Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4070 Super Gaming OC 12G Review: Beats the RTX 3090 and RX 7800 XT for a $50 premium over the Founders Edition
We recently reviewed the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Super Founders Edition and saw it offer performance that is in line with the RTX 3090. Alongside the Founders Edition (FE), Nvidia's add-in board (AiB) partners have their own take on the new AD104 GPU with 7,168 CUDA cores.
One such offering is the new Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4070 Super Gaming OC 12G.
Obvious design changes from the Founders Edition apart, the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4070 Super Gaming OC 12G also offers an increased boost of 2,565 MHz as opposed to the 2,475 MHz reference boost clock.
Additionally, Gigabyte's card also offers a higher power headroom with the ability to push up to 320 W compared to the RTX 4070 Super FE's 240 W max TGP.
The Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4070 Super Gaming OC 12G retails for ₹62,490 in India or US$650 in the U.S. The card comes with a standard three-year manufacturer warranty that is extendable by another year upon product registration.
In this review, we see how well the RTX 4070 Super Gaming OC 12G's US$50 markup over the Founders Edition's US$599 MSRP translates into real-world benefits.
Comparison of the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4070 Super Gaming OC 12G with other Nvidia GPUs
Specification | RTX 4090 FE | RTX 4080 Super FE | RTX 4080 FE | Asus TUF RTX 4070 Ti | Gigabyte RTX 4070 Super Gaming OC | Zotac RTX 4070 AMP Airo | KFA2 RTX 4060 Ti EX | RTX 3090 Ti FE | RTX 3090 FE | RTX 3080 Ti FE | RTX 3070 FE | Titan RTX |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Chip | AD102 | AD103 | AD103 | AD104 | AD104 | AD104 | AD106 | GA102 | GA102 | GA102 | GA104 | TU102 |
FinFET Process | Custom 4N | Custom 4N | Custom 4N | Custom 4N | Custom 4N | Custom 4N | Custom 4N | 8 nm | 8 nm | 8 nm | 8 nm | 12 nm |
CUDA Cores | 16,384 | 10,240 | 9,728 | 7,680 | 7,168 | 5,888 | 4,352 | 10,752 | 10,496 | 10,240 | 5,888 | 4,608 |
Texture Units | 512 | 320 | 304 | 240 | 224 | 184 | 136 | 336 | 328 | 320 | 184 | 288 |
Tensor Cores | 512 4th Gen. | 320 4th Gen. | 304 4th Gen. | 240 4th Gen. | 224 4th Gen. | 184 4th Gen. | 136 4th Gen. | 336 3rd Gen. | 328 3rd Gen. | 320 3rd Gen. | 184 3rd Gen. | 576 2nd Gen. |
RT Cores | 128 3rd Gen. | 80 3rd Gen. | 76 3rd Gen. | 60 3rd Gen. | 56 3rd Gen. | 46 3rd Gen. | 34 3rd Gen. | 84 2nd Gen. | 82 2nd Gen. | 80 2nd Gen. | 46 2nd Gen. | 72 |
GPU Base Clock | 2,235 MHz | 2,295 MHz | 2,205 MHz | 2,310 MHz | 1,980 MHz | 1,920 MHz | 2,310 MHz | 1,560 MHz | 1,395 MHz | 1,365 MHz | 1,500 MHz | 1,350 MHz |
GPU Boost Clock | 2,520 MHz | 2,550 MHz | 2,505 MHz | 2,760 MHz | 2,565 MHz | 2,535 MHz | 2,535 MHz | 1,860 MHz | 1,695 MHz | 1,665 MHz | 1,750 MHz | 1,770 MHz |
Memory Bus | 384-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit | 192-bit | 192-bit | 192-bit | 128-bit | 384-bit | 384-bit | 384-bit | 256-bit | 384-bit |
Memory Bandwidth | 1,008 GB/s | 736.3 GB/s | 716.8 GB/s | 504 GB/s | 504 GB/s | 504 GB/s | 288 GB/s | 1,008 GB/s | 936 GB/s | 912 GB/s | 448 GB/s | 672 GB/s |
Video Memory | 24 GB GDDR6X | 16 GB GDDR6X | 16 GB GDDR6X | 12 GB GDDR6X | 12 GB GDDR6X | 12 GB GDDR6X | 8 GB GDDR6 | 24 GB GDDR6X | 24 GB GDDR6X | 12 GB GDDR6X | 8 GB GDDR6 | 24 GB GDDR6 |
Power Consumption | 450 W | 320 W | 320 W | 285 W | 220 W | 215 W | 160 W | 450 W | 350 W | 350 W | 220 W | 280 W |
A tour of the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4070 Super Gaming OC 12G
The Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4070 Super Gaming OC 12G looks exactly identical to its RTX 4070 predecessor. Therefore, the changes are internal and have to do with the new AD104 core itself.
