RTX 4070 laptop vs 3070 laptop in 2024

We compare the specs, price, and performance of RTX 4070 laptop vs 3070 laptop graphics cards

Aaron Ritchie

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Comparing the RTX 4070 laptop vs 3070 laptop GPUs, in a battle of new gen vs old, what exactly are the differences and which should you buy? Of all the newest Nvidia 40-series laptop releases, the RTX 4070 has impressed the least in terms of its uplift over the previous generation, showing around a 10-15% improvement over the RTX 3070 in most games (before frame generation is taken into account) however this is still an improvement at the end of the day and the most important thing is what price you can get both laptops at. If your desired RTX 4070 laptop is around 15% more in price than an RTX 3070 model, then we’d definitely go for it as the additional benefits of DLSS 3.0 plus the greater likelihood of a newer CPU and DDR5 RAM mean it will probably be the superior device.

For more depth of analysis, either read further down this page or take a look at our best RTX 4070 laptop guide. If you’re short on time, we’ve listed the top three picks of this guide below.

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RTX 4070 laptop vs RTX 3070 laptop specifications

You can see the comparison of the RTX 4070 laptop specs against RTX 3070 laptop specs below. Read on for our breakdown of this information.

Architecture

The older Nvidia 30-series graphics cards are made using Ampere architecture, based on the 8nm Samsung process, whereas the latest GeForce 40-series graphics cards are built on the TSMC’s 4nm process and are named after Ada Lovelace. The new, smaller process means that a greater number of transistors can be put onto the same sized chip, or the transistor count remain the same, but the chip sizes decrease. It also brings with it increased energy efficiency, meaning lower power draw for the same computing output.

GPU & CUDA Cores

Nvidia’s GPU codenames give a smaller number to the more powerful GPU chips, so the AD107 GPU of the RTX 4060 laptop graphics card is smaller than that of the AD106 in the RTX 4070 laptop graphics card. The prefix AD is the shortened version of Ada Lovelace.

Consequently the GA104 GPU in the RTX 3070 laptop is higher up in the hierarchy, even though it is based on an older technology. As a consequence it has more CUDA Cores on the GPU chip than the newer RTX 4070 laptop does, but this doesn’t necessarily mean it will perform better (indeed it doesn’t in this case).

Clock speed & TGP

Clock speed is one of the key determinants when looking at performance. As you can see, both the base clock (the lower number in the range) and the boost clock (the higher number) are greater on the newer card than that of the RTX 3070 laptop GPU.

TGP (Total Graphics Power) is the usual decider of which is the more powerful laptop graphics card of the same name, which is to say different RTX 4070 laptops will have different levels of performance from their graphics cards if they have different TGP.

However, as these different generation cards are based on different architecture, with different levels of power efficiency, it doesn’t mean that the 140W RTX 3070 laptop GPU outcompetes the 115W RTX 4070 laptop GPU, it does however mean the latter will be more energy efficient, hopefully leading to longer battery life for RTX 4070 machines.

VRAM, Memory Bus & Memory Bandwidth

VRAM is essentially the short term memory of the graphics card that acts as a frame buffer and as pixel storage. The memory bus and bandwidth enables the transfer of this information. More VRAM and a larger memory bus/bandwidth enables a smoother experience with better framerate and latency. It’s especially useful for larger resolutions as they have higher pixel counts to fill up many gigabytes.

Although the memory bus on the newer RTX 4070 has decreased, we don’t yet know what the Memory Speed or Bandwidth will be on the newer chip, and if it’s faster, this could counteract the reduced bus size.

RTX 4070 laptop vs RTX 3070 laptop performance

Mechrevo compared the two laptops in the below graph, which has now officially confirmed by independent third-party benchmarking as being pretty accurate. The data is based on synthetic benchmarking applications 3DMark time Spy and 3DMark Fire Strike. Time Spy comparison utilizes DirectX 12 and renders in QHD, while the Fire Strike compares them with DX11 and renders in FHD.

All told, the results are a bit unimpressive, particularly when compared to the projected improvements expected of the RTX 4060 laptop GPU. This somewhat matches echoes the general disappointment with the desktop variant of RTX 4070. Marginal improvement in performance by 11-15 percent does not warrant a bump of several hundred dollars in pricing as compared to the RTX 3070 laptop series, particularly considering the RTX 3070 laptops are dropping in price. 

One thing we should add is the fact the performance chart that is displayed below doesn’t count the additional boosts you get while gaming that you will receive courtesy of DLSS 3.0. Of course, not every title will support it but the ones that do will surely make you see the difference between the performances.

RTX 4070 laptop price vs 3070 laptop price

In terms of pricing, so far we’ve seen RTX 4070 laptop prices range from $1,549.99 (likely to be the most underpowered variants in TGP terms) all the way up to $3,299.99. This upper bracket seems fairly unjustified, given we’re likely to see similar performance from RTX 3070 Ti laptops that can be purchased for less money than this (albeit without DLSS 3.0 support and older gen CPUs).

High TGP RTX 3070 laptops can be bought significantly below $1,500 if you catch one on discount, and prices are only likely to drop further, although these are likely to come with older processors that could bottleneck performance relative to the RTX 4070 machines. Ultimately an RTX 3070 Ti laptop is probably your best bet though.

Final Word

We hope that this RTX 4070 laptop vs RTX 3070 laptop page has given you all the info you need to know. Do take a look at our various other gaming laptop guides whilst you’re here.

RTX 4070 laptop vs RTX 3070 laptop FAQs