Nvidia Announces RTX 4070 Ti Graphics Cards and RTX 40 Series Laptop GPUs

Nvidia just wrapped up its CES press conference, revealing a new desktop graphics card — the RTX 4070 Ti — as well as a lineup of RTX 40-series GPUs for laptops and a new RTX 4080 for its GeForce Now streaming service. Here’s what you need to know.

First, the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti. This is the rebranded, repriced, and now released version of the RTX 4080 12GB that was so mocked when it was announced that Nvidia “did not release” the card soon after that. The key to the move was confusion from gamers and stress alike that the card was so far away in terms of price and performance from the 4080 16GB, because it wasn’t built on the same chip as the AD103.

Now, the GPU seems to be in a more logical position — as a slight improvement over the last-generation RTX 3080, priced to match at $799. With DLSS 3 frame generation, it can be up to three times faster than the RTX 3090 Ti while consuming nearly half the power, though we’re looking forward to putting those claims to the test. Ada Lovelace’s newest card is set for release on January 5th, so we won’t be waiting long!

We always expect a new generation of gaming laptops with each new year, and for 2023 many of these will come with Nvidia 40-series GPUs. Nvidia has announced five laptop GPUs in total (4050, 4060, 4070, 4080, and 4090), but its release will be staggering. The first wave of high-end dual-core laptops will arrive on February 8th with prices starting at $2,000, with entry-level and mid-range options going on sale starting February 22nd and starting at $1,000.

As always, expect to see a wide range of actual in-game performance from laptops with the nominally the same GPU, as power budgets and thermal efficiency will vary widely between different laptop models and manufacturers. Likewise, the smaller footprint and more modest power requirements of these mobile GPUs should mean a distinct gap in performance between the desktop and laptop versions of a given GPU — way beyond what you’d expect to see from faster and slower versions of any given version. Desktop GPU, for example.

Finally, Nvidia is adding a new performance level to its GeForce Now game streaming service, giving owners of PC titles the chance to see their games at higher resolutions and frame rates than would otherwise be possible on their local hardware – especially if that’s a phone, tablet or laptop. The new “Ultimate” membership includes access to the RTX 4080 with DLSS 3 support, with the addition of frames created between real ones to improve visual fluidity with a slight hit in latency. This will probably work for many types of games, although more fast-paced titles might work better with the feature disabled – we’ll have to find out. The company also quoted a number of 50 games that will support DLSS 3, from 17 now, with Marvel’s Midnight Suns and encrypts Being titles that stand out to me.

Nvidia quotes a game of 240fps and click-to-pixel latency at just under the 40ms mark, which is well above what you’ll find on competing streaming services, so it’ll be interesting to see how this plays out in the real world.

Nvidia made some other announcements as well – their offer of Video Upgrade for Chrome and Edge It was particularly impressive – but we’ll call it quits for now.

Overall, it’s a solid start to the 2023 CES calendar in my book, but what do you think of this announcement — does the RTX 4070 Ti look confusing? Looking for a new 40-series gaming laptop? Let me know in the comments below.