Zotac Geforce RTX 4070 Twin Edge Spider-Man limited edition review: Nvidia's mid-range messiah?

The Nvidia Geforce RTX 4070 is the latest entry in the Ada Lovelace lineup. With a more affordable price tag, it brings superior rendering prowess and supports for features like frame generation to even more gamers. According to Steam's hardware survey, its Ampere counterpart, the RTX 3070, is among the most popular GPUs ever launched. Thus, the 4070 has big shoes to fill.

The latest launch in the mid-range 70-class lineup might look bland on paper — for the most part, specs are similar to the last-gen card. However, the newer architecture is designed to deliver a much better performance with a similar spec sheet. Thus, even with a similar core count, the 4070 is expected to be much faster.

Nvidia was kind enough to send over a Zotac RTX 4070 Twin Edge OC Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse bundle for review. In this article, we will run the card through its paces and compare it against its last-gen counterparts.

The RTX 4070 brings Ada Lovelace to the masses

Pre-delivery

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Both the RTX 4070 and the 4070 Ti is based on a cut-down AD104 graphics processor, which packs 35,800 million transistors and is based on a 295 mm² die. In comparison, the RTX 4080's AD103 is a 379 mm² die that bundles 45,900 million transistors.

Under its hood, the $599 RTX 4070 comes with 5,888 CUDA cores, 184 Texture Mapping Units (TMUs), 64 Render Output Units (ROPs), 184 Tensor cores, and 46 RT cores. This makes it exactly identical to the 3070, other than the fact that every individual core has been upgraded this generation, making the Ada Lovelace card a faster pixel pusher.

The RTX 3070 has a massive problem — its limited 8 GB VRAM buffer is falling short in most games. With the new video card, Nvidia has solved this problem by bundling 12 GB of fast 21 Gbps GDDR6X memory. However, the bus width has been reduced from 256-bit to 192-bit. Thus, the effective memory bandwidth remains almost the same: 504.2 GB/s.

GPU Name	AD104
CUDA Core Count	5,888
Texture Mapping Units (TMUs)	184
Render Output Units (ROPs)	64
Ray Tracing (RT) Core Count	46
Tensor Core Count	184
Video Memory Size	12 GB
Video Memory Type	GDDR6X
Video Memory Bus Width	192 bit
Base Clock Speed	1920 MHz
Boost Clock Speed	2475 MHz
Memory Clock Speed	1313 MHz
MSRP	$599

Nvidia is chasing power efficiency with the Ada Lovelace cards. The RTX 4070 draws less power than its Ampere equivalent — 200W vs the 220W of the last-gen RTX 3070.

RTX 4070 and Ada Lovelace architecture

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The most important advantage of the new 70-class architecture is the improved Ada Lovelace architecture. Starting this generation, Nvidia has shifted to TSMC's 4nm process node, which largely contributes to improved efficiency. RT, Tensor, and CUDA cores have been improved based on the Ada Lovelace formula, thereby enabling them to perform more.

More rendering prowess makes every high-end RTX 40 series card a solid machine for deep learning workloads. This prompted Nvidia to introduce AI frame generation with DLSS 3 — a technology that intelligently inserts extra frames between two consecutive frames generated by the GPU — thereby multiplying the FPS by a factor of two to five.

The new 4070 also comes with support for AV1 hardware encoding. The card can process up to 8K 10-bit 60 FPS video.

Unboxing experience

Packaging of the Zotac RTX 4070 Twin Edge OC (Image via Sportskeeda)

Zotac has teamed up with Sony to come up with this limited edition Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse bundle. The packaging of the card, thus, has received a visual overhaul to fit the theme. Alongside the card, Zotac packs a ton of other stuff to celebrate the upcoming movie.

The custom backplate of the Twin Edge graphics card (Image via Sportskeeda)

The special Spider-Man-themed product list includes:

1x Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse tote bag
1x custom magnetic backplate
Decals
Ztorm card

The higher-end AMP AIRO card also comes with a Spider-Man-themed Ztorm figurine that this Twin Edge model lacks.

A closer look at the Zotac Twin Edge limited edition card

The Zotac Twin Edge OC cards have received a design refresh this generation (Image via Sportskeeda)

Zotac is among the most well-known add-in card manufacturers of Nvidia. In the past, they have come up with some of the best cards in the entire lineup, namely the AMP HOLO Extreme cards from the Ampere lineup. In this generation, the AMP AIRO Extreme cards have been praised for their design language and cooling potential.

The company designs Twin Edge cards for compact PC builders and budget gamers. The cards don't have the flare of the high-end AMP-series offerings but get the job done.

