Review: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition

Conclusion

Nvidia has had an interesting launch experience with GeForce RTX 30-series GPUs based on the all-new Ampere architecture.

On the one hand, the technology advancements over Turing are sound, construction of the Founders Edition cards is first class, and relative value is surprisingly good given rival AMD has yet to release its next-generation beasts.

On the other, however, a desperate lack of stock and initial instability has forced Nvidia to apologise to its legion of gaming fans. Lessons have been learned, you would think.

Delayed by two weeks, this is precisely why the GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition launch is so important. Nvidia ought to have had the requisite time to iron out issues that have plagued the other two, more powerful GPUs.

Priced at $499/£469, the RTX 3070 FE is deserving of serious attention to any gamer who wants superb performance at QHD and more than a stab at 4K gaming with all the bells and whistles turned to 11.

It's a match for last-gen RTX 2080 Ti FE, which cost over twice as much when released, albeit equipped with extra memory, and offers a solid upgrade from any other 20-series, or older, GPU. The Founders Edition is built beautifully, quiet and cool, and sets an awfully high bar for partners to emulate.

Bottom line: The GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition is a thoroughly decent premium graphics card whose true position in the enthusiast pecking order will only be revealed when rival AMD launches Radeon RX 6000-series in the coming weeks. Interesting times ahead.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition

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The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition card will be available from October 29 at Nvidia.com.

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