Top-end GIGABYTE RTX 4070 Super GPU looks tempting - it's very nearly as fast as an RTX 4070 Ti

NVIDIA's RTX 4070 Super is on sale and reviews of different models are everywhere (we've got a write-up of the Founders Edition and a third-party INNO3D version of this graphics card too).

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The AORUS GeForce RTX 4070 Super MASTER (Image Credit: GIGABYTE)

TechPowerUp turned up an interesting finding, though (hat tip to VideoCardz), namely that there are two RTX 4070 Super models that sport a TDP of 245W at stock - GIGABYTE's AORUS Master and Palit's Jetstream cards.

The Founders Edition is pitched at 220W (up from 200W with the RTX 4070), and the max power usage cap for NVIDIA's own variant is 240W, so by default, these third-party boards are slightly exceeding that.

And with the beefy cooling system on the GIGABYTE AORUS, this graphics card can actually be cranked up to 350W (with extreme overclocking, and very much diminishing returns, mind).

At any rate, when running at its stock 245W with a boost up to 2655MHz (compared to the Founders Edition at 2475MHz), the top-end GIGABYTE RTX 4070 Super is a mere 2% or so behind an RTX 4070 Ti (and 4% quicker than the FE) at 1080p resolution.

Basically, this top dog GIGABYTE AORUS spin on the new 4070 Super is very nearly the equivalent of an RTX 4070 Ti. Indeed, with our review of the INNO3D RTX 4070 Super (TWIN X2), we found that was only about 4.5% shy of an RTX 4070 Ti (MSI Gaming X Trio model).

Weighing up the cost

Naturally, you'll pay more than the MSRP for a high-end board like the GIGABYTE AORUS with seriously impressive cooling. It costs $699 at Newegg, $100 more than the MSRP of the 4070 Super, but there's a twist here in that the RTX 4070 Ti is now falling in price. Indeed, you can get an RTX 4070 Ti for $725 at Newegg (at the time of writing, though only one MSI model is that low in price - remember the MSRP is $799).

That still makes GIGABYTE's AORUS Master just a touch better in terms of the overall value proposition, mind, so this is a tempting little card (or not so little, rather). However, the RTX 4070 Ti may yet fall further in pricing as NVIDIA and its partners look to clear stock (ahead of the launch of the RTX 4070 Ti Super which replaces it).

NVIDIA's RTX 4070 Super Ti emerges in a week, on January 24, and it'll be followed by the RTX 4080 Super on January 31. Both of these models are rumored to potentially struggle more in terms of stock levels, with NVIDIA purportedly favoring the RTX 4070 Super in its production allocation.

How much there is to that rumor, we shall see, but it does make sense in that the RTX 4070 Super is the most affordable new refresh, so likely to sell more purely on that basis (particularly given the very positive critical reception). It also doesn't replace an existing model, so no stock clearance is necessary either (the RTX 4070 is staying on sale, cut down to a $549 recommended price tag, but likely to pitch a fair bit lower we'd wager).