Question Picking an RTX 4070

[Andross64]

I normally buy a nicer card and then get 4+ years out of it, prioritizing longevity.
The value I've received in the past is as follows:
PNY GXT 780 ($480, lasted 4.5 years = ~$100/year)
PNY GTX 1080 ($599, 6 years = $100/year)

With the current market, it seems the $100/year mark will be a stretch, but I'd like to get as close as possible to that value obviously.
I compiled a rough sheet to just get a feel for what the actual differences are between all of them (I mainly used Gigabyte Windforce specs because that line has all 4 models).

	Price	Cores	Cores Per $	Mem Bus	Mem Bandwidth	VRAM	Power	Core Speed	Boost Speed	Power Connecter
4070	$500	5888	11.776	192-Bit	504 GB/s	12 GB	200W	1920 MHz	2490 MHz	8-pin
	100+	1280+
4070 Super	$600	7168	11.946	192-Bit	504 GB/s	12 GB	220W	1980 MHz	2565 MHz	16pin
	125+	512+
4070 Ti	$725	7680	10.593	192-Bit	504 GB/s	12 GB	285W	2310 MHz	2640 MHz	16pin
	75+	768+
4070 Ti Super	$800	8448	10.56	256-Bit	716.8 GB/s	16 GB	285W	2340 MHz	2625-2655 MHz	16pin
GTX 1080	$600(2018)	2560		256-Bit	320 GB/s	8GB	180W	1607 mhz	1733 mhz	8-pin

I'd love some help with these things:

- Can anybody find a reason why 4070 Supers are not the best value?

- There is a 4070ti Super restocking at B&H for $769 next week. That would bring it's core value to 10.971 Cores per Dollar. That plus the extra VRAM could make a case for it being worth it for future proofing VRAM? Thoughts on when gaming is going to need 16GB VRAM? Might be worth the extra $170 if it will push me past a theoretical 12GB VRAM limitation whenever that hits?

- What is the current general market trajectory? I've been seeing a few prices drop since I've been looking just over the past 2 weeks?


Primary Uses:
Gaming 144hz 1440p, graphic design, some minor Unreal Engine stuff(mainly UI, I'm not really doing any huge renders or baking lighting for massive levels, etc.)

 

[Lutfij]

If you're currently on a GTX1080, then any of the RTX4070's listed above would be a huge improvement over what you have. Your initial comparison is between the GTX970 and GTX1080, they are successive generations. The RTX4070 is 3 generations forward, that's where the performance per dollar makes no sense with regards to the GTX1080. Architecturally(GPU wise) they aren't the same either.

At this point of time, if you can hold out a little more, till the end of this year or Q1 2025, we should see RTX5000 series GPU's come to light though expect mid 2025 when the RTX 5070 will come out, per my guestimate(not news, just from past release dates).

 

[Andross64]

If you're currently on a GTX1080, then any of the RTX4070's listed above would be a huge improvement over what you have. Your initial comparison is between the GTX970 and GTX1080, they are successive generations. The RTX4070 is 3 generations forward, that's where the performance per dollar makes no sense with regards to the GTX1080. Architecturally(GPU wise) they aren't the same either.

At this point of time, if you can hold out a little more, till the end of this year or Q1 2025, we should see RTX5000 series GPU's come to light though expect mid 2025 when the RTX 5070 will come out, per my guestimate(not news, just from past release dates).

I never had a 970, that first card was a 780.

Regardless, I clearly wasn't comparing my old cards technical specs to the 4070. This post is comparing 4070's to each other to figure out where the best Dollar to Year Ratio is(longevity), and then comparing that value verses the longevity I got from my old cards in the past.

I appreciate the insight on the 5000's. I think that will be a little too long for me to wait. Especially seeing as the 80's will be out of my budget and I'll have to wait even longer for 70's(reference cards at that).

 

[thestryker]

While I don't particularly think buying at the end of a generation is a great idea if you're looking to buy now the first thing you need to do is figure out how important that res/refresh is. As long as you're not looking to move up to 4k I'm pretty sure 12GB VRAM is likely to be enough for reasonable performance levels. Generally speaking VRAM only becomes an issue at lower resolutions when you're maxing out things like Ray Tracing on top of maximum settings.

I don't think core count is a great metric for determination as there's more that goes into it as boost clocks can change along with memory bus on the Ti Super.

From nvidia I think the 4070 Super is the best current choice as long as you don't live in a place with escalated pricing.

I did a comparison using TPU's results over in this thread at the bottom of this post which may be helpful (costs are Canadian and from that time so not likely applicable, but performance is):
https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/building-a-new-gaming-computer.3848259/post-23291674

The 4070 averages from that TPU data would be:
1440p: 103.5 fps
4k: 58.6 fps

 

[Andross64]

While I have no hard plans right now , I could see myself buying a 4k 240Hz monitor in 1-2 years as the prices on those continue to fall.
Do you think the 12gb VRAM will hit a bottleneck before the rest of the specs in 2 years?

 

[thestryker]

While I have no hard plans right now , I could see myself buying a 4k 240Hz monitor in 1-2 years as the prices on those continue to fall.
Do you think the 12gb VRAM will hit a bottleneck before the rest of the specs in 2 years?

It's hard to say for sure as absolute performance certainly comes into play and if you're trying to get near the refresh cap upscaling will be required which drops VRAM requirements some. For anything you're playing that you want good fidelity and don't mind the lower frame rate I do think 12GB VRAM will be a bottleneck. If you're comfortable with the cost of the Ti Super the extra peace of mind may very well be worth it.

Here's the process I used for my last video card purchase:
When I was debating on my last video card it was originally to replace a GTX 970 I was still using in 2020. I almost got a 3080, but I was very uncomfortable with the 10GB VRAM as I've been running a 1440p ultrawide so I waited. By the time I got a card I ended up with a 12GB 3080 which hasn't had any issues, but if you look at where the 10GB model falls now there are clear VRAM limitations even in regular benchmarking as resolution goes up.