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Nvidia have finally lifted the lid on the RTX 3070, and it’s set to be one of the most interesting GPU releases of recent years, offering faster performance than Nvidia’s previous flagship graphics card for a fraction of the cost. It’s the third Nvidia Ampere GPU that’s being released this year, and we finally know how much it’s going to cost and (roughly) when it’s coming out. There’s still a lot we don’t know about the RTX 3070, but I’ve gathered together everything that’s been confirmed about its price, specs and release date right here in one handy location.
I’ll be updating this article on a regular basis as we get closer to the RTX 3070’s launch next month, so be sure to check back often so you can stay up to date on all things RTX 3070. It won’t be long before I can start testing the RTX 3070 myself, too, so we can see exactly whether this RTX 2080 Ti-beating graphics card is really as fast as Nvidia claim. For now, here’s everything you need to know about the RTX 3070.
RTX 3070: What you need to know
What is it? Nvidia’s new mid-range graphics card
When is it coming out? October
How much is it? £469 / $499
The RTX 3070 is launching worldwide this October. Nvidia haven’t announced an exact release date just yet, but I will update this article with a firm date as soon as it’s available. It’s widely expected that both the Nvidia Founders Edition of the RTX 3070 as well as third party versions of the card from manufacturers such as Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, Zotac, Palit and more will be available on the same day, so watch this space for more information. The RTX 3070 will be the third RX 3000 series GPU to launch in Nvidia’s new Ampere family, following the release of the RTX 3080 and RTX 3090, which came out on September 17th and 24th respectively.
RTX 3070 prices will start from £469 in the UK, and $499 in the US. That’s more or less the same launch price as the RTX 2070 Super. Third party versions of the RTX 3070 will likely be more expensive, though, depending on how much they’ve been factory overclocked, but the Nvidia Founders Editions will stay at a fixed £469 / $499.
At time of writing, there hasn’t been much confirmation of how much third party RTX 3070 cards will cost, but in the UK it looks like we can expect them to vary between £449 and £499, according to Overclockers UK’s current pre-order prices. This could change as we get closer to the RTX 3070’s release date, though, especially if retailer stock ends up being as low as industry analysts are currently predicting it to be, but we’ll keep you posted.
Plus, if you buy an RTX 3070 between its eventual release and October 29th, you’ll also get a free copy of Watch Dogs Legion and a year’s subscription to GeForce Now.
The most eye-catching thing about the RTX 3070 is that its specs are meant to offer slightly faster performance than Nvidia’s outgoing RTX 2080 Ti, a graphics card that’s often cost well over £1000 / $1000 ever since it launched back in August 2018. That’s impressive stuff considering the RTX 3070 will set you back only a fraction of that amount (and also goes to show just how grossly overpriced the entire RTX 20-series was in retrospect), and you can see where that extra power is coming from by taking a closer look at its specs.
RTX 3070 specs
CUDA Cores: 5888
Base / Boost Clock: 1.5GHz / 1.73GHz
VRAM: 8GB GDDR6
Memory Interface Width: 256-bit
Power: 220W
Recommended System Power: 650W
Nvidia haven’t released all of the RTX 3070’s specs just yet, such as memory speed or memory bandwidth, but I’ve listed the key specs they have announced above. It has over 1000 more CUDA cores than the RTX 2080 Ti, as well as a faster base and boost clock speed. It still only uses GDDR6 memory, however, rather than the faster GDDR6X variety found on the RTX 3080 and RTX 3090.
Still, while its memory may not be quite as fast as the rest of its RTX 3000 series siblings, the RTX 3070 still comes with 2nd Gen ray tracing cores and 3rd Gen Tensor cores for improved ray tracing and DLSS performance. Nvidia claim this will make the RTX 3000 series twice as fast as their previous generation RTX cards on this front – although so far, they’ve only released figures with combined ray tracing and DLSS performance rather than just raw ray tracing speeds. As a result, it’s probably best to take this figure with a pinch of salt until I’ve had a chance to test them properly.
This graph shows how Ampere’s ray tracing performance compares to Turing as a whole, but the figures aren’t particularly useful.
Still, while its relative ray tracing performance may be a bit up in the air, you can see from this graph below where the RTX 3070 sits in comparison to the rest of Nvidia’s RTX 3000 family, as well as their RTX 20 series of GPUs, and even some of Nvidia’s older GTX 10-series and 900 series graphics cards.
Thankfully, Nvidia’s recommended system power spec is still 650W for the RTX 3070, which is the same as the RTX 2070 and RTX 2070 Super. As a result, you shouldn’t need to change your PSU if you’re planning to upgrade from the previous generation. The Founders Edition of the RTX 3070 will, however, make use of Nvidia’s new 12-pin power connector (pictured above), but the good news is that an adapter for this will be included in the box. Third party RTX 3070 cards, on the other hand, will simply require a regular 2x 8-pin power connector.
Nvidia’s new 12-pin power connector.
Those are the headline facts for the RTX 3070, and I’ll be updating this article with more information as it becomes available. In the meantime, you can read all about our favourite GPUs in our roundup of the best graphics cards, what games currently support ray tracing and DLSS, as well as find all the best current graphics card prices in our regularly updated graphics card deals hub.