Measuring 300 x 130 x 57.6 mm, the RTX 4070 Super Gaming OC easily fits in most ATX cases. Given the relatively lighter 1.26 kg weight of the card, Gigabyte does not provide any anti-sag bracket in the box.
The card's front shroud is plastic, but the backplate is made of high quality metal with adequate space for air exhaust what the company refers to as "Screen cooling".
Gigabyte cards have somewhat of a different RGB aesthetic compared to their Aorus counterparts. While Aorus GPUs, such as the RTX 4070 Ti Master, have a discontiguous lighting system with individual LEDs on each fan fin, Gigabyte cards sport the more conventional RGB ring.
As to which looks better is a matter of preference, but the RGB implementation in Aorus cards is certainly more prominent and stands out.
The RTX 4070 Super Gaming OC also tries to mimic its Aorus counterpart by offering an LCD-esque panel on the top. However, this is not a programmable LCD display but just a fancy Gigabyte logo. Thankfully, it glows with customizable lighting.
While it is understandable that OEMs would want to make their brand label shine through, users would be more interested in showing off the GeForce RTX label in RGB as well. Unfortunately, this is not something that is seen with a lot of OEM cards.
In the box, you get a warranty card, a Quick start guide, and a 12VHPWR to 2x 8-pin power connector.
The RTX 4070 Super Gaming OC offers the standard set of ports including 3x DisplayPort 1.4-out and 1x HDMI 2.1-out.
Also present is a dual-BIOS switch that can toggle between BIOS OC and Silent modes. The 12VHPWR connector fits snugly to the supplied cable with a satisfactory click. Beside the connector is an LED that indicates if there's any problem with the power connection.
The Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4070 Super Gaming OC 12G can boost up to 2,565 MHz with a significant 45% higher TGP headroom up to 320 W.
Gigabyte Control Center (GCC) helps control various aspects the RTX 4070 Super Gaming OC. The software has had hard days, but it has come a long way in terms of stability since our review of the Aorus RTX 4070 Ti Master.
During our time with the GPU, we didn't encounter any show-stopping bugs. Nevertheless, GCC needs further polish before it can be 100% relied upon.
Test bench: RTX 4070 Super Gaming OC says Hi to the Intel Core i9-13900K
As has been our norm for many recent GPU reviews, our test system is based on the Intel Core i9-13900K and Z790 platform to ensure that the cards are not CPU bottlenecked.
- Cooler MasterFrame 700 test bench
- Intel Core i9-13900K with PL1=PL2
- Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Master motherboard
- Gigabyte Aorus Gen4 2 TB NVMe SSD
- Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus Gen4 2 TB NVMe SSD
- 2x 16 GB Kingston Fury Renegade DDR5-6400 RAM with timings 32-39-39-80 at 1.40 V
- Gigabyte M28U 4K 144 Hz monitor
- Gigabyte Aorus Waterforce X II 360 AiO cooler
- Cooler Master MVE Gold V2 1250 ATX 3.0 fully modular PSU
Windows 11 23H2 with the latest patches, together with Nvidia Game Ready Driver version 551.23 was used.
