Gigabyte RTX 4070 Ti AERO OC 12G Graphics Card Review – The Mainstream RTX 40 GPU

The unlaunching of the supposed GeForce RTX 4080 12GB variant is not something that the community is used to, especially coming from Nvidia. While some are disheartened about how it was relaunched, it’s a good move nonetheless by Nvidia as the brand listened to the community. Today, the RTX 4080 12GB is back but with a new name, the RTX 4070 Ti. Nvidia did not just rename the GPU to the RTX 4070 Ti but introduced a $100 price cut in hopes to bring better value over the recently launched RX 7900 XT and RX 7900 XTX. Let’s see if the RTX 4070 Ti brings more value than the competition.

Nvidia Ada Lovelace Architecture

Following the success of the RTX 30 series card and the Ampere architecture, Nvidia continues to double down on its proven and tested formula with the debut of the Nvidia Ada Lovelace architecture featuring 76 Billion Transistors. Nvidia has moved from Samsung 8N to TSMC’s 4N process, resulting in much bigger performance gains and slighter higher pricing as TSMC recently hiked up its prices. The new Ada Lovelace features 3rd Generation RT Cores at 200 RT TFLOPs and 4th Gen Tensor Cores for 1,4000 TFLOPs as well as a new streaming multiprocessor with up to 2x power efficiency. Moreover, Ada Lovelace also brings in new features exclusive to the RTX 40 series graphics card such as DLSS 3, AV1 Encoding, and Shader Execution Reordering.

Shader Execution Reordering

Shader Execution Reodering largely contributes to the performance gains of the RTX 40 series GPUs thanks to the more efficient usage of the shaders. SER is a scheduling system that reorders shading work on-the-fly for better execution efficiency, especially on ray-traced workloads. Think hyperthreading plus thread director but for GPUs particularly the RTX 40 series where the rays are reordered so that the ones that are running on the same program or similar are grouped together resulting in the shader working consistently instead of waiting on each other.

SER is an NVAPI extension meaning that developers would have to enable it on their games. We should expect SER to be heavily and quickly adopted especially in games where there are already Nvidia features enabled such as Reflex, RTX, and DLSS.

Nvidia DLSS 3

DLSS 3 uses the 4th Gen Tensor Cores and the Optical Flow Accelerator of the RTX 40 series to improve overall performance using AI-generated frames. In addition to already upscaling existing frames like DLSS 2, DLSS 3 generates intermediate frames in your game aka inserting AI-generated frames to improve performance. The RTX 40 series GPU will analyze two in-game frames and generate an optical flow field, closely looking at all elements in the game and using the information gathered to construct a frame in between. Additionally, DLSS 3 incorporates Nvidia Reflex ultra-low-latency solution making your games way more responsive in addition to providing more frames. Games that support DLSS 3 will automatically support Nvidia Reflex.

DLSS 3 can be used by older Nvidia RTX graphics card but won’t be able to fully maximize the feature as the biggest improvement of the technology, Frame Generation, is exclusive to the RTX 40 series graphics cards.

Nvidia RTX 40 Series Specifications

Based on the listed specifications and what was given to us by Nvidia, the “unlaunched” RTX 4080 12GB and RTX 4070 Ti are basically the same card but Nvidia has then slashed the supposed price coming from $899 down to only $799 or from Php 63,200 to Php 55,200. This is likely in response to the newly launched RX 7900 XT and RX 7900 XTX as both of these graphics cards compete with the RTX 4070 Ti in terms of pricing.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Ti

The Nvidia RTX 4070 Ti, or formerly known as the RTX 4080 12GB was initially announced at the last Nvidia GTC 2022 Keynote alongside the RTX 4090 and RTX 4080 16GB. Unlike last year’s RTX 3070 Ti, the RTX 4070 Ti doesn’t have any Founders Edition model. Nvidia has decided to have the RTX 4070 Ti be supplied exclusively by its board partners. In this review, we are using the Gigabyte RTX 4070 Ti Aero OC GPU to represent the RTX 4070 Ti and test it against the rest of the RTX 40 series cards and the Radeon RX 7900 XTX.

Gigabyte RTX 4070 Ti Aero OC Unboxing and First Impressions

Gigabyte debuts its first Aero line with the launch of the RTX 40 series graphics cards. Like its laptop counterpart, the Aero line will replace the Vision series while retaining some key elements and features previously found on Vision products.

The Gigabyte RTX 4070 Ti Aero OC 12G has one of the cleanest packaging designs I’ve ever seen and it certainly feels utterly premium with minimal branding. The back shows more info about the graphics card but it’s also done in a refreshing way as opposed to having a ton of translated text and Nvidia-centric features found on most GPUs.

The unboxing experience is fairly standard as the card is just covered by soft foam. The accessories are also exposed alongside the card as opposed to having a separate layer. The accessories include the standard warranty card and manual as well as a GPU support bracket and a 2x 8-pin to 12VHPWR adapter.

