It was time to upgrade from my RTX 3070. I felt that it was underperforming a little bit at 1440p. So I got the RX 9070 XT thinking it would be a massive upgrade. But how is the performance in comparison to my RTX 3070, and have I made a good purchasing decision? Let’s go ahead and find out!
For the structure of this video, I have 21 games for you guys to see at 1080p and 1440p. I also have four games for ray tracing. After, I will have an overall comparison for percentage difference between the cards and resolutions and a price comparison and some final thoughts at the end
Settings:
CPU is on PBO.
GPUs are factory, with no overclock.
Games tested in Fullscreen.
Vsync is off.
Low Latency Mode (e.g. AMD Anti-Lag) is Off.
Frame rate uncapped.
DLSS/FSR is on when specified.
Ray Tracing is Off – Until Shown Later in RT Testing.
REBar is On.
Nvidia Driver: 576.52
AMD Driver: 25.6.1
Latest Windows 10 Update 22H2.
All Games are Benchmarked on a 3-game Average.
Test system(my system):
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D- PBO
AIO: Arctic Liquid Freezer III 360mm
GPU: Zotac RTX 3070 Twin Edge LHR 8GB – Stock
ASRock RX 9070XT Taichi 16GB OC – Stock
SSD: Samsung 860 Evo 500GB (OS),
Samsung 870 Evo 1TB(Games),
PNY CS1031 1TB(Games),
Samsung 990 Evo 2TB(Games)
Ram:32GB (16GB x 2) G.Skill DDR5 6000 CL30
Motherboard: ASRock X870E Taichi Lite – REBar Enabled
0:00 – 0:29 Intro 0:30 – 1:30 GPU Specs 1:31 – 2:21 System Specs and Testing Info 2:22 – 2:40 Structure of the Video Benchmarks 2:41 – 3:22 A Plague Tale Requiem 3:23 – 4:14 Alan Wake 2 4:15 – 5:01 Avatar Frontiers of Pandora 5:02 – 5:57 Black Myth Wukong 5:58 – 6:31 Call of Duty Black Ops 6 6:32 – 7:33 Clair Obscur Expedition 33 7:34 – 8:21 Counter Strike 2 8:22 – 9:19 Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty 9:20 – 10:43 DOOM The Dark Ages 10:44 – 11:31 F1 24 11:32 – 12:26 Fortnite DX12 12:27 – 13:46 Grand Theft Auto 5 Enhanced 13:47 – 14:29 Hogwarts Legacy 14:30 – 15:33 Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered 15:34 – 16:41 Marvel Rivals 16:42 – 17:27 Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart 17:28 – 18:02 Spider Man Remastered 18:03 – 18:59 S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl 19:00 – 19:38 Star Wars Jedi Survivor 19:39 – 20:28 The Last of Us Part 1 20:29 – 21:06 Warhammer 40000 Space Marine 2 Overall Comparisons 21:07 – 22:37 %Difference 1080p Average FPS RX 9070XT v RTX 3070 22:38 – 23:30 %Difference 1080p 1% Lows RX 9070XT v RTX 3070 23:31 – 23:55 %Difference 1440p Average FPS RX 9070XT v RTX 3070 23:56 – 24:30 %Difference 1440p 1% Lows RX 9070XT v RTX 3070 24:31 – 24:52 Total FPS 1080p RX 9070XT & RTX 3070 24:53 – 25:21 Total FPS 1440p RX 9070XT & RTX 3070 Ray Traced Testing 25:21 – 25:38 RT Test Structure 25:39 – 26:16 RT Alan Wake 2 26:17 – 26:55 RT Black Myth Wukong 26:56 – 27:45 RT Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty 27:46 – 28:27 RT Spider Man Remastered 28:28 – 28:54 %Difference RT 1080p Average FPS RX 9070XT v RTX 3070 28:55 – 29:19 %Difference RT 1080p 1% Lows RX 9070XT v RTX 3070 29:20 – 31:28 Current Pricing 31:29 – 32:40 $Cost Per Frame 1080p 32:41 – 33:47 $Cost Per Frame 1440p 33:48 – 37:34 Final Thoughts 37:35 Should you upgrade? In simple terms.
