Apple started mass-producing the new 15-inch MacBook Air in February and has ramped up production in March, per display analyst Ross Young. Apple is reportedly planning another ramp-up in April and the highly-anticipated larger laptop will be ready to ship once Apple has unveiled it.
Earlier reports suggested that Apple could unveil the largest-ever MacBook Air in April or May, but it seems ever more likely that the laptop will be kept for the WWDC conference in June.
The new 15.4-inch Air will join the new-look 13.6-inch MacBook Air. But it remains to be seen whether it will get...
The De’Longhi TrueBrew CAM1025MB is truly a wonder of convenience. While you don’t necessarily need to spend anywhere close to its price tag to make excellent coffee at home, you’re paying – quite a bit, in fact – for a level of convenience that makes having a TrueBrew machine at home worth it. As long as you live in the US, that is, or are willing to pay an ungodly amount to have it shipped to wherever you live.
De'Longhi is a global brand based in Treviso, Italy, and a leader in espresso products. The brand is present in more than 123 countries and creates products not just in the espresso categories, but also speciality cooking and home comfort.
The TrueBrew is a new offering from the brand that prides itself on its expertise and innovation of premium bean-to-cup espresso machines. Extending its range to now include speciality drip coffee makers, TrueBrew is a revolutionary machine that promises to eliminate any guess work and measuring with patented technology.
I really appreciated the De’Longhi TrueBrew’s convenience as I spent weeks using it as my main way of making coffee. It takes just a few presses to not only get a cup of coffee, but to get it to the boldness that I want (it offers three levels along with over-ice and pre-ground) and in my preferred size – there are six total. Since it has a reservoir for spent coffee, along with one for fresh water and coffee beans, prep and cleanup is required only every few days or so. The resulting coffee is super-smooth – and will certainly give the best coffee makers a run for their money.
Of course, not everything is about the De’Longhi TrueBrew CAM1025MB is easy, as we’ll see. De’Longhi has made cleaning and maintaining the unit as simple as possible; but it still takes some adjustment. Plus, cleanup can get a little messy. In addition, the funnel for pre-ground coffee is on the small side, so not all coffee grounds make it inside. However, those are minor issues in a drip coffee maker that will make, if you’ll excuse me, a damn fine cup of coffee.
De'Longhi TrueBrew CAM1025MB review: Price and availability
List price: $499 /£408.11 / AU$750.17
Available now
Available only in the US
While you can certainly spend much, much more on a coffee machine, whether that’s for having your very own espresso machine for homemade coffee art or an even more automated caffeinated experience, you can also spend significantly less. The De'Longhi TrueBrew CAM1025MB’s price of $499 is reasonable for its one-stop bean-to-drink experience. This model is available directly from De’Longhi, Amazon, and Best Buy among others.
If you want to spend less, the De'Longhi TrueBrew CAM1015B is a Target exclusive that comes in a fully matte-black finish for $399. Or, if its max brewing size of 24oz is a little underwhelming, you can head over to Williams Sonoma for its exclusive version, the stainless steel CAM51035M, which can pour up to 40oz at a time and goes for $599.
Whichever version you’re eyeing, you should keep two things in mind. The first is that all the above models are essentially the same, with only the minor differences I’ve mentioned here – so keep that in mind when reading this review. Second, at the time of writing, these models are only available in the US and Canada.
If you’re outside of the available territories, there are still plenty of great convenient drip coffee maker options, such as the Moccamaster KBGV Select, which not only costs a slightly more reasonable $359 / £229/ AU$515, but it's available in the UK and Australia (Aussies will have to order direct from the manufacturer). However, you'll have to grind the beans separately.
Multiple sizes and brewing options available at a touch of a button
Somewhat modular design for accessible maintenance
The De'Longhi TrueBrew CAM1025MB is almost the height of simplicity. You load your coffee beans on top, fill up the water reservoir on the side, and you’re ready to go. It takes just a few presses from there to make your coffee.
There are a few options on hand. This model will let you select multiple brew size – 3, 8, 12, 16, 20 or 24oz specifically. Next, you can select the strength of the brew; there’s light, gold, and bold, as well as an over-ice option and a pre-ground option. There’s a funnel behind where you pour in the beans to insert pre-ground coffee, although it's a bit smaller than I'd like.
