Leave the RTX 5070 Ti on the shelf for now
The RTX 5070 Ti is set to go on sale on 20 February. Initial reviews of the card attest to its moderate leap in performance. Apart from DLSS 4 multi-frame generation, it doesn’t really have anything new.
New graphics card launches are getting increasingly farcical. For starters, new models usually only offer small leaps in performance and a limited number of new features compared to old ones. That being said, most of these releases are what’s known as paper launches – at least at Nvidia. It’s unlikely to be any different with the RTX 5070 Ti.
Slight increase in performance compared to its predecessor
Wolfgang Andermahr from Computerbase maintains (site in German) he could simply copy his verdict of the RTX 5080 over to his review of the RTX 5070 Ti. It’s a solid graphics card without any real weaknesses per se, but also with little sign of anything new. That’s why he dubs it the RTX 4080 (Super) Plus. In more concrete terms, this means the card offers 10 to 12 per cent more fps than the RTX 4070 Ti Super in classic rasterisation at 1440p resolution. With light ray tracing, the increase in performance is similar and with full ray tracing, it’s only in the single-digit range – if at all.
Techpowerup’s W1zzard achieves slightly different results. However, he also lets the RTX 5070 Ti compete against the RTX 4070 Ti rather than the slightly faster RTX 4070 Ti Super. In this respect, the RTX 5070 Ti is 28 per cent ahead when it comes to traditional rasterisation. With ray tracing, the figure is an impressive 49 per cent. Based on these results, the RTX 5070 Ti comes close to the RTX 4080 Super and narrowly beats AMD’s current flagship, the RX 7900 XTX.
Steven Walton from Techspot notes that the performance gain of the RTX 5070 Ti over the RTX 4070 Ti Super is higher at 2160p resolution than at 1440p. The difference is 7 per cent on average with the former and 11 per cent with the latter.
Only worth it at the recommended retail price
Steven uses three different values to calculate the price per frame: Nvidia’s recommended retail price (RRP), the retail price and the real RRP. If the RTX 5070 Ti is widely available at an RRP of 750 US dollars, that makes it a valid option in today’s market. Even if the card was set at the current retail prices of the older models, it’d be in a good position. However, Steven assumes that the 750 US dollar models are incredibly limited. Most would probably cost around 900 US dollars at launch – and then become even more expensive over the next few months due to forecasted limited availability. To cut a long story short, the RTX 5070 Ti will cost the same per frame as the RTX 4070 Ti Super. In other words, the new card will remain in step with its predecessors.
And yet, Wolfgang from Computerbase writes that the RTX 5070 Ti is 10 euros cheaper than the RTX 4070 Ti based purely on RRP. But he also points out that there’ll hardly be any cards at RRP at launch and that the price will only rise in the coming months. He adds that it’s unclear when the situation will improve.
W1zzard is on the same page in this regard. However, he points out that there’s simply no alternative in this segment. Anything cheaper offers significantly less performance and options that are a lot more powerful don’t justify the high markup. AMD’s upcoming RX 9070 series won’t be able to change this either, since it’s unlikely to be as powerful as the RTX 5070 Ti.
At least it’s on the money when it comes to efficiency
According to W1zzard, the RTX 5070 Ti is similar to previous cards in the RTX 50 series in that it requires a lot of power in idle mode. But when you’re gaming, the card is extremely efficient, with only the RTX 5080 performing better.
Computerbase comes to the same conclusion. In Wolfgang’s tests, the RTX 5070 Ti is only 2 per cent less efficient than the RTX 5080. By comparison, the RTX 5070 Ti is 11 per cent ahead of AMD’s most efficient card, the RX 7900 XTX.
Expressed in figures, the RTX 5070 Ti requires an average of 360 W at 1440p resolution, according to Techspot’s conclusion.
When can I buy it from digitec? The RTX 5070 will be available from 20 January at 3 p.m. We’ll only have a limited number of the GPU in stock. This shortage is unlikely to improve in the coming months, and we can’t give any information about when the card will be restocked.
Header image: YouTube / optimum
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Kevin Hofer
Senior Editor
kevin.hofer@digitecgalaxus.chFrom big data to big brother, Cyborgs to Sci-Fi. All aspects of technology and society fascinate me.