Benchmarks
Raster Performance (Click to see the whole graph :)):
First up we have Alan Wake 2 on high settings and this is where the RTX 3070 definitely started to
struggle a bit. We achieved only 60 fps on average and the 1% lows were 49. Compared that at 1440p
we got 44 for average fps and 37 for 1% lows. I wouldn't say it was the best of experience at 1440p
1080p was definitely playable but the RTX 3070 is definitely starting to show its limits here.
I was quite surprised at the RX 9070 XT's performance as on 1080p achieved 120 fps on average
and on 1% lows it achieved 90. Whereas at 1440p it dropped to 72 for average fps and 57 for 1% lows.
A bit of a drop at 1440p but this is Alan Wake 2 of course so it was a little bit more difficult.
Our next game is a Plague Tale Requiem and at 1080p the RTX 3070 managed to
achieve 87 fps on average and 52 for 1% lows while the RX 9070 XT reached a massive 155 average fps
for 1080p and 87 for 1% lows. At 1440p there is a percentage difference of 70% between the two cards
at average fps and 65% at 1% lows. I didn't have any problems at 1080p but at 1440p the RTX 3070
did start to struggle a little bit for me and the frame times weren't as smooth as they were on 1080p.
Next up we have Avatar Frontiers of Pandora on ultra settings with TAA native. I am using
the in-game benchmark for this benchmark. At 1080p the RX 9070 XT showed a massive difference between it and the RTX 3070 delivering a 70% higher average fps and a 62% better 1% lows. I felt that the RTX 3070 delivered a similar performance even compared to Alan Wake 2 which is interesting as these games are a little bit more difficult to run. As you can see on the 1440p result we were only averaging 45 fps and for 1% lows it was 36. So not that great of a result here but at least on 1080p it's a
smooth result for both graphics cards.
Our next game is Black Myth Wukong running on the very high
settings with TSR 100%. I am using the benchmark tool for this game so just keep that in mind.
This was pretty difficult for the RTX 3070 as we can see here. Average fps on 1080p was 40 and on
1440p it was 29. The 1% lows at 1080p with 34 and as you can see it took quite a hit at 1440p
dropping down to 25. At 1080p between the RTX 3070 and the RX 9070 XT there was a difference in
average fps of 35 and at 1440p of 29. So still quite a difference and a big uplift from the
RX 9070 XT and we can definitely see that the RTX 3070 here really struggled and honestly I
wouldn't exactly call this a very playable experience at 1440p at all. It looked quite
cinematic unfortunately which is not a good thing especially in a game.
The next game we have is
Clair Obscur Expedition 33 on epic settings at TAA native. Now you can see both cards here kind
of struggled a little bit to run the game as it's really new and looks visually stunning in my
opinion. At 1080p the RX 9070 XT was 66% faster on average fps and for the 1% lows was 72% faster.
At 1440p there is a 55% percentage difference between the two graphics cards on average fps
and a 72% difference on 1% lows. Now I will say with the RTX 3070 on 1440p
native resolution did not feel very good to run at all. The 32 fps on 1440p just felt really
unpleasant and especially dropping down to 23 was not fun at all. Now do keep in mind the game does
run pretty well with DLSS enabled so that is the saving grace for the RTX 3070 here.
Our next title is Call of Duty Black Ops 6 using the extreme preset and the in-game benchmark. The RTX 3070 here struggled
to even get above 100 fps on 1080p and on 1440p we still don't fare very well at 68 fps. Now of
course the RX 9070 XT had significant uplifts over the RTX 3070 here almost reaching 200 fps
on average fps at 1080p. Really good result for the RX 9070 XT here.
Our next game is Counter Strike 2. We are using the very high preset as well and I'm in a dust 2
deathmatch. We can see here that both the RTX 3070 and RX 9070 XT at 1080p performed very well.
