The start of a new year means updating our graphics with the latest drivers and adding new games to our test protocol. As you can imagine, this takes time, and the graphics will continue to expand over the coming weeks, with older-generation cards being added as we go along. Today, we’re going to focus on Gigabyte’s new RTX 4070 SUPER in Gaming OC version, announced last week for the CES 2024 launch.
Other “SUPER” models will be arriving in the course of January, and we’ll of course also be there to test the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER and the RTX 4080 SUPER.
This new card, even if it’s more accurate to call it a ” refresh “, will take its place in our test table in 1440p definition. NVIDIA will also be keeping the RTX 4070 model even with the arrival of this RTX 4070 SUPER, but it’s the RTX 4070 Ti that will see its production come to an end. It’s at the price level that there will be a change. The RTX 4070 SUPER has an MSRP of $599 (659 euros), the former price of the RTX 4070, which is now priced at $549. So there are sure to be some bargains to be had in the days ahead. The MSRP for this Gigabyte RTX 4070 SUPER Gaming OC was not given, but it’s available at LDLC for 749.95 euros.
Thanks to Gigabyte for providing us with a sample of this RTX 4070 SUPER Gaming OC 12GB.
[nextpage title=”Gigabyte RTX 4070 SUPER Gaming OC :”]
Architecture:
Our model of the day is part of Gigabyte’s “Gaming OC” series, which we recently tested with the RTX 4070 Ti Gaming OC Edition. Gigabyte has evolved this series over the years, optimizing cooling and integrating a rather original RGB backlighting system.
This RTX 4070 features 7168 CUDA cores, 20% more than the RTX 4070, and a TSMC 4 nm manufacturing process with a 220 watt TGP. In terms of memory, it features 12 GB of 192-bit GDDR6X memory, which translates into a bandwidth of 504 GB/s.
The Gaming OC bundle:
So what’s in the box? It’s easy to identify the Gigabyte color code, with black and orange. The box is quite large, but retains fairly standard dimensions. The box measures 440 x 235 x 95 mm. The box opens to reveal the Gigabyte RTX 4070 SUPER Gaming OC.
Once this has been removed, we find a small box containing the adapter for the card’s power supply. This is a 16-pin (12 4) to two 8-pin 150w (300w total) adapter. This adapter is necessary for those who don’t have a power supply with a 16-pin port or the adapter specific to their power supply. There’s also a support for the graphics card, to prevent it from bending when inserted in your motherboard.
Cooling :
This Gigabyte RTX 4070 Ti Gaming OC has dimensions of 300 x 130 x 58 mm and will occupy 2.5 slots on your motherboard. This model is part of the Gigabyte “Gaming OC” series. In other words, the card already benefits from factory overclocking to NVIDIA’s Boost frequency on its Founders Edition. Aesthetically, the card plays on sobriety with touches of black, anthracite and dark gray. This is a model that will match many motherboards.
This is a custom board, i.e. with its own cooling system. It is labelled “Windforce 3x” and features three 100 mm fans. Gigabyte uses its patented Alternate Spinning technology on this board. The principle is quite simple, and involves the three fans rotating in opposite directions. The aim is to avoid turbulence between them.
The nine fan blades are slightly curved to optimize air flow. Our sample is equipped with ” 3D Active Fan ” technology to leave the fans idle if the GPU temperature doesn’t require them.
The black plastic casing completely encloses the PCB, with a high-quality finish. The fairly neutral aesthetic should suit many users. Two BIOS are also present, a Silent mode and an OC mode. By default and for our tests, we’ll be using OC mode.
Yes, a little backlighting:
Quite a bit of backlighting with the outline of each fan and the Gigabyte logo on the top edge of the board, controllable via RGB Fusion 2.0 software. The backlighting effect is quite surprising, since it’s not what we’re used to seeing. There are no less than 9 RGB effects that can be set via the in-house software.
Connections :
The new 16-pin mini-connectors are used to power the card. As mentioned above, NVIDIA includes an adapter in its bundle which allows two 8-pin connectors to be plugged in.
