RX 9070 XT vs RTX 5070 Ti: Is NVIDIA Worth £400 More?

These are the two 16GB graphics cards that most serious 1440p and entry-level 4K gamers end up choosing between. In traditional raster games they are close to identical. Where they differ is price, ray tracing, upscaling and power, and in the UK in November 2026 the price gap is very large.

What makes this pairing interesting is that the two big testing outlets we rely on disagree about which to buy. TechSpot says it would choose the Radeon every time. Tom's Hardware says the GeForce is worth the extra "if you can swing it". We set out both arguments so you can decide which fits you.

Forge PC has not bench-tested either card. All performance data is from TechSpot and Tom's Hardware, and credited. Prices are the cheapest new UK listings on 12 November 2026 and are approximate.

The short version

• Price: RX 9070 XT from about £820, RTX 5070 Ti from about £1,215. That's about £395, or 48 per cent, more for the GeForce.

• Raster performance: effectively a tie. TechSpot measured a 1 to 4 per cent lead for the RTX 5070 Ti across 52 games. Tom's Hardware had them level at 1440p.

• Ray tracing: the RTX 5070 Ti is clearly faster, by about 19 per cent at 1440p in Tom's RT suite and much more in path-traced games.

• Software: NVIDIA's DLSS and Multi Frame Generation remain the stronger and more widely supported package.

• Power: the RX 9070 XT is rated at 304W against 300W for the RTX 5070 Ti, but TechSpot measured the Radeon drawing about 20 per cent more power in games.

• Our pick: the RX 9070 XT for most people at today's UK prices. The RTX 5070 Ti if path tracing, DLSS or creative work matter to you and you can absorb the premium.

Specifications

Specifications are from AMD and NVIDIA. Partner cards vary in clocks, size and power connectors, so check the card you buy against your power supply.

Performance

TechSpot: 52-game benchmark (22 May 2026)

Steven Walton's head-to-head is the largest comparison we have found. He used a Ryzen 7 9800X3D with DDR5-6000 CL30 memory.

Walton found the RX 9070 XT very strong in raster games, and it won in many PlayStation ports. The RTX 5070 Ti, with about 40 per cent more memory bandwidth, did better in competitive shooters, and Radeon performance in Fortnite was occasionally inconsistent. At the US prices then (about $700 against $1,000), his conclusion was blunt: "we would choose the Radeon every time". He added: "A 20% premium could perhaps be defended, but nearly 40% is a much, much harder sell."

Tom's Hardware GPU hierarchy (updated 24 June 2026)

The two sources tell the same story. Raster performance is essentially level, with a small 4K edge to NVIDIA. The heavier the ray tracing, the further ahead the RTX 5070 Ti gets.

The case for the RTX 5070 Ti (Tom's Hardware's view)

Tom's Hardware's Best Graphics Cards guide (updated 2 October 2026) names the RTX 5070 Ti its best high-end card and the RX 9070 XT its best enthusiast value card. At its US prices, it says you pay as much as 53 per cent more for the GeForce for about 5 per cent more baseline performance, and that this is still worth it. Its argument is about software. Getting the best experience from modern games "is as much a software problem as a hardware one", it says. NVIDIA ensures DLSS appears in virtually every new game, while AMD's FSR 4 adoption "has become rather hit-or-miss". Path-traced games play best with DLSS 4.5 and Multi Frame Generation.

Tom's also argues that high-end cards are now five to eight-year purchases. Spread over five years, it says, the US price gap of about $300 is about $60 a year. At UK prices on 12 November, the same sum is roughly £395 over five years, or about £79 a year (our arithmetic).

The case for the RX 9070 XT (TechSpot's view)

TechSpot's argument is about value. At equal raster performance, a 40 per cent premium is hard to justify, and the UK gap of 48 per cent on 12 November is even bigger. TechSpot's November pricing update found the RTX 5070 Ti about 47 per cent more expensive than the RX 9070 XT on average across the ten countries it tracks. It also found that the RX 9070 XT costs, on average, about the same as the 12GB RTX 5070, which it beat by 25 per cent in a separate 52-game test.

The £395 you save is enough to move from a 1TB to a 2TB or 4TB SSD, or to cover a large share of a 32GB DDR5 kit at today's prices. Our DDR5 vs DDR4 guide explains why memory is so expensive right now. It could even fund a better monitor.

Other things to weigh

• Power and heat. Both are rated at around 300W, but TechSpot measured about 20 per cent higher gaming power on the Radeon. Both makers recommend a 750W PSU. Check that your power supply has the right connectors before you buy.

• Creative work. If you use CUDA-accelerated software, the GeForce is the safer choice. Tom's Hardware's testing of the RTX 5070 against the RX 9070 showed a 68 per cent Blender lead for NVIDIA, and the 5070 Ti has more CUDA cores than the 5070.

• Encoding. NVIDIA lists two ninth-generation NVENC encoders on the RTX 5070 Ti, which matters if you stream or edit video.

• Used prices. SpecPrice's eBay data on 12 November showed used RTX 5070 Ti cards from about £999 and RX 9070 XT cards from about £785. That narrows the gap a little, but buying used means less consumer protection. Our Black Friday guide covers your rights when buying new.

Which should you choose?

Choose the RX 9070 XT if:

• You mostly play raster games at 1440p or 4K.

• Value matters, and you would rather spend the £395 elsewhere in the build.

• You're comfortable with FSR's narrower game support.

Choose the RTX 5070 Ti if:

• You play path-traced or heavily ray-traced games and want DLSS and Multi Frame Generation.

• You use CUDA or NVENC for work.

• You plan to keep the card for five years or more and the premium fits your budget.

Our verdict

At UK prices on 12 November 2026, the RX 9070 XT is the better buy for most gamers. Matching performance in raster games for about £395 less is hard to argue with, and it is TechSpot's view too. The RTX 5070 Ti is the better graphics card overall, though, and Tom's Hardware's case for it is reasonable: if you play the newest path-traced games, the RT gap and DLSS make a visible difference over a long ownership period. If the price gap falls towards 20 per cent, which is the premium TechSpot said "could perhaps be defended", the GeForce becomes much easier to recommend. That would mean the RTX 5070 Ti dropping below about £985 while the RX 9070 XT stays near £820. For the wider market, see our best graphics card guide and our RX 9070 vs RTX 5070 comparison.