This is a big test: across 52 games at 1440p and 4K, the Radeon RX 9070 XT is ~25% faster than the RTX 5070, while also costing less and offering 16GB of VRAM. Let's take a closer look.
GeForce RTX 5070 vs. Radeon RX 9070 XT: 2026 Update
- Thread starter Steve
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Thatsdisgusting
Posts: 547 +625
2080 Ti first adopter’s dream came true - entire nvidia stack now starts from 500$ for lowest end, especially if you, just like nvidia, consider 5060 as the entry point, and not 5050, bastard that nvidia is ashamed of.
P.S. FYI, there are places where 5080 starts from 2000$, just like 5090 MSRP)
P.S. FYI, there are places where 5080 starts from 2000$, just like 5090 MSRP)
I don't know why people still fall for the old "Nvidia is best" and "AMD drivers suck" arguments. I've owned almost nothing but Nvidia GPUs since the first 3D cards came out. Yes, I'm that old.
However, I got a screaming good deal on a 9070 XT this summer, and I don't see myself going back to Nvidia. The card is a powerhouse and absolutely crushes my old 3070 Ti. Best of all, AMD's software is just so much easier to use. It's not perfect, but I find it simpler and much easier to navigate than Nvidia's software.
Given the price and performance difference highlighted in this article, I really don't see how the 9070 XT isn't the obvious choice for any practical gamer shopping in this performance range. Don't get me wrong, paying around $790 for a GPU is still not for the faint of heart, but the 5070 Ti is around $1,150. That's a $360 difference which is enough to buy a high-end CPU.
For me, the old arguments about Nvidia being the automatic choice simply don't hold up anymore. I am more disappointed that AMD does not try harder to market this card, and maybe worse never bothered to make a more powerful version.
However, I got a screaming good deal on a 9070 XT this summer, and I don't see myself going back to Nvidia. The card is a powerhouse and absolutely crushes my old 3070 Ti. Best of all, AMD's software is just so much easier to use. It's not perfect, but I find it simpler and much easier to navigate than Nvidia's software.
Given the price and performance difference highlighted in this article, I really don't see how the 9070 XT isn't the obvious choice for any practical gamer shopping in this performance range. Don't get me wrong, paying around $790 for a GPU is still not for the faint of heart, but the 5070 Ti is around $1,150. That's a $360 difference which is enough to buy a high-end CPU.
For me, the old arguments about Nvidia being the automatic choice simply don't hold up anymore. I am more disappointed that AMD does not try harder to market this card, and maybe worse never bothered to make a more powerful version.
Yeah you’re right about AMD not trying harder, but to be fair, it’s in an underdog position with regards to resources to dedicate, in an AI tsunami which it also must compete, and fight Intel, and struggle to get manufacturing allocation. Oh, and that ram crisis thing.
The other problem is that nvidia has completely dominated the mindshare of gamers. I recently pulled the trigger on a 5080 on “sale” as everyone was warning of a price jump coming: I got it for about $350-400 more (new) than it should have sold for and easily $700+ more than a 9070xt. I agonized a bit but at days end I figured I’d be holding on to this card for a while and if im already spending over a $1000 I might as well go the “safe” route.
I'm still amazed at the loyalty that Nvidia has, especially after all of the shady things they've pulled over the years. Like a previous commenter, I ran a lot of Nvidia cards starting with the Riva 128, I think my last was a 970 sli setup. I could never justify the price for the top of the line cards then. It wasn't too long after that that I finally bought a Radeon on a price vs performance basis. I was still open to buying both until the Geforce partner program. Everything Nvidia did to start vendor locking (buying PhysX, G-Sync) just turned me off of them more. It wasn't until the RX 6950 XT I could afford a top of the line card, but if you don't use DLSS, AMD had the most bang for the buck.
I wouldn't even consider an Nvida card at these prices, and don't get the draw of software tricks to justify the massive price increases.
I wouldn't even consider an Nvida card at these prices, and don't get the draw of software tricks to justify the massive price increases.
I agree with the conclusion of this article fully - for gaming.
But there's a lot more out there (I'm looking at you AI) where Nvidia is the benchmark and things work much better and easier on an Nvidia card. AI is the driving force behind the rising prices, not just for the scarcity of memory, but because everyone wants Nvidia's speed and compatibility.