Design language

The backplate of the Zotac Twin Edge RTX 4070 (Image via Sportskeeda)

The Twin Edge OC is a compact design based on a twin-fan cooler. The card, thus, ranks among the smallest RTX 40 series cards out there. Zotac has changed things up this generation, aligning the design with their higher-end AMP cards. Although the RTX 30 series Twin Edge cards had their own charm, I like the new design.

The company has opted for a grey and white duotone design for this generation. , Although the rest of the card employs plastic parts, the stock backplate is entirely made out of metal. The custom magnetic Spider-Man-themed backplate slaps on top of this.

The Twin Edge model makes the RTX 4070 a practical design, unlike the huge RTX 4090 we reviewed previously.

Heatsink design and fan placement

The Zotac Twin Edge packs a 4-heat pipe-based aluminum heatsink (Image via Sportskeeda)

The Twin Edge cards are generally a safe bet with what works the best, and the latest entry in the lineup is no exception. The RTX 4070 variant is based on a traditional open-air design and packs two cooling fans, each of which is 95cm in diameter. The card doesn't take up more than two slots inside a gaming rig.

The 4070 Twin Edge doesn't pack a ton of heatsink mass. The cooling design packs four nickel-plated copper heat pipes and stretches about 8.7 inches. It is entirely made out of aluminum and packs a total of 52 fins.

The RTX 4070 isn't as thermally demanding as an RTX 4090, and thus, the Twin Edge model will suffice in keeping it under optimal temperatures. However, we aren't expecting superb performance from the cooler.

Case compatibility

The RTX 4070 Twin Edge isn't a huge graphics card. It is 225mm long and 125mm wide. This ensures it fits in the majority of ITX, M-ATX, and ATX cases out there. Unlike the RTX 4090 FE, it uses a single ATX 2.0 8-pin power connector. Thus, this case is void of any case compatibility issues, unlike some high-end RTX 40 series cards.

Test bench

The test system used to benchmark the RTX 4070 (Image via Sportskeeda)

The RTX 4070 was tested with an AMD Ryzen 5 7600X, which bundles the improved single-core performance of the Zen 4 processors in a budget processor.

The detailed specs of the test bench are listed below:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7600X
Motherboard: ASUS ROG X670E-E Gaming WiFi
RAM: Kingston Fury Beast RGB 2x 16 GB DDR5-6000
Cooler: DeepCool LT720 360mm high-performance liquid cooler
Graphics card: Zotac RTX 4070 Twin Edge OC Spider-Man edition
SSD: Gigabyte Aorus NVMe 1 TB PCIe Gen 4
PSU: Corsair RM1000e 1000W fully modular
Case: Open-air test bench

On paper performance

Before delving into gaming benchmarks of the RTX 4070, let's look at its performance in synthetic and productivity benchmarks. We expect it to push out solid numbers in every workload by utilizing the improved Ada Lovelace architecture and underlying hardware.

Synthetic benchmarks

The RTX 4070 dominates some of the most expensive GPUs ever launched in the Unigine Superposition benchmark. However, it's nowhere close to what the RTX 4090 can achieve in this graphics rendering workload.

In 3DMark benchmarks, a similar trend continues as the RTX 4070 almost obliterated the RTX 2080 Super. It achieved massive scores in all three scenes — Fire Strike, Time Spy, and Port Royal.

However, the scores are dwarfed by the numbers the 4090 pushed out.

Productivity benchmarks

Turning to tests in software most creative professionals use, we achieve decent performance marks with the latest 70-class GPU from Nvidia. The GPU delivered solid performances in the Blender Junkshop, Monster, and Classroom scenes and scored among the top 1% of all hardware.

The RTX 4090 comes off as twice as powerful as the $600 offering in this test.

Gaming performance

If the RTX 4070 is anything like its last-gen counterpart, it is expected to be a massive pixel pusher. The card should be able to handle every major AAA title at high resolutions without breaking a sweat. In our testing, the card didn't disappoint.

Rasterization performance

The RTX 4070 is way overkill for 1080p gaming. However, the performance metrics we recorded make it ideal for competitive gaming. Every game we tested scored almost 100 FPS without ray tracing and any form of upscaling, which is massive for a 70-class GPU.

With the RTX 40 series lineup, Nvidia has seriously improved the rasterization performance levels of every offer. This is a massive win for gamers on a budget and in the mid-range.

Ray-tracing performance

Ray tracing performance of the 4070 is superb too. Although performance losses are noticeable, every major game managed way over 60 FPS at the highest settings without relying on upscaling.

