I'm putting together a $1,500 gaming PC and have already spent about $750 on the case, CPU, motherboard, RAM, and other components. The best graphics card deal I can currently find is a Radeon 9070 XT for $750. Should I buy it now, or use integrated graphics temporarily and wait for prices to improve? I'd also like to hear from people who own one about performance, drivers, and overall reliability. As a side question, is there any meaningful difference between the ASRock and Gigabyte versions if they cost the same?
3 Answers
At current prices, the 9070 XT is one of the strongest performance-per-dollar options in that range. Competing cards with similar performance are generally much more expensive, and GPU prices may continue rising. If the rest of your build is ready and you want to play now, $750 is reasonable, even though the original launch pricing was considerably lower.
Owners generally seem very happy with the card. It offers excellent high-resolution gaming performance, and several people who switched from Nvidia said the price-to-performance made sense for them. Driver experiences have been mostly positive, though individual results can vary by operating system and game. Waiting could possibly bring a sale, but there is no guarantee prices will improve.
ASRock and Gigabyte versions should perform very similarly when they use the same GPU. The main differences are the cooler, noise level, size, factory overclock, warranty, and power-limit settings. If they cost the same, compare reviews for the specific models and choose the one with the better cooler and warranty. There have been isolated reports of overheating or connector problems with some models, so it is worth checking the exact card rather than judging the brands generally.
If you can find the regular 9070 for around $150 less, it may be the smarter buy. It still has 16GB of VRAM, uses less power, and is only roughly 10–12% slower in many games.