in this economy.. a radeon rx 9070 or 9070xt?

Posted by anonmoment@reddit | buildapc | View on Reddit | 48 comments

horrific timing but i've been in the middle of buying my very first pc and i initially planned on getting a 9070xt.

in my area, prices are creeping up and thats without considering tax, which slaps about an extra $40-60 by default.

i started looking at 9070 non xt instead which are cheaper on average. it'll still be about another month or two before i have enough saved for a gpu, and who knows how much prices will increase by then.

basically what im asking is, on the chance XTs become too expensive for me, will the non XT still serve me well? a lot of gamers act like the non XT is shit in comparison, but is the actual difference that massive? i don't care much about a 5-10 fps difference if that means a significant enough price decrease.

then again, if the performance difference is significant, i'll suck it up and save for longer. i'd just like to know the real world application.

i'd run a 1440p, high settings, maybe some ray tracing here and there but i wont die without it.

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Affectionate_Arm4406@reddit

The performance gap between the 9070 and 9070 XT is honestly not as huge as people make it out to be, maybe 10-15% in most games. At 1440p high settings you're still gonna get solid framerates with the regular 9070

If saving that extra cash means you can actually finish your build sooner rather than waiting months, I'd just go with the non-XT and call it a day. You can always upgrade down the line when prices aren't completely bonkers

Vallkyrie@reddit

Got a regular 9070 on 1440 myself, eats everything I throw at it. Even pathtracing in 2077 is playable with FSR4.

L_T_DAN@reddit

1440p gamer, ouch....
4k has been utilized since early 2010s, if it wasnt for the pathetic esports scence hardware and in specs wouldve been way higher long ago....
i been gaming 4k since the 9 series....
4k 120+ fps ultra settings with my 9070xt is the Gold Standard which Im surprised hasnt been for the past near decade....sad to be honests...

GamingIkno@reddit

alr bro we get it you have a good pc

nuenoxnyx@reddit

On average it's about 13% or 11 FPS difference at 1440p.

9070 is way more power efficient too.

lawrencekhoo@reddit

Indeed, 9070 uses 220W, while 9070XT uses 305W. That's space heater level energy usage for at most 15% more frames.

I would get the 9070, save on fans and electricity now, and save on your air conditioning in the summer.

EnragedEmu@reddit

Wtf are you smoking? Find me a space heater that uses 100w. Find one that uses 300w.

https://www.amazon.com/Performance-Tool-W5011-Personal-Heater/dp/B0B8361KZG/

Vegetable-Witness655@reddit

Solid input here, these are key points that the average person tends to overlook.

dorting@reddit

basically the best

prank_mark@reddit

I think the reason people make it out to be such a big difference is because in a lot of places the price difference is only about €50 and the more expensive models of the 9070 are selling for more than the cheapest 9070 XT models.

In the Netherlands at the reputable stores, the 9070 is selling for €650 to €780 (with most models being €700 or more), while the 9070 XT is selling for €700 to €900.

TextMysterious7822@reddit

prices will never decrease on gpus only increase with the value of gold. Sacrifice something else to make the difference happen for an XT.

Esdeem501@reddit

Consider the 9060xt 16gb. What monitor do you have. That really matters! 1080p-1440p-4k is a huge difference. As is the frequency. Doesn’t matter if your GPU can push 600fps if your monitor can only output 120fps. I’d rather get a 9060xt 16gb and a monitor upgrade than a 9070 or 9070xt.

neotins@reddit

The 9060xt is about 50% slower than the 9070 non-xt. If he's looking for 9070+ performance, the 9060xt doesn't even have a seat at the table.

Dlion0@reddit

This! Or a 4060 ti, about the same performance, but $100 cheaper yet on eBay. If you're at the point where you need to save for a couple of months to get a GPU, you probably shouldn't be getting one, and if you do, you should get the cheapest thing you can get away with that gives you the performance you want.

kubrador@reddit

at 1440p high settings the non-xt will be plenty fine, you're looking at like 15-20% performance difference which sounds bigger than it feels when you're actually playing. if you're not chasing 144+ fps or maxing everything out, save the money and don't think about it again.

Glass-Can9199@reddit

That 15-20% performance difference only makes since at 4k at 1440p is whatever cheapest gpu

clouds1337@reddit

9070 non-xt is very high on the performance/dollar scale at the moment. It's slightly slower but you get a lot more for your money.

siegsage@reddit

you are tight on dough so you need future-proofing. 9070xt.

baldersz@reddit

I'm really happy with my 9070 - as mentioned in other comments it is one of the best performance per watt cards on the market. 220W instead of 304W with the XT for only 10-15% performance loss is worth it for me.

LawfuI@reddit

Get the XT if you can.

Honestly you're going to eventually play something that's barely running at 55 FPS, and at that moment you would really wish you bought the XT and had that little extra power.

jhenryscott@reddit

I love my 9070 non xt. It runs very cool, has solid OC potential. Low power draw means you can use a less potent psu. Performance is decent at 4k and solid at 1440

Prostalicious@reddit

Yeah it's a beast of a card, and i don't know why but i haven't seen people having issues with their 9070. About the XT i read it all the time. Might be simply because the XT is much more popular, who knows.

I was actually just messing around with undervolting and OCing the 9070 and managed to run it upto 3200 seemed pretty stable so far.

50_centavos@reddit

For a couple months the XT was available below MSRP while it's competition, the 5070 ti was $200 more expensive. So everyone and their grandmother bought one (me included)

AleksanderTheGreat@reddit

same here, ended up getting one for $480 on black friday, thatll be it for the next few years for me.