Finally, the board’s video outputs include three DisplayPort 1.4 and one HDMI 2.1 port. See you in the coming weeks for a review of NVIDIA’s RTX 4070 SUPER Founders Edition. The MSRP for this Gigabyte RTX 4070 SUPER Gaming OC was not given, but it can be found for 749.95 euros.
@cornerjack_occ Ce soir avec Gigabyte, dans le labo, c’est soirée disco ! #disco #gigabyte #gigabytegaming #nvidia #rtx4070ti #gpu #raytracing #dlss #dlss3 #cartegraphique #rgb @NVIDIA GeForce @GIGABYTE
[nextpage title=”Specifications and PCB:”]
Technical specifications:
In terms of frequency, the base frequency is announced at 1980 MHz, while the Boost peaks at 2565 MHz. This is an ” overclocked ” model, with a higher Boost frequency than the Founders Edition’s 2475 MHz. The 12 GB of G-DDR6X memory run at 1313 MHz (504 GB/s) on a 192-bit bus. Since this is NVIDIA’s reference board, the frequencies are also reference frequencies. We’ll be able to compare them with our partners’ cards to see if they benefit from factory overclocking. We’re also rather surprised to see the power limit at 320 watts.
A quick run through GPU-Z to check that the information read is correct. The GPU frequency is indeed 1940 MHz, and the Boost frequency 2565 MHz. Don’t forget that the latter will be higher in benchmarks, depending on the quality of your chip and determined by GPU Boost 4.0. Memory has a frequency of 1313 MHz.
Let’s unpack the PCB:
As we hinted, we haven’t disassembled our RTX 4070 SUPER yet. The procedure is fairly lengthy, and the timing of the test publication didn’t allow us to do it in good conditions, especially with the updating of all our graphics and the testing of partner cards.
[nextpage title=”The test configuration: “]
As we said in the introduction, we’re (once again) busy updating all our graphics using the latest drivers from NVIDIA, AMD and, of course, INTEL. We’ve also taken the opportunity to slightly modify our test configuration and add new games to our protocol. So here we go again, with a new series of tests and graphics on this slightly modified configuration:
- Motherboard: ROG Maximus Z690 APEX
- Processor: Intel Alder Lake i9-12900K
- Memory : 32 GB Corsair Vengeance 7200 CL38 DDR5
- Graphics card: Gigabyte RTX 4070 SUPER Gaming OC
- Cooling system : ROG Ryujin II 360
- SSD: Western Digital Black SN750 2 TB EKWB radiator
- Power supply: Corsair AX1600i adapter 12VHPWR 600W
- Operating system: Windows 11 64-bit (23H2)
For this test, we used a high-end configuration featuring an i9-12900K processor and DDR5. The use of a 144 Hz 4K display is also a sine qua non. For our tests, we’re using the ROG PG27UQ.
Our test protocol :
All cards are tested at stock frequencies and without any optimization. For the various benchmarks, whether synthetics or games, we’ll opt for 1080p, 1440p and 2160p resolutions, depending on the card’s performance. Here, with this model, we’ll be using 1440p definitions for rasterization and ray tracing , as we feel this is the most appropriate.
Some cards may straddle the line between two definitions. That’s why we’ve also added the Intel A770 ARC 16GB and the NVIDIA RTX 4060 Ti 8GB/16 GB to the 1440p definition, even if this will remain very complicated for the Intel model. Our current reference card in definition is the NVIDIA RTX 3070 Ti 12GB. For a long time, we hesitated to choose a card with more memory, but in the end, the RTX 3070 Ti 12GB still delivers 1440p definition without difficulty.
As you can see, we’re now running Windows 11 and have activated the ” ReSize BAR ” in the BIOS, which can be seen in GPU-Z. As a reminder, our tests are still underway on the previous generation, and other cards will be added to the various definitions. Now that you know everything about our test configuration, it’s time to get started!
[nextpage title=”Synthetic and application benchmarks: “]
Our first series of tests will be dedicated to synthetic benchmarks. These are often used for overclocking competitions, but are also very interesting for comparing different GPUs. We’ll be focusing on benchmarks from the 3DMark series. Our scores may sometimes appear slightly lower, but that’s because we’re testing them with a native definition of 2160p on our ROG PG27UQ screen. If we change our screen definition to 1080p for the 3DMark tests, the GPU score is better.