Based on our own testing, performance numbers from this config are pretty much comparable to those from an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X and X670E setup.
We would like to thank Cooler Master for supplying the test bench and PSU, Gigabyte for the motherboard, CPU, SSD, AiO cooler, and monitor, Sabrent for the SSD, and Kingston for the memory.
Synthetic benchmarks: Leads the RTX 4070 Super FE by a whisker
At the outset, the RTX 4070 Super Gaming OC and the Founders Edition perform on similar lines. We do see Gigabyte's GPU coming slight ahead of the FE card in individual tests, and this is expected given the slightly higher boosts with the RTX 4070 Super Gaming OC.
However, the gains aren't really noteworthy, and the performance delta is very well within the realm of run-to-run variations.
That being said, the RTX 4070 Super Gaming OC 12G continues its dominance over the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT by scoring a cumulative 9% lead in synthetic tests while displaying RTX 3090 levels of performance.
3DMark 11: 1280x720 Performance GPU
3DMark: 1920x1080 Fire Strike Graphics | 3840x2160 Fire Strike Ultra Graphics | Fire Strike Extreme Graphics | 2560x1440 Time Spy Graphics
Unigine Heaven 4.0: Extreme Preset DX11 | Extreme Preset OpenGL
Unigine Valley 1.0: 1920x1080 Extreme HD DirectX AA:x8 | 1920x1080 Extreme HD Preset OpenGL AA:x8
Unigine Superposition: 1280x720 720p Low | 1920x1080 1080p Extreme | 3840x2160 4k Optimized | 7680x4320 8k Optimized
Performance Rating | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Edition | |
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Founders Edition | |
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT | |
Gigabyte Aorus GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Master | |
Asus TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 4070 Ti | |
Average NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti | |
Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 3090 Ti AMP Extreme Holo | |
Sapphire AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT Nitro+ Pure | |
Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4070 Super Gaming OC 12G | |
Average NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Super Founders Edition | |
Average NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 | |
AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT | |
AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT | |
Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 4070 AMP Airo | |
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT | |
Average NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 | |
Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 7700 XT | |
Average of class Desktop | |
Average NVIDIA Titan RTX | |
Average NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 | |
Average NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8G | |
KFA2 GeForce RTX 4060 Ti EX, 16GB GDDR6 | |
XFX Speedster QICK 308 Radeon RX 7600 Black Edition | |
KFA2 GeForce RTX 4060 1-Click-OC 2X |
3DMark 11: 1280x720 Performance GPU
3DMark: 1920x1080 Fire Strike Graphics | 3840x2160 Fire Strike Ultra Graphics | Fire Strike Extreme Graphics | 2560x1440 Time Spy Graphics
Unigine Heaven 4.0: Extreme Preset DX11 | Extreme Preset OpenGL
Unigine Valley 1.0: 1920x1080 Extreme HD DirectX AA:x8 | 1920x1080 Extreme HD Preset OpenGL AA:x8
Unigine Superposition: 1280x720 720p Low | 1920x1080 1080p Extreme | 3840x2160 4k Optimized | 7680x4320 8k Optimized
3DMark 11 Performance | 51572 points | |
3DMark Ice Storm Standard Score | 279979 points | |
3DMark Cloud Gate Standard Score | 81504 points | |
3DMark Fire Strike Score | 41178 points | |
3DMark Fire Strike Extreme Score | 24458 points | |
3DMark Time Spy Score | 21292 points | |
Help |
Compute performance: Right on the heels of the RTX 4070 Ti
Compute performance is virtually indistinguishable from the RTX 4070 Super FE. The RTX 4070 Super Gaming OC is able to convincingly beat the RTX 3090 Ti in V-Ray GPU tests while being 17% and 21% faster than the Zotac GeForce Gaming RTX 4070 AMP Airo in Blender 3.3 Classroom CUDA and Classroom Optix rendering, respectively.
