Nvidia's RTX 70 series has long been the company's mainstream performance showcase, the line that promises high-end gaming without fully stepping into enthusiast-tier pricing. So today we are taking a broader look at how this family has evolved, tracing its path from the RTX 2070 launch in late 2018 all the way to this year's newcomer, the RTX 5070.
Lining these GPUs up across six years of architectural shifts gives us a clearer picture of what Nvidia has delivered each generation, and where the latest model actually lands within its own lineage.
Of course, we have already reviewed the RTX 5070 (and then some), and we have to say that, upon release, we found it underwhelming. The card's most immediate issue is also its most familiar: it ships with the same 12 GB of VRAM as the RTX 4070.
With modern games leaning harder than ever on memory, and with ray tracing and upscaling continuing to increase VRAM consumption, sticking with 12 GB at a $550 price point feels increasingly out of step. We argued then, and still believe now, that 16 GB should be the baseline for a GPU positioned in this tier.
That raises the question at the heart of this deep dive: is the RTX 5070 actually a step forward, or just a lateral move? Does it meaningfully improve on the RTX 4070? How does it stack up against the RTX 3070's impressive showing back in 2020? And is it genuinely stronger than the original RTX 2070 that launched the series?
To find out, we tested all four cards head to head at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K, using two quality presets per game to capture both raw performance and real-world playability. The goal is simple: cut through generational marketing and see where the RTX 5070 truly stands. Let us get into the results.
Benchmarks
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
Basic Preset
Starting with the Call of Duty Black Ops 6 basic preset results, we see that at 1080p the older RTX 2070 is good for 109 fps on average, while the 3070 averaged 161 fps, a massive 48% uplift. This helps explain why the 30 series was so exciting. That said, the 4070 was 41% faster than the 3070, while the latest 5070 is just 3% faster in this example, so we are not sure what is going on there.
As we increase the resolution, some of the margins grow. For example, the 3070 is now 57% faster than the 2070. However, the 4070's margin over the 3070 falls to 34%, while the newer 5070 is 7% faster when comparing the average frame rate, although it was 23% faster when comparing 1% lows.
Extreme Preset
When increasing the visual quality settings with the Extreme preset, the RTX 2070 is limited to just 44 fps on average at 1080p. This makes the 3070 a massive 84% faster with 81 fps. The 4070 is another 40% faster, averaging 113 fps, while the 5070 is again barely any faster at 119 fps.
We see similar performance trends at 1440p and 4K. The 3070 is around twice as fast as the 2070, the 4070 is a little over 30% faster than the 3070, and the 4070 and 5070 perform almost the same. Let us move on to another game.
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
Low Quality
Next up we have Cyberpunk 2077, starting with the low quality preset data, at 1080p the 3070 was 60% faster than the 2070, rendering 141 fps compared to just 88 fps. From the 3070 to the 4070, we saw a further 35% increase to 191 fps, followed by only a 10% increase from the 4070 to the 5070.
It is a similar story at 1440p. The 3070 was 62% faster than the 2070, the 4070 was 33% faster than the 3070, and the 5070 was just 13% faster than the 4070.
High Quality
Moving to the high preset data, we find that the RTX 2070 is only able to render 67 fps at 1080p. This makes the 3070 54% faster, while the 4070 was another 23% faster.
Under these conditions, we finally see a more meaningful performance gain from the RTX 5070, as it is 22% faster than the 4070. The margin increases slightly at 1440p to 26% and then rises to an impressive 45% at 4K.
Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered
Medium
Testing Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered with the medium preset, we see that the RTX 2070 is good for 88 fps at 1080p and just 65 fps at 1440p. At both resolutions, the 3070 was just under 60% faster, which represents a huge uplift for the 30 series. From the 3070 to the 4070, we are looking at nearly a 30% improvement, while the 5070 provides only a 10 to 15% performance boost over the 4070.
Very High
Switching to the very high preset leads to some unusual results. This preset, even at 1080p, requires more than 8 GB of VRAM. As a result, the 2070 and 3070, which both only have 8 GB of VRAM, struggle with frame time performance. The average frame rates do not look terrible, but the 1% lows are extremely poor, so the fact that the 3070 is almost 40% faster in average frame rate does not translate into a usable experience.
The only viable models here with these settings are the RTX 4070 and 5070. Both delivered similar 1% lows, with the 5070 around 10 to 13% faster when comparing average frame rates.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
Medium
Looking at the Kingdom Come: Deliverance II data and starting with the medium preset, the 2070 averaged 87 fps at 1080p, making the 3070 53% faster, or 55% faster at 1440p. From the 3070 to the 4070, we see a 25% increase, or 22% at 1440p.
Unexpectedly, the RTX 5070 was much faster than the 4070 in this title, delivering 31% greater performance at all three tested resolutions.
