Green or red at £700

In the RTX 5070 vs RX 9070 XT match-up, the Radeon RX 9070 XT is the better buy for most UK gamers: it costs £668.99 on Amazon UK at the time of writing (September 2026), £50 less than the GeForce RTX 5070at £718.99, and Hardware Unboxed's 52-game test, published by TechSpot on 7 September 2026, found it 24% faster at 1440p and 25% faster at 4K. Tom's Hardware's June 2026 GPU hierarchy agrees, with 116.5 fps against 96.4 fps at 1440p Ultra and 55.5 against 51.5 fps with ray tracing.

The GeForce RTX 5070 still has a case. It carries NVIDIA's DLSS 4.5 upscaler, which Tom's Hardware rates ahead of AMD's FSR 4, Multi Frame Generation up to 6X, a 250 W board power against 304 W, and a 650 W power supply recommendation against 750 W. This comparison also sets both cards against the Radeon RX 9070, Radeon RX 9070 GRE and GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, and prices every frame.

Which is faster, the RTX 5070 or RX 9070 XT?

The Radeon RX 9070 XT is faster than the GeForce RTX 5070 at every resolution in raster games, by roughly a fifth to a quarter. Two independent test suites agree:

• Hardware Unboxed, 52 games (TechSpot, 7 September 2026): the Radeon RX 9070 XT is 24% faster at 1440p and 25% faster at 4K. A separate TechSpot article on 24 September 2026 gives the Radeon RX 9070 XT's 52-game average as 123 fps at 1440p and 72 fps at 4K.
• Tom's Hardware, June 2026 (11-game raster geomean, Ryzen 7 9800X3D, native resolution): 156.6 against 132.6 fps at 1080p Ultra (18% ahead), 116.5 against 96.4 fps at 1440p Ultra (21%) and 65.8 against 54.3 fps at 4K Ultra (21%).

Tom's Hardware calls the Radeon RX 9070 XT “the cheapest way to get into 4K 60 FPS native gaming”; the GeForce RTX 5070's 54.3 fps average at 4K Ultra falls short of that line. On paper, AMD gives the Radeon RX 9070 XT 64 compute units, 4,096 stream processors, a 2,970 MHz boost clock and 16 GB on a 256-bit bus. NVIDIA gives the GeForce RTX 5070 6,144 CUDA cores, a 2,510 MHz boost clock and 12 GB on a 192-bit bus.

The ASUS Prime Radeon RX 9070 XT OC costs £668.99 on Amazon UK at the time of writing (September 2026), £99 above AMD's official UK launch price of £569.99, with a 3,030 MHz factory boost clock. The Radeon RX 9070 XT is also the most common Radeon card on Steam, at 1.46% share in the August 2026 Steam Hardware Survey, as reported by OC3D.

Is the RTX 5070 or RX 9070 XT better for ray tracing?

The Radeon RX 9070 XT is slightly ahead of the GeForce RTX 5070 in ray tracing on average, and well ahead at 4K. Tom's Hardware's June 2026 ray tracing suite of 8 games measured:

• 1080p Ultra: Radeon RX 9070 XT 77.8 fps, GeForce RTX 5070 74.1 fps (5% gap).
• 1440p Ultra: 55.5 against 51.5 fps (8% gap).
• 4K Ultra: 30.1 against 22.7 fps (33% gap).

The 4K result matches the memory limits covered in the next section: the GeForce RTX 5070 even falls behind the cheaper Radeon RX 9070 at 4K with ray tracing, 22.7 against 25.8 fps, after beating it at 1440p. At 1080p and 1440p the two headline cards sit within 8%, and NVIDIA's software narrows that further. DLSS 4.5 Ray Reconstruction reached every RTX card in August 2026 through the NVIDIA App, according to TechSpot.

Path tracing is where NVIDIA's architecture pulls away. In Hardware Unboxed's May 2026 test, published by TechSpot, the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti ran 63% faster than the Radeon RX 9070 XT in Doom's path-traced mode and 56% faster in Indiana Jones with high ray tracing at 1440p, while the two were level in raster games. The GeForce RTX 5070 is a smaller chip than the RTX 5070 Ti, so the Radeon RX 9070 XT keeps its average lead, but buyers who play mostly path-traced games should weigh that pattern.

Is 12 GB of VRAM enough in 2026?