Now of course you could drop your settings slightly if you need to to get past that 300
fps threshold if you need for high refresh gaming. You can see the RX 9070 XT had no problem achieving
this at 1080p and the RTX 3070 came pretty close as well. At 1440p we dropped slightly to 195 fps
for the RTX 3070 and 261 fps on average for the RX 9070 XT. As I expected, no real problems here
in terms of running Counter Strike 2.
Our next title is Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty. The
RTX 3070 achieved 86 fps on average and the 1% lows were 67, this was on 1080p. Whereas the
RX 9070 XT achieved 153 fps and 115 for 1% lows. So this is quite a difference between the two,
being a percentage difference of 56% for average fps and 53% for 1% lows. At 1440p we find that
there is a 62% difference on average fps and a 30% difference on 1% lows. I'd say both graphics
cards performed pretty well on both 1080p and 1440p, it's just a little bit disappointing that
the RTX 3070 could only achieve 56 fps on average at 1440p. Definitely not unplayable but I would've
liked to see a little bit more.
Next we have one of our newer games being Doom the Dark
Asias. I was running the game at ultra nightmare settings with TAA native and I had to increase
the texture pool size to 4096. Disappointingly but I guess not surprisingly, the RTX 3070 did
struggle in this title quite a bit. You can see at 1080p it only achieved 43 fps on average and
its 1% lows were 28. Not the smoothest experience especially because you're in combat all the time.
Between the RTX 3070 and RX 9070 XT there was a 93% difference at 1080p and with its 1% lows
was 108% difference. Now of course there is a significant uplift for the RX 9070 XT
as I would have expected. We can see 1440p, disappointingly we only achieved 21 fps on
average and 15 for 1% lows. To be perfectly honest with you guys, this was not a playable
or enjoyable experience. Now of course you can lower your settings and turn on DLSS but
unfortunately for its raster settings at ultra nightmare settings, it really wasn't a good
experience at all. The RX 9070 XT managed to get 87 fps on average and its 1% lows were 69 for 1440p.
Next up is F124. Now I'm glad to say for F124 using ultra high settings and TAA native,
we saw that the RTX 3070 actually had a very playable framerate at 1080p and 1440p respectively.
At 1080p there was a 65% percentage difference between the two cards on average fps and its
1% lows percentage difference was 72% whereas on 1440p it was a 66% difference on average fps
and 57% percentage difference for 1% lows at 1440p. I was pretty happy with how this game ran on both
cards but we can see clearly that the RX 9070 XT is capable of that high refresh rate.
Our next title is Fortnite on DX12. Now we won't be using competitive esports settings for either
of these cards, instead using the epic settings so please keep that in mind. At 1080p, the RX 9070
XT achieved an average fps of 125 and for 1% lows it achieved 58. The RTX 3070 achieved an average
fps of 79 and its 1% lows with 52 which was actually kind of comparable to the RX 9070 XT.
Both provided a very playable experience and didn't have any problems with frame time. At 1440p,
we find that the RTX 3070 was 41% slower than the RX 9070 XT on average fps and 31% slower on 1% lows.
Not too bad for either one of these cards in Fortnite.
In Grand Theft Auto V enhanced version,
I am not using the in game benchmark and instead using the single player benchmark on this road
on the map. I am also using the maximum raytrace quality settings but with no frame scaling.
Surprisingly, the RTX 3070 actually managed to outperform the RX 9070 XT on 1080p results as its
average fps was 149 compared to the RX 9070 XT's 140. This was a percentage difference of 6%.
The 1% lows difference at 1080p is a percentage difference of 9% in favour of the RTX 3070.
Now I did rerun this test a couple of times just to make sure that this is correct and yes,
the RTX 3070 did outperform the RX 9070 XT at 1080p. On 1440p, this is pretty much the story of
what should happen. The RTX 3070 performed worse than the RX 9070 XT being a percentage difference
in favour of the 9070 XT of 44% on average fps and 41% on 1% lows. I do want to do some tests in the
future to check what's actually making the 1080p result in favour of the RTX 3070.
