NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Founders Edition Video Card Review

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Gameplay Performance – Ray Tracing

In the gaming performance below, we are comparing performance at 1440p with Ray Tracing enabled in games, as this is the prime target resolution for these graphics cards. There are a couple of games where we had to drop to 1080p with Ray Tracing due to performance. We are using a GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER FE, GeForce RTX 4070 FE, and AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT for comparison, these are stock-clocked, reference-clocked GPU cards.

Alan Wake 2

Alan Wake 2 Ray Tracing Performance Graph

In Alan Wake 2, we are running at 1440p with the “High” quality Ray Tracing preset enabled, not the new Ultra quality; this is one setting down, High. Even at “High” RT preset, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 FE cannot provide a playable experience at all without the help of DLSS Upscaling. In fact, even with DLSS Quality Upscaling, gameplay performance is on the border of being playable in this game. You will probably want to enable Balanced DLSS Upscaling in order to make the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 FE playable with just “High” Ray Tracing in this game at 1440p.

In terms of performance, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 FE sees a regression in RT performance compared to the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER FE. In our testing, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 FE is 8% slower than the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER FE with RT enabled in this game. Compared to the GeForce RTX 4070, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 FE is only 10% faster.

Black Myth: Wukong

Black Myth Wukong Ray Tracing Performance Graph

In Black Myth: Wukong we did have to drop this game to 1080p just to get a benchmark run done due to the tremendous burden on performance when the “Very High” RT option is enabled in this game. At 1080p the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 FE cannot provide a playable experience without DLSS Upscaling. We must enable DLSS Upscaling to even get 60 FPS average in this game, at 1080p, with Very High RT.

We are also not seeing an uplift in Ray Tracing performance for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 FE in this game either. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 FE is on par with the performance of the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER when Ray Tracing is enabled, they are 1 FPS apart, or 3% at framerates this low. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 FE is 19% faster than the GeForce RTX 4070.

Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077 Ray Tracing Performance Graph

In Cyberpunk 2077, we are running at 1440p with the “Ultra” Ray Tracing feature enabled; this is not Path Tracing. We can see that the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 FE cannot deliver a playable experience at 1440p with Ultra Ray Tracing without Upscaling. We do need to enable DLSS Upscaling, which then provides a playable experience into the 70’s FPS average range.

This is yet another game where the Ray Tracing performance on the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 FE is not impressive and performs similarly to the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 FE is just a 1.3% difference compared to the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER in Ray Tracing performance. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 FE is 17% faster than the GeForce RTX 4070 and 63% faster than the Radeon RX 7800 XT.

Dying Light 2

Dying Light 2 Ray Tracing Performance Graph

In Dying Light 2, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 FE does provide a playable experience above 60 FPS average with High Ray Tracing enabled at 1440p. Turning on DLSS further improves that to above 100 FPS, so at least for this game, Ray Tracing is very playable at 1440p on the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 FE.

We are actually seeing a performance improvement over the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER with Ray Tracing, but it is small at just a 6% performance uplift. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 FE is 25% faster than the GeForce RTX 4070 and 54% faster than the Radeon RX 7800 XT.

F1 24

F1 24 Ray Tracing Performance Graph

In F1 24 the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 FE does provide a playable experience at 1440p and the highest Ray Tracing at 91 FPS without needing Upscaling. With DLSS, Upscaling performance jumps to well over 100 FPS. In terms of performance, though, we see another regression in Ray Tracing performance. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 FE ends up being 7% slower than the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 FE is only 8% faster than the GeForce RTX 4070 and 17% faster than the Radeon RX 7800 XT.

Star Wars Outlaws

Star Wars Outlaws Ray Tracing Performance Graph

Star Wars Outlaws was the other game that was very demanding with Ultra Ray Tracing, we did have to drop the game to 1080p to get a benchmark run in. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 FE does not provide a playable experience even at 1080p with Ray Tracing, we do need to use DLSS Upscaling to get 70 FPS average to make it playable. This is yet another game that also had a Ray Tracing regression with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 FE. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 FE is 7% slower than the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 FE is only 10% faster than the GeForce RTX 4070 and 60% faster than the Raadeon RX 7800 XT.

