Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti evaluation: a less expensive RTX 4080

Nvidia’s new RTX 5070 Ti graphics card is probably the most intriguing entry within the 50-series lineup to date, promising to outperform last-gen playing cards that had been much more costly. At $749, it comfortably beats AMD’s $899 RX 7900 XT, trades blows with the $999 RX 7900 XTX, and is nearer than I used to be anticipating to Nvidia’s personal $999 RTX 5080. It’s a succesful card for a comparatively good worth, and that makes the RTX 5070 Ti a great alternative for those who’re tempted to maneuver to 4K gaming or need a card that may ship excessive body charges for 1440p.

However like the remainder of the 50-series playing cards, the RTX 5070 Ti will not be as a lot of an improve as we’ve come to count on from Nvidia. The cardboard is round 14 % sooner at 4K than the last-generation RTX 4070 Ti and 22 % sooner at 1440p. It’s almost as quick because the RTX 4080 Tremendous, which launched at $999, and it’s greater than 80 % sooner at 4K than the two-generations-old RTX 3070 Ti. These are first rate numbers, but it surely’s principally as a result of the 40 sequence was such an enormous leap.

All of this makes the RTX 5070 Ti a very good deal at its $749 MSRP, however provided that it stays there — and costs are already going up.

Editor’s word: We aren’t scoring the RTX 5070 Ti till the pricing state of affairs is evident at launch on February twentieth.

I’ve been testing MSI’s RTX 5070 Ti Ventus 3X OC version, which seems to be nearly an identical to the RTX 4070 Ti Tremendous I reviewed final 12 months. MSI’s tried-and-true Ventus 3X OC playing cards use a triple-fan format with a copper baseplate and warmth pipes to chill the GPU and reminiscence modules.

For each my 4K and 1440p testing, I paired MSI’s RTX 5070 Ti with AMD’s newest Ryzen 9 9800X3D processor and Asus’ 32-inch 4K OLED PG32UCDP monitor. I additionally put the RTX 5070 Ti up in opposition to the $999 RTX 5080 — the following step up within the RTX 50 sequence — in addition to the RTX 4080, RTX 4070 Ti, RTX 4070 Ti Tremendous, and AMD’s Radeon RX 7900 XT.

The RTX 5070 Ti delivers what you’d count on from a contemporary GPU: playable body charges at each 4K and 1440p with all of the settings maxed out. Whereas the {hardware} isn’t fairly as modern as Nvidia’s Founders Version playing cards, MSI’s GPU will match nicely into most gaming rigs.

With out DLSS or ray tracing enabled, the RTX 5070 Ti is sort of 13 % sooner than the RTX 4070 Ti Tremendous at 4K and 1440p, sufficient to make it virtually an identical to the RTX 4080 at 4K and never far behind at 1440p. You could possibly even overclock the RTX 5070 Ti with the clicking of a button in Nvidia’s app or by utilizing MSI’s Afterburner utility and get barely forward of the RTX 4080 Tremendous.

The RTX 5070 Ti makes for an incredible 1440p expertise and strong 4K gaming, particularly for those who’re keen to show the settings down barely or overclock the cardboard to squeeze out a little bit extra efficiency. The following step up within the RTX 50-series line, the $999 RTX 5080, is round 12 % sooner than the $749 RTX 5070 Ti at 1440p and round 15 % sooner at 4K decision — however you must pay an additional 33 % in money for not way more efficiency.

The RTX 5070 Ti, very similar to the RTX 5080, makes probably the most sense for those who’re upgrading from the RTX 30-series fashions or earlier. At 4K with out DLSS or ray tracing, the RTX 5070 Ti is sort of 84 % sooner than the RTX 3070 Ti. It is going to be a noticeable improve for those who’re utilizing an RTX 30-series card or older, and also you’ll additionally get entry to Nvidia’s Body Era know-how.

Nvidia’s RTX 3070 Ti, which launched in 2021, was solely appropriate for very entry-level 4K gaming, partly as a result of it shipped with simply 8GB of VRAM. The constraints had been particularly noticeable within the Forza Motorsport benchmark, the place the RTX 3070 Ti averaged a measly 33fps in comparison with the 109fps on the RTX 5070 Ti.

I’m hoping we received’t see those self same limitations additional down the road with the RTX 5070 Ti’s 16GB of VRAM. The unique RTX 4070 Ti solely had 12GB of VRAM, which Nvidia bumped as much as 16GB with the RTX 4070 Ti Tremendous. If there was a little bit extra VRAM on the RTX 5070 Ti, then it will assist keep away from any video reminiscence limits at 4K gaming sooner or later.