Our next title
is Hogwarts Legacy, running on the Ultra preset. We did run into some issues with this title on
Hogwarts Legacy in terms of 1% lows for the RX 9070 XT. In C, at 1080p, the RTX 3070 actually
managed to achieve a slightly better 1% lows, but in terms of average fps, the RTX 3070 was 25%
slower on average fps at 1080p and we find at 1440p it was 40% slower and the 1% lows were exactly
the same. An interesting result for the RTX 3070 here, but I think Hogwarts Legacy might require
some more retesting in the future for my RX 9070 XT.
Next up is Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered and I'm
using the in-game benchmark on very high settings with TAA native. At 1080p, the RTX 3070 managed to
achieve an average fps of 97 and an abysmal 11 fps for 1% lows. Now unfortunately, on this benchmark,
the RTX 3070 really couldn't handle the game. There's some parts of the game where it just stutters
to oblivion and it feels completely unresponsive. It lags and the frame times are terrible in some
sections, but a lot of the other sections are smoother. I have tested this multiple times just
to make sure that it is correct and yes, my RTX 3070 in this benchmark really can't handle some
sections of the map. On the other hand, the RX 9070 XT was pretty good at 1080p and 1440p,
achieving 177 average fps on 1080p and 154 average fps for 1440p. So we have significant
uplifts over the RTX 3070 and we had a very stable smooth frame rate.
Our next title is Marvel Rivals
on the ultra preset with TAAU 100%. On 1080p on average fps, there was a percentage difference
between the two cards of 49% and for the 1% lows at 1080p, it was 39%. We can see that the RTX 3070
still delivers a playable frame rate even with the ultra settings at 1080p, but do keep in mind,
I am saying playable with quotations because I know at 60 fps on Marvel Rivals, it doesn't feel
too good, especially in larger fights. At 1440p, we find that the RX 9070 XT was able to achieve
83 fps on average and 55 fps for 1% lows, whereas the RTX 3070 was on 48 fps for average fps and 30
fps for 1% lows. I can personally say as well from experience, the RTX 3070 does struggle on 1440p
playing many other games on Marvel Rivals at that resolution. It really kind of reaches its maximum
at 1080p and 1440p is really pushing it even if we lower the quality settings.
Moving on to Ratchet and Clank of Rift Apart with very high settings and TAA native, we find that
we had a more than playable experience on both the RTX 3070 and the RX 9070 XT, the RTX 3070
achieving 90 fps on average and 56 fps for 1% lows. At 1440p, we still have a very playable
experience on the RTX 3070 achieving 73 fps on average and 47 fps for 1% lows. Between the two
cards at 1440p, there was a 60% percentage difference on average fps and a 71% difference
on 1% lows. Great outcome from both cards and I'm really happy to see that it's more than playable
even with the highest settings on 1440p for the RTX 3070.
Now we're testing Spider-Man Remastered
with very high settings and TAA native. I found that Spider-Man Remastered played really well on
both cards achieving very smooth frame times and having no problems at 1080p. On 1440p, we have a
little bit of a different story. Although the RTX 3070 is achieving an average fps of 121, there
was some places where it did hiccup a little bit, dropping its 1% lows to 57 which is a little bit
disappointing. Overall though, both cards performed pretty well and I'm still happy with the RTX 3070
results overall.
Okay now we got Stalker 2. We're running this on epic settings TAA native but
the RTX 3070 bombed out here. It wasn't able to handle this game at all on its highest settings
without a form of upscaling. So for this title at 1080p and 1440p, I will be using the DLSS
quality settings for the RTX 3070. Running the game without upscaling, I was only getting between
around about 3 and 5 fps so I just cancelled the run. It was almost impossible to play the game at
all. So we can see here that the RX 9070 XT did manage to achieve a basically similar frame rate
at 1440p and 1080p and the RTX 3070 with DLSS quality settings managed to put around about
52 fps on average for 1080p and 48 average fps for 1440p. Not too bad a result but at least we can
play with some upscaling involved.
