Forget the RTX 5090 – the RTX 5070 is the best gift Nvidia has given PC gamers in ages

An RTX 5090 graphics card resting against its retail box with a closeup of the RTX 5090 branding

(Image credit: Future)

Yes, I know, we’re all very excited about how powerful Nvidia’s RTX 5090 is, and presumably many of us are also very upset that Nvidia apparently thought seven cards per retailer would be enough stock for launch day (note to Jensen Huang: that was a joke, please take your hitman off speed dial).

But even though it does look mighty impressive – and as per our RTX 5080 review, the middle child of the Blackwell generation is no slouch either – there’s a different GPU I’m really looking forward to this year, and it’s the lowest-spec desktop card Nvidia announced at CES 2025. That’s right, I’m talking about the RTX 5070.

Now, I’ve always had a soft spot for Nvidia’s xx70 GPUs; I rocked a GTX 970 back in the day, and I was a strong supporter of the RTX 3070 when it came out back in 2020. These cards typically find the right balance between performance and pricing; not too expensive, but still perfectly capable of delivering a solid gaming experience to the average consumer. And with the RTX 5070, I think we could be in for a treat – not least because Nvidia has seemingly done the unthinkable.

A pleasant surprise

See, at launch, the current-gen RTX 4070 cost $599 / £589 / AU$1,109. I thought that was a pretty fair price at the time – certainly better value for money than the higher-end Lovelace GPUs, and something we praised it for in our review. I was expecting to see the exact same price tag for the RTX 5070, but no: Nvidia has actually lowered the list price, bringing it down to $549 / £549 (around AU$880).

I’m really not exaggerating when I say that this is nuts. Obviously, we don’t have performance figures for the RTX 5070 yet, so there’s every possibility Nvidia does screw the pooch on this one, but let’s be honest: this card will likely sit somewhere between the RTX 4070 and RTX 4080, with $50 / £40 shaved off the price tag to boot. That’s great!

That’s not all, either; I’m just talking about my raw performance expectations here, but that’s without even factoring in Multi Frame Generation, which combined with DLSS 4 and Reflex 2 provides a serious performance boost for RTX 5000 GPUs without many of the drawbacks seen in previous iterations of Nvidia’s upscaling and frame-gen tech. Access to these tools – which can be retroactively improved by Nvidia – is a key winning factor for the 5070.

With that price tag, the RTX 5070 has genuine potential to be the new 1440p gaming king – or even a reasonably priced 4K card, once we see how well DLSS 4 and MFG actually perform on a more affordable Blackwell card. Personally, I have high expectations… don’t let me down, Nvidia.

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Christian is TechRadar’s UK-based Computing Editor. He came to us from Maximum PC magazine, where he fell in love with computer hardware and building PCs. He was a regular fixture amongst our freelance review team before making the jump to TechRadar, and can usually be found drooling over the latest high-end graphics card or gaming laptop before looking at his bank account balance and crying.

Christian is a keen campaigner for LGBTQ+ rights and the owner of a charming rescue dog named Lucy, having adopted her after he beat cancer in 2021. She keeps him fit and healthy through a combination of face-licking and long walks, and only occasionally barks at him to demand treats when he’s trying to work from home.