As we said in the introduction, we’re busy re-screening all our graphics cards, and our table should be complete again for the release of the other SUPER models. In the meantime, you can find our latest chart with our graphics card panel here.
We’ll be testing the following benchmarks:
- Fire Strike (1080p)
- Fire Strike Ultra (2160p)
- Time Spy (1440p)
- Time Spy Extreme (2160p)
- 3DMark Speed Way
- 3DMark Port Royal
3DMark Fire Strike and Fire Strike Ultra :
Let’s start with 3DMark Fire Strike, one of today’s most widely used benchmarks. It consists of two graphics tests, a CPU test and a fourth test that combines GPU and CPU. Don’t forget to deactivate the demo, which makes no contribution to the final score and prolongs the benchmark’s duration (unnecessarily). The version used for these tests is, of course, the latest.
This is our first benchmark with the Gigabyte RTX 4070 SUPER Gaming OC, and the least we can say is that it’s right where we expected it to be, behind the RTX 4070 Ti and ahead of the RTX 4070. We can already see that it’s much closer to the “Ti” model, with a score of 41779 points.
Under Fire Strike Ultra, the results are identical, but let’s not forget that the Fire Strike series of benchmarks is well in favor of AMD cards.
3DMark Time Spy and Time Spy Extreme:
The second test is 3DMark Time Spy. Although this one is performed in 1440p, its main feature is that it uses DirectX 12. It consists of two graphics tests and a CPU test. As with Fire Strike, don’t forget to disable the demo. These first two benchmarks are provided by UL Benchmark.
The performance obtained in Time Spy is often representative of what we’ll get in games. Here, our sample of the day scores 21271 points, putting us ahead of the RTX 4070. This represents an increase of 3282 points, or 18.2%. We’ll see if we get the same differences in rasterization and 1440p definition.
Under 3DMark Time Spy Extreme, we achieved a good score of 10072 points, representing an 18% performance gain over NVIDIA’s RTX 4070. On the other hand, it lags behind the RTX 4070 Ti by just 669 points.
3DMark Speed Way :
Ulbenchmark’s latest benchmark, and it’s nice to be able to say we’re going to benchmark this Speed Way. It uses DirectX 12 and defaults to 1440p. We haven’t modified anything, so we’re using the original benchmark.
Here, too, our Gigabyte RTX 4070 SUPER Gaming OC scores 5315 points and is therefore still in second place. In this benchmark, NVIDIA cards fare best.
3DMark Port Royal :
Here’s a benchmark we left out last year, but which you may have wanted to see again in our tests. It’s still widely used, especially in the overclocking community. So we’ve decided to add it to our tests.
There were no surprises in this latest benchmark in the 3DMark series, with a score of 13402 points and second place in our graph. Next month sees the arrival of a new benchmark, Steel Nomad, which we will of course be adding to our tests.
Blender” application test:
We’re planning to add a few new application benchmarks, starting today with Blender version 4.0. Don’t hesitate to leave us a comment to let us know which benchmarks you’d like to see in this section.
We’ve used the three tests of Blender version 4.0.0, which in the end produce virtually identical graphics. The performance of our RTX 4070 SUPER is almost identical to that of the RTX 4070 Ti, and far superior to that of the RTX 4070. Don’t hesitate to recommend any application tests you’d like to see included in our tests.
[nextpage title=”Gaming performance 1440p rasterized: “]
We’ve decided to select eight games, as they seem to us to be sufficiently representative. We opted for DirectX12 and Vulkan, with the following games:
- Borderlands 3
- Red Dead Redemption II
- Far Cry 6
- Watch Dogs: Legion
- Cyberpunk 2077
- Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
- Call Of Duty Modern Warefare 3
- Assassin’s Creed Mirage
- Forspoken
We’ve chosen to use the built-in benchmarks for these games.
Why do we do this? Quite simply to enable you to compare your results with ours if you also own a copy of one of these games. It’s a thought-provoking approach that will enable you to compare your results with ours.
