I play a wide range of games at 1440p and think ray tracing is a nice feature, which makes the RTX 5070 Ti appealing. However, I keep hearing that OLED monitors look dramatically better than regular displays. I also plan to use Linux: ideally SteamOS, which has better support for AMD graphics cards, while the RTX setup would likely use Bazzite instead. Is the 5070 Ti worth choosing for ray tracing, or would I be better off with the Radeon 9070 XT and putting the savings toward an OLED monitor?
4 Answers
I’d prioritize the OLED monitor. It’s one of the biggest visual upgrades you can make, and the contrast, motion clarity, and response time are noticeable every time you use the PC. The 9070 XT is also strong enough for 1440p gaming and handles ray tracing reasonably well in many titles.
The 9070 XT paired with an OLED makes the most sense here. You’ll get a display that can properly showcase your games, and AMD should make your preferred SteamOS setup simpler. The card can run ray tracing fine, although it loses more performance than the 5070 Ti, especially with demanding path-traced settings.
That’s the main tradeoff. If path tracing in games like Cyberpunk is a top priority, the 5070 Ti has the advantage, but otherwise the 9070 XT is a great 1440p choice.
If ray tracing and path tracing are central to the games you play, choose the 5070 Ti. Nvidia generally has the stronger ray-tracing performance and upscaling features. I’d still pair it with an OLED if possible, though—the monitor upgrade is more noticeable than spending extra on a GPU that will be viewed through a basic display.
I use a 9070 XT with a 1440p OLED and have been very happy with it. Ray tracing works well enough in most games, and the OLED makes everything look far better. For a broad mix of games and a Linux-focused build, I’d pick the 9070 XT and OLED combination.
That’s helpful. I was worried the 9070 XT would struggle too much with ray tracing, but I’m leaning toward it now.