Is the RX 9070 XT a worthwhile upgrade from an RTX 3070 for 4K gaming?
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MellowPine42
I'm considering upgrading from my RTX 3070 because its 8GB of VRAM is causing performance problems in newer games at 4K. I've tested GeForce Now on an RTX 5080 system and was impressed by getting well over 100 FPS in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. Could an RX 9070 XT deliver similar results at its much lower price? Also, does AMD support frame generation comparable to NVIDIA's technology? MSFS 2024 only shows FSR 1 in my current settings, so I'm unsure what features the 9070 XT would actually support.
Answers
The RX 9070 XT is a very capable 4K card and is generally in the same performance range as an RTX 5070 Ti, while being a huge step up from the RTX 3070. Its upscaling and ray-tracing features aren’t quite as strong as NVIDIA’s latest options, but the price-to-performance ratio is excellent. An RTX 5080 is roughly 10–20% faster in native rendering, though it usually costs at least twice as much. AMD also supports frame generation through FSR 3 where the game implements it, but the exact options depend on the game—if MSFS only exposes FSR 1, the newer frame-generation features may not be available in that version or menu.
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If you have a spare PCIe slot and want to experiment, you could keep the RTX 3070 alongside the RX 9070 XT and use software such as Lossless Scaling to have the second GPU handle frame generation. Dual-GPU frame generation can avoid taking as much rendering performance from the primary card. Two-times generation generally looks convincing, while higher multipliers can introduce more artifacts and vary by game. It’s an unusual setup rather than a traditional multi-GPU configuration, but the 3070 may be capable enough for 4K frame-generation workloads.
MellowPine42: That’s a clever workaround—I had assumed multi-GPU setups were completely obsolete.
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MellowPine42: Thanks, that helps. I wasn’t sure whether the difference in upscaling would outweigh the 9070 XT’s much lower price, but it sounds like it’s still a strong 4K upgrade.