As we mentioned on page 4 of this article, we have activated the Resizable Bar in the BIOS, which is now supported by all (recent) GPUs. Finally, we’ve opted for 1440p definition only, which is what you’d expect from this ASUS TUF Gaming RTX 4070 SUPER OC Edition.
Borderlands 3:
Let’s start with Borderlands. The graphics options are set to “Brutal“. It’s worth noting that Borderlands 3 is quite greedy, and that this choice of settings has quite a strong impact on FPS. It’s a game that’s often praised in announcements of new graphics cards, and precisely in this Brutal mode.
Performance here is excellent, with our Gigabyte RTX 4070 SUPER Gaming OC exceeding 120 FPS at 1440p. It even manages to outperform AMD’s RX 7800 XT.
Red Dead Redemption 2:
Second and by no means least, the sublime Red Dead Redemption II. The advantage of this opus is the possibility of testing the integrated Vulkan benchmark. We opt for the “ultra” graphics options.
Secondly, and by no means least, RDR2 offers the possibility of testing the integrated Vulkan benchmark. Performance is once again identical to what we’ve already encountered, with our RTX 4070 SUPER neck-and-neck with the RX 7800 XT. As for the RTX 4070, it lags behind by almost 15.4%.
Far Cry 6:
Far Cry 6 supports DXR and SFR from AMD. You’ll find it on the next page. For our benchmarks, we opted for “ultra” graphics quality.
Even though our report on this game showed an advantage for the RX 6000 cards, our RTX 4070 SUPER once again performed perfectly, just a few FPS behind the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER version.
Watch Dogs Legion:
Let’s move on to Watch Dogs Legion, which will also be used for our Ray Tracing tests. For our benchmarks, we have opted for a graphics quality of “very high“. Even though this game is not very recent, it’s quite interesting, since it requires a lot of memory.
The situation remains the same, with a second-place finish as our sample of the day is placed between the RTX 4070 Ti and the RX 7800 XT. Even though we’re still in the early stages of our tests, this trend seems to be confirmed.
Cyberpunk 2077:
Here’s a game we’ve been wanting to add for a while, and now we have, with an integrated benchmark. We’ll also be using this game for our Ray Tracing tests. For our benchmarks, we’ve opted for “ultra” graphics quality.
At 1440p, we obtained an average of 92.5 FPS, which means we still have room to push a few graphics options if we want to be even more greedy, bearing in mind that DLSS 3 and frame generation await us on the next page.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora:
One of the three new games we’ve just included in our rasterization tests. It’s a recent game from 2023 that tends to put a strain on our graphics cards. For our benchmarks, we’ve opted for “ultra” graphics quality. This game will also feature in our DLSS/FSR/Xess tests, as it supports FSR3.
The graphics speak for themselves. Our graphics cards are suffering, and few of them manage to break the symbolic 60 FPS barrier. In fact, there are only two, including our Gigabyte RTX 4070 SUPER Gaming OC.
Call Of Duty Modern Warefare 3:
We couldn’t do without adding Call Of Duty Modern Warefare 3 to our graphics card tests. For our benchmarks, we have opted for “extreme” graphics quality. This game will also feature in our DLSS/FSR/Xess tests, since it supports frame generation.
A little surprise, since Call Of Duty Modern Warefare 3 seems to give pride of place to AMD cards. Although our ranking has changed slightly, the order of our RTX 4000s is identical to what we’ve seen so far.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage:
With a fairly recent integrated benchmark, we decided to add Assassin’s Creed Mirage to our tests.
The findings are still the same, although here our RTX 4070 SUPER outdistanced the RX 7800 XT more significantly.
Forspoken:
This is the last game we’re adding, as it will also be used on the next page, with the presence of FSR 3. It’s also a fairly recent game, and one that also puts a strain on our graphics cards.
We won’t change a thing on this last test, with our RTX 4070 SUPER ahead of the 4070 by almost 17.3%, and lagging behind the RTX 4070 Ti by 6%. Let’s see how our 9 games average out in rasterization.
Game average :
For the gaming average, the RTX 3070 Ti is still our reference card in 1440p definition. Other cards score either higher or lower, depending on their performance against this model.
