The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 is here at long last, going on sale on April 13, 2023, for a US MSRP of $599 (about £500 / 870), and midrange gamers finally have a graphics card that they might actually be able to afford — if they can find one to buy.
Naturally, demand for what is arguably the best graphics card for most gamers out there is through the roof, and while we haven't seen the kind of awful bot swarms buying up stock within seconds as we did back in 2020, there are still plenty of shopping carts that are going empty right now.
To help you find a new RTX 4070, we're trawling the entire internet looking for stock wherever we can find it (though we'll be skipping eBay and other reseller sites, because eff those folks). As we turn up new stock over the next few hours and over the next few days, we're going to bring what we find right here so you can jump on it ASAP.
We know how hard it's been to find a new graphics card over the past few years. We've covered the GPU stock crisis extensively — and infuriated more than a few crypto bros in the process with some of our hot takes — and so we've never been more excited to help you finally get the GPU upgrade you've been waiting for. We promise, it's totally worth it.
- Did we help you find an Nvidia RTX 4070? Let us know by tagging @techradar on Twitter!
The Nvidia RTX 4070 is opening today, and I'm winding up to spend my day trawling through retailer sites across the US and the UK - all for you, our lovely readers, so you can (hopefully!) snag what might just be my favorite RTX 4000 card Nvidia has made so far.
I'm Christian Guyton, TechRadar's UK Computing Editor, coming to you from sunny (but not for long, apparently) Bath, England - and I'm pumped for this launch. While we've seen some great GPUs launched in the past few months, from the mighty flagship RTX 4090 to the, uh, less impressive RTX 4080, they've all been a bit pricey for my liking.
Not so with the RTX 4070, though! Nvidia's latest Lovelace GPU comes in at $599 / £599, bringing Nvidia's next-gen graphics architecture to the masses at last. We're talking 4K gaming at 60+fps with DLSS 3, a big generational improvement in ray-traced games, and less power-guzzling tendencies than the more expensive cards.
Sure, it's a hundred bucks more expensive than its predecessor, the awesome RTX 3070, but the performance leap justifies the price and it's still the most affordable next-gen GPU you can buy right now - at least, until AMD finally releases more Radeon RX 7000 cards, though who knows when that'll be.
We know this is the GPU gamers will really want to buy - after all, the RTX 3070 and 3060 are both in the top 5 most-used cards among PC gamers, according to the Steam Hardware Survey - so we'll be here as soon as the RTX 4070 launches to help you track one down and secure yourself one of the best graphics cards around.
If you're here because you want a new GPU but you're not quite sure which one is the best pick for you, don't worry: we're good for more than just tracking retailer stock. The RTX 4070 Ti is also a very strong choice within Nvidia's next generation of GPUs - it costs a bit more, but it's naturally got more power behind it.
As such, we've got a detailed breakdown pitting the 4070 Ti against the 4070, to help you decide whether it's really worth springing for the more expensive card. If you've potentially got even more cash to play around with, we've also got the 4070 vs the 4080 for your consideration too!
If you're on a tighter budget and have been considering picking up one of Nvidia's still-excellent last-gen RTX 3000 graphics cards, we've got you covered there too: check out our 4070 vs 3070 and 4070 vs 3080 pieces! The results might surprise you...
And of course, if you're looking longingly at the RTX 4070 but have to admit that you're strapped for cash (don't worry, I'm in the same budget boat right now), you might want to have a gander at the best cheap graphics cards - or our rolling list of the best GPU deals, updated regularly for your purchasing convenience.
If you're an AMD fan who has stumbled in here out of curiosity or accident, you can take a look at our list of the best AMD graphics cards - but don't expect to find anything rivaling the RTX 4070 on there.
As we noted in our AMD vs Nvidia GPU breakdown, AMD is severely lagging behind Nvidia when it comes to keeping up next-gen release cadence; all we've had from Team Red so far is the (admittedly pretty solid) flagship Radeon RX 7900 XTX and its slightly cheaper little brother, the RX 7900 XT.
We really hope AMD does put out something to counter Nvidia in the mid-range to budget space soon, like the rumored RX 7800 XT - because right now, Team Green has far more to offer. But if you're looking for a super-cheap 1080p GPU, the Radeon RX 6600 is still a great shout.
Still uncertain about which GPU is best for you? If the RTX 4070's $599 / £599 price tag is still too cheap, you might want to consider the kick-ass RTX 3060 Ti - or perhaps you'll be better off waiting until big dog Nvidia reveals the hotly-anticipated RTX 4060.
We've seen mixed reports and rumors surrounding Nvidia's budget Lovelace cards; some leaks have suggested lackluster specs, while others offer the good news that cheaper RTX 4000 GPUs could be with us sooner than expected.
Either way, it's bad news for AMD, which sorely needs to pull its finger out and get new Radeon cards on the market. Come on, guys, Nvidia is thrashing you here!
If you're wondering about picking up an RTX 4070 but want to know more about the technology powering it, check out this article about the updated Nvidia Deep Learning Super Sampling feature.
In short, DLSS 3 (the latest version of the tech, found in RTX 4000 cards) represents a huge step up from DLSS 2.0 - that's all thanks to the revolutionary new 'Frame Insertion' capabilities, which use AI to generate entire frames in real-time, boosting your framerate while DLSS renders the game at a lower resolution then upscales it instantly to your display resolution.
The RTX 4070 is perhaps the best card yet to make use of DLSS 3, since it's most effective at upscaling to 4K on less powerful cards. The third generation of the upscaling tech is phenomenal - so good, in fact, that with the RTX 4090 it let us play Cyberpunk 2077 at 8K, with Ultra graphics and ray tracing on. That's seriously impressive.
Anyone well-versed in the previous debacles that have surrounded GPU launches over the past few years will no doubt be aware that the RTX 4070 is likely to sell out fast.
That means get your F5-hitting finger ready, because we're now less than two hours out from the official on-sale time of release time of 2PM BST (9AM EDT / 6AM PDT). If you don't manage to snag one in the very first wave, though, don't panic - we'll keep tracking restocks at various retailers right here on this page over the next few days, so you can be assured you'll find yourself an shiny new graphics card.
We're less than an hour out, folks! Just a quick heads up for anyone who isn't aware: the Nvidia website doesn't actually sell cards directly, it links out to third-party retailers. You can use the quick links up above to jump straight to purchasing a card on an online retailer - and once the floodgates open, those seconds will matter!
T-minus 30 minutes, people! Action stations! Yes, we're all prepped and ready to track those stocks: expect all the major retailers to drop the RTX 4070 at bang on 2PM BST / 9AM EDT / 6AM PDT, although there may be some stragglers who don't update their online stores immediately. Get ready to smash that refresh button!
What build will you be pairing your RTX 4070 with? Are you planning on building a whole new gaming PC, or is this an upgrade for a trusty old GPU past its prime? Let us know on Twitter at @techradar!
