Nvidia’s RTX 4070 graphics card is a great choice for gamers seeking to boost their PC’s performance without having to shell out for a more expensive, higher-spec GPU. The RTX 4070 allows excellent visuals at 4K resolution, upscaling with its advanced Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) technology, as well as offering energy savings with its rated TGP of 200W. It is one of the best graphics cards in Nvidia’s Lovelace lineup, being both surprisingly affordable and powerful enough for Cyberpunk 2077.
There are a few things that make the RTX 4070 stand out from the pack, particularly when compared to its previous-gen counterparts. The card features a small two-slot design, so it won’t hog your PCI slots. It is also relatively short in length and only requires a 200W TGP, significantly outclassing other flagship GPUs like the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX, which requires a heavy 450W.
However, the RTX 4070’s power draw is routed through a controversial 16-pin ’12VHPWR’ connector. This connection sparked a scandal in October 2022, after some RTX 4090 cards using this connector melted due to excessive power flow. Though no cards using the RTX 4070 suffered the same fate, many users understandably remain wary of the 12VHPWR and its potential “thermal variance” issues.
Still, the card performs incredibly, and the third-party RTX 4070 models offered by brands like PNY even boasted a virtually identical performance rate as the Founders Edition, but with a less contentious 8-pin PCIe power connector. This makes them a great alternative, allowing use with basically any ATX power supply.
Nvidia is one of the world’s leading providers of cutting-edge graphics processing solutions for the gaming, creative and AI markets. Founded in 1993, Nvidia has a long history of pushing the boundaries of what is possible, pushing new computational boundaries for a wide range of applications and platforms. The company has recently gained attention for its machine learning solutions and AI-powered graphical solutions (like DLSS); the flagship RTX 4090 designed for the cutting edge of graphical demand, while the RTX 4070 provides an excellent middle ground of performance and affordability, and is quickly becoming a consumer favorite.
John Loeffler is a respected name in the PC industry, known particularly for his comprehensive tests of components and gaming hardware. His good reputation is well-deserved, due to his professional methodology and use of reliable data sources. He has tested various models of the RTX 4070, finding them all to be excellent but noting that PNY’s model was slightly superior in performance, due to its lack of the controversial 16-pin power connector.
