Nvidia’s RTX 5070 Ti is mere days away. Set to launch on February 20, the GPU marks the beginning of Nvidia’s mainstream RTX 50-series. With similar specs to the RTX 5080, the RTX 5070 Ti has every chance to rank high among the best graphics cards — but it’s also going to face a number of obstacles that might impact its success.
Thanks to some leaked benchmarks, we now have a better idea of how the card might perform, and that rough ballpark is really a bit of a mixed bag. Here’s why I think the RTX 5070 Ti might have an uphill climb when it first hits the shelves, but also why it might completely displace the RTX 5080.
Promising benchmarks — well, kind of
When Nvidia first announced the RTX 5070 Ti, it promised an up to 2x uplift over the RTX 4070 Ti. Of course, these scores had to be taken with a huge grain of salt, what with the Multi Frame Generation tech that gives DLSS 4, and consequently the RTX 50-series, a major boost. The real difference in performance was bound to be different — a fact that was quickly proven by the reviews of the RTX 5090 and the RTX 5080.
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Don’t get me wrong: Both of those GPUs are faster than their last-gen counterparts, no questions asked. However, it’s not quite the amazing “twice as fast” boost that Nvidia promised during its announcement. The RTX 5090, while undoubtedly a beastly card, is only around 30% faster than the RTX 4090. While that’s still a solid uplift, it’s not quite the eye-watering 80% difference that we witnessed going from the RTX 3090 to the RTX 4090.
Meanwhile, the RTX 5080 came with its own disappointments. Many hoped that it’d beat the last-gen RTX 4090, but it failed to meet that mark. It’s around 18% faster than the RTX 4080 Super, which is a solid result, but again — not groundbreaking.
Based on the leaked benchmark scores shared by VideoCardz just days of the review embargo being lifted, it looks like the RTX 5070 Ti is doomed to share the same fate.
Obligatory disclaimer: We’re dealing with benchmarks from a single source, and more importantly, from synthetic tests. The scores come from 3DMark, which is a solid way to test a GPU, but doesn’t tell us much about its gaming performance. Seeing as gaming is what matters the most in a card such as this, we’re still yet to see the juicy parts.
With that out of the way, let’s dig in. According to scores shared by VideoCardz coming from unknown sources, the RTX 5070 Ti is 16.6% faster than the RTX 4070 Ti Super. This isn’t an outstanding result, but comparing it to the RTX 4070 Ti would likely give us something over 20%, which falls in line with what we’d expect from a new generation of GPUs. These days, Nvidia saves the big gen-on-gen gains for the flagship, and that’s just a reality that we all have to live with.
The more interesting tidbit is that the RTX 5070 Ti is only about 13.2% slower than the RTX 5080, all the while being 33% cheaper. I expected as much, as the cards have fairly similar specs outside of the RTX 5070 Ti sporting fewer CUDA cores. The memory interface is almost the same, although the RTX 5070 Ti was given slower 28Gbps memory modules, but both have 16GB VRAM.
At $250 cheaper and just 13% slower, the RTX 5070 Ti sounds like a no-brainer when compared to the RTX 5080. Unfortunately, it’s really not all that simple.
‘Paper launch’ woes
In theory, Nvidia’s RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 launched on January 30.
Yes, in theory, because the reality is that most people still haven’t been able to get their hands on one of the new cards.
Three days before the launch, hopeful shoppers were already camping outside of various retailers in order to try and score a new GPU. Good thinking, too, because it’s long been rumored that the RTX 5090 would be in highly limited supply. This pushed some retailers to host lotteries for a chance to buy the GPU — one of which has ended in screams and destroyed property.
Although the RTX 5090 appears to be the most impacted, the RTX 5080 is not doing any better. The cards are hard to come by unless you’re willing to pay scalper premiums (to which I say, please don’t). Both the RTX 5090 and the RTX 5080 are nowhere to be found on Amazon outside of prebuilt PCs made by largely unknown builders.
