ASUS RTX 4070 Ti TUF Gaming OC 12GB

Peter Donnell / 1 year ago

A Closer Look

So it’s been a while since ASUS sent us a GPU, but I’m glad they have, as it’s given me a bit of an appreciation for how far a certain range has come, and the TUF series, based on this card shows they’ve come a long way because it’s a pretty decent looking card overall and feels incredibly well built.

Now I won’t lie and say that it’s small because the whole of the 40 series in general saw an uplift in size when compared to the 30 series, and even, I guess what you would class as a mid-tier consumer card like a 4070 Ti is still on a much larger scale than what you’d expect coming in at 305mm long, 138mm tall and 65mm thick so will take up 3.25 slots in your case.

In terms of the weight, looks can be deceiving as you’d expect it to come in quite heavy, but it’s actually the opposite at exactly 1500 grams, which is 240 grams less than the Gigabyte Gaming OC card that we have and much lighter than any 4080 cards that we’ve had in our studio.

Design-wise, the shroud clearly means business and is a big step up from TUF Gaming cards of old with a single die-cast piece of aluminium that encompasses the three 90mm axial-tech fans which, by typical standards, follow the engineering mantra of having the outer two spins anti-clockwise, while the middle fan spins the other way to reduce turbulence and increase airflow.

Styling-wise, it’s all kept quite subtle with the whole shroud being gunmetal coloured with moulded TUF Gaming branding along with some reflective logos on the centre of the fans.

RGB is also kept pretty minimal with a small strip and TUF Gaming logo on the top cycling through the spectrum, though can be controlled through software if you want to change it up or turn it off completely.

Compared to the 4080 TUF Gaming, the whole card including fans are slightly smaller, which given the lower power delivery and performance of the 4070 Ti, was expected, and should still keep things at bay. Due to the metal exoskeleton design of the shroud, which screws through to the rear of the card, it also adds rigidity to the card but for those wanting extra peace of mind, it does come included with a small magnetic prop-up mount which also doubles up as having a screwdriver inside. While it’s not going to do the same as a proper mount that screws into your case, I have to admit, it’s pretty simple but effective and a welcome addition.

In terms of power, the card has a single 12VHPWR connector, which does seem a bit overkill for a 4070 Ti, but that’s NVIDIA spec I guess, though papers have confirmed to me that AIBs have a choice on the 4070 Ti and could have gone with two 8-pin connectors instead. ASUS also bundled in a double 8-pin to 12+4 adapter, further confirming that a 12VHPWR connector really wasn’t necessary. In terms of the power, being a custom card it does take the power limit from the stock 285 Watts up to 314 Watts if you’re wanting to play around with the slider and overclock, but the default remains at 285 Watts.

Around the back of the card is a stylish, but slightly thin backplate. While it does have some heat pads to aid in cooling, they are also on the thin side so I can’t imagine them doing much, though is better than nothing. There’s also a vent at the end of the backplate to help heat escape in conjunction with the end fan pushing air flow through it.