Let's take a look at Star Wars Jedi Survivor. At 1080p,
I was more than pleased with the result from the RTX 3070 achieving 95 fps on average and 74 for
its 1% lows. In comparison to its RX 9070 XT competitor, we have 146 for average fps and 98
for 1% lows. Both very good results. At 1440p, we dropped that result down to 48 average fps and 34
1% lows for the RTX 3070. At 1440p, this was a percentage difference of 74% on average fps and
an 81% difference on 1% lows.
Now we're testing The Last of Us Part 1 on ultra settings. The RTX
3070 achieved an average fps of 76 and 65 for 1% lows at 1080p. In contrast to the RX 9070 XT,
this was a loss of 60 fps for average fps and a loss of 47 fps for 1% lows. We can see at 1440p,
the RTX 3070 didn't fare too well and although it was a playable experience to a certain extent,
it was not the most enjoyable. At 41 fps for average fps and 31 for 1% lows, it wasn't the
best experience in my personal opinion. Between the two cards at 1440p, this was a difference
of 88% for average fps and a difference of 97% for 1% lows.
Moving on to our last game,
which is Warhammer 40k Space Marine 2. We're using ultra settings and TAA native here. At 1080p,
there was a small percentage difference between the two cards being only 12% on average fps and
7% for the 1% lows at 1080p. At 1440p, this difference grows a lot larger, being a 49%
difference on average fps and 48% on 1% lows. It's clear to me that in newer titles, the RTX 3070
is definitely struggling at 1440p and could be due to the fact that it only has 8GB of VRAM
available for it.
%Difference Graphs Raster (Click to see the whole graph :)):
Now we’re going to have a look at percentage difference graphs. Starting us off, we have average fps, percentage difference at 1080p between the RX 9070 XT and the RTX 3070. The higher the percentage difference, the better it is for the RX 9070 XT, the lower it is, so if it’s negative, the better it is for the RTX 3070. Although there are 21 games that we benchmarked, please keep in mind that since Stalker 2 was using DLSS settings for the RTX 3070, I won’t be including it in the overall percentage difference between the two graphics cards.
So for 1080p, we can clearly see that the RX 9070 XT
was 45% faster on average at 1080p for these 20 games. A significant outlier here is Doom the Dark
Ages with a 93% difference between it and the RTX 3070. The other outlier is Grand Theft Auto 5
and unfortunately the RX 9070 XT was beaten out by a 6% percentage difference to the RTX 3070.
As I mentioned, I might need to do some retesting with this game, but I did do multiple runs to try
and check if this is correct and it was. Overall, we have a nice uplift over the RTX 3070 and it
looks to be a good thing going forward for the RX 9070 XT.
On our 1% lows, we have a little bit
of a different story at 1080p.
The RX 9070 XT was only 41% faster on average at 1080p for these 20
games. The first outlier here of course is Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered. This title just did not play
very nicely on the RTX 3070 at all. So we have a 165% percentage difference on the 1% lows.
On the other hand, we had three titles that went in favor of the RTX 3070, being GTA V Enhanced,
Counter Strike 2 and Hogwarts Legacy. With Hogwarts Legacy being the largest percentage
difference of 44% percentage difference in favor of the RTX 3070. Bit of an interesting result here,
but I guess it's not too bad for the RX 9070 XT here. We might need to do some retesting with
those three games, but I think it's okay for now.
Moving on to 1440p for average fps, we can see that
the RX 9070 XT was a lot faster than the RTX 3070, being 59% faster on average at 1440p for
these 20 games. None of these games swung in the favor of the RTX 3070, which is great to see,
but I guess at 1440p the RTX 3070 is kind of going to be stretched to its absolute limits here.
For
the 1% lows, we can see it was 61% faster on average at 1440p for these 20 games for the RX
9070 XT. The only game here that didn't perform in the RX 9070 XT's favor was Hogwarts Legacy
at a 0% difference between it and the RTX 3070. I guess a lot of these games did perform really
well at 1440p, showing that the RX 9070 XT, of course, as we all know, should perform much
better than the RTX 3070, even in these 1% lows.