You pay low bills? 9070 XT You don't? 9070

TheReturnOfAirSnape@reddit

Can't remember where I first heard this, but the best (insert part here), is the one that you can afford. And the regular 9070 is still a modern, mid-high end GPU. I have the 9070xt, and it's been running all of my games at 1440p, maxed settings, and barely breaking a sweat, so I can't imagine the regular 9070 would be all that much different. You'll be fine.

HirsuteHacker@reddit

I got a 9070 non XT and I'm honestly really happy with it. The performance difference isn't that big, and it is a lot more efficient. I play 1440p, most things on very high/max, it handles everything great.

CountryTyler@reddit

I’m currently waiting to buy a 9070XT for my first ever build…. But I’m one of those guys that when I put my mind to wanting something, that’s what I want. And I hate that sometimes

nissan460@reddit

gtx 970, smirkcat

Symphonic7@reddit

My brother in Gaben buy the one you can afford. If you keep waiting they will go out of stock, then down the line you will regret it. If you have the money, and want to buy it now, just do it.

PigSlam@reddit

I have a non-xt. It's pretty great. If the cost difference matters to you, you won't be leaving much behind in terms of performance. I generally get 100FPS+ on my 3440x1440 display with most any game on higher settings. I might have to turn this or that down on occasion, but I never feel like I'm missing anything with my setup. I'm in a SFFPC case, so I was willing to trade peak performance for the lower heat generation, and I feel like I've found a good balance there.

_dekoorc@reddit

This matches my experience at 3440x1440 in our SFFPC (Fractal Terra). The 9070 does a great job. We have a 5070 Ti in the other PC and unless you have an FPS counter on, the differences aren't perceptible in most games.

soljakid@reddit

I have a sapphire nitro+ 9070, and I couldn't be happier with the performance at 1440p.

For an extra 100w of power usage you are getting about 10-15% more performance with a 9070xt over a 9070 but when you are already hitting 100+ fps in games it's not a huge deal.

Avatar: Frontiers of pandora runs at over 100 on high

Indiana jones and the great circle runs at over 100 on high

Fortnite on max settings including raytracing is over 130fps.

Honestly, the only problem with going for the 9070 over the 9070XT is most of the focus goes to the XT version so you'll see way more people talking about that in videos and such.

pss395@reddit

I got myself a 9060xt 16gb because 9070(xt) is just about double the price where I'm from, and with that money I could upgrade to a much better gpu a few years down the road.

RickyFromVegas@reddit

I like that 9070 will run at 220w while xt will run at 300w, while only being 10%ish slower. 40% lower power consumption, 10% lower performance. I'll take that any day.

But to be fair, I live in Phoenix AZ, so hot rigs are not fun.

I mean you could just set a -25% power limit in adrenaline and it will bring it down to around 220 with more performance. If the price is close enough, the xt is the way to go. But the 9070 is a beast too if that's what you want.

Recklus1ve@reddit

Don't fuck around stay in school get that big job and you'll afford multiple 5090s. Phrases like in this economy would be wiped from your mind once u get ur shit together playa

alvarkresh@reddit

I was looking at RX 9070s but ultimately couldn't justify the expense. However they will be excellent 1440p or 4K gaming GPUs.

PCgamerz@reddit

non-XT serves me really well. I went with it because the XT is around 25% more expensive and I love power efficient GPU.

but is the actual difference that massive?

around 10% fps difference on average

There are a lot of factors were missing too. Factors like the games your playing, which monitor you have, what your other hardware you have, and if/when you're planning on upgrading, will all have a huge impact on accurate recommendations in a vacuum.

But considering it's your first PC, and you need to save for it to that degree, in this economy, my advice is neither. Save your money and get a used RTX 3070 on eBay. About 1/3 the price for about 2/3 the performance, and don't worry, it'll still crush 1440p in most games if you're not too greedy with the settings. Put the rest in a Roth IRA or something.

It depends on your objective. Obviously get your ram asap. Check out the used market for that. That will save you tons. I’m always about getting a bit more performance than you think you need so your system will have longevity. But getting going can be a greater good, so don’t think you need to wait. The 9070 will serve you well. I did a few builds. The 9060xt system I built for their mom’s house does great for what they play. I have a 3060ti that still works great for a lot of what they play. My other two, 7900xtx and 9070xt are overkill, but the 3060ti was struggling, and certainly can’t do 4k on the 32 in screens I have. It’s on a 1440p screen.

That_Sexy_Ginger@reddit

GPUs are probably only going to get more expensive with AI and reduced production, so make of that as you will. Assuming nothing changes things won't improve until around 2028, so personality id get the xt if you can afford it, makes your rig a little more futureproof and now is probably the lowest price it'll be for a while.

Wooshio@reddit

Ray Tracing is becoming non optional with new AAA games. 9070 XT is about 10% better then the non XT, so you decide if that's worth the extra money to you. Personally I would go for RTX 5070 instead of the non XT 9070, DLSS 4.5 is really good and it's even cheaper.

neteng91@reddit

I picked the 9070 specifically because I wanted a GPU that would be below 200W during gaming, any with a bit of tweaking to power, my 9070 runs at a max of 195W, at 1440p I can run any game without issue, and I run RT in Cyberpunk 2077 and still get 80-90FPS on average with FSR balanced mode.

Poachedd@reddit

Nothing wrong with the non xt. I had a 6700 non xt and was really happy with how quiet and cool it ran. Most purple were saying to get the 9070xt mainly cause the non xt didn't go down in price enough. Might as well pay $50 for something better. If you see a fair bit of a decrease where you are then do that.

Open_Map_2540@reddit

with the ability to easily flash the bios now I think that makes the 9070 even more appealing

MemeNinja188@reddit

The one you have money for