NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Mobile vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded benchmark data shows a clear overall victory for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile, which takes 7 of the 9 head-to-head comparisons. The most decisive win for the newer card comes in the Passmark DirectX 11 test, where it scores 179 against the RTX 3070 Ti Mobile's 153, a 17% advantage. This is closely followed by a 16.4% lead in DirectX 12 (85 versus 73) and a 13.8% margin in DirectX 9 (223 versus 196). These three results indicate that across legacy and modern DirectX APIs, the Ada Lovelace architecture consistently delivers higher frame throughput.

In synthetic compute workloads, the RTX 4070 Mobile also holds a solid edge. The Geekbench Vulkan test shows a score of 108367 versus 100027, an 8.3% lead, while the OpenCL test is closer at 109197 versus 106022, a 3% difference. The Passmark GPU Compute benchmark further reinforces this, with the RTX 4070 Mobile scoring 8399 compared to 7504, an 11.9% advantage. The overall 3D graphics score, Passmark G3D, lands at 19587 for the RTX 4070 Mobile versus 17727 for the RTX 3070 Ti Mobile, a 10.5% win.

The RTX 3070 Ti Mobile does manage to secure two victories, though they are narrow. In Passmark DirectX 10, it scores 124 against 116, a 6.5% margin. In the 2D graphics test, Passmark G2D, it wins 783 versus 763, a 2.6% difference. These wins suggest the older Ampere card retains an advantage in certain legacy or 2D-centric workloads, but they do not offset the broader performance gap seen elsewhere.

Looking at the average benchmark scores, the RTX 4070 Mobile posts an average of 27435, which places it in the 73rd percentile of all GPUs. The RTX 3070 Ti Mobile averages 23518, sitting in the 69th percentile. The database's nearest rival data further contextualizes these figures: the RTX 4070 Mobile's average score is essentially tied with the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT (27425, 0% delta) and sits within 1.5% of the NVIDIA RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell (27135, 1.1% delta). The RTX 3070 Ti Mobile, meanwhile, is nearly identical to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile (23628, -0.5% delta) and the AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700 (23315, 0.9% delta). This places the RTX 4070 Mobile in a higher performance tier overall, roughly 16.6% above the RTX 3070 Ti Mobile based on average scores.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU wins more benchmark tests?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile wins 7 out of 9 head-to-head tests, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Mobile wins only 2.

Q: Is the RTX 4070 Mobile faster in Vulkan or OpenCL?

A: The RTX 4070 Mobile is faster in both. It leads by 8.3% in Geekbench Vulkan (108367 versus 100027) and by 3% in Geekbench OpenCL (109197 versus 106022).

Q: Where does the RTX 3070 Ti Mobile outperform the RTX 4070 Mobile?

A: The RTX 3070 Ti Mobile wins in Passmark DirectX 10 (124 versus 116, a 6.5% lead) and in Passmark G2D (783 versus 763, a 2.6% lead).

Q: How do these cards compare to their closest rivals in the database?

A: The RTX 4070 Mobile's average score of 27435 is within 1.5% of the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090, NVIDIA RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell, and AMD Radeon Pro Vega 20. The RTX 3070 Ti Mobile's average of 23518 is within 1% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile, AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700, NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Z, and AMD Radeon R9 M290X.

Q: What is the percentile ranking for each GPU?

A: The RTX 4070 Mobile ranks in the 73rd percentile of all GPUs, while the RTX 3070 Ti Mobile ranks in the 69th percentile.

Q: Which card has a higher Passmark G3D score?

A: The RTX 4070 Mobile scores 19587 in Passmark G3D, which is 10.5% higher than the RTX 3070 Ti Mobile's 17727.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs are built on fundamentally different architectures and manufacturing processes. The RTX 4070 Mobile uses the AD106 chip based on Ada Lovelace architecture, fabricated by TSMC on a 5 nm process. The RTX 3070 Ti Mobile uses the GA104 chip based on Ampere architecture, fabricated by Samsung on an 8 nm process. This node difference is significant: the Ada Lovelace chip packs 22,900 million transistors into a die size of 188 mm², yielding a transistor density of 121.8 million transistors per square millimeter. The Ampere chip, by contrast, contains 17,400 million transistors on a much larger 392 mm² die, with a density of just 44.4 million transistors per square millimeter. The data indicates that Ada Lovelace achieves nearly three times the transistor density.

In terms of compute resources, the RTX 3070 Ti Mobile actually has more shading units, texture mapping units, and render output units. It features 5888 shading units, 184 TMUs, and 96 ROPs, while the RTX 4070 Mobile has 4608 shading units, 144 TMUs, and 48 ROPs. The older card also has more ray tracing cores (46 versus 36) and more tensor cores (184 versus 144). Despite this larger configuration, the RTX 4070 Mobile still manages to win most benchmarks, indicating that the architectural efficiency of Ada Lovelace compensates for the lower raw unit count.