Total FPS Raster Performance (Click Next Button for Both Graphs 🙂 ):
Just quickly as well, I’ll put the 1080p 20 game average here. Of course, it excludes Stalker too, so we can see that the RX 9070 got a total of 151 FPS over the 20 games and 96 for 1% lows, whereas the RTX 3070 got 96 for average FPS and 63 for 1% lows.
At 1440p, we follow a similar trend again, 120 FPS for average FPS on the RX 9070 XT and 83 for 1% lows. The RTX 3070 is 66 for average FPS and 44 for 1% lows. Now the graph is looking a little bit bare here as these are the first two cards that I’ve tested with these 20 games, and it will start to fill up as I test more cards, so hopefully we get a nice full graph over time. We’re going to be having a look at the ray-traced games.
Ray-traced Performance (Click to see the whole graph :)):
Now I only have four games for you guys, and I will be testing them all at 1080p because the RTX 3070 just doesn’t really handle raytracing that well anyway, so I don’t think 1440p would be very fair for it.
Let's start off with Alan Wake 2 on 1080p
using the high preset with raytracing on high using quality upscaling. The RX 9070 XT achieved
an average FPS of 50 and 1% lows of 41. The RTX 3070 achieved an average FPS of 31 and a 1% lows of
24. You can see at average FPS this was a percentage difference of 47 and a percentage
difference of 52% on the 1% lows. So quite a big uplift here although still not the best on the
RX 9070 XT.
Next up we have Black Myth Wukong with very high settings on raytraced very high.
We had the screen resolution on 100% as well. We can see here that there was a 97% percentage
difference on average FPS and 1% lows between the RTX 3070 and the RX 9070 XT. To be perfectly
honest with you guys the RTX 3070 just was not that playable with these settings on this benchmark
tool. The game unfortunately looked cinematic which was not a good thing and having a 1% lows
of 15 felt terrible when looking at this gameplay.
Our next game is Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty
with the ultra preset raytracing on ultra upscaling quality with the transformer model
for raytracing and path tracing is off. The RTX 3070 here didn't do too bad the average FPS was 53
and the 1% lows was 34. Now I did encounter some stutter with the RTX 3070 on the raytraced setting
so I might need to retest this in the future. On average FPS there was a 62% percentage difference
between the RTX 3070 and RX 9070 XT on average FPS and a difference of 47 FPS on 1% lows. So quite
a significant uplift here for Cyberpunk 2077 and the RX 9070 XT actually reaching triple digits.
Lastly we have Spider-Man remastered with very high settings raytracing on very high and upscaling
on quality setting. We can see here that the RTX 3070 actually performed really well in this title
so there wasn't too much of a difference between it and the RX 9070 XT. The RX 9070 XT got 123 FPS
for average FPS and 88 for 1% lows whereas the RTX 3070 got 119 for average FPS and 73 for 1%
Very good and there was only a 4 FPS difference on average FPS and a 15 FPS difference on 1% lows.
Performing pretty well on this title I'm very happy with that.
%Difference Graphs Ray-traced (Click Next Button for Both Graphs 🙂 ):
When we have a look at all four games for the ray-traced titles, we find that the RX 9070 XT is 39% faster on average for these four games. The significant outliers here are Black Myth Wukong with a 97 percentage difference for average FPS and Spider-Man remastered on a 3% difference for average FPS. Quite a significant uplift over the RTX 3070 for these four ray-traced titles.
When we have a look at the 1% lows we are 54% faster on average for these four raytraced titles and Spider-Man remastered goes up to a percentage difference of 19% and of course Black Myth Wukong with the 97 percentage difference. Pretty happy with the RX 9070 XT’s results here, and that it provides an upgrade even with raytracing over the RTX 3070.
When we have a look at all four
games for the raytrace titles we find that the RX 9070 XT is 39% faster on average for these four
games. The significant outliers here are Black Myth Wukong with a 97 percentage difference for
average FPS and Spider-Man remastered on a 3% difference for average FPS. Quite a significant
uplift over the RTX 3070 for these four raytraced titles.
When we have a look at the 1% lows we are
54% faster on average for these four raytrace titles and Spider-Man remastered goes up to a
percentage difference of 19% and of course Black Myth Wukong with the 97 percentage difference.
