I'm currently using an XFX RX 6700 XT with an i5-12600K and 64GB of DDR4 memory. My 1440p/75Hz monitor is becoming difficult to drive in Forza Horizon 6, especially when lots of cars and objects are visible. I'm using Ultra settings and would also like enough headroom for higher settings with some ray tracing.
I'm considering either an RTX 5070 or an RX 9070 XT. Both should meet my gaming target, but I also use Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop extensively, including AI masks on large RAW files. That editing workflow is more important to me than maximizing gaming performance, so I'm mainly concerned about GPU acceleration, stability, and long-term software support.
The RX 9070 XT offers 16GB of VRAM and roughly 20% more raster performance than the RTX 5070, while the RTX 5070 has Nvidia's CUDA ecosystem and is often reported to work more reliably with Adobe applications. However, recent benchmarks suggest AMD may perform surprisingly well in Lightroom, and the 9070 XT is also closer to the RTX 5070 Ti in overall gaming performance than to the RTX 5070.
At the prices I found in Austria, the RTX 5070 was around €786 and the RX 9070 XT around €723. Which card would make more sense for this combination of 1440p gaming and Lightroom/Photoshop work? Update: I ultimately ordered a Gigabyte RX 9070 XT Gaming OC Ice for €720 because of its performance, VRAM, and cooling.
5 Answers
For a straightforward choice, Nvidia is generally the safer option for professional software, AI features, and Adobe compatibility. AMD is the stronger gaming card here, but Nvidia still tends to have broader application support and fewer surprises in creative workloads.
I went with the 9070 XT mainly for the 16GB of VRAM and longer-term gaming headroom. AMD drivers can occasionally need a little troubleshooting, but many users run them without major problems. Since you have already had a good experience with your RX 6700 XT and the benchmark results look competitive, sticking with AMD is reasonable.
The RX 9070 XT looks like the better value in this comparison. It is substantially faster for gaming, has 16GB instead of 12GB of VRAM, and Lightroom benchmark results show that it is not necessarily behind the RTX 5070 in these workloads. Since both cards meet your 1440p target, the extra gaming headroom and memory could help it last longer.
Some Adobe features do use the GPU locally, such as AI denoise, but current testing suggests the 9070 XT can handle those tasks well. Other AI processing may happen through Adobe’s online services, so CUDA is not automatically decisive for every Lightroom feature. I’d check benchmarks for the exact Lightroom version you use rather than relying on general claims about Nvidia drivers.
These aren’t really equivalent performance tiers: the RX 9070 XT is closer to an RTX 5070 Ti, while the RTX 5070 is more comparable to the regular RX 9070. For your use case, the 9070 XT seems like the stronger overall package unless a specific Adobe feature you rely on has a known Nvidia-only acceleration path.
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