RX 9070 non-XT vs RTX 5070
Posted by tark561@reddit | buildapc | View on Reddit | 70 comments
Hello,
I am currently looking to upgrade form my old RTX1070 as I'm running into limits on my 1440p Monitor with newer games.
I can't decide between the RX 9070 from AMD vs the RTX 5070 from NVIDIA.
As I understand, the RX has more raw power while the RTX has better software/feautures/support as, it seems, going forward, for newer games things such as DLSS etc. are becoming increasingly important to play at higher quality. Also the whole native+taa vs dlss4.5 debate and how blind studies have shown people actually prefer the latter.
I'm also weary of AMD because they've shown to bring new software only to newer cards, dropping the support of older cards (e.g. RDNA3 not receiving FSR4).
I'm gaming on Linux but apparently NVIDIA is no problem these days.
Supposedly there's two gambles to take here:
-
Will VRAM or DLSS be more important in terms of longevity of the card going forward?
-
Is AMD with a currently rapidly dropping market share even going to be supporting consumer GPUs in future, or only their newest line, or dropping out of game developers' interest completely due to NVIDIA taking up >90% of consumer GPU share?
Both cards are priced equally for me. I don't have money or the PSU for any better cards than these (e.g. RX 9070XT).
What do you all think would be the answers to the two gambles? Which card would you prefer?
Intranetusa@reddit
9070 Pros:
5070 pros:
Tie:
https://www.techpowerup.com/review/asrock-radeon-rx-9070-steel-legend-oc/33.html
https://www.techspot.com/review/3008-radeon-9070-xt-amd-finewine/
tO_ott@reddit
The 5070 pros are not just better, they’re massively better. There will be a time when the 9070 will not have the raster performance to play a new game at desired settings and frame generation/DLSS will allow OP to get there. That’s where the value with NVIDIA cards are.
People should really watch LTT videos on framegen and DLSS 4.5 before just giving them a casual rating.
00k5mp@reddit
There will be a time when the 5070 Will not have the raster performance to play a new game at desired settings and the frame generation/ FSR well I will be to get there.
tO_ott@reddit
By that time AMD will have stopped supporting that card and their software offerings are objectively worse. That’s kinda what we’re advocating here, guy.
00k5mp@reddit
Possibly but there are 3rd party drivers you can use if you really want to, or continue to use the last official driver, it's not like new games won't run just because the driver has not been optimized for it.
But you go ahead and buy a 12GB card, your hypothetically longer driver support isn't going to mean anything when the cards not powerful enough to run the game or you run out of VRAM.
I would only recommend Nvidia if you need cuda, or if the card your looking at has better price to performance than the competition.
SoapHero117@reddit
Things people say who never used amd
Sonhe_@reddit
If the game cannot run smoothly on high settings on a RX 9070, you SHOULD NOT play it
ytman@reddit
This is my red line. Optimization needs, to not fall to the wayside because of frame gen tech.
tO_ott@reddit
That’s the point of frame generation and DLSS 🙄
Sonhe_@reddit
Or maybe, we should strive for actual optimization on our games. Idiots like you are the reason we reached this point.
tO_ott@reddit
You’re right, I single handedly stymied game optimization. Is there anything else you want to go full dipshit on or am I the reason your dog ran away too?
This is what we got. OP should buy the better product and all the damage I’ve done to the gaming industry with my purchases are irrelevant.
heroofshade420@reddit
honestly get the 9070, extra vram and you dont have to worry about that fire hazard connector. both are decent cards tho
YetanotherGrimpak@reddit
Irrelevant on the 5070 tho.
miroljubni-rom@reddit
Not really irrelevant, the design of the connector is bad because the lines aren't load balanced so if one of the connections ends up bad things can cascade from there pretty quickly... like the overall chance of it happening to a single specific gpu is still very low but still
YetanotherGrimpak@reddit
Yes, on the 4080/5080 and up, sure. 5070 is quite low powered tho.
miroljubni-rom@reddit
What I meant is that due to the design of the connector a slight fault on one of the connections can reinforce itself until it causes a problem even on cards that don't draw a lot of power overall.