Diving a little deeper, the LED menu on the front of the unit is pretty self-explanatory as far as choosing any of those options goes. There’s also a clock to set up, and an Auto-On function where you can create a preset time for the De’Longhi TrueBrew to make a cup of coffee – although you'll have to activate it before every brew.
For example, I set up my unit for a brew time of 7:30AM. If I want the machine to brew at that time, I have to press and hold a specific button for three seconds sometime before then – the night before, for example – to turn on the function. There’s no way to set it to automatically brew at a time more than once.
(Image credit: Future / James Holland)
As far as maintenance goes, the company specifically designed the De'Longhi TrueBrew CAM1025MB to be easy. After all, it isn't cheap. If you own a Keurig machine, for instance, you know that if something goes wrong, you can’t open it up. Your only option is to toss it in the trash and buy a new one.
With the TrueBrew machines, you can pull the front out, empty the grounds as well as waste water (which fills up surprisingly fast), and remove the infuser to clean. There’s also a button to descale, if you're in an area of hard water. De’Longhi even includes a hardness indicator to help measure the hardness of your water.
Design: 4.5 / 5
De'Longhi TrueBrew CAM1025MB review: Performance
A clean, even pour with smooth results
Funnel for pre-ground coffee may be a small, but is a welcome addition
Cleanup can get a little messy
The De'Longhi TrueBrew CAM1025MB can get a bit loud, peaking temporarily at 77dB, which is the equivalent of a washing machine. However, that’s to be expected with a one-stop-shop experience of the type the TrueBrew offers. With just a press of a couple buttons, it grinds and brews a fantastic cup of coffee, which is neither burnt nor bitter. As long as you use decent ingredients, the end result will be smooth and delicious. This applies to any of the brew options (and sizes) you choose. In addition, I've yet to find a single coffee ground in the end results.
I also want to take a second and commend De’Longhi for including the funnel for pre-ground coffee. While it could be a little wider (I'd regularly end up with coffee grounds on the funnel’s lip instead of inside the machine), it allowed me to make myself a cup of decaf without having to remove all the beans sitting in the grinder.
(Image credit: Future / James Holland)
If I were to complain about anything, it would be with cleaning the De'Longhi TrueBrew CAM1025MB. If you don’t religiously empty the used coffee grounds and waste water, instead waiting for an indicator light to pop up to do so, then when you pull out the front of the unit for cleaning, you’re going to get some spillage – since some of that waste water will also be sitting in the drip tray. And, while there is a drip tray indicator, you’ll still get spillage once you’ve noticed it’s full.
(Image credit: Future / James Holland)
Whenever I’ve cleaned out the machine, I’ve also had to clean around it, which is a bit of a pain. In De’Longhi’s defense, I have two or three people using it multiple times a day, every day, so that does add up. However, it would have been nice for the back of the drip tray to be higher when you pull it out of the drip coffee maker to empty its contents.
Performance: 4 / 5
(Image credit: Future / James Holland)
Should I buy the De'Longhi TrueBrew CAM1025MB?
Buy it if...
Don't buy it if...
De'Longhi TrueBrew CAM1025MB review: also consider
How we test
Tested every day, over a few weeks
Tested with multiple brew strengths and sizes
Cleaned out machine multiple times
To test the De'Longhi TrueBrew CAM1025MB, I used it to make my coffee for a couple weeks, consuming up to two cups a day, to get a sense of how it performed. I would try making coffee at different strengths and sizes, whether it was an espresso shot or a regular-sized cup of coffee. I also used the pre-ground setting to make a cup of decaf coffee at night. I also used the Auto-On function to make sure there was some coffee ready for when I woke up.
I cleaned out the machine several times. While this was important for testing, it occurs naturally during regular use, so I gained a good understanding of the effort needed to keep the De'Longhi TrueBrew CAM1025MB in tip-top condition.
While this is my first review of a coffee machine, I've been a coffee drinker for a long time, having used everything from a pour-over and french press to all sorts of automatic coffee machines. I have plenty of experience reviewing tech gadgets that I applied to this machine, not to mention that I'm a bit of a coffee snob (if that’s not apparent, check out the title of this review).
The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 is here at long last, and for gamers who've been starved for an upgrade, go ahead and pick this one up. It can do just about everything.
