ZOTAC is selling its GeForce RTX 4070 with GDDR6 for $10 less than the GDDR6X variant

Recently, NVIDIA quietly announced that it was changing the design of the popular GeForce RTX 4070 graphics cards, switching from GDDR6X memory to the more readily available GDDR6 memory. The change was made due to a GDDR6X shortage, with NVIDIA noting that the update or revision would deliver 'similar performance' to the existing GDDR6X models.

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Without a price change, there has been some backlash to the decision - according to vocal community members, NVIDIA should have announced a price drop for what is perceived as a weaker card being manufactured with more affordable components.

With GeForce RTX 4070 cards with the revised GDDR6 memory making their way to retail shelves from various NIVIDA partners, there is one model that features a price point lower than its GDDR6X counterpart. The ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 4070 Twin Edge, which is currently available for $10 less than the GDDR6X version at US retailer Newegg for $549.99 instead of $559.99.

This is a non-OC model so it sports the same baseline specs and speeds as the reference Founders Edition model from NVIDIA. So then, what difference does the switch to GDDR6 make? Well, smaller memory bandwidth.

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Early reviews and hands-on with the new GDDR6 model, so performance to be roughly on par - with most benchmarks only 1-2% slower (some out there are showing up to 4% in some games) than the GDDR6X model. A negligible difference that is within the margin of error, but still a technically slower or less performant version of the GPU.

And for several PC gamers out there, this is enough of a difference to sour their opinion of the switch. As opposed to $10, it would have been nice to see an official 10% price drop for the new GDDR6 variants - a move that would have made the RTX 4070 even more attractive to potential buyers.