The new Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Ti is available, and it surprised many, especially in terms of price. But can it compete with AMD’s Radeon RX 7900 XT? The truth is, the battle between these two is fierce, but you can check the results here.
| The Nvidia RTX 4070 Ti Gigabyte GeForce | AMD RX 7900 XT | |
 | $849.99 | $879.99 |
Technical specifications of the Nvidia RTX 4070 Ti vs AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT
External design
As for the exterior design of the Gigabyte version of the Nvidia RTX 4070 Ti, there are few new features to note, since it follows the same guidelines as the previous EAGLE versions. Its slightly more compact dimensions than the 4080 versions upwards allow us to ensure installation in more compact chassis, but it still maintains the 3-slot thickness, so models with vertical 2-slot installation will still be small.
We have a fairly thick rigid plastic outer case in matte gray color with good finishes as usual in the brand. It has 3D lines on the side of the fan and an RGB Fusion 2.0 side lighting area for the brand logo, which gives more presence in a chassis with a glass window.
The 3-fan bundle features identical 100mm units aligned with Graphene Nano lubricating bearings and in an alternating rotation configuration, i.e. the central unit rotates in the opposite direction to the others to maximize fan speed airflow efficiency.
Gigabyte retains its unique fan-shaped design with airflow-enhancing knurling, and the 3D Active Fan system where the fans turn off when the GPU is idle.
The first thing that strikes us about the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT is its size. This puts AMD in a good position when it comes to thermal efficiency for a GPU that draws 300W. Measuring 276mm long and 50mm thick, it will take up a decent 2.5 slot and fit most chassis on the market.
Design-wise, it looks like the heat sink has been stripped of any embellishments or colors, as the aluminum outer casing is all black, sleek, but in our opinion a bit bland. A red border would have been nice in the fan area, but AMD wanted to give it a more “industrial” look, reinforcing the ideal through the use of aluminum and 3D lines simulating the assembly of various parts.
The 3 surface mount fans are identical, with an effective diameter of 80 mm, whose blades are connected by an outer ring to concentrate the airflow on the heat sink. The system features a semi-passive profile, with the fans turned off when the card is idle, which is already the case with virtually all current graphics cards.
Nothing else is specified about them, but at peak performance they will be a little louder than those found on custom models. Its front area is completely closed and has 4 holes to install GPU supports, although it does not really need them since it is a compact card.
Ports and Connectivity
The ports panel of the Nvidia RTX 4070 Ti is another element that remains the same as the other 4-port models: 3x DisplayPort 1.4a and 1x HDMI 2.1
The ideal would be to have at least 2 HDMI ports, not to mention that version 2.1 supports maximum resolutions of 8K @120 FPS and 60 FPS compressed and up to 4K @144 Hz uncompressed. Nvidia decided not to upgrade its graphics cards to Display Port 2.0 like AMD did with RDNA 3.
The PCIe 4.0 interface is used with 16 active lanes, allowing the connection of 4 monitors simultaneously. Obviously, it has Resizable Bar technology compatible with current AMD and Intel processors, which allows you to benefit from some FPS in some current games. Like the rest of the Nvidia Ada Lovelace board, we have a 16-pin PCIE5 connector, which includes an adapter to two 8-pin connectors if we have a traditional PSU.
You shouldn’t have any heating or ignition issues with the board’s maximum 285W TGP, but be sure to connect the cable properly.
The panel consists of 4 ports of the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT consists of 2 x DisplayPort 2.1, 1 x USB Type-C and 1 x HDMI 2.1
AMD Radiance Display Engine is a new technology that integrates with DisplayPort 2.1 and HDMI 2.1 and supports 12-bit color space and REC2020 on high performance monitors. As you can see, Display Port is fully upgraded by increasing its bus to 54Gbps to support 2K@900Hz, 4K@480Hz, and 8K@165Hz monitors, exceeding the current capabilities of HDMI 2.1.
We have the PCIe 4.0 x16 interface, which allows up to four 4K144, 5K60 or 8K60 monitors to be connected. So we won’t see PCIe Gen5 yet in this generation. The power connection for this new generation of AMD cards remains unchanged from RDNA 2, since we have two 8-pin PCIe connectors.
Heat sink and PCB
The Nvidia RTX 4070 Ti heatsink consists of two blocks of aluminum with vertical fins connected to each other by 5 of the 6 heat pipes that make up the heat distribution system. This will greatly increase the cooling surface.
The cold plate consists of a copper base with a vapor chamber to cool the GPU, while the memory chips and MOSFETS will be cooled by additional plates with silicon thermal pads.
The PCB uses a total of 13 power stages with 50A Vishay SiC653 MOSFETS, metal chokes and a Holtek PWM controller. Presumably more aggressive custom versions of this model will increase the number of phases, but right off the bat the card is more than adequate for manual overclocking.
There’s not much to look at the AMD RX 7900 XT’s heat sink, except that it’s made of a single block with vertical fins, positioned transversely. The block is fixed to an aluminum reinforcement system which, in turn, is fixed to the PCB by a large number of screws. A copper-core cold plate is used in direct contact with the GPU, which solidified the thermal paste.
Likewise, the VRM’s memory chips and MOSFTES are held in contact with the metal by silicon thermal pads, also slightly solidified. The PCB design of the RX 7900 XT takes up a larger area than Nvidia’s reference models, starting from a 14-layer PCB with dual-sided components.
On the main part, we can see the perfectly polished main fragment, and how it is clearly composed of a central GCD chiplet and 6 small chiplets on the edges formed by the MCDs. The GDDR6 chips come from the manufacturer SK hynix for this new generation.
The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT VRM configuration includes 17 main stages comprised of Monolothic Power Systems MPS2232 MOSFETS with metal encapsulated chokes, as well as a filter stage with polymer and ceramic filter capacitors. The primary digital PWM driver will be an MPS2221 from the same manufacturer as the stages, along with two secondary MPS2220 drivers, all located on the top side of the PCB.
Conclusion
As we can see, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti and the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT are neck and neck, but in the higher resolutions, AMD has a slight advantage. When it comes to Ray Tracing, NVIDIA is always one step ahead, of course.
In terms of price, the RTX 4070 Ti retails in the European market at around €900, although this may vary depending on the PCB manufacturer.
In the case of the Radeon RX 7900 XT, the recommended price starts at €899, and can vary depending on the card manufacturer as in the case of NVIDIA. The winner in this case would therefore be the RTX 4070 Ti, unless you want to play at the highest resolutions and don’t care so much about Ray Tracing, in which case the 7900 XT performed better.
Also discover: