I understand to some extent as I put together my new system in Jan 2024 and decided to wait until I saw a good deal on GPUs. I finally got a GPU in Feb 2025. I had to use my system and play games with my integrated GPU for over a year!
- Feb 21, 2020
- 2,751
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I have elected to change the score from a 4.0 to a 3.5. No, it's not a huge difference, and some will undoubtedly want the score to be lower. But the time crunch of trying to get everything done means that the initial scoring was done on little sleep and rushed out the door as I hit publish. As I've sat and thought about the situation, it feels a bit too high — though if retail availability surprises us, I may revert to the 4.0 score.
This is not because people are saying the score was too high, but rather because I didn't really have time to think about it before the embargo was done. I was up all night (again) trying to run as many tests as possible. 7800 XT testing got finished at about 3am.
Fundamentally, the problem is that the official MSRP has been set to $549, so we have to factor that into our evaluation, but all indications are that the retail pricing will generally not be that low. $549 for 20% higher baseline performance than the outgoing $549 card, with extras like MFG that can make the subjective gaming experience more like 40% faster in some cases, feels appropriate. But there's certainly a lack of progression in a lot of areas, which is becoming more common as process node shrinks get more difficult and the cost of using advanced nodes increases.
Is the RTX 5070 a better card than the RTX 4070? Yes. Unequivocally. It's faster and offers new features, some of which could become much more important down the road (e.g. neural rendering techniques). At the same time, it's not a massive jump in generational performance, and it also uses about 20% more power. That last is mostly a factor of being on the same process node as the prior generation. Sticking with 12GB of VRAM also strikes us as unfortunate, as there are already games that will exceed that much memory, and we can only expect that more will come out during the lifetime of the card.
What should the price be? $549 seems about right in my book, considering inflation and the limited availability of 5nm-class silicon manufacturing. Unfortunately, it's unlikely to sell at that price, just as the RTX 30-series GPUs routinely sold at vastly inflated prices throughout the 2020–2022 timeframe. Please remember: It's just one number. There are literally hundreds of tests conducted to deliver these reviews, and in a dynamic market the launch inevitably ends up as a snapshot in time. Things can and will change, hopefully for the better but possibly for the worse.
This is not because people are saying the score was too high, but rather because I didn't really have time to think about it before the embargo was done. I was up all night (again) trying to run as many tests as possible. 7800 XT testing got finished at about 3am.
Fundamentally, the problem is that the official MSRP has been set to $549, so we have to factor that into our evaluation, but all indications are that the retail pricing will generally not be that low. $549 for 20% higher baseline performance than the outgoing $549 card, with extras like MFG that can make the subjective gaming experience more like 40% faster in some cases, feels appropriate. But there's certainly a lack of progression in a lot of areas, which is becoming more common as process node shrinks get more difficult and the cost of using advanced nodes increases.
Is the RTX 5070 a better card than the RTX 4070? Yes. Unequivocally. It's faster and offers new features, some of which could become much more important down the road (e.g. neural rendering techniques). At the same time, it's not a massive jump in generational performance, and it also uses about 20% more power. That last is mostly a factor of being on the same process node as the prior generation. Sticking with 12GB of VRAM also strikes us as unfortunate, as there are already games that will exceed that much memory, and we can only expect that more will come out during the lifetime of the card.
What should the price be? $549 seems about right in my book, considering inflation and the limited availability of 5nm-class silicon manufacturing. Unfortunately, it's unlikely to sell at that price, just as the RTX 30-series GPUs routinely sold at vastly inflated prices throughout the 2020–2022 timeframe. Please remember: It's just one number. There are literally hundreds of tests conducted to deliver these reviews, and in a dynamic market the launch inevitably ends up as a snapshot in time. Things can and will change, hopefully for the better but possibly for the worse.
valthuer
Great
- Feb 9, 2025
- 42
- 33
- 60
I hear ya.
Between selling 4090 and buying 5090, i had to rely on my integrated graphics card for 19 days.
