Just marketing mind games. The numbers mean nothing, really, except what nvidia wants them to mean.
The marketing department figured out the "70" number was really valuable and had already launched the "90" number, so now it's time to milk it. Think of the shareholder value.
The problem is that the 4070 is using the third largest due this generation when normally it uses the second largest die. Most people wouldn't notice since it's still the 104 die, but this time the xx80 GPU is using AD-103 and historically the xx70 GPU is just a more cut down version of that same die.
In any previous generation this would have been an xx60 card. Over time the xx70 branding has really slid down the stack. If you go back far enough the xx70 cards were the second best NVidia card you could buy, but now it's been shoved so far down the stack that it's about as close to the bottom as it is to the top.
Yep, when the top dog is now a 90-class card when it used to be an 80-class card, the 70-class card is basically what used to be a 60-class card. A 60-class die should be roughly middle of the pack for affordable and accessible prices for most people. $600 is not exactly affordable and accessible to most.
The worst part is that while it matches a RTX 3080 in raster, the only leg Nvidia can use to prop up it's high price tag is software, chiefly DLSS 3. The increase from 10 GB to 12 GB is not worth much when we really should be getting 16 GB at the $600 price point.
However, I think we all know the truth that if Nvidia offered the following, it would crush their potential future sales because such a card would satisfy the vast majority of their userbase for many years.
- RTX 3080 Ti performance (solid for 1440p gaming)
- DLSS 3
- 16 GB VRAM
- $499 MSRP (I'd actually be okay with $599 if the above were at least true)
A true 70-class card should have been the above, where it almost matches the previous flagship for ~$500.
Historically, we've had the following:
GTX 1070 8GB = GTX Titan X 12 GB for ~$400
RTX 2070 Super 8 GB = RTX 1080 Ti 11 GB for $499
RTX 3080 8 GB = RTX 2080 Ti 11 GB for $499
And now?
RTX 4070 12 GB = RTX 3080 10 GB for $599.
I think it's especially telling that they've restricted their 16 GB cards to the overly priced $1200 RTX 4080, which gives them PLENTY of possibilities for planned obsolescence down the road. There's literally no Ada offering with 16 GB until you cross the $1000 mark.
It would be super obvious to me when Nvidia launches Blackwell that we get a 16 GB card at $700 in the form of the RTX 5070 that matches the RTX 4080 in performance, and then we'll hear JHH say the line: