The Nvidia Geforce RTX 3070 Ti was launched as the company's 1440p champion in the summer of 2021. It is a slightly beefed-up version of the RTX 3070 and outperformed the $500 budget champion by a small margin.
The card launched at an MSRP of $599. However, almost two years after its release, it is selling over its retail price. The cheapest models on Newegg are available at $649.
In addition, Nvidia will launch the RTX 4070 Ti at CES this year. In this market, gamers building a mid-range, high-performance 1440p gaming rig might get confused while choosing video cards.
Let's take a look at whether buying the RTX 3070 Ti makes any sense in 2024.
Note: This article is subjective and reflects the opinions of the writer
Pricing and the competition is killing the RTX 3070 Ti
The RTX 3070 Ti is a high-performance video card for 1440p gaming. It is based on the GA104 graphics processor, like the RTX 3070.
It features 6,144 CUDA cores, 192 Texture Mapping Units (TMUs), 96 Render Output Units (ROPs), and 48 ray-tracing acceleration cores. It comes with 8 GB of 19 Gbps GDDR6X video memory that is based on a 256-bit memory bus.
Every aspect of the premium mid-range 70-class card has been improved in contrast to the older 3070. Upon launch, the GPU was much costlier than its non-Ti sibling. However, these days it can be picked up for just $509, which makes it as expensive as the RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB and the 3070. The GPU is faster than both of these cards.
A detailed specs list of the card is as follows:
Based on theoretical performance, the card is about 7% faster than the original RTX 3070 and is slightly slower than the RX 6800 and 6800 XT from AMD. It is also about 21% slower than the RTX 3080.
It is no wonder that the 3070 Ti is a massive pixel pusher in video games. The card can run every game in the highest settings at 1440p. It can handle most titles at UHD resolution as well.
AMD is competing hard against the RTX 3070 Ti
The RX 6700 XT and the 6750 XT
AMD has launched multiple cards to compete against the RTX 3070 Ti. The RX 6700 XT and the 6750 XT are the direct competitors of the card. However, they are slower than both of the cards in the RTX 3070 series.
According to TechPowerUp's GPU rendering power aggregates, the 6700 XT is about 19% slower than the 3070 Ti, and the 6750 XT trails the card by 12%. A specs list of the GPUs is as follows:
However, the pricing of the cards makes them interesting. The slightly lower-end 6700 XT starts from around $329 on Newegg. This is almost two-thirds the price of the 3070 Ti. The 6750 XT is slightly costlier, with the average cost of the three cheapest models on Newegg being $369.
It is worth noting that both of these cards can play every major game at 1440p without frame drops. Most gamers can side with these slightly weaker and cheaper cards from AMD and call it a day.
A detailed performance comparison between these cards is as follows:
As evident, the 6700 XT and the 6750 XT are very close to the 3070.
The RX 6800 and the 6800 XT
The RX 6700 XT and the 6750 XT are slower pixel pushers than the 3070 Ti. Thus, to put things into level with the Nvidia card, gamers should look at the RX 6800 and the 6800 XT. The RX 6800 non-XT is about 3% faster than the 3070 Ti while costing about $50 cheaper than the Nvidia card. With double the VRAM buffer, it is a much better option to consider.
The RX 6800 XT is priced at about $539 on Newegg these days. The card is around 18% faster than the RTX 3070 Ti while costing the same as some of the high-end third-party AIB models of the Nvidia GPU.
A detailed performance comparison between these cards is as follows:
Thus, both the RX 6800 and the 6800 XT are faster than the RTX 3070 Ti.
Conclusion
The RTX 3070 Ti is a superb card for QHD gaming and will stay so for the foreseeable future. However, solid options from the competition and multiple superior next-gen cards make the 3070 Ti a comparatively less lucrative GPU.
The RX 6800 and the RX 6800 XT specifically steal the thunder from the high-end Nvidia graphics card. Both of these cards deliver way better price to performance as compared to the RTX 3070 Ti. The RX 6800 makes much more sense for gamers today. The extra VRAM helps market it better.
For those on a budget, the RX 6700 XT and the 6750 XT are better value-for-money cards as well. Both of these cards are pretty close to the 3070 Ti while packing extra VRAM and being about two-thirds the price.
However, do note that AMD GPUs have their share of problems. Recently, the bad drivers issue has resurfaced, which is causing more problems than it solves.