According to Gigabyte, the Aero OC graphics card is designed for content creators and users who love the white, simplistic, and chic style. Its rounded yet chamfered design makes it unique and is one of the best white-colored GPU designed by far. It uses the Windforce cooling system and is equipped with three 100mm fans that spin alternately depending on the workload.

The side of the graphics card takes heavy inspiration from the last generation RTX 30 series vision line with the color-changing Aero logo and exposed side heatsink fins. The Aero logo lights up and can be customized via the Gigabyte Control Center software.

Like the rest of the RTX 40 series, the RTX 4070 Ti Aero uses the new 16-pin 12VHPWR connector. Gigabyte includes a 2x 8-pin PCI-E to 12VHPWR adapter. The RTX 4070 Ti has a TGP of only 285W hence only requiring two 8-pin PCI-E cables. There’s also a power indicator LED on top of the 12VHWPR to help users know if there’s optimal cable connection. The LED is off by default and turns on when the power cable is disconnected or blinks if there’s an “abnormal power supply.”

There’s a BIOS switch just on top of the 12VHPWR connector allowing users to switch between OC and Silent profiles. The BIOS switch is set to OC by default and for this review, we’ll be using the OC profile as it’s the default out-of-the-box setting for the Gigabyte Aero RTX 4070 Ti OC 12G graphics card.

The back of the Gigabyte RTX 4070 Ti Aero is a love-hate relationship. On one hand, you have the large backplate cutout on the right side for cooling but the left side’s asymmetric screw holes kind of ruin the overall aesthetic.

The cutout on the RTX 4070 Ti Aero is the largest one I’ve seen in a graphics card so far as it covers one-half of the triple fan setup of the cooler. This allows the graphics card fans to run at slightly lower speeds and acoustics without much compromise on their cooling. Gigabyte calls this feature Screen Cooling and is similar to the Founders Editions’ flowthrough cooling.

You have the standard port selection on the RTX 4070 Ti Aero: three Display Port 1.4a ports and one HDMI 2.1 port.

Testbench Setup and Benchmark Methodology

Gadget Pilipinas’ testing philosophy is to provide detail-oriented results as accurately as possible so that our readers can replicate our tests given that these conditions are met. Different benchmarking apps and sequences are used depending on the component or device being tested.

Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Aero OC 12G Testbench Specs

We use CapFrameX 1.7.0 Stable as our primary FPS capture and analysis tool for all our gaming benchmarks. The latest build version of Windows 11 Pro and WHQL-certified drivers are used for our benchmarks. Readings such as temperatures and power draw are recorded using HWINFO64, and other relevant software for cross-checking.

Gigabyte RTX 4070 Ti Aero OC 12G Gaming Benchmarks

COUNTER-STRIKE: GLOBAL OFFENSIVE

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive aka CSGO is an 11-year-old first-person shooter title that’s still widely popular despite its old Source Engine. CS:GO is a great game to test out CPU performance as the game is heavily CPU-dependent like any other FPS title. Our CS:GO benchmark process uses ULLETICAL’s FPS Benchmark workshop mod to measure the hardware’s performance.

DOTA 2

Most gamers play at least one of the following free-to-play titles: League of Legends, CS: GO, Dota 2, and/or Fortnite. Dota 2 is a good representation of the F2P titles as it is the most demanding game in the spectrum. The benchmark will give you an idea of the graphic card’s relative performance on other lesser demanding titles. Our benchmark sequence is based on a replay of OG vs. Liquid in the TI9 grand finals from the team fight that happened from 28:30 to 29:30.

Far Cry 5 and Far Cry 6

Far Cry 5 is an FPS game published by Ubisoft and uses the Dunia engine. It heavily relies on and takes advantage of DirectX 11 to render a realistic environment that makes it taxing to both the CPU and GPU. Far Cry 6 is the latest installment in the franchise which utilizes DirectX 12 to run the virtual world of Yara.

Rainbow Six Siege

Rainbow Six Seige is one of the few popular AAA games that’s still popular in 2021 due to its competitive gameplay mechanics. R6S uses the AnvilNext game engine, which the game’s publisher, Ubisoft, developed. As of writing, Rainbow Six Siege is currently the most popular Tom Clancy title beating out Wildlands, Breakpoint, and even Division 2.

Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077 is arguably the most hyped game of 2020. Developed by CD Projekt Red, the dystopian open-world, action-adventure RPG sports is one of the most demanding titles to date. Cyberpunk 2077 also supports three Ray Tracing settings as well as DLSS which makes the game a great tool to measure Ray tracing performance for both AMD and Nvidia graphics cards.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

Shadow of The Tomb Raider or SOTR is the latest installment of the Lara Croft Tomb Raider franchise. Developed by Square Enix, SOTR uses the Foundation engine and is further enhanced by Eidos Montreal. SOTR is also one of the first games to come out with Ray Tracing and DLSS support.