I gotta tell you, i seriously contemplated suicide! 🤣
I can only imagine what a nightmare it was for you.
Jabberwocky79
Upstanding
- Jan 10, 2025
- 138
- 135
- 260
FWIW, the star rating is totally meaningless to me.
- Feb 21, 2020
- 2,751
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It's not negotiating. I waffle in my own brain about the scores ALL THE TIME. I changed the 5090 from 4.5 to 4.0, not because of anyone else but because it felt like the right thing. Too many factors for it to be basically "excellent" in my book. The 5070 is in a similar state.
4.0 is relatively high; I haven't given a 5.0 review on a GPU. (Maybe GTX 1080 Ti would have warranted that?) And I'm looking at the 9070 XT and 9070 and trying to figure out where they slot in. (Spoiler: Not always above the 5070.) But bringing the overall scores down half a peg gives me a bit more wiggle room, and this GPU has a lot in common with the 5080 in terms of generational progression (or the lack thereof).
The 4.0 was more of a "whatever, shove it out the door" while I was existing on 5 hours of sleep in the past 36 hours. Now I'm at 10 hours in the past 48 hours, which is a better ratio. LOL
The powers that be (Google, etc.) need a score. That's really all it is.
Mr Majestyk
Distinguished
- Oct 30, 2013
- 65
- 33
- 18,560
Absolute trash tier at this price. It's clearly the 5060 in all but name. If it were $350 and was called the 5060 it would be maybe worth a 9/10. As it is 5/10 at best.
Another tragic launch by the Leatherman. Hell, even Mr Nvidia, Steve at Hardware Unboxed was raging against the machine and call it the worst 70 series in history, because it's a 60 series that's why.
Another tragic launch by the Leatherman. Hell, even Mr Nvidia, Steve at Hardware Unboxed was raging against the machine and call it the worst 70 series in history, because it's a 60 series that's why.
ohio_buckeye
Illustrious
- Jan 5, 2015
- 5,441
- 1,854
- 39,740
I picked up a 7900xtx the day after Christmas last year for $800 at Microcenter. I had been second guessing myself as time went on with all the new cards arriving, but the more time goes on, the more I like the xtx and realize that I really ended up with a good deal. I think I got one of the last ones they had at that price as well.
- Jul 26, 2008
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Yeah it MSRP'd for $999 to be under the 4080's $1,199 MSRP and above the 4070 TI's $799. That it was widely available for under $900 was so good that nVidia had to release the 4080 Super at $999 in Jan 2024. Of course shortly afterward nVidia stopped making 40 series GPU's and let inventory evaporate in preparation for the 50 series paper launch. Now all the 7900 XTX's are like $1K+ online, assuming you can even find them.
ohio_buckeye
Illustrious
- Jan 5, 2015
- 5,441
- 1,854
- 39,740
The thought crossed my mind to sell it. But I don’t want to get stuck without a gpu like some of the folks in this thread, or get a buyer who would attempt to scam me.
- Jul 26, 2008
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Yeah the whole "sell now and hopefully buy the next one" is usually such a bad idea. All these products nowadays are hype trained through the roof with controlled "leaks" that are just press releases in disguise. Take whatever is the rumor and cut it in half.
Cliff3.141592653589793238
Commendable
- Jan 14, 2023
- 15
- 5
- 1,515
I'm not paying that much to burn my house down! Total waste of money! I have been an Nvidia fan for many years but two generations of burning power cables. WTF?
scottsoapbox
Reputable
- Feb 2, 2021
- 92
- 71
- 4,610
- Aug 5, 2024
- 23
- 19
- 15
It feels a bit suspect that you left out the 4070 Super, as a lot of the other reviews and benchmarks indicate that the 5070 is on-par with the 4070S in rasterization (though in some cases it was found to be slower, but this could be driver related?), and only pulls slightly ahead in ray-tracing benchmarks
I don't get it. nVidia puts out a thousand cards and the reviewer is expected to account for every $50/5 FPS increment? I don't think that is fair.
