The $550 Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Founders Edition looks like the toy version of the largerRTX 5080andRTX 5090.
Its a third the size and offers a third of the performance of the highest-end GPU.
But will it truly hit the performance needed to offer up solid framerates at 4K resolution?
© Photo: Kyle Barr / Gizmodo
Read on to find out (spoiler: occasionally, in some games, but not always).
What about 4K, you ask?
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huangboldly claimedthat the 5070 is so good, it can equal RTX 4090 performance.
© Photo: Kyle Barr / Gizmodo
It was obvious puffery thats made more stark thanks to ongoing stock woes.
The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 cant equal performance on a RTX 4090.
The 5070 cant hit the necessary 60 FPS to letmulti-frame gen take overin some demanding titles.
© Photo: Kyle Barr / Gizmodo
Without 60 FPS native, you wont get the smooth, artifact-free gameplay you really want.
But thats not a gen-on-gen miracle, its AI.
Budget buyers who can find the card for at or close to MSRP may not care.
© Photo: Kyle Barr / Gizmodo
Gamers looking for the best bang for their buck can get a lot out of the RTX 5070.
Actually using it wont be nearly as exciting as Huangs full-throated assertion, even with the help of AI.
In an email sent to Gizmodo Tuesday, Nvidia said that theFounders Editionwill only be available later in March.
Sites likeNeweggcurrently list many of these cards as out of stock at MSRP.
Theyre striking yet still subtle, even with the big GeForce RTX stenciled on the side.
The only other aspect to consider is the lack of zone lighting on the RTX 5070 FE.
But we can talk about where the RTX 5070 fits into the greater paradigm of Nvidias GPU slate.
Nvidia hasnt revealed anything about the RTX 5050 or the RTX 5060.
It similarly scored close to 350 points less in 3D Mark Speed Way.
The 5070 is a definitive drop in performance compared to the 5070 Ti.
The RTX 5070 scored 5031 in 3D Mark Steel Nomad versus the 5070 Tis 6644.
At half the price of the RTX 5080, the RTX 5070 does 3,000 less in 3D Mark benchmarks.
The most important thing is in-game tests, and there is where things get complicated.
Nvidia has recommended players get 60 FPS on frame generation to maximize the effect of the AI-generated frames.
Switching to 1440p could net you closer to 57 FPS, even with path tracing enabled.
And that sounds like a good deal, doesnt it?
The RTX 4070 Ti hit similar framerates at those same 4K parameters.
Without DLSS, it was closer to 40 FPS.
The RTX 5070 Ti hits 10 FPS more on average under those same configs.
Nvidias Frame Gen Wont Be the RTX 5070s Savior
The RTX 5070 is priced accurately.
Its a solid GPU for those who plan to game at below 4K.
Then, with multi frame gen, that turns into well over 100 FPS.
Im not the throw in of gamer that wants to get hung up on every visual discrepancy.
Who honestly would dare reduce their monitors max resolution for the sake of getting a few more FPS?
But you probably wont find it at that price, so whats a gamer to do?
Well have performance benchmarks on that GPU soon enough.
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