Enough_Agent5638@reddit
there are 9070s with the 12v cable, doesn’t matter
miroljubni-rom@reddit
Yes and I definitely wouldn't get those 9070s
heroofshade420@reddit
do they even come with adapters anymore?
YetanotherGrimpak@reddit
They do, I think.
But it's a 2x8pin to 12vhpwr. It is irrelevant since the gpu doesn't go above 300w, which is half of the max rated wattage for the plug.
BitRunner64@reddit
There have been reports of 5070 connectors melting too. It's rarer, but it does happen.
YetanotherGrimpak@reddit
Yeesh.
Silly-Conference-627@reddit
You really can't go wrong with either if they are the same price.
The 9070 will have a roughly 10-15% better raw performance and more VRAM while being plug-n-play due to open source drivers.
5070 will have a better upscaling (tho the difference between DLSS 4.5 and FSR 4.1 isn't that large), better path tracing and frame gen. But it will also take some work to get the drivers going.
tO_ott@reddit
The difference between DLSS4.5 and FSR is exactly that large. Every time someone says that they automatically out themselves as someone that hasn’t used them both, or at least the NVIDIA offering. It really is that much of a difference.
Enough_Agent5638@reddit
Youtube compression makes anything better than dlss3 look the exact same. I’ve had a 9070xt and 5070ti and in real life FSR4 quality only looks like dlss4.5 balanced, or even a little lower.
Silly-Conference-627@reddit
FSR 4 is already well outdated. FSR 4.1 made a huge leap in sharpness and smearing reduction. I have had the opportunity to test both FSR 4.1 and DLSS 4.5 side by side and the difference id barely noticable while the older FSR 4 is largely behind.
ytman@reddit
What resolution are you targeting?
tark561@reddit (OP)
2560 x 1440 p
ytman@reddit
So that was my target, and still might be my target, but I just tried MHWilds and was running it on Ultra/Max (no frame gen) and there were a few moments where it dipped to 40 fps at 1080.
I'm fairly out of the loop of specs/power and such, and don't know your budget, but while I'm thrilled with my AMD rig, i'm unsure if I'll go QHD as I'd rather more frames than not.
If you'll upscale to QHD maybe it'll work, but I do want to try to only do pure raster.
tark561@reddit (OP)
Thank you for the feedback. MHWilds I've been told is not a good benchmark as without framegen it is horribly hard to get running smoothly apparently. I've not even bothered trying it with the current RTX1070 that I am on. You should experience much better results in other games, even modern AAA titles. I'll definitely try it out with the RX9070.
ytman@reddit
Yeah I've heard MHWilds is a notoriously poorly performing PC game. But didn't expecy it to be that bad considering that our PS5 runs it.
So overall I've experienced no crashes and have had most of my play be at a capped 60 frames 1080. I don't know the rest of your system plans but mine is a 9800x3d and 32gb ram as well.
Been running cool as far as I can tell.
Eozef@reddit
The 16GB VRAM will last longer.
FrancisW0206@reddit
How can you call upscaling a marketing gimmick when it really does make a huge difference? Dlss at this point looks indistinguishable from native but with much better fps
wsteelerfan7@reddit
Yeah the only dumb shit is the FG
Helpful_Conflict6549@reddit
Not even that is dumb. FG is way better nowadays on a rtx 50 series, latency is better and artifacts minimal. It's usable even by people like me who are sensitive to latency. People talk bs without ever trying it.
Rubadubrix@reddit
I have tried it, and it feels like old shitty vsync but also with worse image quality
Helpful_Conflict6549@reddit
Which game and what gpu?
Rubadubrix@reddit
5070 mobile, any game that I played that supported it
Helpful_Conflict6549@reddit
So what are these games that you played? Competitive shooters by any chance? Monitor refresh rate?
Have you disabled vsync in game and enabled in drivers? Have you set the frame rate cap a little lower than your max monitor refresh?
