Card Layout and Photos
The Nvidia RTX 4070 Founders Edition follows the same styling that Nvidia used on all of the other 4000 Series cards as well as the 3000 Series Founders Editions as well but this is a new design. The other 4000 Series Founders Edition cards are all larger, similar to the 3090 and 3090 Ti from the 3000 Series and this is the first of their cards to go back to the smaller two-slot design and normal card height with it coming in at 244 mm long, 112 mm tall, and 41 mm wide. More than that it has the dark silver hourglass design that all of the cards have and all of the heatsink is exposed and has wider fin gaps like the other 4000 Series cards.
The traditional fan side of the card has just one fan on it, just like their other designs with that fan being on the left. The fan size is 90 mm and the design is an axial fan that blows down into the card not a blower style like the older FE and Reference cards used years ago. The fan has seven blades and an outer ringer that gives the blades even more strength that goes all the way around the outside. The center does have a cap on it and it has a dark spun-metal finish that goes perfectly with the all-metal cooler design. The hourglass shape is a little different from the other cards because of the more compact design. Where the other cards came together like an X in the center this has a taller X shape. They also do have the model name etched into the hourglass just under the fan which is subtle but cool. The area where a second fan would normally be is all heatsink which each fin has a V shape but when you look into the heatsink we can see that the PCB ends at the middle of the card (and has a V shape to its end as well). So this is a blow-through design and you can slightly see the fan on the back through the card.
The back of the card doesn’t have any of the exposed heatsink fins like the front did but it does have that same hourglass shape outlining it and splitting the card up into sections. We have a second 90 mm fan on the left with a similar but different design. This has the same styling, the same outer ring, and the same center cap. But the blades are flipped around to spin in the same direction as the front fan and it is designed to pull air from the front side of the card and out the back not push air. The back side is mostly covered with the full metal backplate which integrates with the entire card design and matches the front of the card with black in the same areas as the fronts black heatsinks. It also has the RTX 4070 model name etched and painted in which is upside down so it is visible when installed in a traditional case.
The thick heatsinks in the top go all the way out to the top edge of the card and are also where you will find the power connection. As the included adapter indicated the RTX 4070 Founders Edition uses a new 12VHPWR plug. Because the PCB doesn’t go to the end of the card the power connection is just past the center point on the top. This can make wiring a little harder which isn’t helped with this plug facing directly up where some of the 3000 series Founders Edition cards had theirs angled towards the end of the card. Thankfully the RTX 4070 Founders Edition is a normal card height, so you should have room to fit the adapter sticking up in most cases which is good because the connection did have early issues with people not getting them plugged in tight and having the connection tight up against side panels. The top edge also has the GeForce RTX branding on it as well. You can also see how the hourglass design dictates the color and shape of the top and bottom of the card. Those views also show that other than the small heatsink areas all of the cooling is focused on the sides. The end does also have two small screw holes for anti-sag mounting if needed.
The PCI bracket end of the card gives us a great look at how the card height doesn’t extend much past the top of the bracket. You can also see that Nvidia has tucked all of the certification badges on here as well as your serial number and other information. The bracket then has four very large holes which expose some of the heatsink behind it for ventilation and below that are the four display connections. You get three DisplayPorts and one HDMI with the HDMI down on the bottom, not mixed in the middle of the others which is nice to see.
I did also get a few other Founders Edition cards for comparison as well to put next to the RTX 4070 Founders Edition. The large card is the RTX 4080 Founders Edition which puts into scale a little better how much larger the cards above the RTX 4070 Founders Edition are as well as the 3090 and 3090 Ti. The second card is the RTX 3070 Founders Edition which had the same card dimensions. The 3070 is a nice comparison of some of the differences in the overall card styling, it's easy to forget that card and the 3060 Ti didn’t have the X shape in the middle like the RTX 4070 Founders Edition has and it had both fans on one side. The heatsink fits were tighter together as well. The 3070 to the 4070 has also moved from the power adapter requiring one 8-pin connection to two.
