Zotac is the next AIB partner to adopt Nvidia's flagship AD102 die-in products other than the RTX 4090, one of the best graphics cards. CoolPC reports that a highly neutered AD102 powers Zotac's latest RTX 4070 Ti Super Solid die rather than the AD103 die the 4070 Ti Super series typically utilizes.
CoolPC revealed die shots of an RTX 4070 Ti Super Solid OC graphics card against the Zotac RTX 4070 Ti Super AMP Holo and Zotac RTX 4090 Trinity OC. The images reveal that the RTX 4070 Ti Super Solid OC comes with a die codenamed AD102-175-KEF-A1 that is the same proportions as the AD102-300-A1 die in the Zotac Trinity. By contrast, the AD103-275-A1 die in the RTX 4070 Ti Super AMP Holo is a completely different shape and smaller than the AD102-equipped GPUs.
Zotac isn't the first manufacturer to implement AD102 dies in lower-tier RTX 40 series products. MSI was the first to use Nvidia's flagship AD102 die in its RTX 4070 Ti Super Ventus 3X graphics cards. Opting to run AD102 in the RTX 4070 Ti Super allows Nvidia to recycle defective AD102 dies that would otherwise be dumped in the garbage if they failed to pass quality control for the RTX 4090.
Running the massive AD102 die in an RTX 4070 Ti Super allows over 50% of the entire die to be defective, and it will still work within the RTX 4070 Ti's specifications. AD102 has 18,432 CUDA cores and six 64-bit memory controllers (384-bit interface). All required for an RTX 4070 Ti Super SKU to work is just 8,448 CUDA cores to be fully functional and just four of the six 64-bit memory controllers to work.
An AD102 variant of the RTX 4070 Ti Super shouldn't offer any performance advantage over AD103 versions of the GPU; however, there is a chance GPU temperatures might be lower than that of an AD103 counterpart due to AD102's massive size, and the fact that less than half of the GPU is being used. This makes most of the die a giant heat spreader that can soak up heat from active parts of the chip.
Ironically, the RTX 4070 Ti Super Solid is larger than Nvidia's RTX 4090 Founders Edition. The GPU is one of the most oversized RTX 4070 series graphics cards Zotac currently makes, featuring a card thickness that requires at least four PCIe slots to fit inside a chassis. It also has a massive triple-fan cooling system featuring 100mm fans, some of the largest ones in a triple-fan design.