It's hard to follow up the RTX 3070, one of the best graphics cards of all time, and in our Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 review, we praised that card for being an outstanding performer at 1080p and 1440p — which is where the overwhelming number of PC gamers game at — while also being a much more affordable option over the other two launch cards for Nvidia's Ampere lineup. We especially noted how the RTX 3070 offered comparable performance to the RTX 2080 Ti for half the price.
Everything we said about the RTX 3070 applies just as easily to the RTX 4070, only now it doesn't just dabble in 4K; it can competently game at every resolution, making it a graphics card that everybody can fall in love with without spending a fortune.
A lot has changed since the RTX 3070 launched towards the end of 2020, and unfortunately, not everything changed for the better. Things are more expensive pretty much everywhere you look, and the Nvidia RTX 4070 isn't immune. At $599 (about £510 / AU$870), the RTX 4070 is fully 20% more expensive than the RTX 3070 was at launch.
(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)
I'm not happy about this at all, and you shouldn't be either, but all you have to do is look at the scores the RTX 4070 puts up on the board and you'll be as hard pressed as I am to dock it any points for this. It consistently puts out RTX 3080-level performance more or less across the board and even manages to bloddy the nose of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, and while the RTX 3080 beats out the RTX 4070 at native 4K, turn on DLSS and the RTX 3080 simply gets blown out.
On the other side of the aisle, the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT is Team Red's nearest real competition, and it struggles to justify itself in the presence of the RTX 4070. While the RX 7900 XT solidly outperforms the 4070, it's also 50% more expensive, and the benefits of the RX 7900 XT get quickly drowned out by the power of DLSS, especially in titles with DLSS 3.
Moreover, the RTX 4070 makes for a pretty competent creator GPU, offering indie developers and artists who don't have the funding to get themselves an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 a handy option for getting some work done within a more limited budget. It's not going to power a major movie studio or anything, but if you're dabbling in 3D modeling or video editing, this card is great compromise between price and performance.
Finally, wrap this all into a package that feels like a downright normal graphics card from ye olden days, back before you needed to include support brackets and balast to keep your gaming PC from tipping over, and you end up with a graphics card that can easily power some of the best gaming PCs that can actually fit into your PC case and your budget.
This graphics card has its issues, which is inevitable, but given what's on offer here, it's easy enough to look past its shortcomings and enjoy some truly outstanding performance at at a reasonable enough price.
Third-party cards retail prices will match or exceed Nvidia's MSRP
The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 is available starting April 13, 2023, with an MSRP of $599 (about £510 / AU$870). Third-party partners will have their own versions of the RTX 4070 that will vary in price, but they will always have a matching or higher regular retail price than the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Founders Edition.
Notably, the RTX 4070 is getting a 20% price increase over the card it's replacing, the RTX 3070, which had a launch price of $499 in the US (about £425 / AU$725). While we'd have loved to see the price stay the same gen-over-gen, this should come as no surprise to anyone who has been watching GPU price inflation recently.
Meanwhile, we haven't seen AMD's direct RTX 4070 competitor yet, the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT, but the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT is the closest AMD has this generation with an $899 / £799 (around AU$1,350) MSRP, putting it 50% more expensive than the RTX 4070.
This card is also the same price as the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, for what it's worth, and considering that the RTX 4070 punches well above the 3070 Ti's performance, you do at least get a better sense of value out of this card than anything from the last generation.
Price score: 4 / 5
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 review: Features & chipset
(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)
DLSS 3 with full Frame Generation
Third-gen Ray Tracing Cores and fourth-gen Tensor Cores
Lower TGP than RTX 3070
The Nvidia RTX 4070 doesn't change too much on paper over its last-gen predecessor, featuring the same number of streaming multiprocessors, therefore the same number of CUDA cores (5,888), ray-tracing cores (46), and tensor cores (184).
It does bump up its memory to the faster GDDR6X and adds an additional 50% VRAM for a total of 12GB. With a 192-bit bus and a memory clock of 1,313MHz, the RTX 4070 has an effective memory speed of 21 Gbps, equal to that of the Nvidia RTX 4070 Ti, for a memory bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s.
It has a lower base and boost frequency than the 4070 Ti, clocking in at 1,920MHz base and 2,475MHz boost (compared to 2,310MHz base and 2,610MHz boost for the 4070 Ti), but this is a substantial bump up from the 1,500MHz base and 1,725MHz boost frequency of the RTX 3070.
