NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 AD103 vs NVIDIA RTX 4000 Ada Generation Comparison

The Verdict

The data indicates two distinctly positioned Ada Lovelace cards. The GeForce RTX 4070 AD103 is a consumer-oriented, end-of-life model with a 50th percentile standing across all GPUs, while the RTX 4000 Ada Generation is an active workstation product sitting at the 95th percentile. The RTX 4000 Ada Generation is the stronger choice for compute-heavy professional workloads, supported by its higher shading unit count, larger memory pool, and recorded benchmark scores. The RTX 4070 AD103, with its higher clock speeds and narrower but faster memory interface, serves scenarios where peak pixel throughput and lower latency matter more than raw capacity. However, the benchmark data available in the database is limited to the workstation card, which skews the evidence toward that product.

Architecture Differences

Both cards use the Ada Lovelace architecture and are fabricated on a 5 nm process at TSMC, but they utilize different dies. The GeForce RTX 4070 AD103 uses the AD103 die, which contains 45,900 million transistors on a 379 mm² area, yielding a transistor density of 121.1M per mm². The RTX 4000 Ada Generation uses the AD104 die, containing 35,800 million transistors on a 294 mm² area, with a slightly higher density of 121.8M per mm². The AD103 die is physically larger, but the AD104 still packs more shading units: 6144 versus 5888. The RTX 4000 Ada also leads in texture mapping units (192 versus 184), ray tracing cores (48 versus 46), and tensor cores (192 versus 184). Both cards share 64 ROPs.

Clock speeds differ significantly. The RTX 4070 AD103 runs at a 1920 MHz base and 2475 MHz boost, while the RTX 4000 Ada operates at 1500 MHz base and 2175 MHz boost. Memory configurations are entirely different: the RTX 4070 AD103 uses 12 GB of GDDR6X on a 192-bit bus with 504.2 GB/s bandwidth, while the RTX 4000 Ada uses 20 GB of GDDR6 on a 160-bit bus with 360.0 GB/s bandwidth. The RTX 4070 AD103 has a higher thermal design power of 200 W and is dual-slot, whereas the RTX 4000 Ada draws 130 W and fits in a single slot. Both use a single 16-pin power connector, but the suggested power supply differs: 550 W for the RTX 4070 AD103 versus 300 W for the RTX 4000 Ada.

Display outputs also separate the two. The RTX 4070 AD103 provides one HDMI 2.1 and three DisplayPort 1.4a outputs. The RTX 4000 Ada provides four DisplayPort 1.4a outputs, with no HDMI. Both support PCIe 4.0 x16, DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

FAQ

Q: Which card has more memory and what type is it?

A: The RTX 4000 Ada Generation has 20 GB of GDDR6 memory, while the GeForce RTX 4070 AD103 has 12 GB of GDDR6X memory. The RTX 4000 Ada's larger capacity comes with a narrower 160-bit bus, whereas the RTX 4070 AD103 uses a 192-bit bus.

Q: How do the recorded benchmark scores compare?

A: The database contains benchmark scores only for the RTX 4000 Ada Generation. It records 146593 in Geekbench OpenCL and 123842 in Geekbench Vulkan, with an average score of 135218 across those tests. No benchmark scores are recorded for the RTX 4070 AD103.

Q: What is the performance percentile of each card?

A: The RTX 4000 Ada Generation sits at the 95th percentile among all GPUs in the database. The GeForce RTX 4070 AD103 is at the 50th percentile. This indicates the workstation card ranks much higher in overall performance distribution.

Q: Which card has a higher boost clock?

A: The GeForce RTX 4070 AD103 has a boost clock of 2475 MHz, which is 300 MHz higher than the RTX 4000 Ada Generation's boost clock of 2175 MHz. The base clocks are 1920 MHz and 1500 MHz, respectively.

Q: What are the power requirements for each card?

A: The RTX 4000 Ada Generation has a 130 W thermal design power and a suggested power supply of 300 W. The RTX 4070 AD103 has a 200 W thermal design power and a suggested power supply of 550 W. Both use a single 16-pin power connector.

Q: What is the production status of each card?

A: The GeForce RTX 4070 AD103 is marked as end-of-life, with a release date of 2024-02-29. The RTX 4000 Ada Generation is marked as active, with a release date of 2023-08-08.

Specification Differences

The cards differ in chip, transistors, die size, clock speeds, memory, shading units, TMUs, RT cores, tensor cores, pixel rate, texture rate, FP32 and FP16 performance, thermal design power, slot width, suggested PSU, display outputs, production status, release date, and launch MSRP.

