I'm planning a GPU upgrade and am considering a Radeon 9070 XT or an RTX 4070 Ti Super. The least expensive 9070 XT I found is about $780, while the cheapest 4070 Ti Super is around $900. I've heard the 4070 Ti Super is better for ray tracing, but comparisons suggest its advantage is usually only around 5–10%, aside from heavier path-tracing workloads. Since path tracing already reduces performance significantly at 1440p, I'm unsure whether the Nvidia card's ray-tracing advantage justifies the higher price. I mostly game, with occasional video editing, so I'd appreciate advice on which card offers the better value and overall experience.
4 Answers
A $900 4070 Ti Super is difficult to recommend when a 9070 XT is available for about $780. The older Nvidia card may be attractive if you strongly prefer Nvidia or need CUDA, but for a mostly gaming-focused build, I’d put the savings toward the rest of the system or keep it.
The main reason to choose the 4070 Ti Super would be Nvidia-specific software support, especially CUDA. That can matter for 3D applications, certain AI or local LLM workloads, and some professional rendering tools. For normal gaming, OBS, and occasional video editing, the 9070 XT should be perfectly suitable.
Both cards can deliver a strong 1440p experience, but the 9070 XT is typically faster in standard rendering and supports newer features such as FSR 4. Nvidia still tends to have the edge in ray tracing and path tracing, but the difference may not be noticeable enough in your use case to offset the higher price.
At those prices, the 9070 XT is the better buy. It generally offers higher traditional rasterized gaming performance, is newer, costs less, and includes a fresh warranty. The 4070 Ti Super is still a capable card, but its ray-tracing lead usually isn’t large enough to justify paying an extra $120 unless you specifically want Nvidia features.
I mostly game and only make videos occasionally for fun. I haven’t run into problems with OBS or my editing software, so it sounds like I probably don’t need Nvidia’s extra features.