Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 review: the 1440p sweet spot

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 reassessmen: the 1440p sweet smirch

$499 for some solid 1440p PC gaming

By Oct 27, 2020, 9:00am EDT

Endure calendar month, Nvidia's RTX 3080 ushered in the next generation of 4K gaming with an impressive leap in operation over the 2080 model it replaced. While Nvidia's flagship card was designed to push 4K, the $499 RTX 3070 is $200 less big-ticket and still promises humongous public presentation gains over the old-coevals RTX 2080 and even the RTX 2080 Atomic number 2. Like totally of Nvidia's RTX cards earlier information technology, the RTX 3070 can likewise take advantage of ray tracing and Nvidia's Artificial insemination-powered DLSS technology to boost frame rates and still maintain great picture superior.

This combination of performance and price puts the RTX 3070 in the nonpareil sweet spot for 1440p play. The vast majority of PC gamers are still using 1080p displays, and the RTX 3070 offers leading an upgrade path to 1440p without the extortionate cost of an RTX 3080 and the extra power draw.

I've spent the foregone week examination out the RTX 3070 at some 1440p and 4K ahead of its October 29th debut, and it's fair to enounce this card will give you a lot of clearance for games climax in 2021 and beyond good-bye as you're playing at 1440p or below. If you're considering the move to 1440p, the RTX 3070 is the more budget-well-disposed choice if you want to futureproof along the way.

Hardware

Nvidia made around huge changes to the cooling on the Founder's Edition RTX 3080, but it's preserved a handed-down dual-fan setup with the RTX 3070. The two-fold-stalk fans work in tandem to keep the carte aplomb, with the right fan pushing transmit clear through and through the card's shroud to the opposite side, while the left directly cools the GPU cores with air that can exhaust proscribed the rear of your chassis.

During my testing, I rarely heard the fans spin up, even with the card striking temperatures of 75 degrees Celsius. While the RTX 3070 doesn't gain from the Saame force-pull system found on the RTX 3080, it does pick up some of the opposite hardware improvements found along the flagship.

The hardware pattern happening the RTX 3070 is very kindred, allowing Nvidia to utilisation a dense PCB that's a lot littler to meliorate flow of air throughout the card. And just ilk the RTX 3080, Nvidia is using its new 12-pin single might connexion, atomic number 3 anti to the tell 6- and 8-immobilise or twin 8-pin connectors on preceding cards.

Nvidia has enclosed its own adapter inside the box. Since the RTX 3070 only needs a single 8-pin power connector, it makes the adapter a little less wieldy than the nonpareil found on the RTX 3080. Still, I would highly recommend pick up a direct 12-pin connector from your PSU manufacturer instead of victimization the unnatural adapter.

The RTX 3070 as wel includes a single HDMI 2.1 port and three DisplayPort 1.4a ports. Much like the RTX 3080, Nvidia has dropped the USB-C VirtualLink port found happening the RTX 2080, which never saw whatsoever real adoption for VR. While the RTX 3080 has pure white LEDs round the fan and to fatless up the GeForce RTX branding, the RTX 3070 ditches this for a acuminate look without any firing.

Nvidia's RTX 3000 series cards have introduced a bump in top executive requirements, and the RTX 3070 pulls up to 220 Watts by itself. That's a 19 percent jump from the previous RTX 2070 but still slimly to a lesser extent than the RTX 2080. Nvidia is recommending a 650W power supply for the RTX 3070, compared to the 550W testimonial for the RTX 2070.

1440p testing

I've been testing the RTX 3070 on a newly built machine using Intel's modish Core i9-10900K indoors. I previously tried the RTX 3080 on an aged Core i7-7700K, indeed I've gone back and tried and true Nvidia's flagship on this new organization to provide a comparison between the RTX 2080, RTX 3070, and RTX 3080. For 1440p tests, I hooked up the RTX 3070 to a 27-inch Asus ROG Swift PG279Q monitor. This monitor supports refresh rates up to 165Hz summation G-Synchronize, so it's a great match for the RTX 3070's power. I've also been examination 4K performance, which you can find below.

