I'm choosing between a brand-new Gigabyte RTX 4070 SUPER Gaming OC for about $650 and a Gigabyte RTX 5070 Windforce for $750. Benchmarks suggest their performance and efficiency are fairly similar, so I'm wondering whether the newer card and its features justify the extra $100.
The 4070 SUPER has a larger cooler and more thermal headroom, while the compact 5070 may benefit more from overclocking. The 5070 also appears to be roughly 10% faster in some gaming and AI workloads, and newer features such as DLSS improvements could be useful. However, there is some work toward supporting newer features on older cards as well.
I'm upgrading from an RTX 3070 for CUDA-based research, including GROMACS, and 1440p AAA gaming. I need to buy a new card because my institution will reimburse the purchase, with a maximum budget of $800. AMD is not under consideration because I want the most straightforward CUDA compatibility. A 16GB RTX 5060 Ti is slightly cheaper, but its performance is not enough of an improvement over my 3070 to make it appealing.
4 Answers
The price difference is worth checking against other retailers before deciding. Some new RTX 5070 models have occasionally appeared around $680–$700, which would make the newer card much easier to justify. At $750 versus $650, however, the 4070 SUPER is the stronger value unless you specifically need the 5070’s newer features.
At these prices, I’d choose the RTX 4070 SUPER Gaming OC. It is $100 cheaper, has a better cooler, and should provide very similar real-world performance for 1440p gaming and CUDA work. Since the card is new, warranty coverage is not really a disadvantage either. Put the remaining money toward another research-related purchase if possible.
The RTX 5070 is the better pick if you value newer features and want the longest potential software support. It performs well for both gaming and CUDA projects, and features such as newer DLSS support could matter over time. Just remember that both cards have 12GB of VRAM, so neither is ideal for very large AI models; the 16GB 5060 Ti offers more memory but gives up too much performance.
I considered the 16GB 5060 Ti for the extra memory, but it would be too small of an upgrade from my 3070. The 5070’s feature set is attractive, though I’m unsure whether it is worth paying more for this particular cooler.
For CUDA-based research, staying with Nvidia is the sensible choice. AMD’s translation and ROCm options are improving, but compatibility can still be inconsistent and may require extra troubleshooting depending on the software. Between these two cards, the 4070 SUPER offers better value, while the 5070 makes sense only if its newer features or modest performance advantage are worth the premium to you.
That’s my main hesitation with the 5070: the smaller Windforce cooler. I haven’t found a reasonably priced 5070 with a substantially better cooler, since most of the cheaper models are out of stock.