Unfortunately, the RTX 5070 Ti might share the very same fate. Ming-Chi Kuo, a well-known market analyst, revealed that the RTX 5070 and the RTX 5060 will sell out in seconds due to the limited stock and increased demand. Some leakers disagree, with MEGAsizeGPU on X stating that the supply of the RTX 5090 will be “stupidly high” soon enough. I’ll believe it when I see it, though. Right now, market conditions are harsh, and I worry that the RTX 5070 Ti will suffer from the same problems that currently plague its more powerful siblings.
Availability is just one part of the puzzle — the pricing is another. The RTX 5070 Ti will not appear in Nvidia’s Founders Edition, which is guaranteed to launch at the recommended list price (MSRP). This means that the pricing of the card falls entirely to Nvidia’s partners, and while some are bound to launch at $750, many models will cost way more.
Early leaks show some of the GPUs priced at up to $1,200, and with the RTX 5080 largely sold out, there’s nothing there to stop the prices from rising. We might end up in a situation where the RTX 5070 Ti is scarcely available at launch, but also very expensive from the get-go. That performance per dollar comparison I brought up earlier only holds true if both the RTX 5070 Ti and the RTX 5080 are sold at MSRP, and that’s not something we can expect to happen right now.
AMD is right around the corner
Shortages and price hikes are just one side of the coin. Nvidia has one more thing to worry about — AMD. Team Red will soon announce its upcoming GPU, and if priced correctly, the RX 9070 XT could truly shake things up.
In all likelihood, the new GPU won’t have quite enough juice to outperform the RTX 5070 Ti; this is especially true when we factor in Multi Frame Generation. But, as we all know, there’s more to the success of a graphics card than just raw performance, and in that regard, AMD might be competitive.
Performance-wise, the RX 9070 XT is expected to be at around the level of the RTX 4070 Ti and will therefore likely fall between the RTX 5070 Ti and the RTX 5070. However, it’s hard to judge how big a dent it’ll make in the sales of Nvidia’s RTX 5070 Ti, and that’s because AMD has kept everything very hush-hush.
AMD is said to be planning an “aggressive” pricing strategy for the RX 9000 series. Personally, I’m not sure what to think at this stage. We’ve seen leaks of the RX 9070 XT being priced at $500 (which would indeed be pretty great), but also signs of it costing up to $900. I’m keeping my expectations low to avoid disappointment.
With limited availability on Nvidia’s part, all AMD really needs to do is make its new GPUs a little bit cheaper and offer better stock levels for them to sell well. However, for a card to truly be a hit, it’d need to be both solid performance-wise and priced with the consumer in mind. Undercutting Nvidia is one thing; making a card that offers good performance per dollar is another.
The RX 9070 XT is a potential threat to the RTX 5070 Ti, but it’s too early to judge how this will play out — too many moving parts.
Bye-bye, RTX 5080?
Nvidia’s RTX 5070 Ti might truly have what it takes to displace the RTX 5080 and take its place in the market, but there are a lot of things that would need to go well for the GPU to be a success.
One: Gaming benchmarks. If the RTX 5070 Ti fails to deliver a meaningful gen-on-gen improvement, it’s bound to struggle. The RTX 5070 will always be a more popular choice, and if the 5070 Ti doesn’t impress, many may choose to settle for the $550 GPU instead.
Two: Availability, both in general and at MSRP. Most people won’t want to pay $900 and more for an overclocked RTX 5070 Ti. Low stock levels create scarcity, but that doesn’t change the fact that many gamers may not buy this GPU if the pricing doesn’t add up.
Three: AMD. If AMD’s RX 9070 XT scores favorable reviews and is and priced well, Nvidia’s RTX 5070 Ti may struggle, especially if the other two issues also turn out to be real.
So, what’s it going to be: A smash hit that replaces the RTX 5080 or a GPU that most of us will choose to skip? We’ll find out in just a few days when the first reviews of the RTX 5070 Ti drop. Right now, anything could happen.