But there's a lot more out there (I'm looking at you AI) where Nvidia is the benchmark and things work much better and easier on an Nvidia card. AI is the driving force behind the rising prices, not just for the scarcity of memory, but because everyone wants Nvidia's speed and compatibility.
It's an overall issue, just because you personally haven't had an issue doesn't mean nobody else has. My friend is a Linux snob and went for a 9070xt because of AMD being more friendly with Linux. 3 RMA's on 3 different cards.. and drivers still have issues, but nvidia had issues with theirs as well even though it may not be nearly as much. I worked at microcenter for almost 10 years, the sales were 10:1.. even if you tell them that the amd card is cheaper and more powerful they still want nvidia.
about30ninjas
Posts: 31 +69
Thanks for the great article!
Managed to snag a RX 9070XT for MSRP about 6 months ago and I am absolutely loving it. Like my last Radeon card, this card seems to be aging like fine wine, yet again. Running Linux, it's a no brainer compared to Nvida. Plus I don't need to risk my investment with the sometimes faulty 12VHPWR connector, I am perfectly happy connecting the tried and true 8 PIN power connectors.
That Nvida tax is getting ridiculous.
Managed to snag a RX 9070XT for MSRP about 6 months ago and I am absolutely loving it. Like my last Radeon card, this card seems to be aging like fine wine, yet again. Running Linux, it's a no brainer compared to Nvida. Plus I don't need to risk my investment with the sometimes faulty 12VHPWR connector, I am perfectly happy connecting the tried and true 8 PIN power connectors.
That Nvida tax is getting ridiculous.
maxxcool7421
Posts: 946 +1,381
jdrch
Posts: 56 +33
Looks like AMD caught Nvidia asleep at the wheel here, having caught up in RT, something AMD have historically been terrible at.
The only thing this review excludes is long term driver support and feature backporting, which Nvidia still win at.
But, by the numbers, even with Nvidia's CUDA advantage, it's hard to ignore AMD's 33% more VRAM for less money. Can't argue with that at all. Well done, AMD!
The only thing this review excludes is long term driver support and feature backporting, which Nvidia still win at.
But, by the numbers, even with Nvidia's CUDA advantage, it's hard to ignore AMD's 33% more VRAM for less money. Can't argue with that at all. Well done, AMD!
darkzelda
Posts: 444 +318
Glad I picked a 9070 XT almost a year ago. Excellent gpu, couldn't be happier.
Theinsanegamer
Posts: 9,065 +18,467
You're amazed that the company with a more competitive software stack, longer driver support, that doesn't need to be bullied into supporting older cards, that is better for tasks outside of gaming, and consistently puts out an entire product stack is the more popular choice?
Man, the Wikipedia entry for "brand loyalty" is gonna blow your mind.
This "poor underdog AMD" misinformation needs to die. They are a multi billion dollar corporation. $35 billion in revenue last year. They're not the size of nvidia, but they're not the same AMD from 2015 that was near bankruptcy. They have plentiful resources to compete at this point.
The things that make them second rate in the mind of the consumer are entirely within their control, like short driver support, refusal to port updates to older designs, and being late to market with different cards.
May have something to do with AMD having to be bullied into providing driver and feature support for cards 5 years old, while nvidia routinely provides 10 years of support.
The entire FSR4 debacle showed how little AMD cared. They KNEW that FSR4 could work on older cards via INT8 mode, they MADE the mode specifically for that, then refused to release it or support their older cards for over half a year. They refused to support FSR4 on even rDNA3, only 3 years old at the time, while DLSS4+Transformer ran on RTX 2000s, which were a year older then rDNA 1! Rather predictably, this backfired and drove away consumers and tanked confidence in the brand, something they will now need to spend several generations correcting. Even now, rDNA2 is stuck on a maintenance branch to the annoyance of many of us who bought them, and the 7900 series' instability was never fully ironed out. For those who bought them, you think they will be inclined to choose AMD for their next expensive GPU purchase?
Maybe because I do own AMD and graphics drivers break regularly. Something that almost never happens to me on NV. Happy for you tho.
