I'm in the market for a new graphics card and trying to decide between the 5070 with 12GB of VRAM and the 5060 Ti with 16GB. The 5070 is about 11% pricier but reportedly 30% faster on benchmarks. The 5070 Ti with 16GB is priced out for me, costing 54% more than the 5070. I'm currently using a B450 motherboard with a Ryzen 5 3600 and 32GB of DDR4-3600, which means I'm limited to PCIe 3.0. I've read that some recent games, like Spider Man 2 and Indiana Jones, use a lot of VRAM, potentially maxing out the 12GB on the 5070, leading to stuttering issues. The 5060 Ti, while slower, has more VRAM and avoids this problem but uses fewer PCIe lanes (x8, similar to PCIe 5.0 x2). I'm considering upgrading my CPU and motherboard in about five years to support newer PCIe versions since I keep hardware for a long time. I'd love to hear from anyone who has experience with either card on PCIe 3.0. Also, I'm still gaming at 1600x900, so keep that in mind.
1 Answer
If the price difference isn't a major issue for you, I'd recommend going for the 5070. It's definitely a better card overall. However, since you're gaming at 1600x900, keep in mind that you might not fully utilize its capabilities. You could run into CPU bottlenecks with your Ryzen 5 3600; the GPUs could be waiting on the CPU a lot. Overall, you might get better results by focusing on a better display alongside a slower GPU.
Totally agree! At 1600x900, the 5060 Ti might actually offer a smoother experience, especially if you're hitting CPU limits. But both cards will outperform at that resolution; it's just a matter of future-proofing.