I'm planning to move from 1080p to 1440p and want an inexpensive graphics card, ideally around £80 or less. I'm considering a used GTX 1070 because it has more VRAM than my current GTX 1650 4GB. Would it be a good choice for 1440p gaming, especially for a mix of games and some AAA titles? My system has a Gigabyte B760M D3HP DDR4 motherboard, an i3-12100F, 16GB of DDR4-2666 memory, an MSI MAG A750GL PCIE5 power supply, a GTX 1650, a 128GB SATA SSD, and a 1TB hard drive.
3 Answers
The extra VRAM isn’t the whole story. The GTX 1070 is an older GPU, and modern games are increasingly designed around newer architectures. It may technically launch many current titles, but maintaining smooth frame rates at native 1440p will be difficult. A 1070 makes more sense for older games or a very tight budget than as a dependable modern 1440p card.
Upscaling can help, but it won’t completely solve the problem in demanding modern games. You’d probably still need to reduce settings substantially and accept lower frame rates.
For games released before roughly 2020, a GTX 1070 can still be a decent 1440p option if you adjust the settings. For newer releases, expect compromises: low presets, reduced effects, upscaling, and inconsistent performance. At around £80 it could be a reasonable temporary upgrade, but don’t buy it expecting consistently smooth high-quality AAA gaming at 1440p.
It can output 1440p, and older or graphically lighter games should run reasonably well. For newer AAA games, though, you’ll likely need low settings, upscaling, and possibly a frame-rate target around 45 FPS. Performance varies a lot by game.
I mostly play a mixture of games, including quite a few AAA releases. Would using upscaling make the 1070 usable at 1440p?