My RTX 3080 has served me well for about five and a half years, but newer games are starting to require lower settings, reduced frame rates, more upscaling, and sometimes introduce stuttering. I mainly play at 1440p and would like to get closer to 160 FPS in demanding titles such as Wardogs, ideally at native resolution rather than relying heavily on DLSS. I'm considering an RTX 5070, RTX 5070 Ti, or possibly an RX 9070 XT. The 5080 seems too expensive unless it offers a particularly compelling long-term advantage. I'm planning to use a Ryzen 7 5800X3D, and I expect the GPU to be the main limitation at 1440p. Is the 5070 Ti worth the extra cost over the regular 5070 for high-refresh 1440p gaming and 16GB of VRAM, or would the RX 9070 XT provide better value and similar performance without upscaling? I'm also interested in how ray tracing, software features, and frame-rate recording compare. After researching the options, I'm currently leaning toward the RX 9070 XT.
5 Answers
The Ryzen 7 5800X3D and RTX 5070 Ti make a very balanced 1440p combination. The Ti’s extra performance and 16GB of VRAM should let you use native resolution more often, so I’d choose it over the regular RTX 5070 if you want a meaningful upgrade from the 3080. I would only move to the RTX 5080 if the price is comfortable, since it isn’t necessary for excellent 1440p performance.
The regular RTX 5070 is already capable of 1440p, but it is not as large an upgrade from an RTX 3080 as the Ti or RX 9070 XT. Across broad gaming benchmarks, the RTX 5070 Ti and RX 9070 XT trade blows in standard rendering. Nvidia tends to have the advantage in ray tracing, path tracing, and some software features, while AMD offers more VRAM and often better rasterized performance per dollar. Local pricing should decide between those two.
Don’t rely too heavily on UserBenchmark for this comparison. Its results and weighting have been widely criticized as biased, so look at independent reviews with large game samples instead. For gaming, the RX 9070 XT is generally closer to the RTX 5070 Ti than the RTX 5070, while the Nvidia cards may still be preferable if ray tracing, encoding, or specific software features are especially important.
For gaming-only use, the RX 9070 XT is probably the strongest value. It has 4GB more VRAM than the RTX 5070, performs much closer to the RTX 5070 Ti in standard rendering, and usually costs less than the Ti. It should be a substantial upgrade over the RTX 3080 for native 1440p gaming.
I was initially unsure because the prices are similar where I live and I like Nvidia’s software, but I’m doing more detailed comparisons now. The extra VRAM and raster performance are making the 9070 XT look much more appealing.
I recently paired a Ryzen 7 5800X3D with an RX 9070 XT after upgrading from a Ryzen 5 5600X and RTX 3080. At 1440p, the improvement was very noticeable, including in Helldivers 2. I considered the RTX 5070 Ti, but couldn’t justify spending several hundred dollars more when the 9070 XT offered such strong performance for the price.
That’s helpful. The 5070 Ti was my original favorite Nvidia option because of the extra VRAM and performance, but the 9070 XT seems to offer a similar level of raster performance for less money.