These are excellent results for the Gigabyte RTX 4070 SUPER Gaming OC, which is right where we expected it to be in 1440p definition in rasterization, i.e. without enabling ray tracing or DLSS/FSR in our games. This is what we’ll be assessing on the next page. If we weigh up prices at this point in the article, the reference RTX 4070 SUPER will be sold at 659 euros, which represents an excellent choice, even if the reference RX 7800 XT is priced at 555 euros. It will be interesting to see how each of these cards performs with the technologies offered by NVIDIA and AMD.
[nextpage title=”Ray tracing and DLSS/FSR 1440p performance:”]
Let’s take a look at the eight games we’ve selected that support ray tracing, DLSS, AMD’s FSR and Intel’s XeSS technology. As we’ve already reminded you, while DLSS remains the property of NVIDIA, FSR and XeSS can be used with any card from AMD, Intel or even NVIDIA. We’ve chosen to remove Watch Dogs: Legion since it’s the only game that supports only one technology, DLSS.
The eight DirectX 12 games we’ll be testing with ray tracing, if available, as well as DLSS, FSR or XeSS are :
- Shadow of the Tomb Raider (RT – DLSS – XeSS)
- Far Cry 6 (DXR – FSR)
- Cyberpunk 2077 (RT – DLSS 3 – FSR – XeSS)
- Hitman 3 (RT – DLSS 3 – XeSS – FSR)
- Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (DLSS – XeSS – FSR 3)
- Call Of Duty Modern Warefare 3 (DLSS 3 – XeSS – FSR)
- Assassin’s Creed Mirage (DLSS – Xess – FSR)
- Forspoken (DLSS – XeSS – FSR 3)
No change for this new series of games, as we’re staying with 1440p definition. Depending on the card, we’ll be using either DLSS for NVIDIA or FSR or XeSS for AMD and Intel models. If FSR is not available in a game, then we’ll give our AMD card the benefit of XeSS technology.
DLSS 3: watch out for our results!
As you know, NVIDIA unveiled DLSS 3 with the arrival of the RTX 4000 graphics cards, and in particular with the launch of the RTX 4090 version. So why the warning? Because NVIDIA now offers DLSS 3 support on many games, but this is only supported by RTX 4000s. To put it simply, if we test a game that benefits from DLSS 3, our RTX 4060 Ti will take advantage of it, but an RTX 30xx will make do with DLSS 2, resulting in even greater discrepancies, especially thanks to frame generation. We currently have three games that support DLSS 3, and we’ll be increasing this number over the coming weeks.
But AMD has also reacted by offering its FSR 3, also combined with frame generation technology, which significantly increases the number of FPS. But now it’s time for the graphics, which will speak volumes in terms of performance.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider:
First, which we’re adding to this comparison and which supports Ray Tracing and DLSS 2.0. Three levels of Ray Tracing are offered in the game (medium – high – ultra) and the four levels of DLSS (performance – quality – balanced – ultra performance).
For our benchmarks, we opted for “very high” graphics quality, “ultra” Ray Tracing and “balanced” DLSS.
With Ray Tracing set to ultra, an average of 141 FPS is achieved. The performance achieved with DLSS 2 in this game is much better than that achieved with FSR 1.
Far Cry 6:
Far Cry 6 supports DXR and AMD’s FSR, but not DLSS.
For our benchmarks, we opted for Ultra graphics quality, activated both DRX options and FSR in “balanced” mode.
In Far Cry 6, FSR is the only choice available to boost FPS after activating Ray Tracing. All our cards can benefit from it, regardless of manufacturer. Our RTX 4070 SUPER benefits slightly, but in the end it’s the lower-ranked cards that benefit from this FPS boost.
Cyberpunk 2077:
Cyberpunk 2077 features DLSS and FSR activation in its settings. Note that this was the first game to enable DLSS3 for RTX 40xx graphics cards, as well as frame generation. For our benchmarks, we opted for “ultra” graphics quality, “ultra” Ray Tracing and ” balanced ” DLSS/FSR.
