ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 4070 Twin Edge OC Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Graphics Card

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Let’s talk GPUs once again, this time focusing on NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 4070, which recently launched. Specifically, let’s talk about ZOTAC GAMING and their GeForce RTX 4070 TWIN EDGE OC, a compact and respectably powerful midrange graphics card packed with everything you need while offering a bit of style to stand out amongst its peers. And speaking of peers, who better than to ally yourself with than Marvel’s most famous Avenger, Spider-Man? Thanks to some smart branding, the RTX 4070 is really to blast into the metaverse universe (and the Ada Lovelace generation) with this Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Bundle. Let’s go, true believers.

Celebrating the Spider-Verse

The ZOTAC card I’m reviewing is a part of a special edition bundle for Sony Pictures Animation’s upcoming Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse movie, which swings exclusively into theaters June 2nd. Of course this is a tie-in to promote the anticipated sequel and give Spidey fans something more distinctive for their PC build. Essentially a care package for the next chapter of the Miles Morales cinematic saga, where you can expect fully-packed Multiverse action as Miles finds himself pitted against the other dimensional webslingers, and must redefine what it means to be a hero from this all-encompassing summer blockbuster.

If you haven’t seen the first Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, I recommend you check it out. I really enjoyed the creative blend of urban-inspired comic book style, combined with a fresh coming-of-age plot, that breathes some soul into the everyman superhero franchise. It’s an incredibly fun ride if you’ve never seen it before, or just want to catch up in preparation for Across the Spider-Verse. You can pick up the 4K Ultra HD Blu-Ray version right now.

This Spider-Verse bundle nets you some physical swag and accessories to deck out your card. First off, you get a themed magnetic backplate and custom emblem badges, all swappable for easy installation. Other niceties include themed decorative decals and a tote bag donning key art from the film. By the way, you can also get this Spider-Verse bundle with either the RTX 4070 Ti AMP AIRO, RTX 4070 AMP AIRO, or RTX 4060 Ti 8GB TWIN EDGE OC models too. Like the metaverse, the possibilities are potentially endless.

Overall, it’s a nice assortment that comic book fans will appreciate. My biggest complaint, however, is that Sony and ZOTAC missed a golden opportunity to give collectors a downloadable game code to sweeten the deal. I instantly think of Insomniac Games’ excellent PC port of Spider-Man: Miles Morales that could’ve been the would-be cherry on top for this bundle.

Svelte and Aerodynamic Style

Visually, the TWIN EDGE OC is basically the same card you’d expect from ZOTAC when you remove the spidey glitz and flair. The exterior has a sleek and curvaceous shell that breaks away from the sharp and hardened angles seen on other partner GPUs. It really does stand out in any build, to the point ZOTAC really hit it out of the park in matching their aerodynamic design motif—being one of my favorites AIBs in pure aesthetics alone.

Measuring in at dimensions of 8.9 x 4.9 x 1.6 inches (25.5 x 123.2 x 40.1mm) the TWIN EDGE OC is reminiscent of previous gen GPUs, when life was simpler and mammoth cards didn’t require an additional support bracket to prevent physical sagging when installed. It’s a dual fan setup that’s compact in design and keeps the RGB lightshow tastefully subdued, with the “ZOTAC GAMING” script on the capend and winged logo on the backplate shining through. Power consumption is considerably more efficient with a maximum draw of 200W and an equally tame temperature load range between 59- 66°C during normal operation.

Fan speed, SPECTRA RGB lighting and even clock speeds can also be controlled with the ZOTAC FireStorm utility, by allowing you to manually finetune or create profiles to match performance preferences. Like the other brands that offer the same levels of customization, users will appreciate the ability to change the general workings of your GPU on a whim.

Specifications and Features

Spec-wise, the RTX 4070 is a marked improvement over the prior Ampere generation. The Ada Lovelace micro-architecture clearly does more while consuming less energy compared to the RTX 3070, and that’s good. You’ve got 12GB of GDDR6X VRAM with a 192-bit memory bus that is identical to its bigger RTX 4070 Ti brother, but that’s where the similarities end as its 5888 CUDA Cores and 2480MHz base clock (2490MHz boost) are downsized to match its value proposition. On paper, the 4070 is 20-23% down over its Ti variant and roughly equal to the RTX 3080, but definitely superior to the RTX 3070 with an overall bump of 44%.

All factory RTX 4070s offer one HDMI 2.1a and three DisplayPort 1.4a ports with HDCP 2.3 for connectivity, which are theoretically capable of achieving maximum pixel resolutions of 4K@240Hz (4096 x 2160) and 8K@60Hz with DSC enabled (7860 x 4320) respectively. Based on your PC build and compatible display results may vary, but the 4070 is able to achieve a 120fps target when playing most games at 1440p with High graphic presets.

