PNY GeForce RTX 4070 XLR8 OC: better than the real thing

5 days ago 22

Whereas the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 is 1 of the champion graphics cards of this generation, the PNY GeForce RTX 4070 XLR8 takes what makes the Founders Edition paper great, adds immoderate bundle overclocking, and lets you usage a regular 8-pin powerfulness connector. You person to wage a premium for the privilege though, which takes distant from 1 of the biggest points successful the RTX 4070's favor.

Pros

  • +

    8-pin powerfulness connector!

  • +

    Attractive design

  • +

    Lighter than Founders Edition card

  • +

    Software overclocking

Cons

  • -

    More expensive

  • -

    Longer paper mightiness not acceptable successful immoderate cases

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PNY GeForce RTX 4070 XLR8: Two-minute review

The PNY GeForce RTX 4070 XLR8 OC is simply a fantastic betterment connected an already fantastic product, I conscionable privation it was a small cheaper.

Starting astatine $679 (about £560 / AU$1,020), the RTX 4070 XLR8 OC is simply a third-party mentation of our existent apical prime for best graphics card of 2023, truthful it's not astonishing that the RTX 4070 XLR8 brings fantastic 1440p gaming show to the table. It does negociate to bash truthful with a batch much flair than the Founders Edition paper from Nvidia, however, and this is coming from idiosyncratic who is mostly anti-RGB.

Where the PNY paper succeeds successful its plan is that, portion bold, it's reasonably subdued but allows for conscionable capable customization to fto you blend this paper successful reasonably cleanly into conscionable astir immoderate build. 

A PNY GeForce RTX 4070 XLR8 OC graphics paper  connected  a purple table  mat

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

Assuming the paper fits. Lightweight though it is astatine conscionable 1.87 lbs (about 0.84kg), it is simply a bully spot longer than the RTX 4070 Founders Edition, 305.1mm to the Founders Edition's 242mm. So if you've got a choky case, marque definite you person the clearance for this 1 earlier you effort to cram it into place.

As a dual-slot card, it's going to instrumentality up immoderate room, but it feels similar it takes up little abstraction than the RTX 4070 Founders Edition contempt being a mates of millimeters thicker. A immense portion of that is the determination by PNY to spell with the 8-pin powerfulness connector alternatively than Nvidia's 12VHPWR cable, the second of which requires an cumbersome adapter if you don't person an ATX 3.0 powerfulness proviso with the caller powerfulness cablegram leads.

A PNY GeForce RTX 4070 XLR8 OC graphics paper  connected  a purple table  mat

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

I truly can't stress however overmuch easier moving with a azygous 8-pin cablegram is versus having to effort and finagle 2 8-pin cables into an adapter cablegram and past into a graphics card. 

While not the implicit worst — which would beryllium the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 and it's 4-to-1 8-pin adapter cablegram — adjacent 2 8-pins plugged into an adapter tin wreak havoc connected your cablegram management, particularly if you've got a reasonably choky acceptable successful your PC case. The 8-pin powerfulness connector unsocial makes this paper worthy buying implicit the Founders Edition card. 

Yes, I would wage an $80 premium conscionable to not person to usage a 12VPWR cable.

A PNY GeForce RTX 4070 XLR8 OC graphics paper  connected  a purple table  mat

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

Fortunately, you bash get immoderate further features to marque the RTX 4070 XLR8 adjacent much appealing than conscionable it's powerfulness input. Though the paper comes with the aforesaid basal and boost clocks arsenic the Founders Edition (unlike the PNY GeForce RTX 4080 XLR8 OC, which shipped with higher boost timepiece speeds), the PNY RTX 4070 XLR8 OC starts astatine banal speeds but PNY's VelocityX bundle allows you to overclock the paper to a degree.

Just beryllium definite that the paper you're buying is the overclockable model, arsenic the non-OC and OC cards look identical different than their price, and terms tin beryllium a moving people sometimes.

A PNY GeForce RTX 4070 XLR8 OC graphics paper  connected  a purple table  mat

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

You besides get a triple-fan cooling solution for the RTX 4070 XLR8 OC, which is 50% much fans than the Founders Edition, though I didn't announcement excessively overmuch of a quality successful presumption of temperature. But it's there, with the PNY RTX 4070 XLR8 staying astir 4-5°C cooler nether load, but with the RTX 4070's max somesthesia lone hitting astir 68°C, neither paper was ever truly astatine hazard for throttling.

In presumption of performance, astatine its banal timepiece speeds, the PNY GeForce RTX 4070 XLR8 OC has its show onshore wrong 1% to 2% connected either broadside of the Founders Edition's performance, which is what I expected. If you privation to bash a deeper dive into this card's performance, decidedly cheque retired my Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 review for each my applicable investigating data.

A PNY GeForce RTX 4070 XLR8 moving  connected  a trial  seat  successful  an office

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

Overclocking the paper gets you somewhat amended performance, but fixed that it's strictly an 8-pin paper (which means you tin lone truly propulsion 200W safely), I wouldn't propulsion the overclocking excessively hard for excessively agelong unless you privation to pain your paper retired overmuch faster.

All told, the premium terms is simply a tougher pill to swallow than it should be, but fixed that 1 of the RTX 4070's amended selling points was its price, it's hard to not wrinkle your chemoreceptor a bit. 

Still, if the RTX 4070 is what you're aft and you privation immoderate other bells, whistles, and a interaction of RGB, you can't spell incorrect with the PNY GeForce RTX 4070 XLR8 OC.