I've owned several AMD cards and installed plenty for friends, and I’ve never run into a single issue. Sounds like you just got unlucky.
Its pretty incredible. There was a guy on here that raved and raved Nvidia because of the performance. He talked about maxing out everything blah blah blah. But any time I told him Nvidia is going to skin them alive, he got super defensive to the point he was calling me names. I believe he got banned. RIP Rapob
JetFixxxer
Posts: 55 +35
My first stand alone was a Matrox, then I moved over to nvidia TNT '98. My buddy busted my stones about not getting Voodoo from 3Dfx. I stuck with nVidia until the 8800GTX. Then I bounced over to ATI on the 4870 because of better performance or nVIDIA. Ran ATI/AMD up through the 390x.Then I moved over the 1080Ti and 2080 and then moved back to the AMD 7900xt and the 9700XT. I felt the performance gain that nVidia was offering wasn't worth the extra cash. Unless it was a huge difference.
Team Red and Team Green have given me issue at one point, but it was Team Green that has given me the most. AMD been rock steady for the most part. Unfortunately, the driver time out issue for AMD is almost always blamed on the GPU itself. When it could be something other than the GPU. That and ATI had horrible drivers (I used the Omega drivers.), which has carried over with AMD. Now it's used as an excuse to justify paying more for a nVidia. "I wouldn't by a AMD because of their horrible driviers"...
Team Red and Team Green have given me issue at one point, but it was Team Green that has given me the most. AMD been rock steady for the most part. Unfortunately, the driver time out issue for AMD is almost always blamed on the GPU itself. When it could be something other than the GPU. That and ATI had horrible drivers (I used the Omega drivers.), which has carried over with AMD. Now it's used as an excuse to justify paying more for a nVidia. "I wouldn't by a AMD because of their horrible driviers"...
I would always pick Geforce over Radeon personally. Over the years I have had much worse experiences from Radeon, I have regretted probably half of the Radeon purchases I have made (With the exception of the 7970 Ghz edition). Nvidia have been boring throughout my life but thats a good thing.
At current pricing I would choose to wait. I dont consider Radeon as a viable option anymore. Id choose an Intel card before I buy Radeon again. And to give you an idea, the last Radeon I had - the 5700XT was giving me random black screens that could only be resolved with a reboot. I had no idea why until I watched a Gamers Nexus video about how this is affecting this card. AMD never addressed it. I ended up swapping that card out prematurely for a 3070 Ti, which im still using today with no issues whatsoever.
At current pricing I would choose to wait. I dont consider Radeon as a viable option anymore. Id choose an Intel card before I buy Radeon again. And to give you an idea, the last Radeon I had - the 5700XT was giving me random black screens that could only be resolved with a reboot. I had no idea why until I watched a Gamers Nexus video about how this is affecting this card. AMD never addressed it. I ended up swapping that card out prematurely for a 3070 Ti, which im still using today with no issues whatsoever.
Melkor Unlimited
Posts: 418 +383
It may or may not be your hands.
Have several Radeons since 2019. Not once got driver failure.
Game crashing? Yes.
Windows crashing? Several times.
Both when got a new piece and did OC/UV/benchmarking to see where it can go. Not in ordinary everyday using.
On the other side ...
Those "vibe coded" drivers produced since release of rtx 5000 series are not ... the best on the shelf.
@Theinsanegamer
Seem like You like to being hypocrite.
Backporting features to older card for 10+ years you are saiing ...
Just tell me when Official support arrives for
- rtx 4090 and this Neural Rendering (aka DLSS5)
- rtx 4090 and Multi FG and/or Adaptive FG (Oct 12th, 2022)
- rtx 3080 and any FG (Sep 17th, 2020)
- gtx 1660 Super will get RT and/or SS (Oct 29th, 2019). BTW ... those 1600 series cards came after rtx 2000 (Jan 15th, 2019)
Using tools from moders one can launch DLLS5 on RDNA4 (does have FP8) or even RDNA3 (does not have it).
Im younger and started with DIY back in 2005. Owned about equal number of Nvidia and (then ATI) AMD cards.
I was an Nvidia user for 9 years prior to getting the 9070 XT last year.
