Nvidia RTX 5070 vs AMD Radeon RX 9070: Which is the better gaming GPU?

The Nvidia RTX 5070 and the AMD RX 9070 are among the most debated QHD gaming GPUs today. Both cards are $549, which can make choosing between the two difficult. While AMD has perfected its ray tracing formula and paired its card with extra VRAM, Nvidia's offering feature AI-powered technologies with iterative improvements over the last generation, Ada Lovelace.

Let's compare both products to help you decide which one you should opt for.

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Both the Nvidia RTX 5070 and AMD Radeon RX 9070 are capable graphics cards

The RTX 5070 is a mid-range 1440p gaming GPU from Team Green (Image via PNY)

Both the Nvidia RTX 5070 and AMD RX 9070 are designed for high-end, no-compromise 1440p gaming. However, there are differences between the two. While Nvidia is focusing Blackwell on AI-powered enhancements, Team Red has paired their offerings with more hardware to win the performance crown.

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Specs comparison

A detailed comparison between the RTX 5070 and RX 9070's specs isn't possible – the cards are based on wildly different architectures. While Nvidia's Blackwell has less focus on gen-on-gen performance improvements (this generation is mostly focused on better hardware packaging for efficiency and AI capabilities), AMD has bundled the card with much more hardware than the RX 7700 XT.

The specs sheets for the GPUs are as follows:

Specification	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070	AMD Radeon RX 9070
Architecture	Blackwell	RDNA 4
CUDA Cores / Shaders	6144 CUDA Cores	3584 Shaders
Base Clock Speed	2,325 MHz	2,400 MHz
Boost Clock Speed	2,512 MHz	2,970 MHz
Memory Type	GDDR7	GDDR6
Memory Capacity	12 GB	16 GB
Memory Bus Width	192-bit	256-bit
Memory Bandwidth	672 GB/s	640 GB/s
Ray Tracing Cores	48	56
Tensor Cores / AI Accelerators	192	112
TDP (Power Consumption)	250W	220W

In terms of pricing, both GPUs carry an MSRP $549 price tag. However, at the time of writing, we couldn't find any third-party AIB cards at the introductory price. On average, the RTX 5070 appeared to be cheaper than the 9070. Things could change as supply normalizes a few weeks following the initial launch of RDNA 4. We will update the article once we have more information.

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Performance comparison

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 is a capable 1440p gaming GPU as well (Image via AMD)

Gaming performance is the more important delimiter for GPUs. Given how demanding the latest games have gotten, the focus is on getting the most bang for the buck these days. Part of this is also driven by rising graphics card prices.

Let's look at the frame rates to expect from either GPU at QHD. We sourced the numbers from the YouTube channel Testing Games.

	Nvidia RTX 5070	AMD Radeon RX 9070
Star Wars Outlaws	55 FPS	65 FPS
Starfield	68 FPS	90 FPS
Forza Horizon 5	139 FPS	171 FPS
Black Myth Wukong	47 FPS	49 FPS
Ghost of Tsushima	81 FPS	110 FPS
Cyberpunk 2077	90 FPS	101 FPS
Cyberpunk 2077 w/ RT	45 FPS	45 FPS
God of War: Ragnarok	110 FPS	135 FPS
Silent Hill 2	63 FPS	59 FPS
Kingdom Come Deliverance 2	73 FPS	71 FPS
Horizon Forbidden West	94 FPS	113 FPS
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2	64 FPS	68 FPS

Based on the chart above, the RX 9070 is, on average, 10.96% faster than its Team Green counterpart. However, you will find that there are two kinds of games: ones that favor Nvidia and others that suit AMD. In Ghost of Tsushima, for instance, the Radeon card is a staggering 26.36% faster.

In more Nvidia-friendly titles like Silent Hill 2 and Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, the 5070 delivers 2-6% better performance despite its VRAM and rendering hardware disadvantages.

That said, the ray tracing performance deltas between both cards have disappeared, as both Nvidia and AMD scored 45 FPS on average in Cyberpunk 2077. The CD Projekt Red game has one of the most demanding RT implementations.

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Overall, the AMD RX 9070 and the Nvidia RTX 5070 are high-end gaming GPUs. Given the performance differences, the Radeon GPU is better for gamers who want high frame rates without compromises.

The Nvidia card has a few advantages, such as multi-frame generation and better performance in RT-heavy and mesh-shader-based titles. However, the smaller VRAM buffer doesn't future-proof it.