Review: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Founders Edition

Conclusion

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti comes armed to the premium graphics card party with a full implementation of the mainstream GA104 Ampere die. Further boosting performance compared to the non-Ti variant by using 19Gbps GDDR6X memory, the on-paper specifications paint it in a positive light at the supposed $599/£529 price point.

Truth is not so kind. Nvidia's decisions increase the power budget by a considerable 70W over the non-Ti model but performance only scales seven per cent higher, due to a lower real-world boost speed and a lack of benefit from faster, power-hungry GDDR6X memory. In that respect, the Ti is not a good a deal as last year's standard RTX 3070: the modest speed increase arrives with one-too-many compromises caused by Nvidia driving this GPU hard.

GeForce RTX 3070 Ti does benefit from a mature ecosystem - raytracing performance is clearly ahead of the competition and DLSS is a proven value add - but we'd liked to have seen Nvidia match the 16GB frame buffer of rival Radeon RX 6800. It cannot readily do so without escalating power further, and no-one wants to see a fourth-rung part consume 350W.

Underscored by a background of severe shortages, the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti feels lost in the premium space. It's not much faster than the non-Ti, consumes far more energy, and has half the memory of rival Radeon RX 6800. It's also the proverbial mile off the $100 dearer GeForce RTX 3080 that's armed with much beefier silicon.

In light of findings, this is the weakest GeForce RTX Founders Edition of the 30-series performance generation. Only consider it if you're lucky to find one in stock at reasonable prices.

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TBC.

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