Pretty happy with the RX 9070 XT's results here and that it provides an upgrade even with raytracing
over the RTX 3070.
Pricing
Current Pricing:
Let’s take a quick look at some current pricing. Just keep in mind I have the US dollar pricing and the New Zealand dollar pricing as well on the graph. I am using the five cheapest listings from each of these places, so PB Tech is a New Zealand retailer, Newegg I’ve used for the online retailer, and I set the shipping location to the United States. Trade me is basically New Zealand’s eBay and then actual eBay I’ve set the shipping location to the United States. Only the New Zealand retailer PB Tech has the GST or VAT included in its price, and the card has to be in stock as well.
So you can see in New Zealand we’re playing quite a bit more compared to something like Newegg for the rest of the world, so we’re paying 935 US dollars on average compared to Newegg’s 837. It seems like the price for the RX 9070 XT overall, though, even on Newegg, isn’t really that close to the MSRP anymore and is quite expensive, at least for the cards that were in stock.
For the RTX 3070 we can see that Trade Me New Zealand had an average price of $373 although there are multiple listings for an RTX 3070 that were mined on from the same seller for under this price and anecdotally as well I have seen multiple auctions for going less than $373 US dollars probably more closer to the eBay 271 US dollar mark.
On eBay, you can see that we’re paying $271 on average for the RTX 3070, and overall, comparing the two cards, I mean that’s not exactly fair, but the RX 9070 XT is quite expensive at the moment, and that’s a trend that’s pretty common in a lot of regions at the moment. I don’t know if I mentioned this in the video just yet but I know in a couple of regions like in Australia the RTX 5070 Ti at least some of the models are actually less than the RX 9070 XT. So a little bit concerning for pricing on the RX 9070 XT going forward, but we’ll see how trends play out.
$ Cost Per Frame:
Let’s take a look at cost per frame data based on the pricing that we saw just before and at 1080p we’ll be doing the 20 game average we’ll be excluding Stalker 2 because that game didn’t run without DLSS on the RTX 3070. So of course our lower price is better here and let’s start out with the RX 9070 XT. So we can see in New Zealand that you’re playing slightly more compared to the rest of the world in cost per frame. In New Zealand it’s $6.28 US and on Newegg it was $5.55 US. Now, funnily enough, since the price difference between the cards is so dramatic, we can see that the RTX 3070 actually beats out the RX 9070 XT in terms of cost per frame, just because the price difference is so large. So on TradeMe New Zealand it comes out to $3.90 US and on eBay it comes down to $2.83 US. So you can see there’s a significant difference between two cards. Of course we’re comparing a brand new price to a secondhand price so please do keep that in mind. Take this with a little bit of a grain of salt when you’re reading this graph.
A similar thing goes on at 1440p as well. We can see that in New Zealand you’re paying $7.76 US dollars for cost per frame compared to Newegg’s pricing of $6.95 US dollars. Now the gap actually closes a little bit more at $14.40 between the RTX 3070 and RX 9070 XT, and of course, this is because the RTX 3070 struggles a little bit more at $14.40. So we can see in TradeMe we’ve gone up to a price of $5.68 US dollars and on eBay it’s up to $4.12 US. So clearly comparing that to the 1080p graph, of course, the gap starts to close, and I suspect, as well as on 4k, we’ll close the gap even more. But I think this goes to show as well that the RX 9070 XT is a little bit expensive at the moment. However, at the same time, if you are waiting to upgrade and in your region there are no other cards at that price level, it can be a good buy, just like it was for me. I’ll expand on this just now in my final thoughts.