The fact that it "feels like old shitty vsync" to you makes me think you have not configured it correctly.
guyAtWorkUpvoting@reddit
Not OP, but Space Marine 2 on RX9070 was unplayable to me.
tO_ott@reddit
You really have no idea
DepravedPrecedence@reddit
GPU does matter... We talk about Nvidia features, they are miles better than AMD... It's not just blind fanboys saying it, it's the reality, Nvidia framegen is way different than what AMD offers
Helpful_Conflict6549@reddit
The AMD FG implementation is nothing like the Nvidia one on rtx 50 series. MUCH lower latency and quality.
miroljubni-rom@reddit
Idk, depends on the person and game, but fg can be pretty nice if you have a high enough base fps.
MatrimAtreides@reddit
Most games I use it in still turn the game into a blurry mess. Looking at you, Crimson Desert
GT_Hades@reddit
Sometimes, DLSS is looking better than native due to better antialiasing effects that comes with it
beirch@reddit
I'd say most of the time even. TAA/TSR and FXAA all look jagged or blurry in comparison.
tark561@reddit (OP)
Thank you.
I'm a bit confused as I'm reading that DLSS looks better than native+TAA.
About the drivers on Linux. So far my research goes by now the drivers for NVIDIA have been fixed. Is the performance cut under Linux really that great!
Thank you for the info you've provided!
SoapHero117@reddit
Nvidia is getting better on linux than before, but amd is still ahead
Inner-Ear@reddit
Gamers nexus did a somewhat recent benchmark of the current gen Nvidia and and cards on bazzite. You can check that out and decide on the relative performance
https://youtu.be/ovOx4_8ajZ8?si=H2Z_nEXb4QOVjHSC
OttawaDog@reddit
If on Linux, go AMD, no contest. NVidia works, but loses much more performance.
noiserr@reddit
AMD is much better on Linux due to all the work being done for Steam Deck. And also the fact that the driver is part of the kernel, so you don't even have to manage it separately. Shit just works.
If you game on Linux I would go with AMD no matter what.
miroljubni-rom@reddit
For Linux I'd lean towards the 9070.
But the 5070 is a great cart too and if you want the nvidia specific features...
I mean when I upgraded my gpu back in september 2025, I picked the 9070 over the 5070 and am happy with my card and how it works, but I'm sure I would have been happy with the 5070 too..
tark561@reddit (OP)
Thank you. How have you experienced stability with the RX 9070 on Linux while gaming? And can you say anything to the whole "Native+TAA looks worse than Upscaling" debate?
I suppose the only worry I'd have with going with the RX9070 would be, that I'm trying to buy a card that'll last me for a few years for gaming on 1440p with good settings (good is enough, I don't need very high or ultra graphics). My thought pattern was: Eventually both GPUs would run into a limit. The NVIDIA would then be able to extend its life by using DLSS, which has vastly more support from modern games than FSR.
miroljubni-rom@reddit
The only instability I have experienced with my 9070 is in a few locations in spider man 2 where the game will sometimes crash with a driver timeout, but that is on windows and it happened more on my previous gpu (rx 6600) and overall it didn't really stop me from enjoying the game or its graphics because it's only in a few specific locations if I stay there for too long and the game looks beautiful with everything maxed out. Other than that I haven't really had any crashes anywhere.
Another issue that exists relating Linux and amd gpus is that hdmi isn't fully supported due to licensing issues (aka hdmi forum being dicks), there are some unofficial patches ( https://old.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/1r793et/hdmi_21_frl_looking_for_testers/ ) or you can use display port.
Yes, native + taa looks more smeared/blurry than upscaling imo... for my eyes fsr4/fsr4.1 quality looks better than native + taa. And optiscaler helps a lot with the vastly more support part as long as you don't play games with anti cheat which I don't.
The other worry is also that the 12gb vram on the 5070 will end up being not enough a few years down the line, that's also something to consider? Spider-man 2 that I mentioned previously already uses close to 16gb when I play it with everything maxed out, granted that's the only game I've seen that is consistently above 12gb and granted dropping a few settings down a few notches would probably get it lower.
tark561@reddit (OP)
Thank you for taking the time to answer. You - and all the other kind people in this thread - have helped me reach a decision.