This is owing to the 5nm TSMC process used to fab the AD104 GPU, compared to the Samsung 8nm process for the RTX 3070's GA104. Those faster clocks also power next-gen ray tracing and tensor cores, so even though there are the same number of cores in both the RTX 4070 and the RTX 3070, the RTX 4070's are both much faster and more sophisticated.
Also factor in Nvidia Lovelace's DLSS 3 with Frame Generation capacity, something that Nvidia Ampere and Turing cards don't have access to, and what looks like two very similar cards on paper turns out to be anything but in practice.
Finally, thanks to the 5nm process, Nvidia is able to squeeze more performance out of less power, so the TGP for the RTX 4070 is just 200W, making it a fantastic card for a lower-power, sub-600W build.
Features & chipset: 5 / 5
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 review: Design
(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)
Same size as the RTX 3070
16-pin power connector
Same design as RTX 4090 and RTX 4080
With the RTX 4070 Founders Edition, Nvidia finally delivers a next-gen graphics card that can actually fit in your case without requiring a construction winch to hold it in place.
OK, the previous cards weren't that bad, and even at the reduced form factor and weight, you'll still want to toss a GPU bracket into your case for good measure (there's no harm in protecting your investment, after all).
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But holding the RTX 4070 in my hand, this is the first card of this generation that doesn't feel like a piece of machinery. Even the more modestly-sized AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX and RX 7900 XT feel substantial, while the RTX 4070 feels like an old school GeForce graphics card from a couple years back.
The RTX 4070 Founders Edition keeps the same fan design as the RTX 4090 and RTX 4080 that preceeded it (a fan on the front and back), but it shrinks everything down to a dual-slot card about two-thirds the size of those monsters. The RTX 4070 also features the same outputs as previous RTX Lovelace cards (so no USB-C out), and a 16-pin power connector with an included adapter for two 8-pin leads to power the card.
With a TGP of 200W, Nvidia could theoretically have just gone with a single 8-pin connector, but Team Green seems absolutely committed to the 12VHPWR cable, it seems. I'll never stop complaining about this, but it is what it is. If you have an ATX 3.0 power supply, you won't need to worry about that, but the rest of us will have to deal with additional cable management.
Design score: 4.5 / 5
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 review: Performance
(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)
Phenomenal gaming performance
Can easily push 60 fps in 4K gaming with DLSS
RTX 3080 performance at 60% of the power
Right out the gate, let's just say that the Nvidia RTX 4070 is the best 1440p graphics card on the market right now, and it's likely to remain at the top of that list for a good long while.
Its performance prowess isn't limited to just 1440p, mind you, and when I get into the gaming performance, you'll see that its 4K gaming potential is exciting (with caveats), but for starters, we can dig into its synthetic performance in tests like 3DMark to see how the fundamentals stack up.
General Performance
As you can see, the RTX 4070 outperforms the RTX 3070 by about 21% overall, while underperforming the RTX 3080 by about 1.37%, which is close enough to effectively tie the last-gen 4K powerhouse, and underperforms the RTX 3080 Ti by about 6%. Considering that the RTX 3080 Ti's MSRP is nearly twice that of the RTX 4070, this is an astounding result.
The RTX 4070 does lag behind the RTX 4070 Ti and the RX 7900 XT by quite a bit, averaging about 22% worse performance than the RX 7900 XT and about 13.5% worse performance than the RTX 4070 Ti. These current-gen cards also have substantially better hardware, so this isn't unexpected.
Creative Performance
When it comes to creative performance, well, we have a more limited dataset to work with since Blender Benchmark 3.5.0 decided it only wanted to test half the cards I tried to run it on (including failing to run on the RTX 4070), so we'll have to come back to that one at a later date once the benchmark is updated.
In the meantime, the tests I was able to run really showcased how well the RTX 4070 can handle creative workloads. On Adobe Premiere and Adobe Photoshop, the RTX 4070 performed noticeably better than the RTX 3080 across both apps and fell in very close behind the RTX 4070 Ti for an overall second place finish.
In lieu of Blender's Benchmark, V-Ray 5 is a fairly good stand-in, as well as an excellent benchmark in its own right. Here, the RX 7900 XT wouldn't run, since it doesn't use CUDA or Nvidia's RTX, but we can see the RTX 4070 coming in a respectable runner up to the RTX 4070 Ti.