Ultra
Switching to the Ultra preset, the RTX 2070 limits performance to just 52 fps at 1080p, making the 3070 considerably faster with 80 fps, a 54% improvement. From the 3070 to the 4070, we see a 25% increase, followed by a 28% increase from the 4070 to the 5070. Very similar margins are also seen at 1440p.
Rainbow Six Siege X
Medium
A game all four GPUs should tackle with ease is Rainbow Six Siege, and that is indeed the case when using the medium preset at 100% render scale. Here even the RTX 2070 was good for an average of 189 fps at 1080p and 125 fps at 1440p.
This meant that the RTX 3070 was around 49 to 53% faster depending on the resolution, while the RTX 4070 offered an additional 27 to 32% uplift. The 5070 was then 22 to 26% faster than the 4070.
Ultra+
Increasing the quality preset to Ultra+ heavily reduces performance. The RTX 2070 is now only able to render 117 fps at 1080p and 74 fps at 1440p, making the RTX 3070 just over 50% faster. From the 3070 to the 4070 we see a little over a 30% improvement, and from the 4070 to the 5070 we see roughly a 20% improvement.
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2
Medium
The second last game tested is Space Marine 2. When using the medium settings, the RTX 2070 rendered 65 fps at 1080p and 47 fps at 1440p. As a result, the RTX 3070 was considerably faster, delivering a 66% boost at 1080p and 70% at 1440p.
The jump from the 3070 to the 4070 was far smaller at just 26 to 27% at both 1080p and 1440p. The comparison between the 4070 and 5070 is unusual. At 1080p we appear to be CPU limited, and the 4070 manages a few extra frames, making it slightly faster than the 5070.
At 1440p the 1% lows are very similar, though the 5070 is now 25% faster when comparing the average frame rate, and it ends up being 29% faster at 4K with 71 fps on average.
Ultra
The 1080p data, even with the Ultra preset, is still heavily CPU limited, so the 1440p results are more meaningful. Here the RTX 2070 averaged just 39 fps, making the 3070 significantly faster at 66 fps, an almost 70% improvement. From the 3070 to the 4070 we see a 24% increase, followed by a 28% increase from the 4070 to the 5070.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Medium
Shadow of the Tomb Raider is an older title that helps illustrate the performance differences between these GPUs. The RTX 2070 performed much more comfortably here, rendering 119 fps at 1080p and 86 fps at 1440p. This made the 3070 exactly 57% faster at both resolutions. The 4070 was then 24 to 28% faster than the 3070, while the 5070 was 26% faster than the 4070.
Highest
Using the Highest quality preset, the 2070 managed 102 fps at 1080p and 72 fps at 1440p. This meant that the 3070 was around 55% faster, rendering an average of 158 fps at 1080p, 113 fps at 1440p, and 62 fps at 4K. The 4070 was 32% faster than the 3070 at 1080p, 27% faster at 1440p, and 24% faster at 4K.
Finally, the RTX 5070 delivered around 25% more performance than the 4070. It is a decent uplift, though not enough to be exciting if you already own an RTX 4070.
Performance Summary
Here is the data calculated using the geomean across the seven games tested with low to medium quality settings. The 3070 was 55% faster than the 2070 at 1080p, 59% faster at 1440p, and 62% faster at 4K. This made the GeForce RTX 3070 a major upgrade from the 2070, even though it still only offered 8 GB of VRAM.
From the RTX 3070 to the RTX 4070, we found a 31% performance improvement at 1080p, 27% at 1440p, and 24% at 4K. The RTX 5070 provided a smaller 14% improvement at 1080p, although it was 20% faster at 1440p and 22% faster at 4K, delivering an average of 95 fps. This results in solid performance overall when using dialed down settings.
Using the high and ultra presets, the RTX 3070 is between 57 and 68% faster than the RTX 2070 depending on resolution. The 4070 was 33% faster than the 3070 at 1080p, 30% faster at 1440p, and 27% faster at 4K. The 5070 was 16% faster than the 4070 at 1080p, 20% faster at 1440p, and 23% faster at 4K.
Cost per Frame
MSRP
In terms of value, this is how the four generations compare based on their MSRP. Inflation will be addressed in a moment, but ignoring it for now, this shows how they would compare if all four were released at the same time.
Focusing on the 1440p data, the 3070 reduced the cost per frame by 40% compared to the 2070, which represents a major value improvement. The 4070 reduced the cost per frame by only 8%, and although the VRAM upgrade was appreciated, its higher price significantly hurt its value. In contrast, the 5070 looks strong here, reducing the cost per frame by 24%.