I don't care much for path tracing, even ray tracing is new territory for me. I was am however still worried about the future proofing of DLSS missing on AMD GPUs, dependant on how FSR support develops.
I think I'll go with the RX because of using Linux. And I will thus make the gamble on AMD GPUs remaining relevant to the gaming industry for the next years, and FSR4 support being expanded alongside DLSS in new games.
miroljubni-rom@reddit
Np, ray tracing is actually pretty nice when done right and the 9070 is definitely fast enough for ray tracing... or at least I find it worth it and keep it turned on everywhere.. even if it's not as good looking as marketing would have you believe :)
AcrobaticNetwork5918@reddit
Seems like you're already hesitant on AMD. If that is the case, I would full-send the 5070 if it is cheaper than the 9070.
For your VRAM concerns, you will be relatively fine so long as you do not push beyond 4K in some games. Even then, Nvidia's already working on new neural compression technologies that will lower VRAM usage sometime in the future. So a small sacrifice of 4GB while gaining Nvidia's toolset will be well worth it.
tark561@reddit (OP)
They're both priced equally where I am.
Do you think NVIDIA would bring the neural compression technology to the current gen cards once it comes out? In general, what is NVIDIAs track record when it comes to that? AMD doesn't seem to have a good record due to the whole dropping RDNA3 thing when it came to FSR4. Now theres rumors or new cards coming out with RDNA5 which would render the current gen excluded from newest features.
MrShItAsIaN@reddit
same price? get the 5070
SmokBarrage@reddit
probably pretty likely. nvidia wants their technology as accessible as possible so game development can rely on it and make people feel like they need an nvidia card.
agent_moler@reddit
Running a 5070 at 4k with dlss 4.5 and some ray tracing, no problems so far. Don’t believe what everyone says about constantly running up against vram limits, this mostly is only a problem with pure raster or very high RT with DLSS.
TheGamerX20@reddit
If you are using Linux, I'd just get AMD.. Nvidia is getting better, but nowhere near as good as AMD on Linux in my opinion.
Reggitor360@reddit
9070 since you use Linux
PGleo86@reddit
You're on Linux - don't even consider Nvidia unless you need more performance than AMD makes (so, 4090/5090 only, pretty much). Nvidia is better than it once was but the AMD experience is still FAR superior and will remain so for at least the short to medium term. I upgraded from the same 3090 twice, on two separate PCs (my main first, to a 7900XTX, and the TV PC that inherited it second, a year later, to a 9070XT) because the experience was that much better. AMD is the choice if you want no hassle and things to just work.
sunkenwhalebones@reddit
Same price, 5070 all the way. It's slightly slower and has less VRAM, but it has vastly superior software and support. AMD dropped the support for the 7000 series after only three years and if they do the same with the 9000 series, the 9070 will age like milk.
Azoraqua_@reddit
When in doubt, always Nvidia. When not in doubt, still Nvidia.
RJsRX7@reddit
For your current usage at 1440P, I'd be inclined to lean nV. Or at least, that's what I was typing until you mentioned you're gaming on Linux.
And in that case, the 9070 is the go. nVidia isn't particularly difficult to install/get functional these days, but they take a fairly severe performance haircut over their Windows representation compared to AMD. AMD loses a bit of ray tracing under Linux, but nVidia loses quite a lot of general performance.
For what it's worth, the VRAM vs performance vs featureset argument between them is basically the 5070 is the slower card with less VRAM, but it has the benefit of their remarkably decent upscaling. The VRAM isn't currently an issue at 1440P and generally shouldn't become one before the 5070 chokes in other regards, but the relative spam of 16gb GPUs makes it increasingly likely that more devs will get lazy about VRAM usage as we go forward.
HappyStrategy5051@reddit
Amd gpu has better performance and more vram and will work better on linux so i would go with rx 9070
Bruvvimir@reddit
I would definitely go with the 5070.