I have roughly $870 to spend on a graphics card in Egypt, and I'm comparing the RTX 5070 12GB at about $760, the RX 9070 16GB at about $740, and the RTX 4070 12GB priced between $585 and $680. I mainly play games ranging from indie titles to AAA releases, but I also use my PC for programming, productivity, game development, 3D modeling, and graphic design. I'm a student rather than a professional, though I plan to continue developing games and learning more advanced graphics and 3D work, so those workloads matter more to me than maximum gaming performance. The RX 9070 appears to offer the strongest raw gaming performance and more VRAM, while Nvidia cards seem to have better CUDA support and productivity performance. Online benchmarks are inconsistent, especially for applications such as Blender, so I'm unsure which card would make the most sense for the money and for long-term use.
3 Answers
The RX 9070 is the strongest choice if gaming performance and VRAM are the priority. However, since you plan to use Blender and other graphics software, Nvidia’s CUDA and OptiX support can be much more important than raw compute numbers. It’s worth checking hardware-acceleration support for every program you expect to use before deciding.
For Blender specifically, the RTX 5070 can be dramatically faster than the RX 9070, and even the RTX 4070 may perform better in some rendering workloads. Nvidia’s software support makes it the safer choice for 3D work, even if you aren’t earning money from it yet.
Given the prices, I’d narrow it down to the RTX 4070 versus the RTX 5070. The 4070 is attractive if saving money matters, but the 5070 gives you more headroom for future games and creative workloads. DLSS is also useful for maintaining image quality and performance at 1440p, so the 5070 seems like the better long-term purchase within your budget.
I was originally leaning toward the 4070, but I’m planning to keep using these tools for years. The 5070 seems like the more sensible choice if I can afford it.
I do use Blender, although I’m still learning and don’t make money from it. Nvidia’s broader software support is probably more valuable for my plans than I initially realized.