I felt Nvidia screwed me over because they didn't even bother giving me ReBAR - a standard PCIe feature my then 2080 Ti (bought used for $720 back in 2021) defenetly could have used and supported. And then my G-Sync monitor was also about to lose variable refresh because I had a first gen monitor that didn't support other cards. Hilariously it ended up dying anyway so I got a FreeSync replacement.
I just dont get people buying a 5080. If it had 24GB or some other advantage over a 5070 Ti other than +15% performance then I could at least understand the reasoning, but it doesn't. It has the same 16GB and even uses the same (albeit fully enabled) die as the 5070 Ti.
15% is also a rounding error on an OSD readout to me. A card has to be at least 50% faster for me to start thing paying more for it.
My last upgrade was 2080 To to 9070 XT. Roughly 80% faster.
That sounds more like a user specific issue. I could understand 3 RMA's on the same card, but on different cards - that's way outside the norm.
Maybe a bad PSU or whatever.
Long term driver support is pretty meaningless. Most people swap their card in the 4-5 year mark. Driver support being 10 years vs 7 years is irrelevant in that case. Feature backporting is something Nvidia has refused to do plenty of. 20 series didn't get most RTX features. 30 series lacks FG. 40 series lacks MFG and DLSS5 etc.
Break I what way exactly?
The only rare anomaly I have encountered is the adrenaline control panel suddenly quitting by itself, but that's about my extent of negative things I've noticed.
I had that guy blocked. Glad he finally got the well deserved boot.
So you're judging the quality of today's AMD's products based on products that are three generations or even older?
Today's RDNA4 barely has anything common with RDNA1, much less with HD7000 series.
Nvidia has also made turds in the past, but im not judging 50 series quality based on FX5700 series leaf blower of 400 series Fermi grill.
In Gaming , Radeon 9070 XT is super, what about for video editing using adobe premiere, davinci,etc and for AI content creation, please anybody knows about this and requesting Techspot to compare the same for multitasks, video editing, AI content ?
RDNA 1 and 2 still receive game ready drivers. They are on one driver branch while RDNA 3 and 4 are on another driver branch.
So Nvidia doesn't need to be bullied into bring newer RTX features to older RTX cards? Could have fooled me.
Put out an entire stack? Is that why we're missing the Super series and proper 5080 card, not whatever this current mockup is?
So they should put all 35b into Radeon?
As long as they're around 20% market share. They're the underdog. Regardless of their revenue.
I mean look at Intel's revenue and their abysmal dGPU share. Are they not an underdog in the dGPU space because of their profits?
And Nvidia is not refusing to port newer features to their older cards?
Also how exactly was AMD late? They launched RDNA4 shortly after Nvidia had paper launched 50 series with near zero availability.
10 years is an exaggeration. Firstly a only a few series have received 10 years. Most max out at 7-9.
Secondly show me people running 10 year old cards. That's 10 series that doesn't even support any of the modern RTX features you so proudly tout here.
Thirdly - do you seriously believe that a card receiving 10 years of "support" didn't spend the last 4-5 years of that time in "maintenance mode"? That after 10 years it received day one game optimizations for that specific architecture?
Yes bad AMD for not giving users worse INT8 based FSR. Meanwhile Nvidia gaslighted everyone by telling that their 20 and 30 series were not capable f running FG. Despite AMD of all the suspects proving them wrong with FSR FG.
I am judging based on my own experience. And I have been in this game a very very long time. Theres a reason why Nvidia dominates the market.
And I am not the only one. The market always chooses Nvidia with AMD only really getting sales at times like this, when their prices are significantly lower.
Past experience does not guarantee same outcome now.
I've owned about equal number of both Nvidia and AMD (back then ATI) cards.
Well, one more Nvidia than AMD.
I've not had noticeable issue with any of them. Each have their own quirks and idiosyncrasies, but no major flaws. I was an Nvidia user 9 years prior to getting the 9070 XT.
That was long enough.
I've been an AMD user for over a year now and it's been rock solid.
List of card's I've owned:
| ATI Radeon X800XL PCI-E 256MB ATI Radeon X850XT PCI-E 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 7900GTX 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800GTS 320MB AMD Radeon 7870 Tahiti LE 2GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 2GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 8GB NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11GB AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT 16GB |
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