DLSS 4 and Multi Body Gen

I’ve additionally been testing DLSS 4 and Nvidia’s new Multi Body Era know-how with the RTX 5070 Ti. Multi Body Gen makes use of the newest AI graphics fashions, powered by an up to date transformer structure, to generate as much as three extra frames per historically rendered body, pushing the RTX 5070’s body charges past what it’s usually able to at 4K and 1440p.

Cyberpunk 2077 has been an incredible check title for DLSS 4 and Multi Body Gen, demonstrating how Nvidia’s new method can present movement readability enhancements with greater body charges. With out DLSS 4, Cyberpunk runs at an unplayable 15fps common with extremely settings and full ray tracing enabled on the RTX 5070 Ti at 4K decision. I used to be capable of push that each one the best way as much as 110fps because of 4x Multi Body Gen.

As I’ve argued in my earlier RTX 50-series critiques, this nonetheless doesn’t really feel like an actual 110fps as a result of it maintains the identical enter latency it has after DLSS Tremendous Decision is utilized. Tremendous Decision renders the sport at a decrease decision after which makes use of AI to upscale it — on this case, from 15fps to 33fps. Multi Body Gen then creates the three further frames to make the movement of gameplay look smoother, but it surely nonetheless looks like a sluggish 33fps, so it’s much less reactive than an actual 110fps whenever you hit a button or click on to shoot.

DLSS Multi Body Gen nonetheless makes probably the most sense at 1440p with the RTX 5070 Ti, just because the bottom body charges (as soon as Tremendous Decision is utilized) are excessive sufficient to make the enter latency much less of a difficulty.

Whereas there nonetheless aren’t many video games that help Multi Body Gen and DLSS 4, you possibly can drive these methods on with Nvidia’s new app. DLSS 4’s new transformer mannequin even works on present RTX playing cards, so that you’ll get the advantages of improved picture high quality for those who drive DLSS 4 on in video games earlier than builders have patched them.

Like the remainder of the RTX 50 sequence, the RTX 5070 Ti can also be a succesful card if you wish to do video enhancing or run AI workloads. I discovered that the RTX 5070 Ti was almost 14 % sooner than the earlier RTX 4070 Ti in PugetBench’s DaVinci Resolve check and Procyon’s AI XL (FP16) check.

Nvidia recommends a 750-watt energy provide for the RTX 5070 Ti, which is just 50 watts greater than for the RTX 4070 Ti and 4070 Ti Tremendous. The 300W whole graphics energy is simply 15 watts greater than the 4070 Ti.

At 4K decision, the RTX 5070 Ti averaged 271 watts throughout the 9 video games examined — a little bit greater than the 245-watt common draw of the RTX 4070 Ti however lower than the RTX 4080’s 282W common for nearly an identical efficiency.

I solely observed the RTX 5070 Ti hit its max energy draw of 300 watts in the course of the Metro Exodus excessive benchmark, and it additionally maintained the very same max GPU temperature (68 levels Celsius) of the RTX 4080 in my open bench testing. It’s nice to see Nvidia hasn’t massively elevated energy or cooling necessities right here.

The RTX 5070 Ti continues the 50-series pattern of modest generational enhancements. At 1440p, the RTX 5070 Ti delivers a very good deal extra efficiency than the RTX 4070 Ti and 4070 Ti Tremendous, however I used to be actually hoping for extra at 4K. That may have pushed this firmly previous the RTX 4080 and 4080 Tremendous to make 4K gaming much more reasonably priced.

Whether or not the RTX 5070 Ti is an efficient worth will come all the way down to pricing and availability. With out a Founders Version to place stress on board companion pricing, I feel it’s going to be very laborious to search out an RTX 5070 Ti at $749. Micro Middle is already listing overclocked fashions at $999, the identical worth because the RTX 5080, and solely a single card is listed at $749 out of the 12 out there. Nvidia insisted that the MSI card we examined has an MSRP of $749, although it was listed as $909 at Micro Middle simply hours earlier than this evaluation went dwell.

I believe it’s going to come all the way down to availability, too. It seems to be like there’s an actual scarcity of GPUs out there. The RTX 5090 was barely in inventory, and restocks are uncommon proper now. Even the RTX 5080 is bought out at most locations, and one retailer within the UK says it received’t be getting extra for no less than six weeks, with some fashions even additional out. 40-series Nvidia playing cards and AMD’s 7900 XT sequence additionally look skinny on the bottom.

AMD may assist with protecting pricing beneath management, so long as it has inventory out there. It’s about to enter the market with two new GPUs that appear to be they’re going to compete straight with Nvidia’s RTX 5070 Ti and RTX 5070. Nvidia has even delayed the debut of its RTX 5070 till March, which suggests a GPU pricing battle is about to happen at this essential a part of the market.

The RTX 5070 Ti is an efficient buy for those who can really get one at $749, but it surely could be price ready a couple of weeks to see how AMD’s efficiency, worth, and availability form up in opposition to Nvidia’s newest GPU.