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REVIEW OVERVIEW

Gaming Performance
7
Build Quality and Cooling
10
Value
7

SUMMARY

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Founders Edition is aimed at the $549 price point, with Blackwell architecture and DLSS 4 features. Its gaming performance is for the most part stagnant with the previous generation GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER, and has its weakness in raster performance, and RT performance, though a slight performance improvement in compute related workloads in games. Featured also with 12GB of GDDR7, we see another stagnation in terms of VRAM capacity for this price point, and generation. Overall, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Founders Edition is built well, but lacks the "next generation" feel in gameplay improvement, and reminds us of a card we already had in the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER.

Discussion (11 replies)

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Peter_Brosdahl
Peter_Brosdahl 👍 1

umm, trying to be positive about this card, DLSS4 (multi frame-gen)?, umm. :unsure:

Edit: I thought of a positive, it could help promote RX 9070 / B580 sales!

S
Stoly 👍 3

Wow RTX 4090 performance for just $549, right?.... right? :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: ;)

Grimlakin
Grimlakin 👍 2

Lol the ROPS comment at the end was golden.

Marees

"Stoly, post: 94722, member: 1474" wrote:

Wow RTX 4090 performance for just $549, right?.... right? :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: ;)

👇

"Marees, post: 94484, member: 1536" wrote:

Stay with this & keep scrolling down

It starts to get funny as you reach towards the end !!



















r

4090 at $549... lol!

t
theblackangus

And on top of all the fun being made....
[URL unfurl="true"]https://videocardz.com/newz/nvidia-says-geforce-rtx-5070-founders-edition-wont-be-availble-at-launch[/URL]

Grimlakin
Grimlakin

Wow... just..... wow...

Brian_B
Brian_B 👍 1

This is nVidia being worried about the AMD launch

t

"Brian_B, post: 94750, member: 96" wrote:

This is nVidia being worried about the AMD launch


It's also a way for nVidia to screw over their AIBs by dumping the burden of selling a "not too hot" card onto them (and having them shoulder the costs -- and projected losses).

It's noteworthy that the "desired" custom AIB cards of the 5070Ti/5080/5090 class all came with very hefty premiums over the FE "MSRP-ish" pricing -- and there weren't too many of either the FE or AIB models, to boot. That's nVidia prioritizing AI (no surprise there) while also proceeding to mess around big with the AIBs. Jensen has long wanted to cut the AIBs right out of the market (he's frequently stated his admiration of Apple's closed ecosystem model, and also see what happened to EVGA, for example), and he already had the good connections (along with considerable amounts of R&D on the FE designs) with OEMs like Foxconn, etc to be halfway there. And now that Jensen has the $$$ with AI (and nVidia is a multi-trillion USD company), he has the raw capital to aggressively move strongly to cut the AIBs right to the core (by being financially able to ignore their complaints, and tie them up in courts as needed, should they sue) ...

IMHO, Jensen himself has probably envisioned the "demise" of the AIB market for nVidia gaming GPUs in 2-3 years (maybe a bit longer for the commercial/AI stuff).

LazyGamer
LazyGamer

I wouldn't mind them 'undercutting AIBs' if I could walk into Best Buy / Microcenter and get whichever FE model I budgeted for.

But that ain't the case.

t

"LazyGamer, post: 94754, member: 1367" wrote:

I wouldn't mind them 'undercutting AIBs' if I could walk into Best Buy / Microcenter and get whichever FE model I budgeted for.



But that ain't the case.


AI priority, of course (nVidia shareholders would revolt if Jensen dedicated TSMC GPU inventory to the VASTLY less money-making gaming market), but once nVidia chases the AIBs into bankruptcy (of their GPU divisions, a la EVGA), Jensen will provide more inventory, but at increased prices, too (virtual monopoly, as expected).

With that in mind, we can expect theoretical "RTX 8060s" (relabeled 8050s?) to hit the $500-700 USD range ...

Side note: I really hope I don't end up getting the mediocre 5070 as my GPU upgrade in the days/weeks to come (there's a Microcenter near me, so I'm planning to be there a few hours early this Thursday for a shot at 9070 XT or 9070) -- I just sold my RX 6700 XT, which has been showing its age as of the past year or so ...

Brent Justicehttps://www.thefpsreview.com
Former managing editor of GPUs at HardOCP for 18 years, Brent Justice has been reviewing computer components since the late 90s, educated in the art and method of the computer hardware review, he brings experience, knowledge, and hands-on testing with a gamer-oriented and hardware enthusiast perspective. You can follow him on Twitter - @Brent_Justice You can sub to his YouTube channel - Justice Gaming https://www.youtube.com/c/JusticeGamingChannel You can check out his computer builds on KIT - @BrentJustice https://kit.co/BrentJustice

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