I'm considering upgrading my graphics card from an RTX 4070 Super to an RX 9070 XT Mercury OC. I mainly play at 1440p and currently use a Ryzen 7 7800X3D with an 850W power supply. The 9070 XT is on sale, and I already have someone interested in buying my 4070 Super, so the upgrade would only cost me a relatively small amount. Is the performance and VRAM improvement worth it, or would it make more sense to keep the 4070 Super or spend extra on an RTX 5070 Ti?
4 Answers
The 4070 Super is still a very capable 1440p card, especially if you undervolt it and care about power efficiency. If the upgrade cost is substantial, I’d keep it. However, with a buyer already lined up and only around £60 extra needed for the 9070 XT, the additional performance and VRAM make the upgrade worthwhile.
The RX 9070 XT and RTX 5070 Ti are generally close in performance. The 5070 Ti has advantages such as DLSS and Nvidia’s feature set, while the 9070 XT usually offers better value and more VRAM. I’d choose whichever fits your local pricing better rather than paying a large premium for the 5070 Ti.
At 1440p, the 9070 XT is roughly a little over 20% faster overall than the 4070 Super, though the exact difference depends on the games. Since the Mercury OC is a premium model, make sure its price isn’t inflated compared with other 9070 XT cards. If you can sell the 4070 Super and the upgrade only costs a small amount, it becomes a much more reasonable upgrade.
I made essentially the same upgrade and found it worthwhile because the 9070 XT provides more VRAM headroom and noticeably higher raster performance. The 4070 Super is still fine for 1440p, but a heavily discounted 9070 XT is a good step up when the resale value keeps the extra cost low.
That kind of price difference changes the calculation quite a bit. At only about £60 after selling the 4070 Super, I’d be comfortable making the switch rather than waiting for another generation.