The RTX 4070 Super Gaming OC is within striking distance of the Asus TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 4070 Ti and the Aorus RTX 4070 Ti Master in LuxMark Room. Sala tests have traditionally favored older AMD GPUs, but the RTX 4070 Super Gaming OC nevertheless manages a 27% lead over the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX.
V-Ray Benchmark Next 4.10: GPU
Blender: v3.3 Classroom CUDA | v3.3 Classroom OPTIX/RTX
LuxMark v2.0 64Bit: Room GPUs-only | Sala GPUs-only
ComputeMark v2.1: 1024x600 Normal, Score | 1024x600 Normal, QJuliaRayTrace | 1024x600 Normal, Mandel Scalar | 1024x600 Normal, Mandel Vector | 1024x600 Normal, Fluid 2DTexArr | 1024x600 Normal, Fluid 3DTex
V-Ray 5 Benchmark / GPU RTX | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Edition (5.0.1) | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Founders Edition (5.0.1) | |
Average of class Desktop (992 - 6019, n=18, last 2 years) | |
Gigabyte Aorus GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Master (5.0.1) | |
Asus TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 4070 Ti (5.0.1) | |
Average NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti (3054 - 3221, n=4) | |
Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4070 Super Gaming OC 12G (5.0.1) | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Super Founders Edition (5.0.1) | |
Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 3090 Ti AMP Extreme Holo (5.0.1) | |
Average NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 (2551 - 2979, n=14) | |
Average NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti (2727 - 2883, n=3) | |
Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 4070 AMP Airo (5.0.1) | |
AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT (5.0.1) | |
Average NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8G (1974 - 2024, n=2) | |
KFA2 GeForce RTX 4060 Ti EX, 16GB GDDR6 (5.0.1) | |
Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 7700 XT (5.0.1) | |
KFA2 GeForce RTX 4060 1-Click-OC 2X (5.0.1) | |
Average NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 (1610 - 1756, n=2) | |
Average NVIDIA Titan RTX (1246 - 1348, n=7) |
Blender / v3.3 Classroom CUDA | |
KFA2 GeForce RTX 4060 1-Click-OC 2X (3.3.3) | |
Average NVIDIA Titan RTX () | |
Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 4070 AMP Airo (3.3.3) | |
Average NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti (21 - 22, n=2) | |
Average NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 (20 - 22, n=11) | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Super Founders Edition (3.3.3) | |
Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4070 Super Gaming OC 12G (3.3.3) | |
Average NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti (18 - 19, n=2) | |
Gigabyte Aorus GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Master (3.3.2) | |
Average of class Desktop (10 - 23, n=15, last 2 years) |
Blender / v3.3 Classroom OPTIX/RTX | |
KFA2 GeForce RTX 4060 1-Click-OC 2X (3.3.3) | |
Average NVIDIA Titan RTX () | |
KFA2 GeForce RTX 4060 Ti EX, 16GB GDDR6 (3.3.3) | |
Average NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8G (18 - 18, n=2) | |
Average NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti (14 - 15, n=2) | |
Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 4070 AMP Airo (3.3.3) | |
Average NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 (13 - 14, n=11) | |
Asus TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 4070 Ti (3.3.2) | |
Average NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti (11 - 12, n=4) | |
Gigabyte Aorus GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Master (3.3.2) | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Super Founders Edition (3.3.3) | |
Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4070 Super Gaming OC 12G (3.3.3) | |
Average of class Desktop (7 - 15, n=17, last 2 years) | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Founders Edition (3.3.0) | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Edition (3.3.0) |
V-Ray Benchmark Next 4.10: GPU
Blender: v3.3 Classroom CUDA | v3.3 Classroom OPTIX/RTX
LuxMark v2.0 64Bit: Room GPUs-only | Sala GPUs-only
ComputeMark v2.1: 1024x600 Normal, Score | 1024x600 Normal, QJuliaRayTrace | 1024x600 Normal, Mandel Scalar | 1024x600 Normal, Mandel Vector | 1024x600 Normal, Fluid 2DTexArr | 1024x600 Normal, Fluid 3DTex
* ... smaller is better
Gaming performance: Increased boosts result in minor but welcome gains over the RTX 4070 Super FE
The benefits of increased boost clocks start becoming apparent in gaming, particularly at Ultra settings from 1080p to 4K.