- Feb 21, 2020
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4070 Super should be right about the same performance as the 5070, yes. There’s no conspiracy, just a lack of time.
Yeah, I’m aware. Still annoyed that “bang for buck” has basically died in all ways for desktop GPUs. “What the market will bear”
- Jul 26, 2008
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I mean when you have 80~90% of a market that produces less then 20% of your revenue, why even care at that point.
Tomorrow nVidia could decide to halt production on all RTX dies and shut down the GeForce division and it wouldn't even bother them.
- Mar 4, 2025
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The Super series of GPUs are a "mid-cycle refresh" (quoting Tom's Hardware articles), which usually replaces the previous non-super SKU on NVIDIA's lineup. On release, the 4070 Super replaced the 4070's $599 price point. It's fair to say the 4070S is just as much of a predecessor to the 5070 as the non super 4070 is. I'm not saying the 5070 shouldn't be compared to the 4070, I'm saying it should also be compared with the 4070 Super too.
- Mar 4, 2025
- 3
- 6
- 15
I fully understand there were difficult circumstances around this review cycle, I saw the note about the new test bench and I really do appreciate the effort you and your team put into crunching and compiling these numbers for us.
And I agree that including the 4070 Super would just be another GPU with numbers very close to the 5070, but that was the point I was trying to highlight. Not including the 4070S and instead comparing only to the 4070 makes the 5070 look like it gained more from its predecessors than it actually did. Personally, it doesn't sit right with me to not point out the very mediocre generational uplift that NVIDIA has made a recurring pattern of recent GPUs. I'll note that you did point this out in your 5070 Ti review:
This was the kind of commentary I thought I'd see in this 5070 review, which is why I was startled to see "Decent generational performance increase" as some of the first words in the article.
All that said though, I recognize the extenuating circumstances around this whole release cycle, and I appreciate that you've been reading and responding to the comments, going as far as to reconsider and reduce the review down to 3.5 stars after feedback. I hope the review can be updated soon with more benchmarks to give future readers a better understanding of where the 5070 sits on NVIDIA's very blurry mid-upper range lineup.
thestryker
Judicious
- Apr 19, 2016
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The 4070 was the exception to this as it was left on the market and dropped to $549 MSRP. That's what makes this comparison more sensible than it might seem at first glance. I do agree having the 4070 Super on the list would be good, but Jarred is doing a full stack retest for the GPU Hierarchy which is undoubtedly making it harder to slot in specific cards for additional testing with the short period of time available to get these reviews out.
- Feb 21, 2020
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I asked about this, somewhere, before these reviews went up. I specifically said, "Should I compare the 5070 Ti with the 4070 Ti or the 4070 Ti Super?" Most wanted the non-Super tested first. I did use the 4080 Super against the 5080, mostly because MSRP was lower and the performance difference was only 3%, but most people seemed to want the non-Super as the more pertinent comparison point.
So, lacking time for the 5070 review, I opted to just test the 4070. Since I had 4070 Ti numbers already (I ended up cramming in both for the 5070 Ti by not sleeping), and we know the 4070 Super isn't far behind that card, I didn't feel it was the best thing to test first. It's on the docket to get tested, just as everything else not in any charts is on the docket (basically going from newest to oldest, highest end to lowest), but the full hierarchy update will take months to complete.
And then I get things like 5090 black screens that made me waste several days on one GPU that got returned to the AIB, just two days before the VBIOS fix was issued. <Sigh.> And I also get things like clearly flaky Nvidia launch drivers for the 5090 and 5080. Things have improved but aren't totally fixed yet, but I definitely need to retest those two cards with the latest drivers.
I should point out that I updated the 5070 Ti charts a couple of days ago to add the 7900 XT, which wasn't there initially (due to a similar lack of time). I'll probably try to do that on the 5070 and some other cards as well, but it does take a solid hour or so to swap out all the charts with new versions. PITA CMS...
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