I currently have an RTX 4070 Super and mostly play games at 1440p, not 4K. Would upgrading to an RX 9070 XT provide enough extra performance and longevity to justify selling the 4070 Super? I'm hoping for higher frame rates and possibly another two or three years before needing another upgrade, but I'm also concerned about compatibility or other drawbacks. My system has 64GB of DDR5 memory, a Ryzen 5 7500X3D, and either an 850W or 1000W power supply. I could upgrade the processor later if necessary, but I'm aiming for a mid-range upgrade. Is the 9070 XT a worthwhile move, especially if selling the current card keeps the extra cost low?
3 Answers
The 9070 XT is roughly 30% faster than the 4070 Super in regular rasterized gaming, but that usually isn’t a large enough jump to justify buying another high-end card so soon. I’d keep the 4070 Super and wait for a more substantial upgrade unless you can sell it for an unusually good price.
I’d also consider what features you use. The 4070 Super has DLSS and generally stronger ray-tracing support, while the 9070 XT offers better traditional rendering performance. If you mostly use standard rasterized settings, the AMD card is faster; if you rely on ray tracing or DLSS, the real-world difference may be smaller. An 850W supply should normally be sufficient as long as it’s a good-quality unit.
Your Ryzen 5 7500X3D should be perfectly capable for 1440p gaming, so a processor upgrade isn’t necessary for this decision. The 9070 XT can make sense if you can swap cards with only a small amount of extra spending and you specifically want higher raster performance or more VRAM, but it isn’t a guaranteed two- or three-year solution.
I made a similar move from a 4070 Ti to a 9070 XT at 1440p and was happy with it, but the upgrade was inexpensive after selling the old card. At full retail price, the value would have been much harder to justify.
At 1440p, the 4070 Super should still perform very well for quite a while. A future upgrade will probably give you a much more noticeable improvement for the money.