Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Super review: more frames for less money

Game benchmarks: Hitman 3, A Plague Tale: Requiem, Returnal.

Review by Richard Leadbetter Technology Editor, Digital Foundry

Published on 16 Jan 2024

Our rasterisation benchmarks come to a conclusion on this final page of tests, where we continue to expect AMD's RDNA 3 cards to be more competitive against their Nvidia 40-class rivals.

Once again, if you're jumping straight to this page without looking at prior results, we should stress that our benchmarking system offers a number of ways to get to the data you want, the presentation varying according to the device you're using. You'll get a basic overview of our findings on mobile, with metadata from the video capture of each GPU being translated into simple bar charts with average frame-rate and lowest one per cent measurements for easy comparisons.

On a desktop-class browser, you'll get the full-fat DF experience with embedded YouTube videos of each test scene and live performance metrics. Play the video, and you'll see exactly how each card handled the scene as it progresses. Below the real-time metrics is an interactive bar chart, which you can mouse over to see different measurements and click to switch between actual frame-rates and percentage differences. All the data here is derived from video captured directly from each GPU, ensuring an accurate replay of real performance.

Hitman 3

Hitman 3 is a highly performant game, with all of our focal points for this review achiving hundreds of frames per second at 1440p - but some data points are still worth mentioning. For example, it's an AMD-friendly game once RT is factored out, meaning that the RX 7800 XT is around 14 percent faster at 1440p - not bad for a card that's $100 cheaper and has an additional four gigs of framebuffer memory. It's around five points faster at 4K too.

Putting the 4070 Super into context with the legendary RTX 3080 and its Ada predecessors in the 70 class, there are mixed fortunes. The RTX 3080 matches 4070 Super performance at 1440p, requiring a move to 4K to see the new offering cough up a seven point percetage lead. The advantage over the non-Super RTX 4070 remains palpable, but the 4070 Ti is 10 to 11 percent more performant.

Hitman, Ultra, TAA

A Plague Tale: Requiem

We had to include this game in our test suite simply because it's so beautiful - a proper next generation showcase. It also runs exceptionally smoothly, bearing in mind that so much is being asked of the graphics hardware... and with RT disabled at least, it doesn't trouble the limitations of 8GB GPUs. We're testing like-for-like here, but do bear in mind that there is frame generation support for RTX 40-series cards and it works nicely.

There's a definite trend here - the gains vs the RTX 3080 are not exactly game-changing, and barely register at all at 4K resolution, where - once again - 4070 Ti punches above its weight. The 4070 Super is about 17 points ahead of the non-Super, offering up 91 percent of the Ti's output.

A Plague Tale Requiem, Ultra Settings

Returnal

In our final rasterisation benchmark, Returnal's excellent benchmark sequence is put through its paces, where the developers have crafted a series of performance challenges encompassing all major environmental elements found in the game. The RX 7800 XT is a great performer for rasterisation and the paltry lead delivered by RTX 4070 Super may make some think twice... if RT and DLSS aren't for them, at least.

Otherwise, we're once again looking at uninspiring leads up against the RTX 3080, and slightly sub-par performance compared to the RTX 4070 Ti. A 14 to 16 percent lead over the standard RTX 4070 at 1440p and 4K resolution respectively is a nice enough bump, however.