The RTX 4070 delivers strong mid-range performance with 12GB GDDR6X memory. At 52 tokens per second for 8B models, it offers excellent speed for 7B-8B parameter models at a reasonable price point.
12GB GDDR6X at 504 GB/s makes the RTX 4070 the fastest 12GB card from the previous generation. The higher bandwidth compared to the RTX 3060 (504 vs 360 GB/s) translates directly to faster token generation. You get the same model capacity as the 3060 but 24% more speed. For 7B-9B models at Q4, expect 4-6GB usage with solid headroom for context.
| GPU | VRAM | Speed | Bandwidth | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RTX 3060 | 12 GB | 42 tok/s | 360 GB/s | $250 |
| RTX 4070 | 12 GB | 52 tok/s | 504 GB/s | $579 |
| RTX 5070 | 12 GB | 59 tok/s | 672 GB/s | $579 |
| RTX 4070 SUPER | 12 GB | 56 tok/s | 504 GB/s | $759 |
Qwen / 4B / Q4_K_M / ~3.5 GB
Best for: Coding, Agents, Multimodal·Pop: 88/100
Perf: ~93.7 tok/s · first token ~0.4s
Fits in 12 GB VRAM with room to spare. Best for coding, agents, multimodal on RTX 4070.
ollama run qwen3.5:4b-instruct-q4_K_M
Llama / 8B / Q4_K_M / ~6.5 GB
Best for: Chat, Coding·Pop: 94/100
Perf: ~52.0 tok/s · first token ~0.4s
Fits in 12 GB VRAM with room to spare. Best for chat, coding on RTX 4070.
ollama run llama3.1:8b-instruct-q4_K_M
Qwen / 9B / Q4_K_M / ~7 GB
Best for: Quality, Coding, Reasoning·Pop: 86/100
Perf: ~47.0 tok/s · first token ~0.4s
Fits in 12 GB VRAM with room to spare. Best for quality, coding, reasoning on RTX 4070.
ollama run qwen3.5:9b-instruct-q4_K_M
Qwen / 8B / Q4_K_M / ~6.5 GB
Best for: Chat, Coding·Pop: 88/100
Perf: ~52.0 tok/s · first token ~0.4s
Fits in 12 GB VRAM with room to spare. Best for chat, coding on RTX 4070.
ollama run qwen3:8b-q4_K_M
Mistral / 7B / Q4_K_M / ~5.5 GB
Best for: Chat, Coding·Pop: 90/100
Perf: ~58.3 tok/s · first token ~0.4s
Fits in 12 GB VRAM with room to spare. Best for chat, coding on RTX 4070.
ollama run mistral:7b-instruct-q4_K_M
Qwen / 7B / Q4_K_M / ~5.5 GB
Best for: Coding·Pop: 85/100
Perf: ~58.3 tok/s · first token ~0.4s
Fits in 12 GB VRAM with room to spare. Best for coding on RTX 4070.
ollama run qwen2.5-coder:7b-q4_K_M
Qwen / 7B / Q4_K_M / ~5.5 GB
Best for: Chat, Coding·Pop: 86/100
Perf: ~58.3 tok/s · first token ~0.4s
Fits in 12 GB VRAM with room to spare. Best for chat, coding on RTX 4070.
ollama run qwen2.5:7b-instruct-q4_K_M
LFM2 / 8B / Q4_K_M / ~6 GB
Best for: Local agents, tool calling, fast chat·Pop: 75/100
Perf: ~52.0 tok/s · first token ~0.4s
Fits in 12 GB VRAM with room to spare. Best for local agents, tool calling, fast chat on RTX 4070.
ollama run liquidai/lfm2:8b-a1b-instruct-q4_K_M
DeepSeek / 7B / Q4_K_M / ~5.5 GB
Best for: Reasoning, Coding·Pop: 77/100
Perf: ~58.3 tok/s · first token ~0.4s
Fits in 12 GB VRAM with room to spare. Best for reasoning, coding on RTX 4070.
ollama run deepseek-r1-distill:qwen-7b-q4_K_M
Gemma / 4B / Q4_K_M / ~3.5 GB
Best for: Chat, Coding·Pop: 81/100
Perf: ~93.7 tok/s · first token ~0.4s
Fits in 12 GB VRAM with room to spare. Best for chat, coding on RTX 4070.
ollama run gemma3:4b-instruct-q4_K_M
Alibaba Cloud — Widest size range (0.5B to 235B)
LlamaMeta — Most popular open-weight model family
DeepSeekDeepSeek AI — Best-in-class reasoning with R1 models
MistralMistral AI — Excellent performance-per-parameter ratio
GemmaGoogle DeepMind — Excellent quality at small sizes (1B-9B)
PhiMicrosoft — Best quality-per-parameter in small sizes
The RTX 4070 has 12GB GDDR6X VRAM with 504 GB/s bandwidth. About 11.5GB is usable for models. Same capacity as the RTX 3060 but 40% more bandwidth, making it faster for the same models.
Up to 9B parameter models at Q4 quantization — same as other 12GB cards. The advantage is speed: 52 tok/s vs 42 tok/s on the RTX 3060. Popular models include Qwen 2.5 7B, Llama 3.2 8B, and Gemma 2 9B.
Yes, it is a strong mid-range choice. The 4070 offers a good balance of speed (52 tok/s) and price. Its main limitation is 12GB VRAM — if you need 14B models, consider the RTX 5070 Ti or 4060 Ti 16GB instead.
The RTX 5070 is 13% faster (59 vs 52 tok/s) at the same $579 MSRP. Both have 12GB VRAM. If buying new, the 5070 is the better pick. If buying used, a discounted 4070 under $400 is excellent value.
Use our interactive wizard to compare models across Apple Silicon and NVIDIA GPUs.