The newly introduced GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER series graphics cards are the most anticipated update to NVIDIA’s current lineup of graphics adapters. The increase in GPU power, bus bit and memory capacity up to 16 GB makes this model a desirable purchase for demanding but not wasteful players who are guided by a rational approach even despite their passion. Manufacturers have offered many different models of the updated series, so we continue to get acquainted with interesting representatives of the SUPER line. This time we are reviewing GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER GAMING OC 16G.
GIGABYTE offers several models of GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER 16GB, among which the GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER GAMING OC 16G stands out. In the long name, we immediately notice the presence of the “OS” designation, which in the context of video cards usually reflects the presence of standard acceleration.
In this case, the graphics processor received an acceleration. Instead of the recommended 2340/2610 MHz, the GPU uses the 2340/2655 MHz frequency formula. Therefore, the average acceleration is increased by 55 MHz.
The GDDR6X memory chips operate at 1313 MHz, so the resulting effective frequency is 21,000 MHz. As a reminder, GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER graphics cards have a 256-bit bus. Due to the increase in bit depth, the total bandwidth has also increased, which is now 672 GB/s.
GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER GAMING OC 16G is a rather large model. The video card has overall dimensions of 300 x 130 x 57.6 mm and weighs almost 1.3 kg.
The video card uses a cooler with a massive radiator block, the design of which includes two large cassettes with aluminum plates. The shape of the plate profile takes into account the technological internal relief in order to maximize the use of the available space, thereby increasing the total heat dissipation area.
The cassettes are interconnected by means of heat pipes, and the design includes as many as eight such elements.
The heat sink is based on a copper plate that is in direct contact with the GPU crystal. In addition, the memory chips are in contact with the plate through heat-conducting stickers. A common radiator block is also used to cool the power assemblies.
Despite the fact that the total length of the video card reaches 300 mm, the PCB is barely more than half the adapter – 175 mm. The power subsystem of the GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER GAMING OC 16G provides a 10-phase configuration for the GPU, which is controlled by the uPI uP9512R controller. The power supply is based on Vishay SIC653A assemblies with a maximum operating current of up to 50 A. For memory chips, a two-phase circuit is organized with the uPI uP9529Q controller and the same DrMOS chips as for the GPU – Vishay SIC653A.
The GDDR6X memory chips are located almost close to the GPU. In this case, Micron D8BZCs are used, which are designed to operate at a frequency of 1313 MHz (effective 21,000 MHz) according to the specification.
Returning to the cooling system, we note that a configuration with three axial fans is used to blow the radiator unit. The fans are 90 mm in diameter and have nine blades with a specific profile, which provides for additional fins in the central area.
Among the special features, it can be noted that the fans use sleeve bearings with a reduced noise level, and graphene-infused lubricant is used to increase the service life.
To prevent possible turbulence effects, the mode with opposite rotation of neighboring fans is used.
The cooler also supports a semi-passive cooling mode, stopping the fans when the load is low. In the manufacturer’s interpretation, this technology is called 3D Active Fan.
There is a single 12HVPWR connector on the video card for connecting additional power. Although NVIDIA recommends using 700+W power supplies for systems with GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER graphics cards, GIGABYTE engineers recommend using a 750W or higher power supply for the accelerated version of the adapter.
The adapter has an additional power indicator. If the parameters deviate, the power connector’s white LED will blink, drawing attention to a potential problem.
The video card is equipped with two BIOSes. The OS mode is used by default, and the “Silent” mode is provided if you need to reduce the noise level of the cooler. The corresponding two-position switch is located on the top side of the PCB.
On the back, GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER GAMING OC 16G is covered with an aluminum protective plate. The developers make good use of the ratio of the overall dimensions of the adapter and the much more compact PCB. Approximately one third of the decorative panel is reserved for a ventilation hole for through airflow of the radiator block. This will surely improve the rate of heat dissipation and dissipation.
The designers of the GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER GAMING OC 16G did not ignore the topic of additional lighting, but were generally quite restrained in this regard. RGB backlighting is provided for the GIGABYTE logo on the side panel.
