I'm planning a new gaming PC with a Ryzen 7 9800X3D and am considering an RX 9070 XT as the initial graphics card. The two most demanding games I expect to play are Cyberpunk 2077 and Baldur's Gate 3. Will the 9070 XT handle both at maximum settings at 1440p, or would I need to lower some options? I'm also wondering whether an RX 9070 or RX 9060 XT would be enough for this resolution. The 9070 XT would be a temporary card for roughly four to six months while I save for a 5080 or preferably a 5090 and a 4K OLED display, so cost is less important than having something capable right away.
4 Answers
I’ve used a 9070 XT for both games. Baldur’s Gate 3 runs beautifully at native 1440p with maximum settings. Cyberpunk runs great with path tracing disabled, and you can enable many of the normal ray-tracing options if you accept a lower frame rate. Upscaling with FSR can make the heavier settings feel much smoother, but native resolution is also very playable without path tracing.
If by “maximum” you mean every setting including Cyberpunk’s full path tracing, then no—the 9070 XT is not the ideal card for that workload. For maximum raster settings, regular ray tracing, or a sensible optimized preset, it should be an excellent 1440p card. Baldur’s Gate 3 is no problem at all, and you can comfortably wait for the later upgrade.
For your temporary-card plan, the 9070 XT makes the most sense. An RX 9070 should still be good for 1440p, especially with a few settings tuned, while the 9060 XT is more of a value-oriented option and may require more compromises in demanding games. With FSR 4, Cyberpunk can look good and reach high frame rates, but frame generation is optional if you dislike the added latency or visual artifacts.
Baldur’s Gate 3 should run extremely well at 1440p with everything maxed. Cyberpunk 2077 is also easy for the 9070 XT with rasterized rendering, and it handles regular ray tracing reasonably well. The major exception is path tracing: that setting is extremely demanding and will require upscaling and possibly frame generation for a smooth experience.
Path tracing is a separate concern from ordinary ray tracing. Even much faster cards can struggle with it at native 1440p, so I wouldn’t use that single setting as the basis for choosing the whole GPU.