MSRP Adjusted for Inflation
When adjusting for inflation, the GeForce RTX 3070 improved the cost per frame over the 2070 by 43%. The 4070 also fares better in this comparison, reducing the cost per frame over the 3070 by 22%, while the 5070 comes in 28% better value than the 4070. The 3070 still provided the largest generational improvement, but both the 4070 and 5070 look stronger once inflation is considered.
Generational Upgrades, with a Catch
Depending on how you look at it, the RTX 5070 can either be an underwhelming release or one of the stronger RTX 70 series products. It is cheaper than the RTX 4070, but while the 4070 was on average 30% faster than the 3070, the 5070 is only 20% faster than the 4070.
When adjusting for inflation, however, the 5070 offers better value than the 4070 did, providing a 28% improvement in cost per frame compared to 22% for the 4070 over its predecessor.
The issue with the RTX 5070 has always been its 12 GB VRAM capacity. We suspect it will age about as well as the RTX 3070 did. Only a few years after release, the RTX 3070 was already struggling to take full advantage of its RTX feature set, as ray tracing consumed too much VRAM and even upscaling could become problematic.
The 5070 appears to be following a similar path. There are already situations where it runs out of VRAM or gets very close to its limits. A few years from now this will likely become more common, which is not what you want to deal with when spending at least $550 on a graphics card. Had the RTX 5070 been equipped with 16 GB of VRAM, similar to the 5070 Ti, it would have been a significantly better product and one we would be far more comfortable recommending.
But for now, in a majority of games and quality settings, 12 GB of VRAM is adequate and the RTX 5070 performs perfectly well. The concern is long term viability, especially if this GPU is expected to serve as a multi-year investment. The GeForce 70 series has felt more compromised or overpriced than it should for quite some time, and this trend began with the introduction of the RTX 2070 series.
The RTX 2070 was a solid product with excellent performance, delivering around 25 to 30% more performance than the GTX 1070 at 1440p. It also introduced hardware ray tracing and DLSS upscaling, though at the time neither technology was useful. Ray tracing support was virtually nonexistent for years, and DLSS was rubbish in its first iteration, until version 2.0 arrived and it was actually useful.
Those factors alone made the $500 price a tall order given the GTX 1070 cost just $380 and offered the same 8 GB of VRAM. In effect, you had to spend a little over 30% more money for a little less than 30% more performance, which was not exactly exciting. The clear issue with the RTX 2070 was its price.
The RTX 3070 offered much more at the same $500 price point. As we just saw, it was 60 to 70% faster on average depending on the quality settings. DLSS was greatly improved by then, and there were a few notable ray-traced titles that showcased Nvidia's vision for the feature. The compromise, again, was VRAM. With only 8 GB, the RTX 3070 faced the same long term limitation as the 2070.
The RTX 4070 finally addressed the VRAM issue. Its 12 GB capacity proved to be enough, perhaps just enough, but still acceptable. The problem, as shown earlier, was the price and the performance uplift delivered at that price. At $600, it was the most expensive 70-class GeForce GPU ever, and offering only a 30% performance increase while raising the price by 20% did not thrill gamers.
Now we have the RTX 5070. The MSRP has been reduced by 8%, bringing it down to $550, and for the most part it has been available at that price.
It offers a 20% performance boost over the previous model and comes in a bit cheaper, which helps its value rating. The compromise again appears to be VRAM. It is not as severe as an 8 GB model would be, but we remain concerned about its longevity.
Whether or not you should buy the RTX 5070 will depend on pricing and availability in your region. At the time of writing, the cheapest RTX 5070 can be found for as little as $500 on Newegg, while most others are priced at $550 or more.
Newegg also has a single Radeon RX 9070 at $550, with many models at $570, meaning you would be paying at most a 10% premium for the Radeon GPU and in many cases under a 5% premium.
For context, in our recent 23-game benchmark comparison, the Radeon RX 9070 was on average 13% faster at 1440p, whether running natively or with upscaling. This results in very similar cost per frame figures, with each GPU having its own strengths.
The RX 9070 includes 16 GB of VRAM, which we now consider the minimum once you cross the $400 price point. The GeForce RTX 5070, however, has slightly superior upscaling quality and wider game support thanks to DLSS 4. When the latest upscaling techniques are not available, GeForce continues to hold a clear advantage because DLSS 2 and 3 are far superior to FSR 2 and 3 at the resolutions likely to be used with these products, especially 1440p.
The RTX 5070 is also faster in heavy ray-traced games, particularly those using path tracing, as we highlighted in our day-one review. However, the 5070 is not the ideal GPU for those demanding titles, and its 12 GB VRAM capacity becomes a limiting factor, so we wouldn't consider heavy ray tracing to be a major strength of the 5070.
In the end, the RTX 5070 and RX 9070 are very evenly matched. Your choice will ultimately depend on pricing and availability in your region.