NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile: Power and Portability in One Package

April 2025


Introduction

Modern mobile GPUs are getting closer to their desktop counterparts, and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile is a striking example of this trend. Designed for gamers and professionals alike, this graphics card combines high performance with energy efficiency. In this article, we will explore what it is capable of and who it is suitable for.


Architecture and Key Features

Ada Lovelace Next-Gen Architecture

The RTX 4070 Mobile is built on an updated version of the Ada Lovelace architecture, which utilizes TSMC's 5nm process technology. This has allowed for a 20% increase in transistor density compared to the previous generation (RTX 40 series of 2023).

Key Technologies

- DLSS 3.5+: Artificial intelligence enhances image quality and boosts FPS by adding "generated" frames. For instance, in Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, DLSS increases performance by 45-60%.

- Ray Tracing 4.0: Accelerated ray tracing thanks to new RT cores.

- Reflex and Broadcast: Reduces latency in games and improves streaming.

- Support for FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) 3.0: Despite competition with AMD, NVIDIA has maintained compatibility.


Memory: Fast and Spacious

- Memory Type: GDDR6X with 12GB capacity.

- Bus and Bandwidth: 192-bit bus and 504GB/s (18% faster than the RTX 4070 Mobile of 2024).

- Impact on Gaming: In Alan Wake 2 at 1440p with RT enabled, memory usage peaks at 9-10GB, which eliminates FPS drops. For 4K, DLSS is recommended to reduce the load.


Gaming Performance: 1080p, 1440p, and 4K

The RTX 4070 Mobile is geared towards QHD (1440p), but it handles 4K with DLSS as well. Here are some FPS examples (max settings):

- Cyberpunk 2077 (RT Ultra): 68 FPS (1440p + DLSS Balanced).

- Call of Duty: Black Ops 6: 122 FPS (1440p, no RT).

- Horizon Forbidden West (PC): 58 FPS (4K + DLSS Performance).

- Starfield: Shattered Space: 85 FPS (1080p, RT High).

Ray Tracing: Enabling RT reduces FPS by 25-35%, but DLSS 3.5+ compensates for the losses. For example, in Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition, the RTX 4070 Mobile keeps a stable 60 FPS at 1440p.


Professional Tasks: Not Just Gaming

- Video Editing: In Adobe Premiere Pro, rendering an 8K project takes 15% less time compared to the RTX 3070 Ti Mobile.

- 3D Modeling: In Blender (using CUDA), rendering a BMW scene takes approximately 3.2 minutes.

- Scientific Calculations: Support for OpenCL 3.0 and CUDA 12 makes the card suitable for machine learning (e.g., training mid-scale neural networks).


Power Consumption and Cooling

- TDP: 100-115W (dynamically adjusted depending on the load).

- Cooling Recommendations: Laptops with the RTX 4070 Mobile should have at least two fans and vapor or copper heat pipes. Models from ASUS ROG Strix and Lenovo Legion have demonstrated superior thermal management (maximum 78°C under load).

- Noise: Noise levels range from 38 dB (office tasks) to 48 dB (gaming).


Comparison with Competitors

- AMD Radeon RX 7800M XT: 8-12% weaker in ray tracing, but cheaper (~$1400 vs $1600 for comparable laptops with RTX 4070 Mobile).

- Intel Arc A770M: Good for DirectX 12, but lags behind in OpenGL and professional tasks.

- NVIDIA RTX 4080 Mobile: 25-30% more powerful, but also more expensive (~$2000+).


Practical Tips

- Power Supply: Laptops require an adapter with 230-280W. For stability, avoid cheap "no-name" chargers.

- Compatibility: Best performance is with Intel Core i7-14700HX or AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX processors.

- Drivers: Update via GeForce Experience. Avoid beta versions for critical tasks.


Pros and Cons

Pros:

- Ideal balance of price and performance for QHD gaming.

- Support for all current technologies (DLSS 3.5+, RTX IO).

- Energy efficiency: up to 20% more economical than RTX 3080 Mobile.

Cons:

- 12GB of memory may be insufficient for 4K without DLSS.

- High price of laptops (starting at $1600).


Final Conclusion: Who is the RTX 4070 Mobile for?

This graphics card is the choice for those seeking mobility without compromise:

- Gamers: Comfortable FPS in AAA games at 1440p.

- Creators: Fast rendering and 3D work.

- Streamers: Low latency and high-quality broadcasts thanks to NVIDIA Broadcast.

If the budget is tight, consider the RTX 4060 Mobile or AMD RX 7700M. But for those wanting maximum power in a slim chassis, the RTX 4070 Mobile is the optimal choice in 2025.


Prices are current as of April 2025. Recommended price for laptops with RTX 4070 Mobile: $1600–$2200 depending on configuration.