Like my RTX 3080 testing, I've been acting a variety of AAA games to understand what the RTX 3070 is confident of. I've also performed average frame rate examination and used collective-in benchmarks across a variety of games, including Fortnite, Control, Death Stranding, Metro Hejira, Call of Duty: Warzone, and Microsoft Trainer. All games were tested at max or ultra settings, and nearly every title exceeded the 100fps average mark at 1440p.

Fortnite came roughly hit my monitor lizard's max refresh rate with maxed-out settings, averaging 138fps. Holler of Duty: Warzone too came close, averaging 130fps. Normally, I'd adjust graphical settings way down to stumble these types of frame rates, but the RTX 3070 was able to handle both games with ease. As you can see in the benchmark chart on a lower floor, you won't often need an RTX 3080 to Georgia home boy out today's games with a 1440p monitor.

RTX 3070 refresh (1440p)

Benchmark	RTX 2080 Founders Edition	RTX 3070 Founders Edition	RTX 3080 Founders Edition
Benchmark	RTX 2080 Founders Edition	RTX 3070 Founders Variation	RTX 3080 Founders Edition
Microsoft Trainer	35fps	40fps	40fps
Shadow of the Tomb Despoiler	87fps	111fps	132fps
Fantas of the Grave Raider (DLSS)	97fps	118fps	144fps
CoD: Warzone	97fps	130fps	133fps
CoD: Warzone (RT)	92fps	126fps	132fps
Fortnite	102fps	138fps	160fps
Fortnite (DLSS quality)	138fps	172fps	212fps
Fortnite (DLSS perf)	153fps	215fps	225fps
Gears 5	85fps	108fps	120fps
CS:Go with	212fps	275fps	325fps
Death Stranding	114fps	133fps	170fps
Death Stranding (DLSS quality)	141fps	166fps	188fps
Death Stranding (DLSS perf)	184fps	172fps	193fps
See	78fps	95fps	126fps
Control (DLSS quality + RT)	76fps	94fps	125fps
Hold (RT)	46fps	57fps	78fps
Control (DLSS timber)	114fps	140fps	174fps
Metro Exodus	35fps	30fps	56fps
Metro Exodus (RT)	21fps	19fps	37fps
Underground Hegira (DLSS+RT)	42fps	27fps	65fps

For high refresh rate monitors, particularly, Nvidia's DLSS technology really feels like a magic change over to evince off just how far you bottom push this card. Nvidia's DLSS technology uses neural networks and AI supercomputers to analyze games and sharpen or clean up images at lower resolutions. DLSS allows a game to render at a lower resoluteness and utilise Nvidia's image reconstruction technique to upscale the effigy and make it look as good as autochthonic 4K or better.

Most games that implement DLSS allow you to pick betwixt execution or quality modes, and in Fortnite, I time-tested both. I was able to get a 215fps average with the functioning DLSS mode enabled, and a 172fps moderate when I favored quality. It's difficult to notice the impact on double quality in the performance mode, and the quality mode looks the Same if not better. I'm still astonied at how well DLSS deeds.

Even without DLSS, demanding titles look-alike Control still hit 95fps with maxed-out settings, and Metro Exodus managed to hit 30fps with the highest-level settings enabled. The RTX 3080 matte like a very comfortable selection for 1440p and may have more staying power, but the RTX 3070 is so close behind that you could skip it and save $200 at this resolution.

4K testing

While I'm happy with the 1440p performance of the RTX 3070, its 4K performance ISN't nearly Eastern Samoa grandiose. I've been testing the RTX 3070 with Genus Acer's 27-inch Nitro XV273K, a 4K supervise that offers adequate 144Hz review rates, G-Sync, and even HDR defend.

It's more of a 50 / 50 split on how many games score 60fps or more on the RTX 3070 with maxed-outgoing settings at 4K. Phantasma of the Grave Raider didn't quite pee-pee it, nor does Control, which regularly drops to a lower place 30fps during gameplay even without ray trace .

Fortnite and Call of Duty: Warzone perform well to maintain supra a 60fps average, but there's not enough headroom in most moderne games to make this a up to 4K card without compromise. You'll want to dribble visual quality to maintain high frame rates at 4K, which was the story of the RTX 2080 also. Only this time, you'll pay $200 less to get improve execution.