Metro Exodus

Metro Exodus is the third Metro game trilogy based on Dmitry Glukhovsky’s novels. The game is a first-person shooter with survival horror and stealth elements. The post-apocalyptic game uses 4A Engine by 4A games. Released last 2019, Metro Exodus remains to be one of the most graphically pleasing and demanding games that’s popular to date.

Assassins Creed: Odyssey and Valhalla

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Valhalla are the latest franchise installment from Ubisoft. It’s by far the most popular and stable Assassin’s Creed title since AC IV: Black Flag. It uses the AnvilNext 2.0 game engine, an updated version of Rainbow Six Siege’s game engine, and uses the DirectX 12 API.

F1 2022 and F1 22

F1 2020 is the official video game of the 2020 Formula 1 and Formula 2 championships developed by Codemasters. F1 2020 is the twelfth installment in the franchise and uses the Ego Engine 3.0. F1 2020 is a good representation of racing games thanks to its realistic graphics and fairly demanding spec requirements.

Horizon Zero Dawn

Horizon Zero Dawn is one of the most popular console-port RPG developed by Guerilla Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Horizon Zero Dawn is a multi-award-winning action RPG, and its popularity resulted in an exclusive Complete Edition game bundle on Steam

Call of Duty Modern Warfare II

Gigabyte RTX 4070 Ti Aero OC 12G Ray Tracing Benchmarks

Cyberpunk 2077

F1 22

Metro Exodus

Tomb Raider

Call of Duty Modern Warfare II – DLSS QUALITY

Gigabyte RTX 4070 Ti Aero OC 12G Temperatures and Power Draw

The Gigabyte RTX 4070 Ti Aero is still a large card in terms of size but it’s not as dense as the RTX 4080 and RTX 4090 GPUs that we previously looked at. The large cutout is very much impressive and it shows is effectiveness when we recorded a max temperature of 65°C with idle temps at 33°C. It’s higher than our RTX 4080s considering the RTX 4070 Ti has lower specs and TDP so cooling it should be easier. That said, you have more than enough room to ramp up your fan speeds if you want lower temperatures or to overclock.

GPU power draw at 282 watts is well within our expectations making it the least power-hungry card in our benchmark suite.

Performance Summary and Conclusion

Regardless of whether the GPU is called the RTX 4080 12GB or RTX 4070 TI, reviewing the GPU has left us with mixed feelings as there are more factors to consider compared to when we reviewed the RTX 4080 and RTX 4090. Its SRP of $799 US or Php 55,200 locally puts it against the newly released Radeon RX 7900 XT and RX 7900 XTX at $899 and $999, respectively. There’s also the value proposition of the previous RTX 30 series graphics cards both at sale and second-hand prices. While having more options is great for consumers, it also gets more difficult to see which card better suits your needs.

Now that all of the cards are on the table, the key factors that most people will consider are pure rasterization performance, features, power draw, and price – all of which are both pros and cons of the RTX 4070 Ti. The RTX 4070 Ti is 35% cheaper than the RTX 4080 but it’s also only 20-25% slower than the latter not to mention consumes 10% less power. When compared to the RX 7900 XTX it’s definitely slower by about 25% but uses roughly 25% more power for the performance gain and is considerably hotter.

That said, the RTX 4070 Ti brings value to those looking for the best performance per watt as it beats both the RTX 4080 and RX 7900 XTX. However, that only applies to pure rasterization as we haven’t considered the features of each card. As said in our previews reviews, the visual and performance improvements brought by Ray Tracing and DLSS are simply unparalleled with the latest RTX 40 series and that statement still holds true for the RTX 4070 Ti. Although, that value is only realized if you care about said features.

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Ti can be seen as a discounted RTX 3090 Ti equipped with the latest features exclusive to the RTX 40 series namely DLSS 3.0 all while consuming less power than most of the RTX 30 series cards and the RX 7900 series. The RTX 4070 Ti is great for users looking to for value graphics especially for 1440p gaming without the premium price or power consumption attached to the flagship cards of both AMD and Nvidia. The RTX 4070 Ti is also a better choice for those looking for a second-hand RTX 3090 or 3090 Ti as you’re getting the same card but with the latest features, less power draw, and warranty.

The Gigabyte RTX 4070 Ti Aero OC 12G is a card you should consider if you’re in the market for an RTX 4070 Ti thanks to its unique aesthetics, Windforce vapor-chamber cooling, and rigid build quality. The Gigabyte RTX 4070 Ti Aero OC 12G is priced at Php 59,180.

Grant Soriano

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Grant is a Financial Management graduate from UST. His passion for gadgets and tech crossed him over in the industry where he could apply his knowledge as an enthusiast and in-depth analytic skills as a Finance Major. His passion allows him to earn at the same time help Gadget Pilipinas' readers in making smart, value-based decisions and purchases with his reviews and guides.