This is one of our most demanding games, where our cards have great difficulty keeping up. Here, an average of 47 FPS is achieved. While the RTX 4070 SUPER fares better with ray tracing, the addition of the new DLSS 3 and frame generation boosts FPS numbers by a staggering margin.
Hitman 3:
Hitman 3 now supports DLSS, FSR and XeSS technology. Depending on the model of card tested, we opt for one of these three technologies.
For our benchmarks, we opted for “high” graphics quality, “enabled” Ray Tracing and “balanced” DLSS/Xess.
We find ourselves in a familiar situation with our RTX 4070 SUPER in second place. Hitman 3, which also benefits from DLSS 3 and frame generation, achieves an FPS gain of almost 133%.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora:
One of the three new games we’ve just included in our rasterization tests. It’s a recent game from 2023 that tends to put a strain on our graphics cards. For our benchmarks, we’ve opted for “ultra” graphics quality. This game will also feature in our DLSS/FSR/Xess tests, as it supports FSR 3. The idea is to balance games that benefit from DLSS 3 and FSR 3.
There’s no ray tracing here, so we’ve taken the performance of rasterization and activated the technologies that enable FPS gains. DLSS 2 does the job perfectly, but we can also see that AMD’s FSR 3 could start to rival DLSS 3.
Call Of Duty Modern Warefare 3:
We couldn’t do without adding Call Of Duty Modern Warefare 3 to our graphics card tests. For our benchmarks, we have opted for “extreme” graphics quality. This game will also feature in our DLSS/FSR/Xess tests, since it supports frame generation.
As with Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, there’s no ray tracing here, so we’ll be activating each manufacturer’s own technology. And in this little game, NVIDIA comes out on top with DLSS 3 combined with frame generation. With over 200 FPS, we’re perfectly at ease.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage:
With a fairly recent integrated benchmark, we decided to add Assassin’s Creed Mirage to our tests.
Here, even if our RTX 4070 SUPER retains the advantage in rasterization and also when DLSS 2 is activated, AMD cards are not to be outdone.
Forspoken:
This is the last game we’re adding, as it will also be used on the next page, with the presence of FSR 3. It’s also a fairly recent game, and it, too, puts a strain on our graphics cards.
It’s FSR 3 and frame generation that are the most brutal here. Now, that’s nothing to disturb our RTX 4070 SUPER, which goes from 81 to 122 FPS with DLSS.
So, what about ray tracing with the Gigabyte RTX 4070 SUPER Gaming OC?
In the 8 games we tested, our Gigabyte RTX 4070 SUPER Gaming OC performed perfectly. When ray tracing is activated, it doesn’t cause any problems, since DLSS is always present behind it. In fact, NVIDIA dominated the exchanges, thanks in particular to the arrival of DLSS 3 and frame generation, but now AMD is fighting back. The reds also came out in force with FRS 3 and frame generation, which also brought an increase in FPS. But it’s NVIDIA that still has the upper hand, as the number of games supported is far greater on the green side. FRS 3 is doing very well, but previous revisions are struggling against DLSS 2, for example. DLSS therefore remains the most interesting technology when available.
[nextpage title=”Temperature and consumption: “]
Temperature :
To record temperatures, we opted for the Superposition stress test in Extreme mode. We opted for three 5-minute runs with 10-minute intervals between each test. We took advantage of this benchmark to record the graphics card’s power consumption for the table above.
To find out the Idle temperature, after completing the three stress test loops, we let the card rest for 20 minutes before taking the temperature reading. Bear in mind that most boards benefit from “0 dBa” technology, so the fans cut out below a certain temperature, often between 50 and 55°C. It therefore takes longer to dissipate heat after a period of stress testing or gaming. A card that does not benefit from this technology will be noisier than others at rest. A quick reminder: our temperature readings are taken in Open-Air. In a closed case, the cards will inevitably be warmer.
Not surprisingly, temperatures are just right, and the card is perfectly silent. The combination of radiator and three fans works perfectly.
Power consumption (entire configuration) :
We use a wattmeter to measure power consumption at the output of our power supply. Our modular power supply is a CORSAIR AX1600i. The result is the average total power consumption of our configuration. Only the graphics card changes between each reading. So it’s easy to calculate the difference between each graphics card.