DLSS certainly helps here, though. While Contain is unplayable at 12fps with light beam trace enabled at 4K, if you use the DLSS quality modal value alone the frame rate jumps to a reasonable 83fps. Likewise, I managed to get a 139fps average in Fortnite with the DLSS performance mode enabled.

RTX 3070 review (4K)

Benchmark	RTX 2080 Founders Edition	RTX 3070 Founders Version	RTX 3080 Founders Edition
Benchmark	RTX 2080 Founders Edition	RTX 3070 Founders Version	RTX 3080 Founders Edition
Microsoft Trainer	19fps	23fps	36fps
Phantasma of the Tomb Raider	45fps	54fps	76fps
Shadow of the Tomb Pillager (DLSS)	61fps	69fps	93fps
CoD: Warzone	62fps	74fps	93fps
CoD: Warzone (RT)	58fps	70fps	84fps
Fortnite	52fps	73fps	93fps
Fortnite (DLSS select)	79fps	105fps	133fps
Fortnite (DLSS perf)	107fps	139fps	162fps
Gears 5	46fps	57fps	76fps
CS:GO	203fps	210fps	267fps
Death Stranding	64fps	72fps	101fps
Last Stranding (DLSS tone)	89fps	104fps	135fps
Death Stranding (DLSS perf)	120fps	158fps	164fps
Ensure	41fps	48fps	68fps
Control (DLSS quality + RT)	49fps	57fps	78fps
Control (RT)	13fps	12fps	49fps
Control (DLSS quality)	60fps	83fps	112fps
Metro Exodus	15fps	16fps	34fps
Metro Exodus (RT)	10fps	9fps	19fps
Subway system Exodus (DLSS+RT)	29fps	37fps	48fps

DLSS alone agency the RTX 3070 can stretch to represent a 4K, 60fps card in most of now's games, even if it might not be plenty tomorrow. As Subway Exodus and Microsoft Flight Simulator show, thither are already games where this bran-new card can't murder 30fps without cloudy graphical fidelity.

Speaking of futureproofing, the RTX 3070 only has 8GB of video memory, lower than the 10GB of memory board that was already slightly worrisome on the RTX 3080. 4K games currently intermediate 'tween 4GB and 6GB, and some titles are already demanding that much at 1440p. While 8GB should be enough for 1440p, I would still have likable to bear seen at least 10GB on the RTX 3070 and 12GB on the RTX 3080. There's room for Nvidia to plunge extra 3080 and 3070 cards with more memory on panel, probably in a future Super proprietary edition.

I should also note here that I had two backward-to-back driver crashes spell using the RTX 3070 in Call of Duty: Warzone. The RTX 3080 had some early driver issues with certain games that were later fixed, and so this could have simply been or s quirks in the review drivers. I haven't been capable to reduplicate the issues, though.

Nvidia's big performance promises for the RTX 3000 Series of cards are holding up. I'm surprised at how bitty, powerful, and inaudible the RTX 3070 is. While the RTX 3080 ushers in a 4K play geological era for those with the budget to really give one's best, the RTX 3070 offers a slightly more affordable option for blown from 1080p to 1440p.

The RTX 3070 is the 1440p sweet spot right now. With more games supporting DLSS, and even ray tracing, I think information technology's going to Be a bill that will be great at 1440p for years to come. I wouldn't recommend an RTX 3070 for 4K gaming, though. If you're willing to spend extra for 4K, then the RTX 3080 is a far more competent pick.

The biggest job with the RTX 3070 volition be similar to the RTX 3080: availability. Nvidia promised that it had "great yields" for the 3080, and it was "fashioning them as fast As we can." Unluckily, the launch was messy, with demand massively outstripping supply. I expect the unchanged testament happen with the RTX 3070, even with the delay to its found to material body up stocks.

If you're upgrading from a GTX 1070 or even a GTX 1080, particularly if you're touring from 1080p to 1440p, the RTX 3070 feels ideal to me. I think this add-in, and whatever new lower-priced GPUs Nvidia has planned, will assistanc guide in a move toward 1440p for much of masses absent to upgrade their PCs.

If you can start out your men on ace, the RTX 3070 will shuffling the bounce to 1440p just that little bit more than affordable.

Photography by Tom Warren / The Verge

Correction: This review originally stated that the RTX 3070 required a 750W mogul supply. It requires a 650W world power supply. We regret the error.