Like all 40 Series cards from NVIDIA, DLSS 3 is another feature utilizing real-time deep learning image enhancement and upscaling technology. By augmenting a optical flow frame generating algorithm to double the framerate count, you’re effectively allowing most of the graphics pipeline to run at a lower resolution for increased performance while processing higher resolution images with similar levels of rendering. Unlike previous RTX models though, This iteration of Deep Learning Super Sampling is exclusive to the Ada Lovelace architecture and future GPUs onward.

My Test PC

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7900X processor
• RAM: 32GB Kingston Fury Renegade 6400MHz DDR5 (16GBx2)
• Motherboard: ASRock X670E Pro RS AM5 ATX
• PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 G+, 80Plus Gold 1000W
• HDD/SSD: 1TB Samsung 980 Pro MVne PCIe 4×4
• CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U12A 120MM Cooler

*Example build is intended to match relevant PC configurations. Components may be independently sourced or provided by manufacturers for evaluation purposes.

1440p Performance

Hierarchy within the lineup is more apparent with the regular RTX 4070 compared to its infamously unreleased-and-relaunched GeForce RTX 4070 Ti relative. Gamers specifically looking for near maximized 1440p/WQHD performance will feel right at home with this card, sometimes managing to keep up with the RTX 4070 Ti that costs a few hundred dollars more.

This is mildly surprising because the RTX 4070 Ti was already touted as being able to ‘max out’ for anything involving WQHD (which proved true during our testing), but here is the RTX 4070 doing almost much of the same thing. Playing Red Dead Redemption 2 with current firmware I observed minimal frame drops sitting at an consistent 77fps at ultra settings, while Shadow of the Tomb Raider was another standout at 112fps.

The main reason you’ll want to play at 1440p with the RTX 4070 is to take advantage of ray tracing without having to deal with bottlenecking in conjunction with upscaling. I went out of my way to fool around with Cyberpunk 2077, a raw benchmark tester. With RT Overdrive enabled you’re immediately going to tax any GPU and that’s certainly the case here with a measly performance of just 18fps, and a slightly less absurd 33fps in RT Ultra mode. I didn’t bother documenting any of my 4K benchmarking because, to be honest, it would’ve been comedic to see everything running in the single digits.

Hogwarts Legacy is another title in particular that defines the limits of current GPUs even with super sampling to compensate. This game is a total VRAM devourer but manages respectable peak performance of 117fps at 1080p, and passes the mark with a lot of help from AI upscaling. Take it up a notch in resolution with ray tracing added and execution does begin to go south. Not a shocking revelation, but now I know how far the RTX 4070 can realistically go in WQHD.

1080p/4K Performance

Now I want to talk about both 1080p and 4K performance together, because I value your time and want to remind you that the RTX 4070 has a very specific goal of being a 1440p card in terms of cost. Gaming in 1080p is comparable to slicing a stick of butter at room temperature with a hot machete—absolute overkill, while 4K even with RT and DLSS enabled is an adverse counterpoint in compromises. Taking the current selection of games into account, the RTX 4070 easily strolls through over 100fps at 1080p on rasterized graphics, and 4K figures can net anywhere between 30-75fps, the only exception being Forza Horizon 5 which peaks around 84-90fps.

For 4K, you’ll definitely fall back on medium or high presets and DLSS turned on whenever applicable. Once again, the results aren’t terrible – even Marvelous for much less demanding users. But the RTX 4070 Ti is more qualified to handle these tasks, or at least provide a more feasible bridge into maxed-out territory. Regardless, super sampling of any type (think: AMD FSR and/or Intel XeSS) is a great tool to utilize for gaming, but the standard RTX 4070 isn’t entirely up to the task. Not surprising given it’s a budget-friendly GPU, but 1440p/WQHD will give you the most out of this card.

A Friendly Neighborhood RTX Contender

NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 4070 TWIN EDGE OC is a upgrade-worthy choice for existing Pascal (GTX 10) and Turing (RTX 20) owners wanting to make the leap into the Ada Lovelace generation and this RTX 4070 option from ZOTAC is a great performing – and great  looking – all-rounder. Additionally, this Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse bundle is a good way to show your love of the world’s favorite webslinger as you dive back into the Spider-Verse on June 2nd, it certainly looks cool if you’re eager to express your fandom as a PC gamer and going to see the movie. Get your tickets now!