Let's take a look at cost per frame data based on the pricing that
we saw just before and at 1080p we'll be doing the 20 game average we'll be excluding Stalker 2
because that game didn't run without DLSS on the RTX 3070. So of course our lower price is better
here and let's start out with the RX 9070 XT. So we can see in New Zealand that you're playing
slightly more compared to the rest of the world in cost per frame. In New Zealand it's $6.28 US
and on Newegg it was $5.55 US. Now funnily enough since the price between the cards are so dramatic
we can see that the RTX 3070 actually beats out the RX 9070 XT in terms of cost per frame
just because the price difference is so large. So on TradeMe New Zealand it comes out to $3.90 US
and on eBay it comes down to $2.83 US. So you can see there's a significant difference between
two cards. Of course we're comparing a brand new price to a secondhand price so please do keep that
in mind. Take this with a little bit of a grain of salt when you're reading this graph.
Similar
thing goes at 1440p as well. We can see that in New Zealand you're paying $7.76 US dollars for
cost per frame compared to Newegg's pricing of $6.95 US dollars. Now the gap actually closes a
little bit more at $14.40 between the RTX 3070 and RX 9070 XT and of course this is because the RTX
3070 struggles a little bit more at $14.40. So we can see in TradeMe we've gone up to a price of
$5.68 US dollars and on eBay it's up to $4.12 US. So clearly comparing that to the 1080p graph of
course the gap starts to close and I suspect as well on 4k as well we'll close the gap even more.
But I think this goes to show as well that the RX 9070 XT is a little bit expensive at the moment.
However, at the same time if you are waiting to upgrade and in your region there are no other
cards at that price level it can be a good buy just like it was for me. I'll expand on this
just now in my final thoughts.
Final Thoughts
I’m pretty happy with the uplift in performance that the RX 9070XT provides over the RTX 3070. Everything feels clean and fluid in the majority of game from the RX 9070XT. Now, of course, we probably all knew this already, but it’s good to find out how much better the RX 9070XT is over something like an RTX 3070, which is limited by its 8GB of VRAM. For the RTX 3070 it can still be a good buy in 2025 2nd hand at the right price.
Its clear to me that RTX 3070 is struggling in newer games and will continue to struggle going forward especially at 1440p with no upscaling. I mean even at 1080p in something DLSS is the saving grace for the RTX 3070 in many scenarios. For example, in Clair Obscure Expedition 33, it feels alright, but the FPS output is relatively low. However, when using quality upscaling on DLSS, the game feels much better. Even Stalker2 just would not run because of the VRAM usage and it the FPS was between 3-5fps without DLSS upscaling even at 1080p. Its not that this card is bad in performance it really depends on how much you are going to buy the card for.
At the moment we are in an odd place with GPUs around the world. The RX 9070XT is shaping up to be a more expensive card than people hoped and in some regions some models of the RTX 5070TI are actually cheaper than the RX 9070XT. While the RX 9070XT is a great upgrade it depends on how much your willing to pay, for myself I got my Asrock Taichi model for $1483NZD which is $895USD which is significantly over the MSRP but in New Zealand the cheapest RTX 5070Ti starts at $1799NZD or $1,086USD which is really over my budget. This is not excusing the RX 9070XT as my Taichi model is now $1519NZD or $917.27USD a small increase but an increase non-the less. In New Zealand I’ve seen models of the RX 9070XT rise dramatically such as the Sapphire Nitro from around $1520NZD to $1649 which erodes the value of the card completely.
At the end of the day it depends on your region. If the RTX 5070TI is cheaper than the RX 9070XT I’d personally get the 5070ti, but if its like for me get the 9070XT. The 3070 is still a capable card particularly at 1080p take a look at the video I put out earlier in the year with the RTX 3070 it focused on slightly older titles and the card was generally ok still. But in newer games and going forward the 8gb vram is going to be an issue.
Should you upgrade? Putting it simply:
Do you only play older games and esports titles mainly at 1080p, yes? Then stick to the RTX 3070. Do you want to play the latest titles on their highest settings? Then it might be time to upgrade. Lastly, do you want a solid 1080p card for under $450NZD or $271USD 2nd hand, with no other options available? Yes, the RTX 3070 could be a good buy.
I’d really like to compare the RTX 3070 to the RX 6700XT, which has 12GB of VRAM, to see the difference. If you’d like to see that, make sure to subscribe and like the video.
Comment down below if you’re thinking of upgrading from your RTX 3070 or any other GPU.
