I'm planning a new PC for AAA gaming at 1440p, some CPU-heavy games, and possibly streaming. My current parts list is a Gigabyte B650 Eagle AX motherboard, Ryzen 7 9850X3D, 2TB SSD, 32GB DDR5 Corsair Vengeance memory, an ASUS TUF Gaming 850W power supply, and either an RTX 5070 Ti or RX 9070 XT. For cooling, I'm considering reusing my Noctua NH-D15 or buying an Arctic Liquid Freezer III Pro.
In my area, the RTX 5070 Ti costs roughly €1,100–€1,200, while the RX 9070 XT is around €700. The Nvidia card appears to be somewhat faster and has stronger DLSS, ray-tracing, and AI features, but the price difference could instead pay for 64GB of RAM or other upgrades. I don't have a strict budget, but I don't want to spend substantially more for a small gaming benefit. I also hope to keep the system for several years without upgrading.
For mostly gaming and occasional streaming, which GPU would you choose? Is the Noctua air cooler sufficient for this CPU, or would an AIO provide a worthwhile improvement? I'm also open to suggestions about the rest of the build, including whether the motherboard and CPU are sensible choices.
5 Answers
The NH-D15 should be perfectly adequate, assuming it has the correct AM5 mounting hardware and fits your case and memory. A quality dual-tower cooler is quieter and simpler over the long term, while an AIO may reduce temperatures somewhat but adds a pump and another potential failure point. I wouldn't replace a working NH-D15 just because the CPU can run warm. A Thermalright Phantom Spirit or DeepCool AK620 would also be reasonable alternatives.
For gaming, I'd choose the 9070 XT unless you specifically care about heavy ray tracing, path tracing, Nvidia's upscaling and frame generation, or CUDA-dependent software. AMD's current upscaling and frame-generation options are good enough for many games, and the card offers very strong conventional rasterized performance. Streaming should also be fine with the right hardware-encoding settings, so that alone doesn't make the 5070 Ti necessary.
I'd take another look at the platform before buying. The high-end X3D processor is excellent, but it may be more CPU than you need for a system mainly targeting 1440p gaming, where the GPU will often be the limit. A less expensive X3D chip could provide nearly the same gaming experience and free money for the graphics card, a larger SSD, or 64GB of RAM. Also compare the motherboard's power delivery, BIOS support, M.2 slots, and rear I/O with similarly priced B650 or newer boards rather than choosing solely by brand.
If you were doing machine learning, professional GPU workloads, or lots of ray-traced games, the 5070 Ti would be easier to justify. Since you mainly want gaming and perhaps streaming, the price gap is the deciding factor. I'd buy the 9070 XT, keep the Noctua cooler, and only move to the Nvidia card if its special features are something you know you'll use regularly.
At those prices, the RX 9070 XT is the better value by a wide margin. The RTX 5070 Ti is generally a little stronger, especially with ray tracing, DLSS, and some AI or productivity workloads, but it isn't remotely enough faster to justify an extra €400–€500 for a primarily gaming-focused build. The 9070 XT should be an excellent 1440p card, and the money saved could go toward 64GB of memory or simply stay in your pocket.
My main use will definitely be gaming, with streaming as a possibility. I'm not expecting this to become a workstation, and my other work doesn't really require Nvidia-specific features.