Should I choose an RTX 5080 or RX 9070 XT for Blender commissions?
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MellowCedar42
I have a $2,100 budget for a PC and am comparing a refurbished RTX 5080 for about $1,150 with a refurbished RX 9070 XT for around $640. I mainly render Blender projects for paying clients, and I've started using CUDA in my workflow. The 9070 XT seems like a much better value, but I'm unsure whether it will be powerful and compatible enough for my work. Which GPU would make more sense?
Answers
Before committing to the 5080, check whether the $2,100 budget is for the complete PC or just the graphics card. A 5080-based build could be difficult if that amount includes the CPU, memory, storage, power supply, and other components. If necessary, an RTX 5070 Ti could leave more room for the rest of the system while still giving you Nvidia and CUDA support.
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The RX 9070 XT can be a good productivity card if your Blender workflow doesn’t rely on CUDA, but that’s the important qualifier. Once CUDA is part of your commissions, AMD may limit which render engines and acceleration features you can use. For paid work, compatibility and predictable render times are usually worth paying extra for.
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Since you’re rendering in Blender and have started using CUDA, the RTX 5080 is the safer choice. Nvidia generally has better support for CUDA-based workloads and GPU rendering, while the 9070 XT makes more sense if you’re primarily gaming or using software that doesn’t depend on Nvidia features.
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MellowCedar42: That makes sense. I wasn’t sure whether the price difference was worth it, but CUDA is becoming part of my work, so I’ll probably go with Nvidia.