Nvidia RTX 5070 review: this golden child graphics card balances value and power
Mid-range price for 4K gaming
🏆 Review score: 5 out of 5
🏅 Editor’s Choice Award
Pros:
✅ 🎮 Delivers playable 4K Ultra gaming for most titles
✅ 4K 60fps and higher with DLSS 4 and Multi-Frame Generation
✅ DP 2.1b ports unlock 4K 240Hz and 8K 120Hz displays
✅ 💵 You can actually buy it for $549
Cons
❌ MFG still produces some frame tearing
❌ DLSS 4 can introduce some bad shimmering water reflections
❌ Step up to the Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti for 4K 120fps gaming
Shortcut Review
The Nvidia RTX 5070 is a straight-up 4K gaming graphics card now. That’s all without having to factor in Multi-Frame Generation for half of the PC games I usually play, like Forza Horizon 5, Helldivers 2, Stalker 2, etc. It’s a fantastic jump in power for Nvidia’s mid-range xx70 graphics card and it’s a great deal for $549. That’s cheaper than buying a $699 PS5 Pro for a helluva lot more graphics power. It’ll be tough to build a PC around it for $100-$150 more, but you can do it.
The Nvidia RTX 5070 is also a remarkably tiny graphics card with an equally small 250W TDP, and yet it can pull off 4K gaming with relative ease. In cases where I could only get playable 4K frame rates (i.e. 30fps), turning on DLSS 4 and MFG helped double to triple my frame rate easily. That said, buy the Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti if you’re looking to play games 4K 120fps on the regular, as this graphics card can’t always pull it off. Otherwise, the Nvidia RTX 5070 is a fantastic graphics card at a great $549 price, and it delivers Nvidia RTX 4090 levels of power in most cases.
Full Review
👶 It’s a baby. The Nvidia RTX 5070 Founders Edition is one of the smallest graphics cards I’ve ever held. It’s so cute. It’s almost teeny tiny compared to the already shrunken-down Nvidia RTX 5090 FE and Nvidia RTX 5080 FE cards I reviewed previously. You’ll easily be able to fit this card into any small form factor case, even a five-liter pc case like the Velkase Velka 5.
💪 Burly specs. This all-so-cuddly GPU delivers major specs for its small size. Yes, it might be the most cutdown model in Nvidia’s current RTX 50-series lineup, with the smallest pool of video memory, CUDA cores, and all other components. However, it’s still equipped with all the latest parts, including GDDR7 RAM, plus the latest RT and Tensor Cores. This GPU even has three new DisplayPort 2.1b ports to support 4K 240fps and 8K 120fps display…I’ll get to whether it can support gaming at this level soon.
🎮 Playable 4K Ultra gaming. There’s about a 20-30 fps gap between the Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti and the RTX 5070 I’ve tested. Still, though, you’re looking at playable frame rates with high to ultra settings at any resolution with this graphics card. At 4K, you might see half of your games play fine like I got 80-90fps in Stalker 2 at 4K Epic and 48-60fps with Space Marine II at 4K Ultra. More graphically demanding games, like Star Wars: Outlaws and CyberPunk 2077, pushed the frame rate down to 32fps and 21fps, respectively – however, I was able to get both games running at more than 60 fps with DLSS 4 and multi-frame gen.
🧑🤝🧑 Living in a Multi-Frame Generation world. Up until now, I’ve only used Multi-Frame Generation sparingly. But it’s almost a necessity with the Nvidia RTX 5070 for higher-resolution gaming, and I have to say the experience has been good. MFG still produces glitches, and DLSS 4 can show some particularly bad shimmering in water reflections. However, I was more focused on how smooth it made Hogwarts Legacy look. It particularly helped in combat, MFG producing a smooth frame rate allowed me to deftly pull off my timed dodges and protego bubble shields.
➕ Step up for 120hz. Here’s the but, if you’re looking for consistent 4K 120fps, you’re probably going to have to step up to the Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti. The RTX 5070 had a hard time getting games to run at 4K 120fps even with MFG unless it already got them running at 4K 60fps with just raster and DLSS. So be prepared to lower some quality settings or jump up to Nvidia’s next GPU.
🥊 Nvidia RTX 5070 vs AMD RX 9700. Your biggest question is probably about how Nvidia’s new mid-range GPU compares with the equally priced $549 AMD Radeon RX 9700, and well, I can’t tell you that until tomorrow. We’ll be updating this review with comparisons and performance charts soon, so stay tuned.
😎 Running life at 4K 240fps. I’ve had the Nvidia RTX 5070 plugged into a 4K 240Hz gaming monitor for half a week, and it’s been fantastic. Now the RTX 5070 can hardly game at full speed with this resolution unless you’re playing something like Hades II or Marvel Rivals. But for everything else, the smooth frame rate and high resolution can’t be beat. Plus, the RTX 5070 lets me edit and render out 4K 240Hz videos with ease, thanks to its built-in 4:2:2 NVENC support. Streamers and content creators will also love the RTX 5070 for its AV1 support for their video output and streams.
💵 Actually available at $549! Nvidia’s RTX 50-series graphics cards have been notoriously hard to find at the retail prices Nvidia set forth at CES 2025, but the RTX 5070 seems to be correcting that problem – mostly. There are at least six models available at $549 from a variety of AIC partners like Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, and Gigabyte on top of the Founders Card. A few overclocked cards are priced as high as $799, making the RTX 5070 even more expensive than the $749 RTX 5070 Ti, at which point you’re better off buying even if it’s the hardest GPU to find at its proper price.
Should you buy the Nvidia RTX 5070?
Yes, if…
✅ 🎮 You’re looking to step up from console-level graphics
✅ 🕹️ You want playable 4K Ultra gaming for most games
✅ 📺 You have or want a 4K 240Hz and 8K 120Hz display
✅ 🆕 You want to jump to the latest generation of Nvidia GPUs
No, if…
❌ 🏃♂️ You want to play most PC games at 4K 120fps (get the Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti instead)
❌ 🌈 You want flawless ray-traced lighting (get the Nvidia RTX 5080 instead)
Kevin Lee is The Shortcut’s Creative Director. Follow him on Twitter @baggingspam.
