KFA2 GeForce RTX 4070 EX Gamer (1-Click-OC) 12 GB Review – Cheap OC card, extra cool & quiet, with a lot of ARGB

1 - Introduction, technical data and technology 2 - Test System and the igor'sLAB MIFCOM-PC 3 - Teardown: PCB and components, cooler 4 - Gaming performance 5 - Details: Power consumption and load balancing 6 - Transients and PSU recommendation 7 - Temperatures, clock rates and infrared analysis 8 - Fan curves, noise and audio samples 9 - Summary and conclusion

Summary

The KFA2 GeForce RTX 4070 EX Gamer (1-Click-OC) 12 GB was also tightly priced, but it still offers a lot. An almost oversized 3-fan cooler with decent ARGB, 8 instead of 6 voltage converters for the GPU after all, 215 watts power limit instead of just 200 watts and a really stable implementation including a decent backplate made of light metal are all arguments in favor of this card. After all, it is also very cool and nice and quiet. The 215 watts are easily enough to play reasonably well and to overclock properly, because you can even reach a GeForce RTX 3080 10GB, depending on the game and resolution, of course.

A smaller downer is the borderline utilization of the PCIe slot, which is slightly above the maximum permissible standard limit of 5.5 amps in the Torture test. However, since the measured value could also be set to the limit after deducting all tolerances, this does not lead to a reduction in the final overall score. Yes, you can criticize all this, but it is still in a range that will never lead to damage and is also covered by tolerances.

This model  is overall a very good card in Full-HD when it comes to higher frame rates and also still quite suitable for WQHD. However, you will have to think about smart upscaling in Ultra-HD at the latest, and that is where DLSS comes into play. Meanwhile, games like “The Last of Us Part 1” (TLOU) subjectively look even better in Ultra HD with DLSS than native Ultra HD. NVIDIA can definitely use its advantages here, which DLSS 2.x also offers purely optically. However, if a game supports DLSS 3.0 and you would be stuck in the unplayable FPS range without Super Sampling, then this can even be the lifeline to playability. You can’t improve latencies with this, but not every genre is as latency-bound as various shooters. For TLOU1, I would have liked to see DLSS 3.0, but you can’t have everything.

Of course, you get all the advantages of the Ada architecture here from a current street price of around 629 Euros and could be quite satisfied with it in the context of the current price spiral, if it weren’t for the memory expansion and the narrow memory interface, which I had already noted in the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti. Yes, it might be enough for WQHD at the moment, but games like TLOU1 unfortunately show us that resources are being used more and more wastefully and the memory could be full faster than you can say pug.

We can already see that there is always something, even here. Under WQHD, you can still get along with it very well, only in Ultra HD there are games that already consider the given 12 GB too small due to various HD texture packs. This can be seen either way, but it could have been avoided if the AD104 had been designed differently. Two memory controllers are simply missing here, but who am I telling. It’s not the board partner’s fault.

Conclusion

The KFA2 GeForce RTX 4070 EX Gamer (1-Click-OC) 12 GB with the AD104-250 is a well-implemented and very well-equipped mid-range card that doesn’t have to fear any direct rivals from AMD so far in this generation. In terms of efficiency, NVIDIA once again sets standards that AMD still has to measure itself against. Even with a card that isn’t really overclocked ex-works, the concept works out because there are also positive side effects on the hotspots of the board. If and when AMD’s RX 7800 series will be released is still up in the air. But gamers live in the here and now and there are simply no alternatives at the moment if you want the complete feature set including high-quality super sampling and AI.

KFA2 has completely redefined mediocrity here, or rather clearly reminded us that with a little good will, you can still get a well-equipped card even against the given price point. This card is really well suited to not really bankrupt the manufacturer yet, but to really annoy the competitors. Their butter-and-bread cards almost always offer less and often even cost more. You can say what you want about the GeForce RTX 4070, but the KFA2 GeForce RTX 4070 EX Gamer (1-Click-OC) 12 GB is quite affordable compared to the competitors.

Except for the outdated Display Port connector and the 12 GB of memory, which is meager for Ultra HD, I don’t see any disadvantages that would speak against such a card in the KFA2 GeForce RTX 4070 EX Gamer (1-Click-OC) 12 GB in general, on the contrary. And I like to repeat myself: Except for the price, but that has unfortunately become a running joke and affects all areas of daily life. That doesn’t make things any nicer, but at least a bit more plausible. What KFA2 has delivered here may also gladly win the purchase tip, because it is well deserved.

The graphics card was provided by KFA2 for this test. The only condition was the adherence to the lock period, no influence or compensation took place.