I'm planning to build a gaming PC that I'll keep mostly unchanged for around three to five years. My target is 1080p at 60 FPS, and I'm using a 24-inch monitor. I'm deciding between the RTX 3070, RTX 3070 Ti, and RX 6700 XT. Which one offers the best value and long-term fit for this use case?
3 Answers
A higher-tier card such as an RTX 3080 would offer more raw performance, but it may not be worth paying extra for a system focused on 1080p 60 FPS. For your stated needs, the RX 6700 XT is likely the sensible purchase, especially at the lower price. Just keep in mind that ray tracing performance and certain upscaling or creator-focused features are stronger on NVIDIA cards.
All three cards should handle 1080p at 60 FPS comfortably, even in demanding games. The RTX 3070 Ti is generally the fastest of these for regular rasterized performance, while NVIDIA also gives you features such as DLSS. However, the RX 6700 XT has 12GB of VRAM instead of 8GB, which may help it age better if newer games become more memory-intensive. If you plan to max out every setting in future AAA games, the extra VRAM could be more valuable than the small performance advantage of the 3070 Ti.
Pricing changes the answer quite a bit. If a used RTX 3070 Ti costs about $260 where you live but the RX 6700 XT is around $197, the 6700 XT is probably the better value for 1080p 60 FPS. Its 12GB of VRAM gives it a useful advantage for long-term use, and your target resolution does not require the extra performance of the 3070 Ti. The 3070 Ti makes more sense if you specifically want NVIDIA features or find one at a much smaller price premium.
That’s what I was wondering—the 6700 XT is much cheaper, but I wasn’t sure whether the 8GB on the 3070 Ti would become a problem first.
So would you say the 6700 XT is the more balanced overall choice for my situation?