In addition, there is additional illumination in the fan area. The corresponding light guides are located on the outer radii. However, this area can be clearly seen when the video card is placed vertically in the system unit.
The backlight is customizable in GIGABYTE’s proprietary Control Center utility. Ten modes are available, and it is also possible to turn off the backlight. There is an option to synchronize the lights on all elements of the system.
The video card comes with a pair of metal brackets for fixing and supporting the adapter. One of them is attached directly to the end panel of the video card with three screws, and the other is pre-fixed to the motherboard with additional racks. The Anti-sag bracket design has been offered by the manufacturer for massive graphics adapters for some time now to provide reliable protection against sagging.
The initial fixation process may not be the most convenient, but you will have to adjust the structure once. At the same time, the final design is aesthetically neutral and does its job well.
The composition of the GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER GAMING OC 16G interface panel is standard for the series – three DisplayPort 1.4a and one HDMI 2.1a. A significant part of the metal plate is occupied by a ventilation grille, however, given the transverse positioning of the radiator plates, the airflow force for blowing is relatively small.
Test bench configuration
To test the capabilities of the video card, we used the platform provided by Artline, one of the possible variations of the ARTLINE Gaming X57. The PC was equipped with a Core i7-13700KF processor (8/16+8; 3.4/5.4 GHz + 2.5/4.2 GHz), GIGABYTE Z790 GAMING X motherboard (Intel Z790), and a dual-channel 2×32 GB DDR5-6000 G.Skill Ripjaws S5 White RAM kit (CL30-40-40-96). The CPU is cooled by a three-section JONSBO TG-360 Black liquid system.
A 500 GB Crucial P3 was used as the system drive. For a gaming platform of this level, either an additional SSD is obviously needed, or it is advisable to initially focus on a higher capacity model.
The power supply is provided by the GIGABYTE UD850GM (80 PLUS GOLD; 850W), and the system is assembled in a spectacular Artline Overlord case with transparent front and side panels. The case is equipped with four 120mm fans with RGB lighting as standard, so you can create the right mood during your gaming sessions.
- Processor: Core i7-13700KF (8/16+8; 3.4/5.4 GHz + 2.5/4.2 GHz)
- CPU cooling: JONSBO TG-360 Black
- Motherboard: GIGABYTE Z790 GAMING X (Intel Z790)
- RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws S5 White DDR5-6000 2×32 GB (CL30-40-40-96)
- Drive: Сrucial P3 500 GB (M.2 PCI-E)
- Power supply unit: GIGABYTE UD850GM (80 PLUS GOLD; 850 W)
- Case: Artline Overlord
GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER in action
First of all, it was interesting to evaluate the temperature performance of the video card. The cooling system fans stop in idle mode and the adapter operates silently. At the same time, the overall radiator block allows you to get good performance.
Under such conditions, the GPU temperature remained at 31C (40C hot spot), while the memory chips heated up to 34C.
During the game load in normal mode, the GPU temperature rose to 63C (76C hot spot), and the GDDR6X chips heated up to 66C. As you can see on the screenshot, the GPU was accelerated to a maximum of 2880 MHz. As for the cooler’s algorithm, the fan speed at the peak increased to 1580 rpm.
According to GPU-Z monitoring, the GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER GAMING OC video card consumed up to 304 watts of power under load, which is almost 20 watts higher than the stated figure (285 watts) for the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER operating with the recommended frequency formula. Obviously, the standard GPU acceleration requires an increase in the limit, which also explains the manufacturer’s recommendation to use a slightly higher power PSU for the system.
When switching to Silent mode, the frequency characteristics of the GPU do not change. As you can see, the maximum performance also reaches 2880 MHz. The video card really starts to work quieter under load, as the maximum fan speed dropped to 1350 rpm. The temperatures of the elements increase by a few degrees – the GPU heated up to 65C (79C hot spot), the memory – up to 70C.
Performance
To evaluate the capabilities of the GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER GAMING OC, the benchmark model is compared to the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti 12GB with the recommended frequency formula.
Synthetic 3DMark benchmarks show a 10-15% improvement in performance. The increase in bandwidth, and especially memory capacity, can be crucial for certain work tasks. This is what the 15-28% difference in the rendering and visualization stages of Cinebench 2024, Blender 4.0, and V-Ray 5.0 suggests.
