Nvidia’s new RTX 3070 and RTX 3060 Ti GPUs may still be impossible to get now, but if you’ve recently thought about upgrading your graphics card and aren’t sure which one to choose when it’s back in stock, then you are in the right place. To help you decide which graphics card is right for you, we’ve made some handy graphics to show you exactly how it stacks up in all the biggest and best PC games today at 1080p, 1440p and 4K .
To test the RTX 3070 and RTX 3060 Ti, I paired them with an Intel Core i5-10600K processor and 16 GB of Corsair Vengeance RAM and put them together in my suite of graphics, taking an average rate of frames from have built-in reference tools or from their own repeatable manual game tests. The games include a mix of blockbusters from the last few years: Shadow Of The Tomb Raider, Total War: Three Kingdoms, Final Fantasy XV, Monster Hunter: World, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, The Witcher 3, Metro Exodus and Cyberpunk 2077.
For this particular chapter, we used the Nvidia Founders edition of RTX 3060 Ti and GeForce RTX 3070 Twin Edge from Zotac. These were the cards I used for my respective GPU reviews and I ran both cards at the default clock speed as they entered the box. Therefore, they should be fairly representative of what their respective book categories are capable of. I should also note that these figures are based on their gross performance in each of these games, with all tracking options and DLSS options turned off. Here’s how they did it.
Nvidia RTX 3070 vs 3060 Ti: 1080p standards
Starting with theirs 1920 × 1080 performance, you can immediately see that both of these cards are more than capable of playing games with the maximum settings at this resolution, reaching at least 70 fps (or around) in the most demanding PC games of 2020, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Cyberpunk 2077, and well in excess of 100 fps in the big games of 2018 and 2019.
In many cases, the RTX 3070 offers a 10-20 fps improvement over the RTX 3060 Ti, although there are a few cases where this gap is much narrower. In Final Fantasy XV, for example, both books managed an identical average of 103 fps, with all additional Nvidia settings disabled at this resolution. I have to mention that RTX 3070 regained its 10 fps advantage once I started all those effects mentioned above, on average 82 fps compared to 73 fps of RTX 3060 Ti, but when it comes to the highest default game settings, both are much a lot. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is also very close, averaging just 3 fps between each card.
Of course, this is probably due to my choice of processor rather than a problem with the performance of the RTX 3070 itself. While the Intel Core i5-10600K is quite powerful compared to previous generations of Intel i5 Core chips, the 1920 × 1080 is still a resolution in which your processor can make a surprising difference from your overall computer performance. Due to the large amount of power available in today’s RTX cards, games are much more likely to be tied to your processor’s limitations at this resolution than the GPU. As such, you would probably see better results from the RTX 3070 here with a faster processor.
Also, if you do not have a monitor with a high refresh rate, any difference between these two books will be completely lost anyway. Moreover, I’m not sure I could even tell the difference between 100 fps and 110 fps without the help of a frame counter, for example, so those who play games at 1080p would be better off staying with RTX 3060 Ti in place to spend extra on RTX 3070.
Nvidia RTX 3070 vs 3060 Ti: 1440p benchmarks
Indeed, it is only when we move on 2560 × 1440 that the RTX 3070 is starting to make a clearer case for itself. Again, both cards are more than capable of playing games with the maximum settings at this resolution, and in most cases, the RTX 3070 is in front with a similar 10 fps cable on the RTX 3060 Ti.
There are a few more cases where the gap is narrowing, primarily in more recent games such as Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Cyberpunk 2077, but elsewhere, the advantage of RTX 3070 is much clearer. Again, you are unlikely to notice a big difference between the two cards in the short term without the help of a monitor with a high refresh rate, as even the RTX 3060 Ti can reach an average of 60 fps even in the most demanding games. today – and that includes Cyberpunk 2077 once you turn on Nvidia’s DLSS technology.
In the long run, however, the RTX 3070 will likely offer more resistance in the future than the RTX 3060 Ti for Ultra quality devils, especially when it comes to staying firmly above the 60 fps line. With games like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Total War: Three Kingdoms already pushing RTX 3060 Ti even below 60 fps in the maximum settings, these numbers will only drop further as the games become more and more demanding. The extra power offered by the RTX 3070, on the other hand, will definitely allow you to continue playing games at 60 fps on max settings for a longer period of time – although how much is harder to say, given that Valhalla the share of decreases below the 60 fps mark is also balanced.
Of course, this does not mean that the RTX 3060 Ti will disappear completely in a year or two. Indeed, if you are happy to drop the settings to High at 1440p, the RTX 3060 Ti should be able to reach well over 60 fps in a long time. With averages of 86 fps in Total War: Three Kingdoms on High, as well as 68 fps in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and 81 fps in Metro Exodus, RTX 3060 Ti still has enough power to play games at 1440p for a few years.
Nvidia RTX 3070 vs 3060 Ti: 4K benchmarks
However, if you play games at 3840 × 2160 this is more your bag, then RTX 3070 is definitely the clear winner here. As you can see below, RTX 3060 Ti fights pretty decently at 4K, hitting around 60 fps on Medium settings in almost every major game today (except Cyberpunk 2077, of course). It’s good enough for a card of this caliber, especially if you consider that just a few years ago you would have had to pay more than double what the RTX 3060 Ti currently costs to get the same type of performance.
However, if it’s just a 60 fps management on Medium now, it probably won’t be long before you’re forced to take things down to Low with RTX 3060 Ti and no one wants that, right? At that point, you can return to games at 2560 × 1440 with much nicer graphics.
The RTX 3070, on the other hand, is much better equipped to play 4K games. Again, newer titles such as Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Cyberpunk 2077 have put more pressure on this resolution (although Cyberpunk 2077 has at least DLSS support to help slightly increase the frame rate), but older games I’m right up there around 70fps. Increase the high quality setting and look for a 60 fps speed in many games as well – or higher if you enable DLSS support.
Of course, the RTX 3060 Ti benefits from DLSS. Indeed, in Shadow Of The Tomb Raider, it can reach an impressive average of 64 fps at the highest at 4K with DLSS enabled, as well as a very pleasant 62 fps at the high in Final Fantasy XV. Monster Hunter: DLSS support in the world allows RTX 3060 Ti to switch to High, reaching an average of 73 fps. These are impressive numbers, to be sure, but unless the number of DLSS games increases substantially over the next few years, you’re more likely to play games in medium or low settings, given its current performance capabilities in free games. DLSS support.
Nvidia RTX 3070 vs 3060 Ti: conclusion
All in all, I think that if you are not determined to play games at maximum settings all the time, then RTX 3060 Ti is definitely the card you should choose here. At 369 GBP / 399 USD, it’s quite a bit cheaper than the RTX 3070 at 469 GBP / 499 USD (or at least it should be once stock prices and levels return to normal) and you’ll still get speeds of 60 fps + both at 1080p and at 1440p in practically all the biggest computer games today.
In addition, unless you are particularly sensitive to frame rates above 60 fps, I’m not sure you’ll really notice the difference between these two books once you’ve reached the realm of reaching 80-100 fps. I certainly can’t tell the difference between these types of frame rates without the help of a frame rate counter, so you might as well save some money in the process and put an extra £ 100 / $ 100 for something else for your 1 TB SSD computer.
The RTX 3070 is worth considering if you’re playing 4K games, of course, and it would also be my top Nvidia recommendation to play games on ultrawide game monitors. However, for those with regular 1080p or 1440p monitors, the RTX 3060 Ti offers more than enough performance here and is likely to keep you at high frame rates for many years to come.
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