Nvidia RTX 5070 vs RTX 4090: Can a 70-class GPU deliver 90-class performance? Possibilities explored

The Nvidia RTX 5070 was just launched at CES 2025, and the Green Team claims it can deliver the same level of performance as the RTX 4090, which is a monster of a GPU. This was surprising, considering the former is a 70-class GPU and the latter is a 90-class. Besides, they are only one generation apart, so such a stark performance improvement is unheard of. However, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang did mention it would have been impossible without AI.

In this article, we will discuss if and how the RTX 5070 can actually deliver RTX 4090-level performance.

Note: Some aspects of this article are subjective and solely reflect the writer's opinion.

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Nvidia RTX 5070 vs RTX 4090

ASUS TUF Gaming RTX 4090 (Image via ASUS)

The Nvidia RTX 4090 is a flagship GPU from the last generation, while the RTX 5070 is a current-gen mid-range card. We are going to do a detailed comparison of the two graphics cards. But before that, let's look at their spec sheet below.

Specs comparison

Here are the specs of the two GPUs:

Specifications	Nvidia RTX 5070	Nvidia RTX 4090
Architecture	Blackwell	Ada Lovelace
Shader cores	6144	16384
RT cores	48	128
TMUs	192	512
ROPs	64	176
Base core clock speeds	2160 MHz	2235 MHz
Boost core clock speeds	2510 MHz	2520 MHz
Memory capacity	12 GB GDDR7	24 GB GDDR6X
Memory bus width	192-bit	384-bit
Memory bandwidth	672.2 GB/s	1.01 TB/s
Manufacturing node	4nm	5nm
Thermal design power (TDPs)	250W	450W
Price	$549	$1,599

While Jensen claims the RTX 5070 is just as powerful as the RTX 4090, the specs sheet sings a different tune. The latter has almost three times the number of shader cores, TMUs, and ROPs and twice the memory and bandwidth. This makes it hard to understand how the RTX 5070 could possibly perform close to the 4090, but we will find out.

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Performance benchmarks

Nvidia RTX 5070 vs RTX 4070 (Image via Nvidia)

It has been proven time and time again that specs don't tell the whole story. We need to look at some actual benchmark data for a fair comparison. However, since the RTX 5070 is not out on the market yet, we cannot directly compare it against the 4090. Therefore, we will rely on the first-party benchmarks for this comparison.

According to that benchmark, the Nvidia RTX 5070 is twice as fast as the RTX 4070 on average. Since the RTX 4090 is almost twice as fast as the 4070 (based on tests done by the YouTuber PixelBench), it seems Nvidia was correct to say the new RTX mid-ranger is just as fast as the flagship card from 2022.

However, there's a caveat. If you check the footnotes of the first-party benchmark, you will realize it wasn't really a fair comparison. That's because the RTX 5070 was running on DLSS 4, while the RTX 4070 was on DLSS 3 for most games. Essentially, it's the DLSS 4 Multi-Frame Gen AI technology that is making the RTX 5070 GPU twice as fast as the RTX 4070 and not the actual raw performance.

However, games like Far Cry 6 and Plague Tale: Requiem in the same benchmark don't support DLSS 4 technology yet. Therefore, in these cases, the RTX 5070 appears to be around only 20 - 30% faster than the RTX 4070, which will be nowhere close to the performance of the 4090.

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Price comparison

ASUS PRIME RTX 5070 (Image via ASUS)

The Nvidia RTX 5070 costs $549, while the Nvidia RTX 4090 costs $1,599, which is almost three times higher. However, in the current market, the RTX 4090 often asks for more than its MSRP, so keep that in mind.

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Final thoughts on Nvidia RTX 5070 vs RTX 4090

The Nvidia RTX 5070 is as fast as the 4090 only if AI-based DLSS 4 is used with Multi-Frame Gen. However, if we were to compare the two GPUs in terms of raw performance, then the RTX 5070 would fail to come anywhere close to the 4090. The latter is vastly more powerful.

It's up to the users to decide if they are comfortable playing games with DLSS 4 Multi-frame Gen enabled, and they can pick a GPU based on their preference.