I'm upgrading from 1080p and recently bought an MSI MAG 272QP QD-OLED X50, which supports 1440p at 500Hz. I mainly play competitive games such as CS2 and Overwatch, but I also play more demanding titles like Escape from Tarkov and Cyberpunk 2077. I'm considering either a Radeon RX 9070 XT for about A$1,200 or an Nvidia RTX card in the 5080 range, which appears to cost around A$2,200 in Australia. I'm pairing the GPU with a Ryzen 7 7800X3D and sometimes play competitive games at 4:3 resolution. Which card makes more sense, and is either one realistically capable of taking advantage of 500Hz?
4 Answers
A 1440p 500Hz monitor doesn’t mean every game needs to render at 500 FPS. Competitive players often use 4:3 stretched or black-bar resolutions and lowered settings, which makes high frame rates more achievable. Even then, the CPU has to deliver consistent frame times, not just a high average. With a 7800X3D and competitive settings, you may take good advantage of the monitor in CS2 and Overwatch, but the GPU choice won’t eliminate dips in CPU-heavy moments.
The RX 9070 XT seems like the better value in Australia. The RTX 5080 is faster and may be preferable if you care a lot about ray tracing, DLSS, or Nvidia-specific features, but paying roughly A$1,000 more is difficult to justify for competitive games alone. The 9070 XT should provide very high frame rates without that huge premium.
Be careful about expecting a consistent 500 FPS. CS2 and Overwatch can get close in favorable situations, especially with competitive settings, but minimums and demanding scenes may still drop below 500. Escape from Tarkov and Cyberpunk are nowhere near consistent 500-FPS games, regardless of which GPU you choose.
I’m only targeting 500 FPS in the competitive games. I understand that Tarkov and Cyberpunk won’t come close to that.
For CS2 specifically, Nvidia can have an advantage in some setups, while the 9070 XT is highly competitive in games such as Warzone and other modern shooters. At lower resolutions, the difference can also become more dependent on the CPU than the GPU. Your 7800X3D is a strong choice, but maintaining 500 FPS in every situation still isn’t guaranteed.
That makes sense. I’m mainly interested in the competitive-game performance, so the price difference is hard to ignore.