One of my recent favorite workloads, Lumion 12.5, renders an architectural design into either a short movie clip at 1080p or 4K at 60 fps, making it one of the best benchmarks for creatives to see how a graphics card handles production level workloads rather than synthetic tests.
It requires the same kind of hardware as many of the best PC games in order to light a scene, create realistic water effects, and reproduce foliage on trees, and it's the kind of real-world benchmark that tells more about the card than a simple number devoid of context.
Considering that it can take a five-second, 60 fps movie clip an hour to render at production quality, I switched things up a bit and rather than calculate frames per second, like I do with Handbrake's encoding test, I use frames per hour to give a sense of how long a movie clip you can produce if you leave the clip to render overnight (a common practice).
In the case of the RTX 4070, it rendered a five-second movie clip at 60 fps at draft (1-star) quality 13% faster than the RTX 3080, about 7% faster than the RTX 3080 Ti, and nearly 23% faster than the RX 7900 XT.
It lagged behind the RTX 4070 Ti, though, by about 8%, a deficit that grew wider at 1080p production (4-star) quality, where the RTX 4070 rendered the movie 25% slower than the 4070 Ti and 6.78% slower than the RX 7900 XT.
For Handbrake, the RTX 4070 manages to pull out its first clean win on the creative side, though not by a whole lot. Still, 170 frames per second encoding from 4K to 1080p is not bad at all.
Overall then, the RTX 4070 puts in a solid creative performance, besting the RTX 3080, the RX 7900 XT, the RTX 3070 Ti, and the RTX 3070, while barely losing out to the RTX 3080 Ti.
Gaming Performance
(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)
As good of a creative card as the RTX 4070 is, in its bones, this is a gamers' graphics card, so gaming performance is definitely where I spent most of my time testing the RTX 4070. I want to note that the included figures here are a representative sample of my testing, and that not all test results are shown.
When it comes to gaming performance, the RTX 4070 offers some of the best you're going to get at this price, though there are some stipulations to bring up right out the gate.
First, broadly speaking, this card can game at 4K on most games not called Cyberpunk 2077 or Metro: Exodus using max settings natively, so long as you keep things within reasonable limits. Or, really, one limit: keep ray tracing turned off.
Overall, the RTX 4070 gets about 58 fps on average at 4K when not ray tracing, with a floor of 45 fps at 4K, which is eminently playable. Turn ray tracing to the max and your get an average fps of 34 with a floor of 25, which is just better than a slideshow.
The RTX 3080 doesn't fare too much better on this metric, managing 40 fps on average with a floor of 29 fps at max settings with ray tacing turned on, while the RTX 3080 Ti averages about 36 fps and a floor of 19 fps. This does put the RTX 4070 just behind the 3080 Ti in terms of average fps and with a higher fps floor than the 3080 Ti.
If you're dead set on ray tracing, the RTX 4070 can certainly deliver, thanks to DLSS, which can bump those numbers back up to 79 fps on average with a floor of 55 fps. Compare that to the RTX 3080's 80 fps average with a 58 fps floor in our tests and the RTX 4070 can definitely go toe to toe with the RTX 3080 when ray tracing on max settings if DLSS is on.
In addition, the RTX 4070 gets about 10% less fps on average than the RTX 3080 Ti at 4K with ray tracing and DLSS on, (79 fps to the 3080 Ti's 88 fps), and a roughly 14% lower fps floor than the RTX 3080 Ti (55 fps to the 3080 Ti's 64 fps).
Overall, the RTX 4070 manages an average 57 fps at 4K, with a floor of 41 fps, across all the settings I tested. This is about 28% lower than the RTX 4070 Ti (79 fps average, overall), about 10% lower than the RTX 3080 (63 fps average, overall), the RX 7900 XT (64 fps average, overall), and the RTX 3080 Ti (64 fps average, overall).
These numbers skew a bit against the RTX 4070, since the RTX 4070 Ti, RX 7900 XT, RTX 3080, and RTX 3080 Ti all handle native 4K gaming much better, but so few people play at native 4K anymore that is a fairly meaningless advantage.
Meanwhile, the RTX 4070 actually beats the RX 7900 XT by about 20% when using DLSS (versus the RX 7900 XT's FSR) at 4K with max settings and ray tracing; 79 fps on average to 66 fps on average, respectively. It also manages to strike a dead heat with the RTX 3080 (80 fps average) and come just 10% short of the RTX 3080 Ti's average RT performance at 4K with ray tracing.
