hoping for more here.

In Returnal and Gears 5, the frame rate averages were identical on the MSI card, so there was no improvement whatsoever. Before MSI’s VBIOS update was applied, I actually had the Gigabyte RTX 4070 Ti beating the MSI RTX 4070 Ti Super by a slight margin in both of these games. On the Asus card, Returnal remains the same as the 4070 Ti, but there’s a 7 percent improvement for Gears 5.

Much like other RTX 40-series cards, the RTX 4070 Ti Super includes DLSS 3 support. It boosts frames by more than 25 percent in Forza Horizon 5, bringing performance up to the same level as AMD’s $999 Radeon RX 7900 XTX in this particular game.

Elsewhere, the RTX 4070 Ti Super trades blows with the $899 Radeon RX 7900 XT, providing better frame rates in games where RT is enabled and especially where games take advantage of DLSS more often than AMD’s FSR equivalent. But overall, these numbers are still disappointing compared to the RTX 4070 Ti.

4K benchmarks

For 4K gaming, I tested the RTX 4070 Ti Super with Acer’s 31.5-inch Nitro XV2 monitor. This monitor supports refresh rates up to 144Hz, but the RTX 4070 Ti Super still doesn’t come anywhere close to maxing this monitor out.

Every game managed to reach 60fps or above with settings on ultra or extreme, except Metro Exodus Enhanced running on extreme settings. That makes this an interesting option for 4K, particularly with the improved 16GB of VRAM onboard. If you’re willing to drop the settings down further, then you could max out a 4K 144Hz monitor in a number of games.

Overall, I found very little difference over the original RTX 4070 Ti, though. It’s around 5 percent at 4K with the MSI card, but I’m glad to report that with the Asus card it was around 9 percent. Both still trade blows with AMD’s $899 RX 7900 XT, which AMD has discounted to a promotional price of $749 at some retailers recently in a move that’s clearly a response to Nvidia’s Super cards.

DLSS 3 once again helps at 4K, although it’s a nearly 15 percent bump in Forza Horizon 5 instead of the greater gains I found at 1440p. If you play games that support DLSS 3, then it’s well worth enabling, even if there is a slight tradeoff of increased latency for the frame generation tech.

Conclusion

The RTX 4070 Ti Super has been a difficult card to review thanks to the VBIOS issues. We decided to publish at embargo time to offer an opinion on this MSI model, and I’m happy to see the Asus card at least manages to get closer to the 10 percent claim at 4K.

Nvidia promised a 10 percent performance bump over the RTX 4070 Ti, but in my testing, that hasn’t materialized at 1440p — probably the main resolution people will buy this card for. If you’re interested in 4K gaming, this is more of a 60Hz option unless you’re willing to drop the settings down significantly.

This makes it difficult to see exactly who the RTX 4070 Ti Super is for.

The $799 pricing of the original RTX 4070 Ti always felt too high, and the RTX 4070 Ti Super doesn’t change that. It’s not that the RTX 4070 Ti Super is a bad card — it’s a little faster and has more VRAM than the RTX 4070 Ti — the problem is that the RTX 4070 Ti was already too expensive. And the 4070 Ti Super is stuck between the $599 RTX 4070 Super, which got significantly better than the RTX 4070, and the upcoming $999 RTX 4080 Super, which will be $200 cheaper than the RTX 4080 it’s replacing

The main AMD competition at this price point is the RX 7900 XT — but only because of “promotional pricing” that means it has officially dropped from $899 to $749 at some retailers recently. At the time of review, you can pick one up at Best Buy for $759.99 or even for $739.99 at Newegg.

The $599 RTX 4070 Super is better value for 1440p gaming, especially as you’re saving $200 there for a slight dip in performance. All the RTX 4070 Ti Super really gives you is 16GB of VRAM, and if you’re willing to spend another $200, then the RTX 4080 Super is around the corner.

It’s not always been easy to find an RTX 4070 Ti for $799 right now, with prices regularly at $850 or beyond. I think some will be holding out hope for the RTX 4080 Super’s $999 pricing to put more pressure on, if they can even find cards at that level.

I can’t recommend the RTX 4070 Ti Super unless you’re really nervous about the 12GB of VRAM on the RTX 4070 Super. Even then, for $200 more, I don’t think there’s enough value here. The RTX 4070 Ti Super is a very capable card, but if it were $100 cheaper, it would be easier to recommend.

Photography by Tom Warren / The Verge

Update January 24th, 11AM ET: Review updated with additional testing on an Asus TUF RTX 4070 Ti Super.