But the good news is that we should (finally) be properly equipped to isolate power consumption solely from the graphics card, as we have pre-ordered the BENCHLAB from Elmorlabs.
Power consumption is unsurprisingly higher than that of the RTX 4070, rising from 284 to 332 watts for our complete configuration. Based on a similar architecture, this 16.5% increase in power consumption almost matches the performance increase we noted.
[nextpage title=”Overclocking: “]
Overclocking via GPU Tweak III:
No doubt this will be very limited by NVIDIA in order to avoid reaching the performance of the RTX 4070 Ti, even if it will disappear from production. Direction to the latest version of ASUS’ GPU Tweak III software. This is overclocking software designed by ASUS, but which will prove compatible with other GPU brands. The software is really well designed, but you’ll need to go through the advanced mode to access all the settings.
To test our overclocking, we’re going to concentrate first on the Time Spy benchmark. We’re off! We leave the fans in AUTO mode, raise the power limit to the maximum, i.e. 145%, and off we go! Initially, we only push the GPU frequency in 50 MHz increments until the benchmark stops running. Once the GPU frequency is stable, we move on to increasing the memory frequency.
By default, at stock frequencies, our Gigabyte RTX 4070 SUPER Gaming OC achieves an overall score of 21476 points and 21830 points for the GPU score. Boost frequency reaches a maximum of 2865 MHz MHz, with GPU temperature rising to 60°C.
In the end, we were able to push the boost frequency to 3045 MHz and the memory to 1450 MHz. This enabled me to achieve some excellent scores, which enabled me to gain even more points. The overall score rose to 22756 points and the GPU score to 23402 points (7.2%). Temperature remains contained at 61.8°C.
[nextpage title=”The last word:”]
Pricing?
Let’s start straight away with the price, which is often the most “complicated” aspect of partner boards, compared with the Founders Edition, whose MSRP is €659. Gigabyte had not yet communicated its MSRP price to us at the time of launch, but since the cards have been out since yesterday, a quick trip to the stores where we find this RTX 4070 SUPER Gaming OC at 749.95 euros at LDLC. In the end, this is a “fair” price for a custom model featuring a more powerful cooling system and factory overclocking. We’re talking about a difference of 90 euros between the two models.
Performance?
Rasterization to 1440p definition gives our RTX 4070 a narrow lead over the RX 7800 XT. This means it can take back the crown of the best-performing card in QHD. Compared with the Founders Edition model we tested yesterday, the difference in performance is insignificant, despite the fact that we’re using a factory-pre-overclocked model. We’ll come back to this in our next article, but the new RTX 4070 Ti SUPER and its 16 GB, seems to have plenty of power to titillate 2160p definition.
As for the performance of our Gigabyte RTX 4070 SUPER Gaming OC, it’s excellent, being the best-performing of the three “RTX 4070 SUPER” we tested. It’s very close to the performance of the RTX 4070 Ti, with only a 7% difference in rasterization.
The card?
As we hinted at the beginning of this article, the “Gaming OC” model is one we now test regularly. While the external appearance remains unchanged – and we’re pleased about that – the cooling performance is excellent. The radiator is imposing, and the three fans have no difficulty in keeping the PCB cool, which is much shorter than the radiator. Fans of RGB backlighting will find a different look from the competition, since it’s the outside of the fan shroud that lights up.
What’s next?
As you know, NVIDIA won’t be stopping there, launching the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER on January 24 and the RTX 4080 SUPER on January 31. We can already tell you that we’re looking forward to the “Ti SUPER” version, which, behind its long name, could well be the most interesting model in the SUPER range.
Gigabyte RTX 4070 SUPER Gaming OC
Gigabyte’s RTX 4070 SUPER Gaming OC is a very good custom card. It may be more expensive than NVIDIA’s Founders Edition, but for the difference in price, it offers better cooling and, above all, better performance. It remains to be seen whether your budget will allow you to make up the difference. Thanks to Gigabyte for making this sample available, and see you in a few days to test a new Gigabyte card based on the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER.