I'm choosing between an RX 9070 XT for about $770 and an RTX 5070 for roughly $675 with a dual-fan cooler or $700 with a triple-fan cooler. These prices are in South America.
My PC is mainly for gaming. I currently play at 1080p, although I may move to 1440p later. The benchmarks I've seen show the RX 9070 XT performing substantially better than the RTX 5070 in rasterized games and sometimes competing with the RTX 5070 Ti. It also has 16GB of VRAM instead of the RTX 5070's 12GB.
My main concern is long-term reliability and day-to-day experience rather than raw performance alone. I've heard older reports about AMD driver crashes, compatibility problems, and random bugs, while my previous NVIDIA cards have been trouble-free. Are modern AMD drivers reliable enough that this is no longer a meaningful concern, particularly on the RX 9070 XT?
I'd also like to understand how much of an advantage NVIDIA still has with DLSS compared with FSR. Is the difference clearly visible at 1080p or 1440p, or has FSR improved enough that it shouldn't be a major factor in this decision?
5 Answers
The RTX 5070 is a perfectly capable 1440p card and DLSS can look cleaner than FSR in fine details, especially when standing still. NVIDIA also has a bigger advantage in path tracing, CUDA applications, and some creator software. But for ordinary gaming, FSR has improved considerably, and the 9070 XT’s extra performance and 16GB of VRAM make it the more sensible long-term choice here.
The old reputation that AMD drivers are constantly problematic is mostly outdated. Recent Radeon cards are generally reliable for normal gaming, although both manufacturers occasionally release buggy drivers. I’ve had stable AMD cards in recent years, and NVIDIA has had its own driver issues too. The games you actually play, your monitor setup, and whether you use ray tracing matter more than the brand name.
I would be more concerned about the individual card model and warranty than generic driver history. One owner may have a failed display output or a bad sample, while another has years of trouble-free use. Make sure the RX 9070 XT model has good cooling and local warranty support, then install the drivers cleanly. At the prices listed, I’d take the 9070 XT unless you know you need NVIDIA-specific features.
I’ve used a 9070 XT for roughly a year and have had an excellent experience. Games run smoothly at 1440p, and I’ve only encountered one crash that appeared to be a game-specific issue. FSR is also good enough that I don’t notice a major difference while playing, especially in motion. I would choose the 9070 XT unless you specifically need CUDA, NVIDIA’s software features, or very strong path-tracing performance.
There can still be occasional Radeon driver timeouts on Windows, so I wouldn’t claim AMD is completely flawless. However, they’re not a reason by themselves to avoid the card, and updating drivers or adjusting a few settings usually helps.
For gaming, the RX 9070 XT is the stronger buy at those prices. It is generally around 17–23% faster than the RTX 5070 in rasterized performance, has 16GB of VRAM instead of 12GB, and should hold up better as newer games use more memory. The RTX 5070 mainly pulls ahead in heavier ray tracing and path tracing, while DLSS remains a useful advantage but not necessarily one worth giving up that much performance for.
There are still some reports of timeout problems, particularly on certain Windows configurations, so checking current reports for your specific games is sensible. Even with that caveat, the 9070 XT remains the better value between these two options.