No, the RTX 5070 isn’t as fast as the RTX 4090
The RTX 5070 is going on sale on 5 March. Initial reviews of the card put it on a par with the RTX 4070 Super. Even DLSS 4 Multi Frame Generation can’t save it.
Graphics card launches used to make me happy, but I'm more sceptical nowadays. Looking at reviews of the RTX 5070, I have to shake my head. Yes, at its debut, Nvidia said the card was at the RTX 4090's level. Turns out that it isn’t, even with Nvidia’s deification of AI.
Performance increase yes, but only slightly
W1zzard from Techpowerup sums it up nicely: Nvidia has broken its «twice the performance every second generation» rule. Overall, the RTX 5070 offers similar performance to the RTX 4070 Ti. Compared to the RTX 4070 Super, the performance increase is a meagre five per cent in classic rasteriser games without upscaling.
Wolfgang Andermahr from Computerbase achieved even worse results (review in German). The RTX 5070 is three to four per cent ahead of the RTX 4070 Super – with ray tracing, the 5070 even falls behind. The real surprise, however, is that a result this good can even be achieved when looking at the specs. He concludes by describing the RTX 5070 as an RTX 4070 Super with DLSS 4 Multi Frame Generation. However, that feature doesn’t provide benefits across the board, only when a game supports it – even then, it’ll be far removed from the RTX 4090.
Raffael Vötter from PC Games Hardware comes to similar results (review in German) to Andermahr and W1zzard. To him, the biggest problem with the RTX 5070 is memory. At 12 gigabytes, it’s simply too small for a graphics card that claims to be top class in terms of price and features.
Not a great overall package
Vötter goes on to write that the price and potential of the card simply don’t match. Nevertheless, the RTX 5070 is a decent graphics card at the recommended retail price (RRP). Unfortunately, it likely won’t be available to buy at that price in the coming months.
Wizzard is even clearer about the RRP: for 550 US dollars, the card is almost a bargain, especially since the RTX 4070 was 50 US dollars pricier at launch. However, he also expects there’ll hardly be any cards available at the RRP, since there are currently virtually no RTX 50 cards to buy worldwide. The few RTX 5070 models available at the RRP will sell out quickly. Following that, the manufacturer probably won’t offer any at that price any more, only their significantly more expensive custom designs. As a result, the RRP feels pretty ridiculous, only there to get good reviews.
Andermahr sees it the same way. He’s guessing that prices should remain in the three-digit euro range.
At least the efficiency’s right
According to Andermahr, the RTX 5070 requires an average of 222 watts in UHD. It seems the card doesn’t require the full 250 watts in most cases then, even at high resolutions. However, there are still games where this limit is reached.
Vötter also describes the RTX 5070 as efficient. In fact, it’s even one of the most efficient graphics cards currently available – whether in classic rasteriser games or when ray tracing.
W1zzard in turn emphasises that, unlike other cards in the RTX 50 series, it consumes little power when idle, while using multi-monitor setups or during media playback.
Availability in our range: the RTX 5070 launches at 3 p.m. on 5 March. However, we won’t have any cards in stock for the launch, so you won’t be able to order them yet. We’ll keep you informed as soon as we have more information. This shortage is unlikely to ease in the coming months either.
Header image: Screenshot YouTube / Hardware Canucks
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Kevin Hofer
Senior Editor
kevin.hofer@digitecgalaxus.chFrom big data to big brother, Cyborgs to Sci-Fi. All aspects of technology and society fascinate me.