12 GB of VRAM is enough for the GeForce RTX 5070 at 1080p and in most games at 1440p, but it is the card's clearest weakness at 4K and with heavy ray tracing. Hardware Unboxed's September 2026 comparison, published by TechSpot, found the GeForce RTX 5070 “runs into severe memory limitations” in Mafia: The Old Country at Epic settings and in Star Wars Outlaws at 4K with RTX Direct Lighting Ultra.

• GeForce RTX 5070: 12 GB GDDR7, 192-bit, 672 GB/s.
• Radeon RX 9070 XT: 16 GB GDDR6, 256-bit, 640 GB/s, plus 64 MB of Infinity Cache.
• Radeon RX 9070: 16 GB GDDR6, 256-bit, 640 GB/s.
• Radeon RX 9070 GRE: 12 GB GDDR6, 192-bit, 432 GB/s.

Faster GDDR7 gives the GeForce RTX 5070 slightly more bandwidth than the Radeon RX 9070 XT, but capacity runs out first. Tom's Hardware says a buyer needs “an RTX 5060 Ti 16GB, RTX 5070, or RX 9070 GRE to handle 60 FPS RT at 1080p without running out of VRAM”, which puts 12 GB at the floor for ray tracing rather than in the comfortable middle. PC Gamer's March 2026 tests found 16 GB cards using “well into the 11 GB VRAM range” in Cyberpunk 2077 with Ultra ray tracing and Quality upscaling, close to the GeForce RTX 5070's ceiling.

NVIDIA has not announced an RTX 5070 Super. Leakers report an 18 GB version built on 3 GB GDDR7 modules, with rumoured dates ranging from the end of 2026 to CES in January 2027, and TechTimes advises treating every date as rumour. A card that may be months away is a weak reason to pay £50 more for 12 GB today.

DLSS 4.5 or FSR 4: which upscaler is better?

DLSS 4.5 is the better upscaler, and it is the strongest reason to buy the GeForce RTX 5070. Tom's Hardware's June 2026 hierarchy says “FSR 4.x upscaling isn't on par with DLSS 4.5 yet”, and the GeForce RTX 5070 “got the nod” in Tom's best-GPU picks on the strength of DLSS 4.5 and Multi Frame Generation.

• Upscaling:DLSS 4.5 Super Resolution uses NVIDIA's second-generation transformer model, announced in January 2026 and applied to games through the NVIDIA App. FSR 4 is AMD's machine-learning upscaler for Radeon RX 9000 cards, in a “small but growing range of titles” per Tom's Hardware, plus a driver override.
• Frame generation:DLSS 4.5 Multi Frame Generation reaches 6X on RTX 50 cards from 31 March 2026, with override support in over 200 games, according to TheFPSReview. NVIDIA says moving from 4X to 6X adds up to 35% in path-traced 4K. AMD's FSR ML Frame Generation is limited to 2X, per Tom's Hardware.
• DLSS 5: launched on 3 September 2026 in NBA 2K27 for RTX 50 cards only. It is a visual upgrade with a heavy cost: TechSpot measured the GeForce RTX 5070 at 1440p falling from 217 fps to 67 fps with DLSS 5 on, a 69% drop.

Frame generation multiplies displayed frames rather than rendered ones, so it works best from a healthy base frame rate, and the Radeon RX 9070 XT's higher native frame rate partly offsets its 2X ceiling. GeForce cards also run NVIDIA's CUDA platform, which creative and compute software supports more widely than AMD's alternatives; TechSpot's September 2026 analysis names demand for CUDA cards as one reason GeForce prices have risen faster than Radeon.

The Gigabyte GeForce RTX 5070 Eagle OC SFF costs £718.99 on Amazon UK at the time of writing (September 2026), with a 2,587 MHz factory boost clock and a small-form-factor design for compact cases. The GeForce RTX 5070 suits buyers who play DLSS-heavy games at 1440p, want the frame generation headroom for a 240 Hz monitor, or use CUDA software for work.

Which uses less power, and what PSU do they need?

The GeForce RTX 5070 uses less power: NVIDIA rates it at 250 W total graphics power with a 650 W recommended power supply, while AMD rates the Radeon RX 9070 XT at 304 W total board power with a 750 W minimum. That is 54 W, or 22%, more for the Radeon RX 9070 XT.