The higher clocks seem to afford a cumulative 5% performance advantage to the RTX 4070 Super Gaming OC over the RTX 4070 Super FE, which further slightly widens the delta with the RTX 3090 average by 7%.
When examined individually, maximum gains over the RTX 4070 Super FE were seen with The Witcher 3 1080p Ultra (+9%) and Shadow of the Tomb Raider QHD Ultra (+14%). Other games in the comparison showed relatively modest upticks in average fps.
Ray tracing performance
These perceived gains percolate down to native ray tracing performance as well, though the uplift is relatively minor in the range of 2-7% depending on the game and resolution.
Ray tracing in Far Cry 6 1080p Ultra and Cyberpunk 2077 1.6 4K Ultra seems to be benefitting the most vis-à-vis the RTX 4070 Super FE.
low | med. | high | ultra | QHD | 4K DLSS | 4K | |
GTA V (2015) | 188.3 | 187.9 | 186.9 | 158.8 | 147.2 | 166.6 | |
The Witcher 3 (2015) | 418 | 210 | 159.1 | 136.7 | |||
Dota 2 Reborn (2015) | 250 | 228 | 221 | 209 | 202 | ||
Final Fantasy XV Benchmark (2018) | 235 | 235 | 197.1 | 150.5 | 85.2 | ||
X-Plane 11.11 (2018) | 233 | 196.4 | 152.4 | 129.1 | |||
Far Cry 5 (2018) | 201 | 191 | 185 | 104 | |||
Strange Brigade (2018) | 601 | 398 | 437 | 385 | 270 | 134.7 | |
Shadow of the Tomb Raider (2018) | 260 | 255 | 188 | 96.7 | |||
Metro Exodus (2019) | 186.1 | 150.6 | 120.8 | 76.1 | |||
Control (2019) | 180.1 | 115.5 | 69 | 58.2 | |||
Borderlands 3 (2019) | 184.2 | 166.6 | 131.2 | 68.9 | |||
Mafia Definitive Edition (2020) | 226 | 161.5 | 83.2 | ||||
Watch Dogs Legion (2020) | 142.3 | 109.2 | 63.4 | ||||
Far Cry 6 (2021) | 193.7 | 143.9 | 145.9 | 82.7 | |||
Dying Light 2 (2022) | 157 | 108 | 54.5 | ||||
Cyberpunk 2077 1.6 (2022) | 161.8 | 146 | 92.8 | 44.9 | |||
Ghostwire Tokyo (2022) | 284 | 291 | 194.8 | 92.7 | |||
F1 22 (2022) | 381 | 403 | 340 | 136.3 | 88.8 | 44.6 | |
The Callisto Protocol (2022) | 216.05 | 155.69 | 123.75 | 78.04 | |||
F1 23 (2023) | 380 | 406 | 357 | 125.9 | 81.2 | 69.7 | 40.7 |
Baldur's Gate 3 (2023) | 203 | 203 | 142.7 | 119.7 | 71.7 | ||
Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 Phantom Liberty (2023) | 162.1 | 141.9 | 89.6 | 38.9 | |||
Assassin's Creed Mirage (2023) | 204 | 169 | 130 | 106 | 77 | ||
Alan Wake 2 (2023) | 114.1 | 79.7 | 44.2 | 42.7 | |||
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 2023 (2023) | 184 | 165 | 120 | 100 | 70 | ||
Avatar Frontiers of Pandora (2023) | 129.9 | 101.2 | 67.6 | 60.5 | 34.6 |
Emissions: Higher noise but lower temps than RTX 4070 Super FE
The Gigabyte RTX 4070 Super Gaming OC uses the company's proprietary WindForce cooling system with three 90 mm fans and a total of eight copper heatpipes
At least till the Turing generation, Nvidia's Founder Edition cards have typically struggled to show good heat and noise emission profiles compared to their AiB counterparts.