Those who will stick to 1080p while gaming on an RTX 4070 need not use any form of upscaling — DLSS or FSR. We recommend such players invest in a high refresh rate monitor like the ViewSonic XG2431 to fully utilize the potential of the graphics card.

Path tracing

Path tracing has started to be implemented in some video games. It is way more demanding than traditional ray tracing. We tested the RTX 4070 in Cyberpunk 2077. The results were interesting.

With RT Overdrive (path tracing's name inside of Cyberpunk) turned on and without relying on any form of upscaling, we barely logged 24 FPS.

Turning on frame generation and setting DLSS Super Resolution to Performance resulted in a massive boost — the frame rate jumped to almost 90 FPS.

DLSS performance

The more powerful 7th generation CUDA cores of the RTX 4070 are expected to deliver solid gains in DLSS performance too. We tested DLSS 2 performance across many video games, and almost every title offered about 20-30% more performance consistently.

DLSS 3.0 and frame generation

DLSS 3.0 is the buzzword among Nvidia GPU owners these days. It bundles improved upscaling and frame generation technologies. The latest iteration of Nvidia's AI frame booster tech is limited to RTX 40 series graphics cards, and since the 4070 is the cheapest of them right now, we were excited to check out how it faired in games supporting it.

In A Plague Tale Requiem: Requiem, we logged a 2x improvement in performance. The margin is over three times the original framerate in Portal with RTX. However, the gains were more modest in Cyberpunk 2077, where turning on DLSS 3.0 improved the performance by almost 1.5x.

Power consumption

The Zotac Twin Edge RTX 4070's rated TDP is 200W. The card's power draw ranged between 197W and 204W in the Furmark stress test, which pushes a GPU to its limits.

In video games, however, the power consumption varies depending on the workload. We tested the GPU with Cyberpunk 2077's RT Overdrive mode at 1080p without DLSS — one of the most demanding scenarios to handle. In this case, the card's power draw remained in the upper 180s for the most part.

The detailed power consumption characteristic throughout the benchmark is as follows:

The RTX 4070 is a power-efficient design, especially in a world where an RTX 3070 draws 220W, and an RX 590 was launched with a power draw of 175W (we still don't have a clue what AMD was thinking).

Thermal efficiency

The Zotac Twin Edge design won't keep the RTX 4070 in the coolest of temperatures. In the Furmark stress test, the card shot up to 76 degrees and managed a temperature of about 75 degrees throughout the test.

Higher-end models will easily be able to keep the card somewhere in the early 60s. The detailed temperature characteristic is as follows:

The card almost maintained similar temperatures in video games. Temperatures, however, won't be as stable as we observed in the Furmark stress result. The characteristic observed in Cyberpunk 2077 RT Overdrive is a good example:

Clock speeds

The Zotac Twin Edge variant is a slightly overclocked variant of the RTX 4070. Thus, instead of its spec 2450 MHz clock speed, the card should be able to boost to 2490 MHz.

However, in our testing, the card didn't go above 2430 MHz in the Furmark stress test, which makes it slower than the stock boost clock. The detailed clock speed characteristic is as follows:

The picture is completely different in video games. The card was boosting to almost 2,800 MHz in Cyberpunk 2077, which is way higher than what the GPU is rated for. Thus, most gamers need not worry about the slight inconsistency in the Furmark stress test.

Fans

The Zotac Twin Edge cards pack two heavy-duty 95mm fans to draw fresh air into the card. These fans are rated for a massive 3800 RPM, which is enough to keep the card cool in the most extreme conditions.

In our testing, we didn't log the fans going above 67% speed in the Furmark stress test, where they were running at about 2280 RPM. Both ramp up simultaneously and maintain a similar speed throughout the test, unlike the Founder's Edition cards.

In video games, however, the fans were putting in a lot less effort. We didn't record the fans going above 57% speed while playing Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p with RT Overdrive.

Overall, the fans are pretty decent for a budget offering. They are powerful enough to keep the GPU cool under load.

Value

The RTX 4070 brings the power of Ada Lovelace to the masses. The Zotac Twin Edge model is an entry-level offering that brings improved performance while maintaining a compact design. The vanilla edition of the card is available for the introductory MSRP of $599.

However, the specific GPU we reviewed, the Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse bundle, costs $40 more. Spidey fans can opt for this GPU, but it offers an identical performance as the vanilla card.

Looking at the prices of the other RX 7000 and RTX 40 series cards in the market, we conclude that the RTX 4070 is good value for money and something we genuinely recommend gamers buy. However, this is only because the other cards are very expensive and not practical for most users at all.