It's important to note as well that these don't factor in DLSS 3 Frame Generation, to make it a fair comparison.
As for the RTX 3070, the RTX 4070 manages about 39% better average 4K performance, with a 53% higher fps floor (57 fps average with a 43 fps floor for the RTX 4070 compared to the RTX 3070's 41 fps average and 28 fps floor).
When it comes to 1440p gaming, the RTX 4070 is on much more solid footing, even if some of the bigger cards definitely perform better in absolute terms. The RTX 4070 underperforms the RTX 3080 by about 8% in non-ray-traced, non-upscaled 1440p gaming, on average (105 fps to the RTX 3080's 115 fps), though they both have a very similar floor around 80-85 fps.
Meanwhile, the RTX 4070 falls about 12% short of the RTX 3080 Ti's 119 average fps at non-ray-traced, non-DLSS 1440p.
Both the RTX 4070 Ti and RX 7900 XT kinda clobber the RTX 4070 with roughly 25-29% better performance at non-ray-traced, non-upscaled 1440p gaming, and this carries over into gaming with ray tracing settings maxed out, though the RTX 4070 is still getting north of 60 fps on average (67 fps, to be precise), with a relatively decent floor of 51 fps.
The real kicker though is when we turn on DLSS, at which point the RTX 4070 beats out everything but the RTX 4070 Ti and RTX 3080 Ti, including the RX 7900 XT, which it outperforms by about 29% on average (125 fps to 97 fps), with a much higher floor of 88 fps to the RX 7900 XT's 60 fps, a nearly 49% advantage.
The RTX 4070 also beats the RTX 3080 here too, with about 5% better performance on average and a 7.5% higher fps floor on average than the RTX 3080. Incredibly, the RTX 4070 is just 3% slower than the RTX 3080 Ti when both are using DLSS at 1440p with max ray tracing.
As for the RTX 3070, the RTX 4070 gets about 35% better performance at 1440p with ray tracing and DLSS 2.0 than the card it replaces (125 fps to 93 fps), with a nearly 53% higher fps floor on average (87 fps to the 3070's 57 fps), meaning that where the RTX 3070 is setting the 1440p standard, the RTX 4070 is blowing well past it into territory the RTX 3070 simply cannot go.
The story is pretty much the same at 1080p, with there being essentially no difference between the RTX 4070, the RTX 3080, the RTX 3080 Ti, and the RX 7900 XT, with the RTX 3070 languishing about 30% behind and the RTX 4070 Ti off on its own out ahead of everyone else.
There has been a lot of talk about the RTX 4070 ahead of its launch as benchmarks have leaked and people have looked at numbers out of context and downplayed the performance of the RTX 4070 based on one or two tests. They've even pointed to the price increase to say that this card is a disappointment.
Granted, I'm not thrilled about the 20% price increase either, but there's no getting around the fact that you're getting a graphics card here with just 200W TGP that's putting up numbers to rival the RTX 3080 Ti. And I haven't even touched on the new features packed into Lovelace that you can't get with the last-gen Nvidia graphics cards.
The numbers are what they are, and the RTX 4070's performance is simply outstanding across every resolution in all the ways that matter.
Performance score: 5 / 5
Should you buy the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 ?
(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)
Buy it if...
You want next-gen performance for less than $600
The Nvidia RTX 4070 offers performance on par with the RTX 3080 and even the RTX 3080 Ti for a good deal less.
You don't want a massive GPU Graphics cards are starting to resemble transformers nowadays (both the autobot and power plant variety), so it's nice to get a graphics card that's just normal-sized.
You want next-gen features like DLSS 3
Nvidia's hardware is often on the bleeding edge of the industry, but things like DLSS 3 and Nvidia Reflex are Nvidia's not-so-secret force multiplier here.
Don't buy it if...
You can get an RTX 3080 cheap
Generally, the RTX 4070 is going to outperform the 3080, but if you don't care about the advanced features and can grab the 3080 in a bargain bin, you could save some money.
You're looking for Nvidia's next budget card The RTX 4070 is a lot cheaper than the rest of the current-gen graphics card lineups from Nvidia and AMD, but at $600, it's still too expensive to truly be a "budget" GPU.
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 review: Also consider
If our Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 review has you considering other options, here are two more graphics cards to consider...
