NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition, AI & Machine Learning Comparison
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition wins 5 of 20 benchmarks, averaging 23% faster.
Both cards' numbers are anchored estimates calibrated against our measured cards, pending first-party measurement. Treat small gaps as ties.
What the numbers say
The gap is widest in Stable Diffusion XL, where NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition leads by 38% (2.2 vs 3.04 images/min); the closest fight is Qwen3-4B (18% apart); VRAM decides part of this one: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 runs 18 of our 12 AI workloads while the other card runs 5, models that don't fit score zero.
Benchmark results head-to-head
| Benchmark | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen3-4B tok/s | 107.26 (power capped) | 126.36 | -15% |
| Llama-3.1-8B tok/s | 68.09 (power capped) | 80.95 | -16% |
| Qwen3 8B tok/s | 65.9 (power capped) | 78.92 | -16% |
| Gemma 4 12B tok/s | 41.86 (power capped) | 50.4 | -17% |
| Qwen2.5-Coder 14B tok/s | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| Qwen3 14B tok/s | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| Gemma 4 26B A4B tok/s | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| Qwen3 30B A3B tok/s | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| Gemma 4 31B tok/s | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| Qwen3 32B tok/s | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| Llama 3.3 70B tok/s | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| Sana 1.6B images/min | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| Stable Diffusion XL images/min | 2.2 | 3.04 | -28% |
| PixArt-Sigma XL images/min | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| FLUX.1 Kontext dev images/min | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| FLUX.1 dev images/min | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| Qwen-Image-Edit images/min | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| Z-Image Turbo images/min | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| LTX-Video (distilled) frames/s | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| Wan 2.2 5B (720p) frames/s | 0 | 0 | n/a |
Cost to rent
| Card | Per hour |
|---|---|
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 | $0.062 |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition | $0.095 |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 is 1.53x cheaper per hour. Cheapest on-demand rate we see across RunPod and Vast.
Specifications compared
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition | |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 8GB | 8GB |
| Transistors | 10,800M | 17,400M |
| Die size | 445 mm² | 392.5 mm² |
| Process node | 12 nm | 8 nm |
| Transistor density | 24.3 M/mm² | 44.3 M/mm² |
| Architecture | Turing | Ampere |
| Memory bandwidth | 448 GB/s | 448 GB/s |
| Boost clock | 1,620 MHz | 1,725 MHz |
| TDP | 175 W | 220 W |
| Launch MSRP | $499 | $499 |
| Release | 2018-10-17 | 2020-10-29 |
FAQ
- Which is better for ai & machine learning: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 or NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition?
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition performs better for ai & machine learning, winning 5 of 20 benchmarks in our suite with an average 23% advantage.
- What are the main hardware differences between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition?
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 has 8GB VRAM and a 175W TDP, while NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition has 8GB VRAM and a 220W TDP.
- Does VRAM matter more than speed between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition?
- For AI, yes, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 fits 1 more of our 12 workloads than NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition. A model that exceeds VRAM doesn't run slower, it doesn't run at all, so the card that fits the model wins that workload outright.
- Where is the biggest performance difference between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition?
- Stable Diffusion XL: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition leads by roughly 38% (2.2 vs 3.04 images/min) in our testing.
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