NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 vs. RTX 2070: Should you upgrade?

Groovy ray-tracing middle ground

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070

Concluding-gen budget champion

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 is the all-time price to functioning ratio you lot tin get from an NVIDIA RTX GPU right now. Information technology does actually well at 1440p and 4K gaming and brings in performance gains over the RTX 2070 beyond all resolutions. It also has significantly amend ray-tracing performance. However, like most of the all-time graphics cards, it is pretty hard to discover right at present, given the limited supply and high demand.

See at Amazon

Pros

Better ray tracing performance
Hits college frame rates consistently
Improve choice for 1440p and 4K
HDMI 2.ane

Cons

Needs more power than the RTX 2070
Availability is very express

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 is the predecessor to the RTX 3070. As the budget choice of the concluding generation, the RTX 2070 is certainly a good GPU. Even so, RTX 3070 comes in at the same starting cost every bit the RTX 2070 did while showing massive functioning gains at higher resolutions and ray tracing. It's a good 1080p performer but doesn't quite have the oomph for great 1440p and 4K performance.

See at Amazon

Pros

Holds upwards well for 1080p gaming
Can do some 1440p and 4K gaming
Lower power consumption

Cons

Ray-tracing functioning isn't sufficient
Can't hit high framerates at 1440p and 4K

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 is the new hot GPU recommendation that delivers an insane value suggestion. Information technology comes in at the aforementioned price that the RTX 2070 did merely offers a much better price-to-performance ratio. NVIDIA has managed to offer a significantly higher value for the same price in the bridge of one generation. If yous're thinking about an upgrade from the RTX 2070, you should absolutely consider the RTX 3070.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 vs. RTX 2070 specs

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 review Source: Harish Jonnalagadda / Windows Central

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 has significant hardware improvements over the RTX 2070. The large difference comes from the generational gap in manufacturing improvements. The RTX 3070 has an Ampere GA102 chip, made with Samsung'south 8nm process. On the other hand, the RTX 2070 housed the Turing TU 106, which used the 12nm TSMC process. This is a significant deviation because the shift in manufacturing means that the transistor count went from ten.8 billion in the RTX 2070 to 17.iv billion in the RTX 3080. Take a look at the specifications of the ii cards.

Category	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070
Shader (CUDA) Cores	5888	2304
Cadre Clock	1500MHz	1410MHz
Heave Clock	1730MHz	1620MHz
Retentiveness	8GB GDDR6 256-bit motorcoach width	viii GB GDDR6 256-fleck bus width
Memory Clock	14Gbps	14Gbps
Retention Bandwidth	448GB/s	448GB/s
RT Cores	46	36
Tensor Cores	184	288
Transistors	17.4 billion	10.8 billion
Node	Samsung 8nm	TSMC 12nm FFN
Compages	Ampere	Turing
TDP	220W	175 W
Ports	one x HDMI 2.ane 3 10 DisplayPort 1.4a	1 x HDMI 2.0b iii 10 DisplayPort ane.4 1 ten USB C
Power Connector	1 x 12-pin one x PCIe viii-pin converter included	1 ten 8 pin

The manufacturing procedure upgrade, besides every bit other hardware changes that come with the Ampere architecture, ways that the RTX 3070 outperforms the RTX 2070 with some substantial margins.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 vs. RTX 2070 real-world functioning

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 review Source: Harish Jonnalagadda / Windows Fundamental

Our NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 review put the new carte to the test. We too compared it with the RTX 2080, the elder sibling of the RTX 2070, and the RTX 3070 turned out to be the clear winner. So information technology's not surprising that the RTX 3070 beats the RTX 2070 with fifty-fifty bigger margins, offering solid FPS gains, even with RTX enabled. Take a expect at some FPS comparisons, courtesy of Jarrod'sTech.

Game	RTX 3070 (avg. FPS, 1440p)	RTX 2070 (avg. FPS, 1440p)	RTX 3070 (avg. FPS, 4K)	RTX 2070 (avg. FPS, 4K)
Microsoft Flight Simulator	46	31	29	19
Metro Exodus	99	64	59	38
Rainbow Six Siege	276	173	140	85
Control (RTX On)	86	55	47	29
Phone call of Duty: Modernistic Warfare	111	71	66	forty
Red Expressionless Redemption 2	109	64	lxx	38
Assassin'southward Creed: Odessey	74	52	51	35
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	113	74	61	39

The RTX 2070 is not a bad card by whatsoever ways. It was actually the menu to get final yr if you wanted proficient performance without spending too much. The same is the example with the RTX 3070 now, except that the 3070 is fashion more than capable and beats the RTX 2070 in performance across the board.

At 1440p, the RTX 2070 can barely hit 60 FPS in the more intensive titles, while the RTX 3070 goes past it and can fifty-fifty hitting 144 FPS with some adjustments. Ray tracing improvements at 1440p are too credible, with the RTX 3070 pushing the RT performance into frame rates that we can telephone call acceptable.

Our review called the RTX 3070 the ideal card for 1440p and noted that it delivers some reliable performance at 4K. The performance y'all go with the RTX 3070 is more pronounced when compared with the RTX 2070, which struggles at 4K. The RTX 3070 is a solid 4K 60 FPS performer and won't brand you lot tune down many settings to become acceptable operation.

Then should you upgrade to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 from RTX 2070?

Yes! The leap from RTX 2070 to RTX 3070 is only a unmarried-generation upgrade, but NVIDIA has managed to pack in a ton of extra performance at the same starting price. The RTX 3070 will brand your gaming feel noticeably meliorate and is definitely the ideal upgrade for most PC gamers, including RTX 2070 owners.

The RTX 3070, even so, is suffering from stock and pricing issues right at present. The demand is humongous, and the manufacturing facilities are already operating at total capacity. The limited supply has besides created a pricing event with the RTX 3070, with some sellers pricing 3070 cards at two to three times the actual retail prices.

You can certainly time your purchase just correct, and take hold of an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 at an acceptable price, merely it's not easy. Paying the inflated price for an RTX 3070 takes away from the insane value that the card provides at its retail price tag. An upgrade from the RTX 2070 doesn't make sense if you're overpaying, so brand sure yous're non.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 as well consumes a chip more than power than the RTX 2070, 45W, to be exact. Depending upon which ability supply you lot have, you may need an upgrade to accommodate the RTX 3070. Another matter to remember is that the remainder of your hardware, especially the CPU, can limit the performance of your brand new RTX 3070. So make sure your parts are powerful enough to handle an upgrade to it.

If you're covered on all these bases, then upgrading to the RTX 3070 from the RTX 2070 makes sense, particularly if you're looking to play more at 1440p and 4K resolutions.

RTX 30 bang-for-buck

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070

Get the all-time value for your money

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 offers some serious value for the toll. It's absolutely the card to get for 1440p gaming and has some excellent functioning at 4K too. While it'southward bachelor in meager quantities correct now, it's absolutely worth the retail price and the go-to upgrade card for near PC owners.

Last-gen budget selection

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070

Not for high-res gaming

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 was the terminal generation's upkeep option, just it'south non quite the bill of fare for 1440p or 4K gaming. It does 1080p well, only if yous want to practice 1440p or 4K gaming, especially with newer titles, you're going to need an upgrade. Hold onto it until you can discover an RTX 3070 at an acceptable price.

We may earn a commission for purchases using our links. Learn more.