Gainward GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super Panther 3X 16 GB review – Another MSRP card, but with a heavyweight cooler

1 - Introduction, technical data and technology 2 - Test system and measuring equipment 3 - Teardown: PCB, components and cooler 4 - Teardown: Material analysis 5 - Gaming Performance FHD (1920 x 1080) 6 - Gaming-Performance WQHD (2560 x 1440) 7 - Gaming Performance Ultra-HD (3840 x 2160) 8 - Details: Power consumption and load distribution 9 - Load peaks, cutting and power supply recommendation 10 - Temperatures, clock rates and infrared analysis including pad mod 11 - Fan curves and noise 12 - Summary and conclusion

Summary

The same applies as yesterday for the MSI card: The GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super has made considerable gains, which of course had good reasons from NVIDIA’s point of view. Once again, we see that competition stimulates business. AMD is really playing spoilsport here and now by slashing the price of the similarly fast Radeon RX 7900XT. Of course, this only works actively with a certain subsidy, but at least it works for customers and retailers are happy to go along with it. At 759 euros (at night in the midnight sale at MF even for 739 euros), the RX 7900XT is at least 130 euros cheaper than NVIDIA’s recommended price of 889 euros.

Since the cheaper, factory overclocked board partner cards are currently planned at around 949 euros, a difference of almost 200 euros is no longer plausible. This sum normally represents the difference between two real performance classes. And that’s exactly what the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super can’t do. However, it remains to be seen how long AMD can and will be able to afford the subsidized price. If, on the other hand, it becomes a permanent low price, then NVIDIA and its board partners will have a real problem because the price is not sustainable.

But back to the Gainward card. NVIDIA has finally expanded the memory to make it more future-proof, even at higher resolutions. All in all, a chip with 10 percent more shader units (including more tensor and RT cores) achieves the theoretically possible performance increase in gaming between around 6 percent in WQHD and up to 10 percent in Ultra HD, as long as the CPU is not limiting. This is real progress, which may also be due to the slightly higher clock rate. The fact that the efficiency has even increased is also due to the better yield, the higher chip quality and the better Speedo value as the basis for virtual binning including boost.

With around 11 watts more, the Super is also clearly ahead. Of course, NVIDIA certainly leaves more room for the OC cards in terms of power consumption, but even our RRP card with the standard clock specifications was constant at around 2.8 GHz when fully warmed up, even in Ultra-HT and full load. There is hardly much room left for more expensive cards, in the end it will probably only be about the choice of materials, maximum brightness and various other unique selling points. Because the possible 100 to 150 MHz more clock rate can be achieved without increasing the power limit with a clock increase in the afterburner. At around 3 GHz, the limit is reached anyway, depending on the GPU lottery and load.

The GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super is an excellent card in WQHD when it comes to the highest frame rates and is also quite suitable for Ultra HD. At the latest then, however, you will have to think about smart upscaling in places and this is where DLSS and frame generation come into play. Meanwhile, games such as “The Last of Us Part 1” (TLOU) look subjectively even better in Ultra HD with DLSS than native Ultra HD. This is where NVIDIA can really play to its advantages, which DLSS 2.x and, above all, DLSS 3.5 also offer in purely visual terms.

However, if a game also supports frame generation and you would still be bobbing around in the less playable FPS range even with super sampling, then this can even be a lifeline to good playability. You can’t improve the latency with it, but not every genre is as latency-bound as various shooters. I would have really liked DLSS 3.5 for TLOU, but you can’t have everything. From this point of view, the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super completely fulfills all expectations based on the data already published. All the AI including the appropriate programs, DLSS 3.5, frame generation and the often better latencies are also good arguments. If it weren’t for the current dumping by AMD, however, which should suit the customer just fine.

The Gainward GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super Panther 16 GB

The cooler is actually oversized, but it’s good to know what reserves it has. The card is quiet enough and you could even reduce the speed by a few rpm, depending on the case. The lack of pads behind the hotspot is not so nice, but it’s probably simply due to the price. The board as such is of course only average for an RRP card, as the inexpensive voltage converters in particular could have been upgraded. But somehow you have to get to the price point and so it has become a functional assembly that has no shortcomings. Visually, of course, the card is not an absolute highlight, but at least it is timeless and also unlit. This can also have its own charm.

Conclusion

The GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super with the AD103-275-A1, in this case the one from Gainward, is a thoroughly interesting upper mid-range card, but nothing more at the moment. Especially considering the current price difference with the AMD Radeon RX 7900XT, it won’t sell for the really good features, but rather only for the street price. Apart from the outdated display port connection, I don’t see any disadvantages at all with the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super that would speak against this card, only the price has just been badly undermined by the competitor. We will have to wait and see whether the so-called OC cards justify the additional price. After all, Gainward has shown with the Panther that even the RRP card can almost perfectly convert the additional performance of the significantly increased number of shaders into adequate gaming performance. You can buy it if you want to and can.

The graphics card was provided by NVIDIA for this test without obligation. The only condition was compliance with the embargo period, no influence or compensation was given.