• GeForce RTX 5070: 250 W, 650 W PSU.
• Radeon RX 9070 XT: 304 W, 750 W PSU.
• Radeon RX 9070: 220 W, 650 W PSU.
• GeForce RTX 5070 Ti: 300 W, 750 W PSU. Hardware Unboxed measured the Radeon RX 9070 XT drawing about 20% more power than the RTX 5070 Ti in games (TechSpot, May 2026).
• Radeon RX 9070 GRE: 220 W, 650 W PSU.

The running-cost gap is small: 54 W over 1,000 hours of gaming is 54 kWh. The power supply gap matters more. A PC with a 650 W unit takes the GeForce RTX 5070 or Radeon RX 9070 as it stands, while the Radeon RX 9070 XT may add a new power supply to the bill. All five cards use PCIe 5.0 x16 and run in PCIe 4.0 slots. Owners of an older system should read how to upgrade an old gaming PC in 2026 before choosing.

How do the RTX 5070 and RX 9070 XT specs and prices compare?

The GeForce RTX 5070 has 4 GB less memory, 54 W lower board power and the stronger feature set; the Radeon RX 9070 XT has the wider bus and the lower price. The table sets both against the Radeon RX 9070, Radeon RX 9070 GRE and GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, with Amazon UK prices at the time of writing (September 2026) and specifications from NVIDIA and AMD.

Launch prices show how far the market has moved. NVIDIA launched the GeForce RTX 5070 at $549 and AMD the Radeon RX 9070 XT at $599, so the Radeon RX 9070 XT was the dearer of the two at launch. TechSpot's August 2026 survey of 10 countries found GeForce RTX 5070 prices 31% above MSRP, against 21% for the Radeon RX 9070 XT and 13% for the Radeon RX 9070, and concluded: “If you're going to buy one anyway, Radeon is clearly the way to go.” The memory shortage behind those rises is explained in why tech is more expensive in 2026.

Which graphics card gives the most frames per pound?

The Radeon RX 9070 XT gives the most frames per pound of the five cards in all six columns, at £5.74 per 1440p raster frame against £7.46 for the GeForce RTX 5070. Compare Electronic divided each Amazon UK price at the time of writing (September 2026) by Tom's Hardware's June 2026 average fps: for example, £668.99 ÷ 116.5 fps = £5.74. Lower is better.

• The GeForce RTX 5070 costs 30% more per 1440p raster frame than the Radeon RX 9070 XT (£7.46 against £5.74). It ranks fourth of five in five columns and third in 1440p ray tracing.
• Break-even: the GeForce RTX 5070 would need to cost £553.57 to match the Radeon RX 9070 XT per 1440p raster frame (£668.99 × 96.4 ÷ 116.5), and £620.77 to match it per 1440p ray-traced frame (£668.99 × 51.5 ÷ 55.5).
• At 4K with ray tracing the GeForce RTX 5070 costs more per frame (£31.67) than the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti (£29.43), because its result drops to 22.7 fps.
• The Radeon RX 9070 GRE is second-cheapest per 1080p raster frame (£4.39) but last at 4K with ray tracing (£34.19), where its 12 GB and 432 GB/s hold it back.
• Prices move. TechSpot's August 2026 check of UK retailers had the cheapest RTX 5070 at £600 and the cheapest RX 9070 XT at £690. Even then, the RTX 5070 cost £6.22 per 1440p raster frame against £5.92 for the RX 9070 XT.

What does the extra £50, or £411, buy?

The extra £50 for the GeForce RTX 5070 buys features and efficiency but not speed, and the extra £411 for the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti buys ray tracing performance and almost nothing in raster games. All frame rates below are Tom's Hardware's June 2026 averages.

• £50 more (7.5%), Radeon RX 9070 XT to GeForce RTX 5070: buys DLSS 4.5, Multi Frame Generation up to 6X, DLSS 5, CUDA, 54 W less board power and a 100 W smaller PSU requirement. It gives up 20.1 fps at 1440p raster (116.5 to 96.4), 4.0 fps at 1440p with ray tracing (55.5 to 51.5), 7.4 fps at 4K with ray tracing and 4 GB of VRAM.
• £411 more (61%), Radeon RX 9070 XT to GeForce RTX 5070 Ti: buys 0.3 fps at 1440p raster, 2.8 fps at 4K raster, 10.7 fps (19%) at 1440p with ray tracing and 6.6 fps at 4K with ray tracing, plus the NVIDIA feature set. That is £38.41 per extra 1440p ray-traced frame and £1,370.00 per extra 1440p raster frame.

