7800X3D or 9800X3D, and RTX 5070 or RX 9070 XT for a 1440p gaming PC?

The 9800X3D is faster and newer, but the gaming difference over the 7800X3D usually isn’t large enough to justify the extra €50–€100 unless you’re chasing maximum frame rates or the price gap is very small. At 1440p, the GPU will often be the limiting component, especially with a 9070 XT, so the 7800X3D is already more than capable.

Your choice also depends on the games you play and whether you use features such as ray tracing, upscaling, or CUDA-based applications. For ordinary gaming performance and future 4K use, the 9070 XT’s extra VRAM and stronger raw performance make it the better pick over the RTX 5070. If you want Nvidia, compare it against the RTX 5070 Ti instead, since that is a much closer matchup.

If your budget isn’t tight, the 9800X3D and 9070 XT would give you the highest performance of the options listed. However, the 7800X3D and 9070 XT is the more sensible value build. You could put the savings toward a better monitor, storage, cooling, or power supply, and the 7800X3D should remain excellent for 1440p gaming for years.

For the best cost-to-performance balance, I’d choose the 7800X3D with the RX 9070 XT. The 9070 XT is generally considerably faster than the RTX 5070, has 16GB of VRAM instead of 12GB, and is often cheaper. It’s closer to an RTX 5070 Ti competitor than a regular 5070. The main reasons to choose Nvidia would be needing CUDA for specific software or strongly preferring DLSS and Nvidia’s feature set.