Things changed from Ampere and with Ada, we've seen how consistent and efficient Nvidia's new thermal design has been. The FE cards have set a high benchmark for AiB cards to match up to.
Stress tests
Since the RTX 4070 Super Gaming OC allows expanding the available power headroom by 45% up to 320 W, we stress tested the card at both 100% and 145% power targets (PTs) to see how various GPU parameters get influenced.
FurMark stress at 1280 x 720 with no AA sees the RTX 4070 Super Gaming OC boosting up to 2,565 MHz at 100% PT and 2,745 MHz at 145% PT. While the GPU is able to maximize the 220 W TGP at 100% PT, it can only utilize 296 W at 145% even though the theoretical value can go up to 320 W.
Naturally, increasing the power target also has an effect on the thermals. Hot spot temperatures at 100% PT hover close to the 74 °C mark on average and this increases to 83 °C average at 145% PT.
Consequentially, fan speeds increase by ~23% going from 100% PT to 145% PT.
In a more real-life stress with The Witcher 3 at 1080p Ultra, we see that increasing the power target has no bearing at all on the clocks. Irrespective of the power target, the RTX 4070 Super Gaming OC maintains a rock steady 2,805 MHz while consuming between 208 to 214 W. Even the hot spot temperatures don't vary much between these power profiles.
These tests once again affirm Ada isn't dependent on TGP headroom to opportunistically boost clocks. In fact, RTX 4070 Super Gaming OC's max boost is still lower than that of the RTX 4070 Super FE (2,820 MHz). However, Gigabyte's implementation results in slightly better average core clocks (2,805 MHz) compared to that of the Founders Edition (2,776 MHz).
The Witcher 3 FPS Chart
The RTX 4070 Super Gaming OC's triple-fan implementation does a good job in ensuring a well-sustained performance as evidenced by the steady frame rates we see with The Witcher 3 at 1080p Ultra and 4K Ultra settings.
Surface temperatures
At an ambient temperature of 22 °C, the front shroud remains relatively cool at 30 °C while the base of the backplate near the PCIe connector hits 44.5 °C. We measured 46.3 °C near the 12VHPWR connector.
Overall, the provided cooling system seems to be doing a decent job in maintaining tolerable surface temperatures under load.
Noise levels
Of the three fans in the RTX 4070 Super Gaming OC, the left and right ones spin anti-clockwise while the center fan spins in the clockwise direction to provide a good counterbalance.
According to Gigabyte, these fans use a sleeve bearing with graphene nano lubricant that is claimed to offer life equivalent to that of a double ball bearing sans the noise.
Gigabyte implements a complete fan stop in idle and provides two VBIOS operating modes — BIOS OC and Silent.
Practically speaking, we did not observe any tangible differences in measured sound pressure levels (SPL) during stress tests performed at both 100% and 145% power targets in either VBIOS modes.
Nevertheless, the maximum SPL we could record was 43.32 db(A) at 2,541 RPM — understandable considering the triple fan setup.
By contrast, the RTX 4070 Super Founders Edition's fans always remain below 35 dB(A) SPL. But the tradeoff is the 10 °C higher hot spot temperature and 14 °C higher memory junction temperature in the FE card compared to the RTX 4070 Super Gaming OC.
