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The Nvidia RTX 4070 is now available for $549, $50 less than its launch MSRP. The GPU delivers superb 1440p gaming experiences, however, the next-gen RTX 50 series is also on the horizon. If rumors are anything to go by, the upcoming generation might bulldoze Ada Lovelace out of consideration with superb performance improvements. This raises the question: should you wait for the RTX 5060 or get the 4070 now?
While budget Blackwell cards are still quite far away, we can expect them to drop within another year max. Judging previous trends, a Spring 2025 window seems plausible. Let's look at what the 4070 brings to the table and should you consider waiting for the next generation.
Nvidia RTX 4070 or wait for RTX 5060: The decision can be tough
The Nvidia RTX 4070 is one of the most powerful graphics cards ever launched. The GPU supports some of the latest gaming technologies in the market like ray tracing and DLSS 3 with frame generation.
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However, the promises of the next generation are superb too. Blackwell cards are rumored to get a massive performance boost with improvements in rasterization performance, thanks to the refined TSMC 4nm process the company aims to adopt.
Next-generation GDDR7 memory is also in the rumor mill which should deliver superb bandwidth improvements, allowing for smoother high-resolution gaming.
However, the performance the RTX 4070 can push out is quite impressive and simply squashes the requirement for something more capable. Let's review what you can expect from the $549 GPU.
4K gaming benchmarks
The 4070 is a capable 4K gaming graphics card. You can get playable framerates at High settings across a bunch of the latest releases. Performance marks recorded in some of the most demanding video games are as follows.
1440p gaming benchmarks
The RTX 4070 is launched for 1440p gaming. The graphics card is designed to deliver sky-high framerates in this resolution, and you can expect over 60 FPS in most titles. Benchmark results for some titles are as follows.
1080p gaming benchmarks
Given the upcoming RTX 5060 will target 1080p gaming, it's important to look at what the 4070 can do at this resolution. Keeping up with previous trends, you can expect superb performance in some of the latest titles at the highest settings. This resolution gives players the freedom to crank everything to the highest without noticeable FPS drops.
If you are looking for decent 1080p gaming GPUs, the 4070 will be way overkill. As such, we recommend players consider the cheaper RTX 4060 for now and upgrade to the RTX 5060 when it drops.
DLSS 3.0 with frame generation
One of the biggest pros of the new RTX 40 series cards is DLSS 3 with frame generation. It effectively multiplies the framerates you can expect by a factor of two to three. This future-proofs the 4070 given the library of supported games is only expected to increase.
RTX 4070 or RTX 5060: The Verdict
For the bottom line, we still think the RTX 5060 is still quite far away. If you are looking for good performance in the mid-range, the $549 RTX 4070 can be a solid purchase today. Looking at previous gen-on-gen performance leaps, it will be highly unlikely for the upcoming 5060 to beat the 4070 by a huge margin.
However, if you are set on getting one of the newer Blackwell GPUs, consider buying the RTX 4060 for now and then upgrading to the 5060 when it launches.
