Nvidia has officially unveiled its GeForce RTX 50-series Blackwell GPUs during the CES 2025 keynote, and while the flagship RTX 5090 steals the spotlight with its monstrous specs, the more affordable RTX 5070, priced at $549, is likely to be the real game-changer for mainstream users. The RTX 4070 has already established itself as one of the best graphics cards since its launch, and its successor appears poised to build on that legacy.
Performance Highlights and Key Comparisons
Nvidia claims the RTX 5070 delivers performance comparable to the RTX 4090 at roughly one-third of the price and slightly over half the power consumption. However, raw specifications suggest that its true capabilities will depend heavily on advanced AI features like DLSS 4. Let’s break down the comparison:
| Graphics Card | RTX 5070 | RTX 4090 | RTX 4070 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Architecture | GB205 | AD102 | AD104 |
| Process Node | TSMC 4NP | TSMC 4N | TSMC 4N |
| Transistors (B) | TBD | 76.3 | 32 |
| Die Size (mm²) | TBD | 608.4 | 294.5 |
| SMs | 48 | 128 | 46 |
| GPU Shaders | 6144 | 16384 | 5888 |
| VRAM (GB) | 12 | 24 | 12 |
| VRAM Speed (Gbps) | 30 (est.) | 21 | 21 |
| Bandwidth (GB/s) | 720 (est.) | 1008 | 504 |
| TBP (Watts) | 250 | 450 | 200 |
| Launch Price | $549 | $1,599 | $599 |
How Does the RTX 5070 Stack Up?
Core Compute Power
The RTX 5070 boasts 48 Streaming Multiprocessors (SMs), just slightly more than the 46 on the RTX 4070. Its theoretical FP32 performance reaches 31 TFLOPS, a marginal improvement over the 4070’s 29 TFLOPS, but far below the RTX 4090’s 83 TFLOPS. This suggests that without AI enhancements, the 5070 won’t come close to the 4090 in raw compute performance.
Memory and Bandwidth
With 12GB of VRAM, the 5070 mirrors the 4070 in capacity but lags behind the 24GB available on the 4090. While 12GB is sufficient for most games, some titles with full ray tracing at 4K, like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, already exceed this threshold. The introduction of “RTX Neural Material” and Neural Texture Compression (NTC) could alleviate this limitation by optimizing memory usage, but compatibility across games remains uncertain.
Bandwidth is another critical factor. The RTX 5070’s estimated GDDR7 bandwidth of 720–768 GB/s marks a significant leap over the 4070’s 504 GB/s, but it still trails the 4090’s 1008 GB/s. Without effective neural compression, this bandwidth gap could impact performance at higher resolutions.
AI and DLSS 4 Features
Nvidia is doubling down on AI-driven technologies, and the RTX 50-series introduces FP4 support and twice the tensor core compute of the 40-series. While AI performance still favors the 4090, DLSS 4 represents a significant leap. This includes multi-frame generation, promising up to three interpolated frames between two rendered frames, and a new transformer-based DLSS model. These advancements could deliver sharper visuals, reduced latency, and “better than native” rendering, though real-world performance will depend on implementation and adoption by game developers.
Value Proposition
The most compelling aspect of the RTX 5070 is its price-to-performance ratio. At $549, it targets mainstream gamers who find the $1,599 RTX 4090 unattainable. If it consistently matches or exceeds RTX 4080-level performance, it could dominate its segment, much like its xx70-class predecessors.
Final Thoughts
While the RTX 5070 might not challenge the RTX 4090 in raw power, its blend of performance, AI-driven features, and pricing makes it a strong contender for most gamers. For those holding onto older GPUs, the 50-series – and particularly the RTX 5070 – might offer a compelling reason to upgrade. If Nvidia’s AI enhancements deliver as promised, the RTX 5070 could well be the standout card of this generation.
