Is upgrading from an RTX 5070 to an RX 9070 XT worth it for 1440p gaming?
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MellowPine42
I've been using an RTX 5070 for about a year and it has generally performed well, but I get noticeable stuttering in Call of Duty and demanding AAA games. I can sell it to a friend for €650, then buy an RX 9070 XT for €750 plus an €85 power supply. My goal is a PC that I can simply turn on and play without constantly troubleshooting. I currently have a Ryzen 5 7600, 32GB of dual-channel DDR5-4800 memory, and a basic 750W power supply. I play at 1440p. Would this upgrade be worthwhile, or should I troubleshoot the stuttering and wait for a more substantial upgrade?
Answers
The RX 9070 XT is faster in traditional rendering, but this probably isn’t a large enough jump to justify selling a one-year-old RTX 5070 and buying a new PSU. Depending on the game, the improvement may be around 10–20%, and you would give up NVIDIA features such as DLSS and potentially better feature compatibility. I’d keep the 5070 unless you specifically need more VRAM or are moving to 4K.
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Your Ryzen 5 7600 paired with DDR5-4800 is more likely to affect frame-time consistency than the graphics card in some CPU-limited games. Faster memory, typically around DDR5-6000 with suitable timings, could help, and an X3D processor may improve 1% lows in certain titles. However, first confirm that the CPU is actually limiting performance before replacing it.
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Also verify whether you’re seeing true hitching or simply sudden FPS drops. A 1% low of 25–30 FPS can point to shader compilation, streaming, CPU or memory limits, background tasks, driver problems, or an unoptimized game. Try updating or clean-installing drivers, checking frametime graphs, enabling an appropriate frame cap, and confirming that the system is not overheating before replacing the GPU.
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An upgrade probably won’t fix the stuttering by itself. Average FPS and actual stutter are different problems, so check temperatures, GPU and CPU usage, background programs, driver settings, storage, and the power supply first. A dusty or poorly ventilated prebuilt can also cause issues. If you have never cleaned the system, carefully removing dust with compressed air is worth doing.
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At 1440p, the 9070 XT can be a meaningful rasterization upgrade in some games, but it still doesn’t sound like a sensible swap at those prices. The extra €185 plus the power supply cost is a lot for a relatively modest real-world improvement. Keep the RTX 5070, diagnose the low 1% results, and consider upgrading when the next genuinely faster generation arrives.
MellowPine42: For example, Resident Evil 4 averages around 120 FPS for me, but the 1% lows drop to roughly 25–30 FPS, which makes the game feel terrible even though the average FPS looks good.
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MellowPine42: I’ve never cleaned it because it was a prebuilt and I’m worried about opening the case and damaging something.