For tasks like this, the updated GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER 16GB offers a tangible boost. Additional GPU processing units also contribute, but it is the improved memory subsystem that provides the main benefits. As a reminder, the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti, in addition to its smaller capacity (12 GB), also uses a 192-bit bus versus the 256-bit bus of the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER 16 GB. With the same effective GDDR6X frequency (21,000 MHz), the updated model gets a memory bandwidth of 672 GB/s, while the RTX 4070 Ti 12 GB has a memory bandwidth of 504 GB/s.
What about games? A lot depends on the resolution. For example, in 1080p, even with the maximum quality settings, the needs do not exceed 12 GB, so the difference usually falls within 5-8%. When using 1440p, the advantage of the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER 16 GB increases to 10% on average, and increases to 12-15% in 4K mode.
Activating ray tracing, in addition to increasing the load on the GPU, also increases the memory requirement of the video card. Of course, a lot will depend on the project, but the SUPER modification will at least have a 10-15% advantage. In some cases, when 12 GB of memory capacity is not enough, the difference can be much more significant. We don’t have Alan Wake 2 in our test list yet, but this is one example where activating RT in 4K mode actually excludes all models with less than 16 GB of memory from the list of suitable graphics cards. So far, these are isolated cases, but their number will grow over time.
In the most difficult cases, intelligent scaling technology comes to the rescue. It seems that recently, DLSS/FSR support is no longer even mentioned in new projects. It is assumed that it is available by default. Rather, the absence of it is a reason for a separate discussion. As it recently happened with Helldivers 2, whose developers did not have enough resources to implement technology support before launching the project. But this is also an exception.
Overall, the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER 16GB is a great option for 1440p. The card can usually deliver high performance with the maximum quality settings and allows you to play around with ray tracing. However, the presence of 16 GB of memory also puts the model in the category of graphics cards that can handle 4K mode. Here, the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER 16 GB will have a harder time rocking screens with higher refresh rates, but the PC platform is notable in the context of gaming because it allows you to fine-tune graphics settings.
If we go beyond the “duel” between the new SUPER version and the regular RTX 4070 Ti, then the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is a worthy competitor for the Radeon RX 7900 XT 20 GB. These graphics cards have very similar average performance in all graphics modes, and with RT activation, the NVIDIA model will be a quarter faster. The updated recommended price of the Radeon RX 7900 XT 20 GB is $749, while the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER 16 GB is $50 higher at $799. So when choosing between two decent models, your own preferences will have a significant impact.
Overclocking
After a long gaming session, we also decided to test the potential of GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER GAMING OC for further overclocking. The model allows you to increase the Power Limit by 12%, which we took advantage of before the relevant experiments.
In the process of finding a stable mode, we managed to increase the base operating frequency of the GPU by 200 MHz – from 2340 MHz to 2540 MHz. The average dynamic acceleration increased from 2655 MHz to 2855 MHz. Micron’s memory chips have also accelerated quite well – from 1313 MHz (21,000 MHz) to 1550 MHz (24,800 MHz). In this case, the throughput increased from 672 GB/s to 794 GB/s (+18%). And this is even more than the GeForce RTX 4080, which has 717 GB/s of ROM.
After additional overclocking, the GPU accelerated to 3060 MHz at its peak, briskly and naturally passing the symbolic 3 GHz mark. It is worth noting that the cooler was able to cope with the cooling of the overclocked video card. The GPU/memory temperatures remained virtually unchanged, although the fan speed increased to 1750 rpm to maintain them.
The increase in the power limit actually affected the actual power consumption of the video card, which increased to 333 watts.
As for performance, the additional overclocking improves performance by about 8%. So even after overclocking, the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER still falls a little short of the results of the GeForce RTX 4080, which is usually 10-15% faster.
Given the relative increases in the operating frequencies of the GPU and especially the memory chips, one might expect a more significant increase in performance, but one should keep in mind the importance of the overall balance of the video card’s parameters. A significant increase in memory bandwidth is already constrained by the capabilities of GPU computing units.
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