In Canada, the RTX 5070 Ti usually costs around $500 CAD more than the RX 9070 XT, while offering only a modest performance improvement in most games. I understand that the 5070 Ti is stronger for ray tracing and supports DLSS, but is that worth paying such a large premium? Are there other graphics cards I should consider, or would it make more sense to wait for a sale or the next generation?
4 Answers
For normal gaming, I’d choose the RX 9070 XT and keep the $500. The RTX 5070 Ti is faster in some situations, especially path tracing, but the advantage is usually much smaller than the price difference. The RX 9070 XT is also a strong 1440p and 4K card, and newer FSR versions have become quite competitive with DLSS.
It may be worth checking RTX 5070 Ti sales before buying. If you can find one close to the RX 9070 XT’s price, the extra ray-tracing performance, DLSS, and software support become much more appealing. At the usual Canadian pricing, however, the 9070 XT is the better value.
The 5070 Ti makes more sense if ray tracing or path tracing is a major priority, or if you specifically need CUDA for applications such as certain Blender workflows. For regular rasterized gaming, though, the difference is generally only a few percent to around ten percent, so it’s difficult to justify paying $500 extra.
The regular RX 9070 is also worth considering. It gives up some performance compared with the XT, but the difference is relatively small compared with the power increase, so it can be a good choice if it is meaningfully cheaper. I’d also consider waiting for a legitimate sale rather than paying an inflated price for the 5070 Ti.
The gap is especially noticeable with path tracing, but standard ray tracing is much closer than it used to be. I’d only pay a modest premium for the 5070 Ti rather than hundreds more.