Basic

Label Name
NVIDIA
Platform
Mobile
Launch Date
January 2023
Model Name
GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile
Generation
GeForce 40 Mobile
Base Clock
1395MHz
Boost Clock
1695MHz
Bus Interface
PCIe 4.0 x16
Transistors
Unknown
RT Cores
36
Tensor Cores
?
Tensor Cores are specialized processing units designed specifically for deep learning, providing higher training and inference performance compared to FP32 training. They enable rapid computations in areas such as computer vision, natural language processing, speech recognition, text-to-speech conversion, and personalized recommendations. The two most notable applications of Tensor Cores are DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) and AI Denoiser for noise reduction.
144
TMUs
?
Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) serve as components of the GPU, which are capable of rotating, scaling, and distorting binary images, and then placing them as textures onto any plane of a given 3D model. This process is called texture mapping.
144
Foundry
TSMC
Process Size
4 nm
Architecture
Ada Lovelace

Memory Specifications

Memory Size
8GB
Memory Type
GDDR6
Memory Bus
?
The memory bus width refers to the number of bits of data that the video memory can transfer within a single clock cycle. The larger the bus width, the greater the amount of data that can be transmitted instantaneously, making it one of the crucial parameters of video memory. The memory bandwidth is calculated as: Memory Bandwidth = Memory Frequency x Memory Bus Width / 8. Therefore, when the memory frequencies are similar, the memory bus width will determine the size of the memory bandwidth.
128bit
Memory Clock
2000MHz
Bandwidth
?
Memory bandwidth refers to the data transfer rate between the graphics chip and the video memory. It is measured in bytes per second, and the formula to calculate it is: memory bandwidth = working frequency × memory bus width / 8 bits.
256.0 GB/s

Theoretical Performance

Pixel Rate
?
Pixel fill rate refers to the number of pixels a graphics processing unit (GPU) can render per second, measured in MPixels/s (million pixels per second) or GPixels/s (billion pixels per second). It is the most commonly used metric to evaluate the pixel processing performance of a graphics card.
81.36 GPixel/s
Texture Rate
?
Texture fill rate refers to the number of texture map elements (texels) that a GPU can map to pixels in a single second.
244.1 GTexel/s
FP16 (half)
?
An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable. Single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks, while double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy.
15.62 TFLOPS
FP64 (double)
?
An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy, while single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable.
244.1 GFLOPS
FP32 (float)
?
An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks, while double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable.
15.308 TFLOPS

Miscellaneous

SM Count
?
Multiple Streaming Processors (SPs), along with other resources, form a Streaming Multiprocessor (SM), which is also referred to as a GPU's major core. These additional resources include components such as warp schedulers, registers, and shared memory. The SM can be considered the heart of the GPU, similar to a CPU core, with registers and shared memory being scarce resources within the SM.
36
Shading Units
?
The most fundamental processing unit is the Streaming Processor (SP), where specific instructions and tasks are executed. GPUs perform parallel computing, which means multiple SPs work simultaneously to process tasks.
4608
L1 Cache
128 KB (per SM)
L2 Cache
32MB
TDP
115W
Vulkan Version
?
Vulkan is a cross-platform graphics and compute API by Khronos Group, offering high performance and low CPU overhead. It lets developers control the GPU directly, reduces rendering overhead, and supports multi-threading and multi-core processors.
1.3
OpenCL Version
3.0
OpenGL
4.6
DirectX
12 Ultimate (12_2)
CUDA
8.9
Power Connectors
None
Shader Model
6.7
ROPs
?
The Raster Operations Pipeline (ROPs) is primarily responsible for handling lighting and reflection calculations in games, as well as managing effects like anti-aliasing (AA), high resolution, smoke, and fire. The more demanding the anti-aliasing and lighting effects in a game, the higher the performance requirements for the ROPs; otherwise, it may result in a sharp drop in frame rate.
48

Benchmarks

Shadow of the Tomb Raider 2160p
Score
51 fps
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 1440p
Score
100 fps
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 1080p
Score
166 fps
Cyberpunk 2077 1440p
Score
33 fps
GTA 5 2160p
Score
92 fps
GTA 5 1440p
Score
88 fps
GTA 5 1080p
Score
184 fps
FP32 (float)
Score
15.308 TFLOPS
3DMark Time Spy
Score
11847
Blender
Score
4092
OctaneBench
Score
349

Compared to Other GPU

Shadow of the Tomb Raider 2160p / fps
193 +278.4%
69 +35.3%
34 -33.3%
24 -52.9%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 1440p / fps
292 +192%
67 -33%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 1080p / fps
310 +86.7%
101 -39.2%
72 -56.6%
Cyberpunk 2077 1440p / fps
79 +139.4%
GTA 5 2160p / fps
174 +89.1%
100 +8.7%
GTA 5 1440p / fps
116 +31.8%
GTA 5 1080p / fps
231 +25.5%
156 -15.2%
141 -23.4%
86 -53.3%
FP32 (float) / TFLOPS
16.085 +5.1%
13.847 -9.5%
3DMark Time Spy
36233 +205.8%
16792 +41.7%
9097 -23.2%
Blender
15026.3 +267.2%
2020.49 -50.6%
1064 -74%
OctaneBench
1328 +280.5%
163 -53.3%
89 -74.5%
47 -86.5%