PNY GeForce RTX 4070 XLR8: Price & availability

A PNY GeForce RTX 4070 XLR8 OC graphics paper  connected  a purple table  mat

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)
  • How overmuch does it cost? $679 (about £560 / AU$1,020)
  • When is it available? Available now
  • Where tin you get it? Available successful the US, UK, and Australia

The PNY GeForce RTX 4070 XLR8 OC is disposable present successful the US, UK, and Australia with an MSRP of $679 (about £560 / AU$1,020). This terms puts it a bully spot higher than the RTX 4070 Founders Edition, but it's not wholly retired of measurement with third-party graphics paper pricing.

And portion the terms isn't great, this is much connected Nvidia's caput than PNY's since Nvidia is the 1 who importantly raised the terms connected the RTX 4070 implicit the RTX 3070. At the moment, AMD hasn't released the RX 7700 XT oregon RX 7800, which would beryllium the earthy competitors for this card, truthful it's uncertain however this paper volition stack up against AMD's lower-premium people of GPUs until those are released successful the adjacent fewer months, presumeably.

PNY GeForce RTX 4070 XLR8: Specs

A PNY GeForce RTX 4070 XLR8 OC graphics paper  connected  a purple table  mat

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

Swipe to scroll horizontally

ComponentPNY GeForce RTX 4070 XLR8 OCNvidia RTX 4070
Price$679 (about £560 / AU$1,020)$599 (about £510 / AU$870)
GPUAD104AD104
Transistor count35.8 billion35.8 billion
TGP200W200W
CUDA Cores5,8885,888
RT Cores4646
Tensor Cores184184
Base Clock1,920MHz1,920MHz
Boost Clock2,475MHz2,475MHz
VRAM12GB GDDR6X12GB GDDR6X
Memory Clock1,313MHz1,313MHz
Bus Size192-bit192-bit
Memory Bandwidth504.2 GB/s504.2 GB/s

Should you bargain the PNY GeForce RTX 4070 XLR8?

A PNY GeForce RTX 4070 XLR8 OC graphics paper  connected  a purple table  mat

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

Swipe to scroll horizontally

ValueComing successful astatine $80 supra MSRP, the PNY RTX 4070 XLR8 diminishes the champion selling constituent for the RTX 4070: its sub-$600 price.3.5 / 5
DesignThe lightweight, RGB adorned paper looks great, and the 8-pin powerfulness connector is simply a enactment of caller aerial compared to Nvidia's 12VHPWR.5 / 5
PerformanceFeaturing the aforesaid outstanding 1440p show arsenic the basal RTX 4070, you tin tweak and overclock this paper somewhat done PNY's software.5 / 5
Average ratingWhile much costly than I'd like, for a third-party card, this isn't the worst, and the blasted is truly connected Nvidia for raising the terms connected the RTX 4070 successful the archetypal place. Otherwise, it's show and features are fantastic.4.5 / 5

Buy it if...

Don't bargain it if...

PNY GeForce RTX 4070 XLR8 OC: Also consider

Swipe to scroll horizontally

PNY GeForce RTX 4070 XLR8 OCNvidia GeForce RTX 4070Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Ti
Price:$679 (about £560 / AU$1,020)$599 (about £525 / AU$870)$799 / £799 / AU$1479
Boost Clock2,475MHz2,475MHz2,610MHz
VRAM12GB GDDR6X12GB GDDR6X12GB GDDR6X
Memory Bandwidth504.2 GB/s504.2 GB/s504.2 GB/s
Shader cores5,8885,8887,680
Ray Tracing Cores464660
Tensor Cores184184240
Connector1 x 8-pin1 x 16-pin1 x 16-pin
Outputs1 x HDMI 2.1, 3 x DisplayPort 1.4b1 x HDMI 2.1, 3 x DisplayPort 1.4b1 x HDMI 2.1 3 x DisplayPort 1.4a

How I tested the PNY GeForce RTX 4070 XLR8 OC

  • I walk astir 3 weeks with the PNY GeForce RTX 4070 XLR8 OC
  • I utilized it to play games, nutrient and edit originative content, and more
  • I utilized our modular artillery of benchamarking tools to trial it

I utilized the PNY GeForce RTX 4070 XLR8 OC arsenic the graphics paper successful my main PC astatine location for astir 3 weeks.

During that time, I played PC games similar Cyberpunk 2077, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, and more. I besides utilized Adobe Creative Suite extensively to edit photos and video.

I besides ran my modular artillery of benchmark tests to measure however overmuch the PNY GeForce RTX 4070 XLR8 OC deviated from the baseline RTX 4070, if astatine all. 

We pridefulness ourselves connected our independency and our rigorous review-testing process, offering up semipermanent attraction to the products we reappraisal and making definite our reviews are updated and maintained - careless of erstwhile a instrumentality was released, if you tin inactive bargain it, it's connected our radar.

Read much astir however we test

First reviewed May 2023

John (He/Him) is the Components Editor present astatine TechRadar and helium is besides a programmer, gamer, activist, and Brooklyn College alum presently surviving successful Brooklyn, NY. 

Named by the CTA arsenic a CES 2020 Media Trailblazer for his subject and exertion reporting, John specializes successful each areas of machine science, including manufacture news, hardware reviews, PC gaming, arsenic good arsenic wide subject penning and the societal interaction of the tech industry.

You tin find him online connected Twitter astatine @thisdotjohn

Currently playing: Deep Rock Galactic, Destiny 2

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