13 specifications

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8GB

On paper, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 has more shading units, and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 has a wider memory bus. Shading-unit counts are not directly comparable across different architectures, so read that row as context rather than a verdict. Specifications describe what each card is designed to do; how much of that either one holds under continuous load is a separate question.

10 specifications · 4 with a higher side

Full specifications

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070

NVIDIA · GeForce RTX 30 · Desktop

Full specifications

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8GB

NVIDIA · GeForce RTX 40 · Desktop

Compute

Architecture

Ampere

Ada Lovelace

Shading units

5,888

4,352

Base clock

1500 MHz

2310 MHz

Boost clock

1730 MHz

2540 MHz

Memory

8 GB

Memory type

GDDR6

Memory bus

256-bit

128-bit

Power and platform

TDP

220 W

160 W

Process

Not verified

Launched

2020-10-29

2023-05-24

A check marks the higher figure only on rows where higher is unambiguously better. Rows without one are not ties; they are specifications where “better” has no meaning.

Reading the table

What the difference means.

3 years apart

The RTX 4060 Ti 8GB (Ada Lovelace, 2023) is 3 years newer than the RTX 3070 (Ampere, 2020). A newer architecture brings more than speed: newer video encoders and decoders, newer upscaling and frame generation, and a longer run of driver updates ahead of it.

Video memory

Both carry 8 GB, so neither has the advantage where memory is the limit: high resolutions, heavy textures and local AI models fill both at the same point.

Memory bus

The RTX 3070 moves data over a 256-bit bus of GDDR6; the RTX 4060 Ti 8GB uses 128-bit GDDR6. The bus width and the memory type together set how fast the chip can reach its own memory, which shows at high resolutions where every frame moves more data. A narrow bus with fast memory can match a wide one with slow memory, so neither figure settles it alone.

Shading units

The counts differ, 5,888 against 4,352, but these are different designs, and a shading unit on one is not the same amount of work as on the other. The row cannot be used to rank this pair.

Board power

The RTX 3070 draws up to 220 W against 160 W. That is heat the case has to exhaust and current the power supply has to deliver: allow a supply of about 650 W for the RTX 3070 with a typical processor, and check the card's power connectors against the supply's. A card that cannot shed its heat does not fail. It lowers its clocks after a few minutes, which is the frame rate that falls the longer you play.

Which to pick, on paper

A small case or a modest power supply: RTX 4060 Ti 8GB; 160 W against 220 W: less heat, fewer power connectors, quieter fans.

What no table says

How much of its speed a graphics card keeps after the first minute depends on the cooling and the power limit of the machine it is in. If you own one of these, measure it: the test is free and runs in this browser.

Free GPU stress test

Questions

Is the RTX 3070 better than the RTX 4060 Ti 8GB?: By need, on the specifications: a small case or a modest power supply: the RTX 4060 Ti 8GB. They are different designs, so the raw counts cannot rank them. Frame rates depend on the game and its settings, and how much speed either card keeps after ten minutes depends on its cooling, which is what a sustained test measures.
What power supply does the RTX 3070 need?: Allow about 650 W with a typical processor, and make sure the supply has the power connectors the card uses. The RTX 4060 Ti 8GB at 160 W is easier on both.

More comparisons

Every figure on this table is a design target. None of it is a measurement.

Nothing above describes how a graphics card behaves twenty minutes into a sustained workload, which is where two chips with nearly identical specifications routinely diverge. A boost clock is a ceiling the vendor permits, not a rate the chip sustains, and whether it holds depends on the cooling, the case, the power profile and the room. None of those appear on a specification sheet.

We deliberately do not reduce these figures to a single score. A composite invented from specifications would look authoritative and measure nothing, and choosing the weights would be choosing the winner.

Run the test on your machine How we measure →