How I tested the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Ti
(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)
I spent about 50 hours with the RTX 4070 in total
Besides general benchmarking, I used the card for everyday gaming and creative work
My test bench specs
Here is the systems I used to test the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070:
When I test a graphics card, I start by making sure that all tests are performed on the same test bench setup to isolate GPU performance. I then run it through a series of synthetic benchmarking tools like 3DMark as well as in-game benchmarks in the most recent PC games I can access like Cyberpunk 2077 and F1 2022.
I run everything on the maximum settings possible without upscaling tech, and I run all tests at the resolution a reader is most likely to use a given card at. In the case of the RTX 4070, this meant testing at 1080p, 1440p, and 2160p.
I also make sure to install the latest relevant drivers and rerun tests on any competing graphics card that I might have already reviewed and tested, like the RTX 4070 Ti, RX 7900 XT, and RTX 3080 to make sure that I have the most current scores to account for any driver updates. All of these scores are recorded and compared against the card's predecessor, its most direct rival, and the card directly above and below it in the product stack, if those cards are available.
I then average these scores to come to a final overall score and divide that by the card's MSRP to see how much performance every dollar or pound spent actually gets you to find how much value the card actually brings to the table.
Finally, I actually use the card in my own personal computer for several days, playing games, using apps like Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator, and watching for any anomalies, crashes, glitches, or visual disruptions that may occur during my time with the card. Having extensively covered and tested many graphics cards over the years, I know what a graphics card should do and how it should perform, and can readily identify when something is not performing up to expectations and when it exceeds them.
Strava announced today a new partnership with Spotify, integrating the streaming platform within its own mobile app. You can now link up your favorite songs, playlists and podcasts to the activity platform and play music instantly without the need for switching between apps.
A music note will appear in the Record tab, pulling up suggested playlists and tracks directly from Spotify. Premium users can play their starred tracks and curated playlists, while Free users will listen to whatever the audio app usually feeds them, including intermittent ads.
The feature will be available to...
The District Court of Mannheim, Germany has ruled in favor of Nokia in a patent case against vivo. The lawsuit concerns a Nokia 4G standard-essential patent (SEP) and could see vivo forced out of the German market. Nokia previously won cases against Oppo and OnePlus over the same SEPs which resulted in a ban on the sale of Oppo and OnePlus devices in Germany.
vivo issued an official statement confirming it will pause sales and marketing of affected products via official vivo Germany channels. The company is also ready to appeal the court decision and is continuing to negotiate a new IP...
Realme introduced the Realme C55 last month with Dynamic Island-like Mini Capsule, and as promised, the company today unveiled the Realme Narzo N55, which is the second Realme smartphone to come with the Mini Capsule feature.
The Mini Capsule on the Realme Narzo N55 expectedly works the same way as it does on the C55. It can show the battery status, data usage, and step count. However, the last two functionalities won't be available out of the box (like the C55) and will arrive later through an OTA.
The Realme Narzo N55 boots Android 13-based Realme UI 4.0 and has the Helio G88 SoC...
The upcoming Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 series will all support a new S Pen, which has just passed through the FCC to get certified.
The S Pen, model name EJ-PX710, supports Bluetooth Low Energy, has a built-in 2.40V capacitor for quick recharging, and will likely be attached to the tablet through a magnetic strip on the back, just like on the Galaxy Tab S8 series.
Also just like the Galaxy Tab S8 series, the Galaxy Tab S9 series will feature three members - the Galaxy Tab S9, likely the smallest, the Tab S9+, a bigger middle option, and the Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra. The Ultra will have a...
PacketStream was founded in 2014 by CEO Zachary Smith (an unlikely tech leader as he was trained in classical music at Julliard), to be able to offer a new product in an area that gets dominated by the hyperscale clouds, such as Amazon Web services and Google. By creating a peer-to-peer model for residential proxies, a new model was created. It currently has a location in Los Angeles, California. It has grown to offer its over 5,000 clients in excess of 7 million residential proxies. Does this make it the best proxy? We'll take a look...
PacketStream: Features
PacketStream offers a proxy service based solely on residential proxies, which means that there are no mobile proxies, nor are there stable ISP based residential proxies. Rather, it is entirely user based proxies, millions strong that are selling the unused bandwidth on their network connection to PacketStream, who is in turn leasing it back to its user base. Folks that supply a proxy node get their bandwidth measured, and credited back for what the PacketStream users consume. They also claim zero restrictions, and a 99% uptime, realizing that competing services have even higher claimed uptimes.
