During the announcement of the GeForce RTX 5070, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said that the new product with a recommended price of $549 will offer performance on par with the previous-generation flagship GeForce RTX 4090 with a recommended price of $1,599. Since the RTX 5070 goes on sale tomorrow, today specialized media outlets published reviews of the card in the proprietary Founders Edition. Is the RTX 5070 faster than the previous-generation flagship? Spoiler: not even close.
Image source: TechPowerUp / Computer Base
Let’s briefly recall that the GeForce RTX 5070 uses a GB205-300 graphics processor with 6144 CUDA cores, 192 texture units, 192 tensor cores, 80 rasterization units (ROPs), 48 SM units, and 48 RT cores. This model received 12 GB of GDDR7 memory with a speed of 28 Gbps per contact, support for a 192-bit bus, and a bandwidth of 672 GB/s. The declared power consumption of the card is 250 W.
GeForce RTX 5070 Reference Board
According to Computer Base, the GeForce RTX 5070’s raw performance is similar to the GeForce RTX 4070 Super’s at 1440p and 4K. It’s only 4% faster. At 1440p, the GeForce RTX 5070 is 15% faster than the regular RTX 4070, 12% faster than the Radeon RX 7900 GRE, just 3% faster than the GeForce RTX 4070 Super, and 14% and 9% slower than the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super and Radeon RX 7900 XT, respectively.
At 4K (3840 × 2160 pixels), the numbers are similar. Computer Base did not conduct tests for 1080p. According to its data, having only 12 GB of memory played a cruel joke on the card. At 1440p, it periodically ran out of VRAM, which led to significant performance drops. In some cases, it lagged behind the RTX 5070 Ti, which has 16 GB of memory, by as much as 77%, even under regular raster graphics with minimal ray tracing. On average, the RTX 5070 lags behind the RTX 5070 Ti by about 26% in games at 1440p and about 30% in 4K.
The TechPowerUp portal reviewer provides similar data. In games with raster graphics without using the DLSS upscaler and ray tracing at 1080p, the GeForce RTX 5070 is about 16% faster than the regular GeForce RTX 4070, 9% faster than the Radeon RX 7900 GRE, and only 4% faster than the GeForce RTX 4070 Super. At the same time, the new product is 4% slower than the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti, 4% behind the RTX 4070 Ti Super, and 9% behind the Radeon RX 7900 XT.
At 1440p, under the same conditions, the GeForce RTX 5070 is 5% faster than the RTX 4070 Super and 9% faster than the Radeon RX 7900 GRE. At the same time, it is 3% slower than the RTX 4070 Ti, 7% slower than the Radeon RX 7900 XT, and 9% slower than the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super. At 4K, the new card is 7% faster than the GeForce RTX 4070 Super, 9% faster than the Radeon RX 7900 GRE, and about 20% faster than the regular GeForce RTX 4070. At the same time, the RTX 5070 is about 1% slower than the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti, 9% slower than the Radeon RX 7900 XT, and 10% slower than the RTX 4070 Ti Super. Once again, we’ll remind you that we’re talking about raster graphics without the use of DLSS scaling technology and ray tracing. Individual game tests, including tests with ray tracing and the MFG frame generator, can be found in the galleries above and below.
According to TechPowerUp, the GeForce RTX 5070 Founders Edition GPU reached 77 degrees Celsius in gaming tests, while the GDDR7 memory chip temperature was 78 degrees Celsius. The card looks exactly like the older RTX 5080 and RTX 5090 reference designs, but it is physically smaller. Its noise level during operation rose to almost 38 dBA. It is not quiet, but it is not too loud either. It is likely that versions of the RTX 5070 from Nvidia partners will offer even lower temperatures and noise levels.
Temperatures and noise levels
According to the same TechPowerUp, the card’s power consumption was 229 W in games, 12 W in standby mode, and 16 W in video playback mode. Maximum power consumption was 257 W, with short-term peaks (20 ms) of up to 299 W.
Energy consumption
As you can see from the charts from TechPowerUp and Computer Base reviews, the performance of the GeForce RTX 5070 is not even close to the GeForce RTX 4090. The difference is about 50-70% in favor of the previous-generation flagship. As part of the GeForce RTX 5070 presentation, the head of Nvidia clarified that the performance of the RTX 4090 on a video card with a recommended price three times cheaper “would not be possible without artificial intelligence.” It is thanks to the AI-based Multi Frame Generation function (the main feature of the GeForce RTX 50-series cards) that the mid-range RTX 5070 is able to provide about the same frame rate in games as the previous-generation flagship.
In its conclusions, Computer Base writes that the GeForce RTX 5070 cannot be called a bad card, but notes the almost complete lack of performance gain compared to its predecessor in raster graphics. Not only is the new product not much faster than the RTX 4070 Super, it is also not more energy efficient. In fact, Nvidia sells the same GeForce RTX 4070 Super, but with support for a multi-frame generator and with a slightly lower recommended price (RRP $ 599 for the RTX 4070 Super and $ 549 for the RTX 5070). However, it can be argued that you will not be able to buy this card at the recommended price, no matter how hard you try. As in the case of the previously released RTX 5080 and RTX 5090, it will most likely be offered with significant markups from Nvidia partners and retailers.
TechPowerUp adds that the Multi Frame Generation (MFG) technology significantly increases the input lag, which must be compensated for by Nvidia Reflex technology. If the card produces its real 40-50 frames per second without Reflex and generates 150 frames with MFG technology (this is possible, screenshots are above in the gallery), then the input lag still remains at the level of the original “real” 40-50 frames per second. GeForce RTX 5070 cannot turn 15 real frames into 60 “game” frames. Yes, the FPS counter will show 60 frames, the movements on the screen will be smooth, but the input lag will be the same as at 15 frames per second. This is where all the magic of fake FPS collapses: MFG technology is not a panacea. In addition, it is not supported by all games. Its integration requires support from game developers.