Gigabyte RTX 4070 Super Windforce Overclock Video Card Review

As with most NVIDIA based graphics cards the RTX 4070 Super is both a scaled down version and upgrade when compared to other Ada Lovelace AD104 based GPUs.  The RTX 4070 Super is based on the TU104-410-A1 variant, supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, comes with 7,168 CUDA cores, 224 Tensor cores, and 56 RT cores.

We talk extensively about the Gigabyte RTX 4070 Super and the Sorted History of the RTX 40 Series in our February Podcast release. Check it out here!

Our Gigabyte RTX 4070 Super Windforce Overclock Edition goes a step beyond the standard RTX 4070 Super with a core clock of 2505 MHz over the Nvidia reference design’s 2475 MHZ.  Of course, things change once the NVIDIA Boost kicks in.

Of course, the real reason to consider a card like this GTX 470 Super is to get more than what the reference design can provide. Gigabyte has the resources and the expertise to wring more performance our of each generation.  With the Windforce OC edition, the engineers have pushed the Boost Clock to 2505 MHz or just over 10% more than the reference spec.  It may not sound like much but Nvidia already pushed these cards right out of the box leaving little overhead for the custom cards!

To get that additional performance, Gigabyte pairs their Custom PCB (Printed Circuit Board) with their excellent Windforce cooling system.

The Windforce cooling system uses three custom 80mm fans in an alternating spin pattern. By spinning the center fan a different direction, turbulence is reduced and airflow pressure is increased making cooling much more efficient. The 3D Active Fans have a unique triangular fan edge and a series of curved grooves across the surface providing a boost to cooling even when the fans are off when in low power mode.  To extend bearing life each fan comes with a Graphene Lubricant.

A series of four composite copper heat pipes can be seen in the pass thru window found on the the back of the card and allows air to pass through the entire oversized, 2.5 slot heatsink system.

Each RTX 4070 Super Windforce OC card ships with a solid backplate already installed to support the structural integrity and looks pretty great as well! Power leads are moved to the center of the card and use the new 12VHPWR power connector.  An adapter is included to support older power supplies.  

You may have already noticed but this card does not feature and RGB or accent lighting. To get all the RGB bling, you will need to step up to the Gaming Edition!

To give you a better look at all that custom cooling we separated the cooling system from the PCB. Notice how the four copper heatsinks pull heat from both the RTX graphics processor and the 12 GB of GDDR6X memory.

As you can see the custom PCB is still the shorter design rather than some of the supersized offerings we have seen from other generations and manufacturers. A closer look will reveal the premium components that give Gigabyte their solid reputation for build quality.