The RTX 3070 is the third most powerful model developed in this 30-series line-up. The RTX 3090 was also announce, a board that scales the specifications for the creator/developer market, something that was formerly serve by the “Titan” line-up, without focus on the gaming market, despite the high gaming performance, and the RTX 3080, indicated by Nvidia as its most powerful gamer graphics card.
One of the reductions aimed at bringing a more competitive price is that, in addition to the less bulky graphics chip, the memories are less powerful and abundant. There are a total of 8GB using GDDR6 technology on a 256-bit interface. The RTX 3080, for example, has 10GB in the fastest GDDR6X technology and with the 320-bit interface.
RTX 3070 has a suggested price of $499, 200 dollars cheaper than the RTX 3080 and half the amount charged in the high-end series RTX 20, the RTX 2080 Ti. Now this segment is occupied only by Nvidia.
The RTX 3070 arrives with a performance level very comparable to that of the RTX 2080 Ti. In rare moments we see the last generation top of the line getting ahead, as in Red Dead Redemption 2 and Flight Simulator 2020, but we talk about advantages that not reach 10%. In contrast, the RTX 3070 is 10% faster on Blender and 23% on V-Ray. At the end of the battery, we can consider the two cards to be similar.
In practical terms, this card still has the performance to face the 4K resolution, but we have a 30% more performance gap on the RTX 3080 at this resolution, and that has its impacts. Now you can’t just “turn on everything”. Many games will run above 60fps on the Ultra pre-set, but there are heavier franchises that will require graphical tweaking, like the Alto pre-set, to achieve high frame rates. Ray Tracing games are also viable in 4K, but necessarily combined with the use of DLSS technology.
The issue of memories is also worth noting. In our gameplay, in practice the 8GB is meeting a 4K gameplay, but very close to the total available memory usage. A little more margin on the VRAM would be welcome, to ensure that the player doesn’t need to lower the texture quality, for example, if he’s playing a graphics-heavy high-res game.
The performance gain over previous generations is quite impressive. Compare to the 2070, we have a 50 to 70% gain in multiple games and resolutions, showing a big improvement in performance, remembering that both are price similarly at launch.
It’s not a surprise that the Nvidia cooling system that took care of the RTX 3080 is left over for the 3070, despite having a more compact size. The plate does very well, with very low noise production and maintaining excellent temperatures.
