While a huge amount of hype has been focused on Nvidia's new flagship graphics cards, the GeForce RTX 3080 and RTX 3090, the fact remains that for most gamers, the more affordable RTX 3070 is likely to be their entry point for Ampere powered cards. Nvidia has claimed that the $499 card will be faster than the previous flagship RTX 2080 Ti, which still costs upwards of $999. With its launch date fast approaching, the first RTX 3070 benchmarks have leaked out, and suggest a close run race.

The leaked benchmarks were spotted by Twitter user _rogame, for Ashes of the Singularity, and they show Nvidia's upcoming card to be almost identical to the RTX 2080 Ti in frame rate performance at both 1080P and 4K resolutions, using Ultra settings. The RTX 3070 is also shown to perform at 83% of the frame rate of its bigger brother, the much in-demand RTX 3080.

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Specifically, at 4K resolution the RTX 3070 achieved 74 fps, compared to 75 for the RTX 2080 Ti, and 89 for the RTX 3080. At 1080P resolution, the RTX 3070 achieved 94 fps, compared to 93 for the RTX 2080 Ti, and 106 for the RTX 3080. Both of the new cards show amazing performance for the dollar when compared to the older flagship, though it is not specified whether the cards were using AI powered DLSS scaling while achieving the benchmark results, which would reduce emphasis on raw performance. Results of course are likely to vary across different titles due to specific optimizations and requirements.

Despite the outstanding price point, there is one drawback with the RTX 3070 when compared to the RTX 2080 Ti, the 8 GB memory compared to 11 GB in the older flagship. With the growing size of gaming textures and the memory requirements of features such as ray tracing, it is likely to be the first area in which the card will date. Nvidia were believed to be releasing a larger 16 GB version of the RTX 3070 in 2021, but the latest rumors suggest this has been cancelled or postponed, likely because of the already extreme stock difficulties across the Ampere range.

Although these are benchmarks from a single title, they show the comparison between the RTX 3070 and the RTX 2080 Ti to be an appropriate one in terms of performance. The memory limitations may hold it back compared to more expensive cards, but it is important to remember that the RTX 3070 is aimed at different audience to the RTX 2080 Ti. The RTX 3070 is a mainstream performance card, designed to sell in far higher numbers than the RTX 2080 Ti, for a much cheaper price.

To that end, the RTX 3070 is a highly desirable card. However, the day before launch AMD will reveal its flagship RX 6900 XT, which has the potential to provide a strong alternative, especially as it is expected to feature 16 GB of memory. Gamers wanting the best performance for the dollar should probably wait and see what both companies have to offer before joining the likely long queues.

Nvidia's GeForce RTX 3070 launches on October 29.

MORE: Rumor: Nvidia Meeting Less Than 10% of RTX 3080 Demand

Source: Via Wccftech