Stress Test | VBIOS Mode / Power Target | Max. Fan Speed (RPM) | Fan Noise dB(A) |
---|---|---|---|
FurMark 1280 x 720, no AA | BIOS OC / 100% | 2,069 | 37.70 |
FurMark 1280 x 720, no AA | Silent BIOS / 100% | 1,930 | 37.11 |
FurMark 1280 x 720, no AA | BIOS OC / 145% | 2,541 | 43.32 |
FurMark 1280 x 720, no AA | Silent BIOS / 145% | 2,366 | 42.72 |
The Witcher 3 1080p Ultra | BIOS OC / 100% | 1,985 | 35.88 |
The Witcher 3 1080p Ultra | Silent BIOS / 100% | 1,842 | 35.72 |
The Witcher 3 1080p Ultra | BIOS OC / 145% | 1,991 | 36.54 |
The Witcher 3 1080p Ultra | Silent BIOS / 145% | 1,878 | 35.8 |
Energy Management: Excellent energy efficiency in gaming
Compared to the RTX 4070 Super FE, the Gigabyte RTX 4070 Super Gaming OC demonstrates a 6% improved power efficiency in The Witcher 3 1080p Ultra, putting it ahead of even the RTX 4090 Founders Edition. The Radeon RX 7900 XT still tops the efficiency charts but not by much.
Once again, we see that average power consumption from the wall remains unchanged even at a 145% power target while stressing with The Witcher 3 at 1080p Ultra. This confirms our observations in the game's stress test above that shows no TGP or clock differences at either power targets.
Power Consumption: External monitor
1280x720 FurMark 1.19 GPU Stress Test (external Monitor) | |
1920x1080 The Witcher 3 ultra (external Monitor) |
* ... smaller is better
Pros
Cons
Verdict: US$50 markup for the RTX 4070 Super Gaming OC isn't without advantages
The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Super Founders Edition (US$599 on Best Buy) is a highly capable AD104 card in its own right. But variety is the spice of life, so buyers also have a good selection of AiB partner cards to choose from.
The Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4070 Super Gaming OC 12G carries forward the same design language from last year. You get a nice metal backplate, a robust triple-fan 8-heatpipe cooling with ample ventilation, and a decent RGB aesthetic.
The RTX 4070 Super Gaming OC comes factory overclocked at 2,565 MHz. Although cumulative synthetic and compute tests do not see any tangible benefit, the OC does push the card well past the RTX 3090 average in gaming.
Gamers targeting 1440p Ultra at high frame rates will be pleased with the RTX 4070 Super Gaming OC. Good frame rates at 4K Ultra are not a pipedream, but modern titles will require a helping hand from upscalers.
If you're chasing frames with AD104 (and RGB), the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4070 Super Gaming OC might be a better bet compared to the RTX 4070 Super Founders Edition as long as you don't mind the US$50 uptick for a 3-5% performance increase."
Gigabyte's WindForce cooling system proves to be quite effective in keeping the GPU cool without throttling worries. The triple-fan setup is a bit louder than what we have with the Founders Edition, but it's not a jet engine and does help in keeping the hot spot and memory temperatures low.
Technically, the VBIOS switch is redundant since you can very well play with the fan curves to your liking. But since it's there, we would like to see further refinements with the VBIOS modes. There is no perceivable difference in fan noise between these modes. Users who aren't very comfortable with custom fan curves would therefore be disappointed knowing that the Silent mode has a similar noise profile as the default BIOS OC option.
All in all, Gigabyte's take on the latest AD104 GPU in the form of the RTX 4070 Super Gaming OC succeeds for the most part. The RTX 4070 Super Gaming OC further widens the gap with the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT (starting from US$490 on Amazon). The AMD card gets you more VRAM, but scales tilt towards Nvidia when it comes to DLSS frame generation and ray reconstruction technologies in addition to AMD's FSR and Intel XeSS upscalers.
And while you're at it, do keep a tab on stock clearance sales of the now EoL'd RTX 4070 Ti that may be available for prices close to or even lesser than the RTX 4070 Super.
Price and Availability
The Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4070 Super Gaming OC 12G currently retails for US$650 on Best Buy US and Amazon US.
In India, the card isn't listed yet on Amazon IN but officially carries a ₹62,490 MSRP with some price differences among local distributors.
Transparency
The present review sample was made available to the author as a loan by the manufacturer or a shop for the purposes of review. The lender had no influence on this review, nor did the manufacturer receive a copy of this review before publication. There was no obligation to publish this review.