By using all of these residential connections, the browsing becomes quite anonymous, which is the advantage of this method. There are many potential uses for such a powerful technology. One example is for a business can view a landing page anonymously, such as for a reseller of its product. Therefore, they can then see if this landing page for the product is accurately representing it, it is appropriately positioned, and also does not have any inappropriate advertising from a competitor, or even worse some type of malware. By verifying all of the preceding, this ensures that they are getting the product positioned as was promised, and this process is known as content verification.
The ability to anonymously browse is a powerful technology with other applications as well. Another example is to gain insight into what a competitor is doing, and not tip them off that you are looking at them. Also, use of a proxy provides a higher level of security than going to a website without this additional layer of protection.
PacketStream: Pricing
While some proxies have complicated tier structures, and plans based on the type of proxy, whether mobile, static or IP based, and the number of proxies that you have use of, PacketStream really has none of this. Rather, it is a far more simplified pricing structure, although this one has a potentially profitable twist that we have not encountered before.
The pricing is based on a single option, of $1/GB. Yes, that’s it, with no mention of a monthly fee, or minimum purchase. At that price point, it is a lot cheaper than most other plans that often charge more in the $8 to $12/GB range depending on the volume. Still, we would like to see a discount for higher volume users, but this is a low fixed price point no matter how much data gets used. We also did not find any free trial period.
The twist is that there is an opportunity through PacketStream to turn your network connection into profit. Here, you can share your residential IP so others can use it as a proxy, and they will pay you at the rate of $0.10/GB (hence we can see how they can resell it at a higher rate). While that may sound like a profitable idea, when we checked on the Terms of Service for our ISP, Optimum Online, we found “Subscriber shall not use Services for any commercial purpose,” and also “Subscriber shall not intercept, receive or assist in the interception or receipt of, resell, distribute or duplicate any Services.” Therefore, with a residential connection, about the best we could say is that depending on your ISP, we would be less than enthusiastic for sharing our connection with a proxy given what our research found.
PacketStream: Support
Support for PacketStream is definitely less than robust. To contact the company, the only method that we found is via email, which at least they have segregated into sales and service. Beyond that, there is no direct phone number, no fax, no chat, and no support portal. We also are not told the hours and days of operation, so we are not sure how fast any queries are responded to. There is an address for the Los Angeles office so you could send a snail mail, but nobody wants to do support that way.
Self help can sometimes make up for a dearth of direct support options. Unfortunately, not in PacketStream’s case. We did not find any searchable database, articles, whitepapers, ebooks, community forum. What we did encounter was a blog, with the most recent article “Utilizing PacketStream’s Residential Proxies to Monitor You and Your Competitor’s Website’s Search Engine Rankings” with a publish date of September 30, 2019, which indicated to us that it is not updated regularly. We also did find a FAQ with some info on some common questions, but most of the answers are only a few sentences in length, or even shorter.
PacketStream: Final verdict
PacksetStream offers a unique entry into the proxy space. We are impressed at its pricing via a single tier of plan that it could be considered disruptive to competitors, and the potential for others to profit by selling their residential internet connection. At the same time, we are concerned by the limited support options, that the terms of service for our ISP would suggest to not resell it, and that the blog was last updated four years ago. Still, for a business with a limited budget, at this cost, PacketStream is worth a trial.
LG introduced its new company logo which features a flatter look and a lighter shade of red dubbed LG Active Red. The signature Life’s Good brand slogan will be used more widely across branding and product packaging and features a new typeface. LG is going for a more “dynamic and youthful” look in hopes of reinventing its brand identity.
New LG logo next to its predecessor
Having a strong, consistent brand strategy enables us to better communicate our value proposition and unique identity, which harmonically blends innovation and warmth. Implementing the new brand strategy, LG...
The iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max might skip the solid-state buttons, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reveals in his latest report. There are “unresolved technical issues,” meaning the premium iPhone 15 models might have to launch with regular physical buttons after all.
The rumor mill has been suggesting the volume rocker and the alert slider of the iPhone 15 Pro series will move on from the classic clickable button. They were supposed to be capacitive touch instead, like the home button on the iPhones of yesteryear.
Such a move would hurt suppliers. Most notably Cirrus Logic was...
