The first of Nvidia’s new GeForce RTX 40 Super graphics cards to hit retail outlets will be the company’s GeForce RTX 4070 Super on January 17. There’s still some time before that happens, but we’ve got your first look at the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Super Founders Edition. , which will lead the rankings as the first of those new super-powerful GPUs.
The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Super is a significant improvement over the popular Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 that Nvidia first introduced in April 2023. Based on a partially disabled AD104 GPU chip, this graphics card featured 5888 CUDA cores and a price tag of $599. I found it to be a rugged product at first, as its gaming functionality was fair and competitive compared to AMD, but I didn’t know how much bigger it would be in less than a year.
We now have the RTX 4070 Super, which has an overall 20% increase in all shading resources, bringing the number of CUDA cores to 7168 and also expanding the number of texture mapping units, ROPs, and ray tracing cores across the board. See all the main points in the table above, but suffice it to say, this is a significant build that’s even sweeter as the value of this new card fits the entry-level RTX 4070 of $599.
Though the non-Super RTX 4070 also gets a price cut to $549 in an attempt to justify its continued existence, it’s going to be a hard sell with the RTX 4070 Super putting up so much more for just an extra $50. For now, though, let’s get on with looking at the first RTX 4070 Super model that will be available.
In recent years, Nvidia has enjoyed leading the pack with its own finished edition of its graphics cards. The Founders Edition cards will only be available for a short time, but they provide an excellent basis for judging other models made through Nvidia’s board partners.
The thermal solution used in those Founders Edition cards is revamped between generations, but that didn’t happen this time. The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Super Founders Edition is the same as the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Founders Edition that I reviewed back in April last year. . Seriously, if I swapped out the old card for the new one in one of those photos, you’d never know the difference without the word “Super” posted on it.
However, I don’t see any point in complaining about this lack of changes, as the Founders Edition cards have so far demonstrated in testing adequate thermal functionality and clever effects. Nvidia varies the overall length of this thermal solution depending on the card, with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090, for example, being particularly larger, but otherwise it seems to remain more or less the same.
The fridge is made up of two relatively large fans and what appears to be four heat pipes, I can’t say for sure one hundred percent just by looking through the radiator grilles.
The RTX 4070 Super, like all Nvidia GeForce RTX 40 series cards so far, super or not, also has a 12 VHPWR force connection, which replaces the old six- and eight-pin force connectors used on most other graphics cards. Widely compatible with power supplies, the card comes with an adapter to convert two eight-pin PCIe connections to 12 VHPWR for the RTX 4070 Super.
Also on the card’s rear I/O panel, you get a relatively popular collection of ports, with an HDMI port and 3 DisplayPort connectors. This specific card is just a dual-slot model, simplifying compatibility with most PC cases. .
That’s all I can say right now about the new Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Super. To learn more, you should look forward to our fully tested review later this month, when the card launches on January 17 for $599.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve enjoyed all things tech, driven, in part, by my love of gaming. I started running on my family and friends’ computers when I was about 10 years old. I’ve strived to be as informed as possible about all things PC, allowing me to have a complete understanding of all things current-gen. In my role at PCMag, I greatly appreciate the opportunity to share the percentage of what I know.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve enjoyed all things tech, driven, in part, by my love of gaming. I started running on my family and friends’ computers when I was about 10 years old. I’ve strived to be as informed as possible about all things PC, allowing me to have a complete understanding of all things current-gen. In my role at PCMag, I greatly appreciate the opportunity to share the percentage of what I know.
I wrote for the popular tech site Tom’s Hardware for 3 years before joining PCMag in 2018. During that time, I reviewed desktops, PC cases, and motherboards as a freelancer, while also offering content for the site and its ExtremeTech siblings. Now, as a full-time PCMag analyst, I’m dedicated to reviewing CPUs and graphics cards while dealing with all things PC.