• Chip: AD103 versus AD104
• Transistors: 45,900 million versus 35,800 million
• Die size: 379 mm² versus 294 mm²
• Base clock: 1920 MHz versus 1500 MHz
• Boost clock: 2475 MHz versus 2175 MHz
• Memory clock: 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective) versus 2250 MHz (18 Gbps effective)
• Memory size: 12 GB versus 20 GB
• Memory type: GDDR6X versus GDDR6
• Bus width: 192 bit versus 160 bit
• Bandwidth: 504.2 GB/s versus 360.0 GB/s
• Shading units: 5888 versus 6144
• TMUs: 184 versus 192
• RT cores: 46 versus 48
• Tensor cores: 184 versus 192
• Pixel rate: 158.4 GPixel/s versus 139.2 GPixel/s
• Texture rate: 455.4 GTexel/s versus 417.6 GTexel/s
• FP32: 29.15 TFLOPS versus 26.73 TFLOPS
• FP16: 29.15 TFLOPS (1:1) versus 26.73 TFLOPS (1:1)
• TDP: 200 W versus 130 W
• Slot width: Dual-slot versus Single-slot
• Suggested PSU: 550 W versus 300 W
• Display outputs: 1x HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a versus 4x DisplayPort 1.4a
• Production status: End-of-life versus Active
• Release date: 2024-02-29 versus 2023-08-08
• Launch MSRP: 599 USD (stated once) versus not recorded

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database records no head-to-head benchmark entries between these two cards. The wins count for both items is zero. However, the RTX 4000 Ada Generation has standalone benchmarks that place it in context. Its average score of 135218 places it within 0% of the NVIDIA A10M (135230), 0.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon PRO W6800 (135396), 0.4% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro W6800X Duo (135774), and 0.9% ahead of the AMD Radeon PRO V620 (136472). These delta percentages are all negative in the recorded data, meaning the RTX 4000 Ada scores slightly lower than each rival, but the differences are within 1%.

The RTX 4070 AD103 has no benchmark scores in the database, so its measured performance cannot be compared directly. Its computed specifications, however, show several advantages. The FP32 throughput is 29.15 TFLOPS, which is 2.42 TFLOPS higher than the RTX 4000 Ada's 26.73 TFLOPS. The pixel rate is 158.4 GPixel/s versus 139.2 GPixel/s, a difference of 19.2 GPixel/s. The texture rate is 455.4 GTexel/s versus 417.6 GTexel/s, a gap of 37.8 GTexel/s. Memory bandwidth is 504.2 GB/s versus 360.0 GB/s, a difference of 144.2 GB/s in favor of the RTX 4070 AD103.

Where Each One Wins

The GeForce RTX 4070 AD103 wins on raw compute throughput and memory bandwidth. Its FP32 and FP16 performance of 29.15 TFLOPS exceeds the RTX 4000 Ada's 26.73 TFLOPS by roughly 9%. Its pixel rate of 158.4 GPixel/s and texture rate of 455.4 GTexel/s are both higher, indicating faster rasterization and texture filtering. The 504.2 GB/s memory bandwidth, driven by GDDR6X on a 192-bit bus, is 40% higher than the RTX 4000 Ada's 360.0 GB/s. These characteristics favor applications that are bandwidth-sensitive or rely on high clock speeds, such as gaming-oriented workloads or real-time rendering with high resolution textures.

The RTX 4000 Ada Generation wins on capacity and efficiency. It offers 20 GB of memory, which is 8 GB more than the RTX 4070 AD103, and it does so with a lower thermal design power of 130 W versus 200 W. Its suggested power supply is 300 W, compared to 550 W for the RTX 4070 AD103. The higher shading unit count (6144 versus 5888), TMU count (192 versus 184), ray tracing core count (48 versus 46), and tensor core count (192 versus 184) suggest better parallel compute scaling. The single-slot form factor and four DisplayPort outputs make it more suitable for multi-display workstation setups. Its recorded benchmark scores place it at the 95th percentile, and its closest rivals in the database are all within 0.9% of its average score, indicating consistent performance among professional-grade cards.

The production status also differentiates the use cases. The RTX 4070 AD103 is end-of-life, meaning ongoing availability is not guaranteed. The RTX 4000 Ada Generation is still active, supporting long-term deployment in professional environments. The RTX 4070 AD103 carries a launch MSRP of 599 USD, while no launch MSRP is recorded for the RTX 4000 Ada. The data supports the RTX 4000 Ada Generation for compute-heavy, memory-intensive professional workloads that benefit from the larger memory pool and active production status, while the RTX 4070 AD103 is positioned for scenarios prioritizing peak clock speeds, memory bandwidth, and rasterization throughput.