Both cards support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, so API-level feature support is identical. The production status differs: the RTX 4070 Mobile is marked as Active, while the RTX 3070 Ti Mobile is End-of-life. The RTX 4070 Mobile's predecessor is the GeForce 30 Mobile series, and its successor is the GeForce 50 Mobile series, whereas the RTX 3070 Ti Mobile's predecessor is the GeForce 20 Mobile series with no listed successor.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ across nearly every core specification. The RTX 4070 Mobile has a base clock of 1395 MHz and a boost clock of 1695 MHz, while the RTX 3070 Ti Mobile runs at 915 MHz base and 1410 MHz boost. Memory speed also differs: the RTX 4070 Mobile uses 2000 MHz memory with 16 Gbps effective speed, while the RTX 3070 Ti Mobile uses 1750 MHz memory with 14 Gbps effective speed.

Memory configuration shows a trade-off. Both cards have 8 GB of GDDR6 memory, but the RTX 3070 Ti Mobile uses a 256-bit bus with a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s, while the RTX 4070 Mobile uses a 128-bit bus with a bandwidth of 256.0 GB/s. The older card therefore has 75% more memory bandwidth, yet it still loses in most compute tests, suggesting that the RTX 4070 Mobile's architecture is more bandwidth-efficient.

Other differences include the bus interface: the RTX 4070 Mobile uses PCIe 4.0 x8, while the RTX 3070 Ti Mobile uses PCIe 4.0 x16. The RTX 4070 Mobile has a TDP of 115 W and is listed as an IGP (integrated graphics processor) with no power connectors, while the RTX 3070 Ti Mobile also has a 115 W TDP and no power connectors, but its slot width is not listed. Both have display outputs described as "Portable Device Dependent."

In terms of performance metrics, the RTX 3070 Ti Mobile actually has higher peak rates: its pixel rate is 135.4 GPixel/s versus 81.36 GPixel/s for the RTX 4070 Mobile, and its texture rate is 259.4 GTexel/s versus 244.1 GTexel/s. The RTX 3070 Ti Mobile also has slightly higher FP32 and FP16 compute at 16.60 TFLOPS each, compared to 15.62 TFLOPS for the RTX 4070 Mobile. The release dates are close, with the RTX 4070 Mobile launching on 2023-01-02 and the RTX 3070 Ti Mobile on 2022-01-03.

The Verdict

Based strictly on the recorded data, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile is the stronger performer in the majority of workloads. It wins 7 of 9 head-to-head tests, including all major 3D graphics and compute benchmarks, and holds a higher average benchmark score (27435 versus 23518) and higher percentile ranking (73rd versus 69th). Its wins in DirectX 11, DirectX 12, Vulkan, and GPU compute make it the better choice for modern gaming and general compute tasks.

However, the RTX 3070 Ti Mobile is not without merit. It wins in DirectX 10 and 2D graphics, and it has significantly higher memory bandwidth (448.0 GB/s versus 256.0 GB/s), more shading units, more ROPs, and higher pixel and texture rates. For users who prioritize legacy DirectX 10 performance or memory-bandwidth-heavy tasks, this card retains a specific advantage.

The production status is a decisive factor: the RTX 4070 Mobile is Active, while the RTX 3070 Ti Mobile is End-of-life. This means the newer card is the only one currently in production, which matters for system builders looking to source new components. The RTX 4070 Mobile also achieves its performance on a smaller, denser, and more power-constrained design, suggesting better architectural efficiency per transistor.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 4070 Mobile is the clear winner for modern gaming and general-purpose compute. Its DirectX 11 and DirectX 12 scores (17% and 16.4% ahead, respectively) indicate strong performance in contemporary game engines. Its 11.9% lead in GPU compute and 10.5% lead in G3D make it suitable for rendering, machine learning inference, and other compute-heavy tasks. The Vulkan advantage of 8.3% also points to solid performance in Vulkan-based titles and applications.

The RTX 3070 Ti Mobile wins in two specific areas. Its DirectX 10 lead of 6.5% (124 versus 116) makes it the better option for older games or applications that rely on that API. Its 2.6% lead in Passmark G2D (783 versus 763) indicates a slight edge in 2D desktop workloads, though the margin is small. Additionally, its 448.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 256-bit bus could be beneficial in scenarios that are heavily bandwidth-bound, even though the benchmark data does not show a decisive compute win in such tasks.

In summary, the RTX 4070 Mobile is the better all-round GPU for current and future workloads, while the RTX 3070 Ti Mobile retains niche advantages in legacy API performance and raw memory throughput.