An early listing for Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 4070 GDDR6 graphics cards put them around the price of original GDDR6X models. Set to release this September, this new variant trades the faster VRAM to bring the AD104 GPU to more users.
Spotted on Newegg, the first GeForce RTX 4070 using GDDR6 memory is priced like the original GDDR6X versions. It’s an unexpected move since the latter is a bit faster, boasting 21Gbps speed against 20Gbps on the GDDR6. Fortunately, Nvidia claims performance should remain identical. My only reservation is that, at $569.99, Asus Dual GeForce RTX 4070 12GB GDDR6 is higher than Nvidia’s revised MSRP of $549.
At the very least, Nvidia and partners ensure they clearly display which memory sits inside your pixel pusher on the box. If you look right above the graphics memory count to the left, you’ll see GDDR6 on new models and GDDR6X on any still lingering around. The text is small, so you’ll need to pay attention if this is important to you, particularly as overall designs look identical. There will be Asus Dual models available in both types with the same cooler.
Generally, if you can get your hands on the original RTX 4070, you might as well. GDDR6X is simply better, even if performance holds strong for the newbies. Hopefully, prices will adjust to something more favourable, considering the old standard is slow, but I’d even be happy if they steer the course without inflation at this point.