I recently bought an RTX 5070, but I'm reconsidering whether it was the right choice. An RX 9070 XT costs about the same where I live, while the RTX 5070 Ti is roughly 70% more expensive and isn't an option. I've spent a lot of time comparing them and would appreciate advice on whether switching makes sense.
The RX 9070 XT appears to offer around 15–25% more rasterized gaming performance, 16GB of VRAM, and potentially better longevity. However, I'm concerned about reports of driver crashes, weaker frame pacing with frame generation, less widespread FSR support, and uncertainty around future technologies such as FSR 5.
The RTX 5070 has 12GB of VRAM but offers stronger DLSS and ray-reconstruction image quality, broader support for DLSS and multi-frame generation, DLDSR, and better latency features. NVIDIA also appears to have an advantage in ray tracing, creative software, and AI workloads. On the other hand, I'm worried that 12GB of VRAM and its lower raw performance may limit it sooner, especially at 4K.
This would mainly be for gaming. At the same price, would you keep the RTX 5070 or return it and buy the RX 9070 XT?
4 Answers
If the cards truly cost the same and this is primarily a gaming PC, I’d lean toward the RX 9070 XT. AMD’s drivers are not universally problem-free, but many owners use the card without major issues. The RTX 5070 is the safer choice for a set-it-and-forget-it system with better feature support, while the 9070 XT is the better performance-per-dollar choice.
The decision depends on how you use the card. Choose the RTX 5070 if you regularly use CUDA applications, creative software, competitive games where Reflex matters, or games that specifically benefit from DLSS. Choose the 9070 XT if you mostly want native-resolution gaming and the highest traditional frame rates for the money.
For gaming at the same price, the RX 9070 XT is generally the stronger value. It offers substantially more raster performance and 16GB of VRAM, putting it closer to the RTX 5070 Ti than the RTX 5070 in many games. The RTX 5070’s advantages are mainly DLSS support, ray tracing, frame generation, and productivity or AI software compatibility.
I would not buy either card based on promised future features. DLSS 5 or a future version of FSR may work differently depending on the game and could have significant performance requirements. Judge the cards by the games and resolution you play today. Path tracing also should not be a deciding factor here, since the RTX 5070 does not have enough performance or VRAM to make heavy path tracing especially comfortable.
The RTX 5070 is still perfectly adequate if you already have it and are happy with its performance. Switching for roughly 20% more performance only makes sense if you can return it easily and care about the extra VRAM and raster performance.
FSR support is improving, and tools such as OptiScaler can help in games that lack native support, although that does involve more tinkering than simply using DLSS.