NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Review: Breakout Performance At $499


NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070: DirectX And Vulkan Gaming Benchmarks

Crytek’s Neon Noir demo was created with an advanced version of CRYENGINE’s Total Illumination technology, which will be used in the upcoming Crysis Remastered to enhance the game’s visuals. Neon Noir was developed on a customized version of CRYENGINE 5.5., and is both API and hardware agnostic. It enables ray tracing to run on virtually any modern GPU, however, future integration of the technology will be optimized for the latest GPUs and APIs like Vulkan and DX12...

Crytek Neon Noir
API Agnostic Ray Tracing Test
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Crytek Neon Noir

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We should note that Neon Noir is using a proprietary ray tracing method, that does not require a GeForce RTX to function -- hence the Radeon results in the charts above. Even with its different ray tracing scheme though, this tests is in-line with Port Royal and shows the GeForce RTX 3070 FE finishing just a touch behind the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti.

Metro Exodus
With And Without RTX / DLSS
Metro Exodus is based on author Dmitry Glukhovsky's series of Metro novels that started with Metro 2033 back in 2005. The first installment in the series was Metro 2033, which was then followed by Metro Last Light (and later, Last Light Redux). Like other games in the series, Metro Exodus follows a post-apocalyptic story line that takes place in the former Russian Federation. The game features advanced graphics and visuals and also supports NVIDIA’s RTX and DLSS technologies.

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Metro Exodus
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GeForce RTX 3070 @4K Ultra Details

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Using the Ultra quality preset, we once again see the GeForce RTX 3070 FE every so slightly trailing the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti -- it is in the same ballpark, though.

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GeForce RTX 3070 @4K RTX + DLSS Details

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We also tested Metro Exodus with RTX and DLSS enabled, and through the frame rates (and image quality) change, the performance trend remains the same, with the GeForce RTX 3070 FE landing just behind the RTX 2080 Ti by an even smaller percentage.

Red Dead Redemption 2
DirectX Gaming Blockbuster
Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2 is the third entry in the Red Dead series. The game’s storyline is set in 1899 and follows outlaw Arthur Morgan of the Van der Linde gang in a fictional wild-west type setting. The game features rich, detailed graphics, which can be taxing on high-performance GPUs, when cranked up to maximum image quality.
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Red Dead Redemption 2

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Red Dead Redemption 2 tells essentially the same story as Metro Exodus. Here, the GeForce RTX 3070 FE puts up good numbers and breaks the 50 FPS mark at 4K, but it can't quite keep up with the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti. Again, it's close though.

Gears Tactics
DirectX Tactical Shooter
Gears Tactics is a turn-based tactical game spun-off of the popular Gears of War franchise. Technically, Gears Tactics is a prequel to the first game, but it was just recently released. Like Gears 5, Gears Tactics features a wide array of graphics options that can be tweaked and tuned to optimize performance on a given system.

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Gears Tactics
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GeForce RTX 3070 Gears Tactics @ 4K Details

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Gear Tactics was CPU limited at 1440P, and had the GeForce RTX 3070 FE taking the lead at the lower resolution. Once a heavier load is placed on the GPU, however, the GeForce RTX 3070 FE once again finishes a hair behind the RTX 2080 Ti.

Far Cry New Dawn
The Dunia Engine Lives On

Next up, we’ve got some benchmark scores from Far Cry New Dawn, the latest installment in the storied franchise. Like its predecessors, Far Cry New Dawn is a fast-action shooter set in an open world environment with lush visuals and high graphics fidelity. The game takes place in a fictional county in Montana, where a cult has taken over control of the area. We tested all of the graphics cards here at multiple resolutions using Ultra Quality settings to see how they handled this recently-released AAA title.

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FarCry New Dawn

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GeForce RTX 3070 FarCry New Dawn @ 4K Details

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Like Gears Tactics, Far Cry New Dawn was somewhat CPU limited as well at 1440P, with on 10 FPS separating the "fastest" and "slowest" cards. The 4K results are more indicative of the GPUs' capabilities, and follow the trend we've seen throughout this article, with the GeForce RTX 3070 FE slotting in just behind the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti by a few percentage points.

Wolfenstein: Youngblood
Vulkan Game Benchmarks
Wolfenstein: Youngblood lets gamers play as one of the Blazkowicz twins — Jess or Soph. The storyline follows the twins as they try to track down their Dad, BJ, in Paris during the '80s. The game has dark visuals and is one of the few titles on the PC currently to use the Vulkan API.

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Wolfenstein: Youngblood

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Wolfenstein: Youngblood loves the monstrous memory bandwidth offered up by cards like the GeForce RTX 3080 and RTX 2080 Ti and has those cards (along with the Titan RTX) finishing well out in front. The GeForce RTX 3070 FE does still land just behind the RTX 2080 Ti, but the delta separating the cards is a bit larger than we've seen in most other games.

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We've got one more data point to share as well. While we had Wolfenstein: Youngblood running, which offers relatively high framerates across all of the GPUs we tested, we used the LCAT device, that's part of the new NVIDIA Reviewer Toolkit, to capture some end-to-end latency characteristics. Note, this is NOT an NVIDIA Reflex-enabled game, so there are no specific latency optimizations at play here. Framerates correlate to end-to-end latency, so all other things being equal, the fastest cards should offer the best latency characteristics. And that is essentially what we see.

The numbers represented here are an average of 50 samples and, once again, the GeForce RTX 3070 FE lands just behind the RTX 2080 Ti. Don't read too much into this one, though. We're presenting the data as an interesting aside because we captured it, but we're still experimenting and learning how to best incorporate LDAT into our future reviews. We've got some more data using NVIDIA Reflex technology right here if you'd like to check that out as well.

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