The cheapest extra frames on the ladder are the £41.99 step from the Radeon RX 9070 to the Radeon RX 9070 XT, at £3.36 per 1440p raster frame. The only step that loses frames is the one most buyers are weighing: from the Radeon RX 9070 XT to the GeForce RTX 5070.

Is the RX 9070 XT worth it over the RX 9070?

Yes: the Radeon RX 9070 XT costs £41.99 more than the Radeon RX 9070 and is 12% faster, the best-value step in this price range. TechSpot's August 2026 test across about 50 games found the Radeon RX 9070 XT 12% faster at both 1440p and 4K, and Tom's Hardware's June 2026 hierarchy has 116.5 against 104.0 fps at 1440p Ultra.

In an RTX 5070 vs RX 9070 comparison, the Radeon RX 9070 wins in raster games and loses in ray tracing. Tom's Hardware calls the Radeon RX 9070 “the 1440p raster value champ”. The XFX Swift Radeon RX 9070 OC costs £627.00 on Amazon UK at the time of writing (September 2026), £91.99 less than the GeForce RTX 5070, and is 8% faster than it at 1440p raster (104.0 against 96.4 fps) with 16 GB. The GeForce RTX 5070 leads it by 8% at 1440p with ray tracing (51.5 against 47.6 fps). At 220 W with a 650 W PSU, the Radeon RX 9070 is the pick for PCs that cannot take a 750 W unit.

One tier lower, the Gigabyte Radeon RX 9070 GRE Gaming OCcosts £529.99. TechSpot's June 2026 review, a 15-game average, put the Radeon RX 9070 GRE about 5% behind the GeForce RTX 5070 at 1440p and 6% behind at 4K, for £189 less. It has the same 12 GB as the GeForce RTX 5070, and Tom's Hardware's figures put the GeForce RTX 5070 38% ahead of it at 1440p with ray tracing.

Should buyers pay for the RTX 5070 Ti instead?

Only buyers who prioritise ray tracing and path tracing should pay £1,079.99 for the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Eagle OC SFF; in raster games the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti is effectively tied with the £668.99 Radeon RX 9070 XT.

• Raster:Tom's Hardware's June 2026 hierarchy has the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti at 116.8 fps and the Radeon RX 9070 XT at 116.5 fps at 1440p Ultra; the Radeon RX 9070 XT leads at 1080p (156.6 against 155.4) and trails by 4% at 4K (65.8 against 68.6). Hardware Unboxed's May 2026 52-game test, published by TechSpot, had the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti 2 fps (about 1.4%) ahead at 1440p and 84 against 81 fps at 4K.
• Ray tracing:the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti is 16% faster at 1080p, 19% at 1440p and 22% at 4K in Tom's figures. Tom's Hardware calls it “the last card with a reasonable price-to-performance ratio” for ray tracing.
• Price:the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti launched at a £729 UK RRP, according to TechRadar, so £1,079.99 is £350.99 above it. TechSpot's August 2026 survey put GeForce RTX 5070 Ti prices 44% above MSRP globally, against 31% for the GeForce RTX 5070.
• Break-even: the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti would need to cost £797.97 to match the Radeon RX 9070 XT per 1440p ray-traced frame (£668.99 × 66.2 ÷ 55.5).

The same trade-off decides the prebuilt question in Compare Electronic's ADMI RTX 5070 vs RTX 5070 Ti gaming PC comparison.

Who should skip both cards, and what should UK buyers check?

Buyers gaming at 1080p, on a tight budget or with an older PC should skip both cards and look one tier down or at the rest of the system first.

• 1080p players:the Radeon RX 9070 GRE at £529.99 costs £4.39 per 1080p raster frame, close to the Radeon RX 9070 XT's £4.27, for £139 less. Cheaper picks are ranked in the best graphics card UK 2026 guide.
• Older CPUs:Tom's Hardware's figures come from a Ryzen 7 9800X3D, and an older processor can hold either card back at 1080p. The best CPU for gaming UK 2026 guide covers the upgrade.
• Whole-PC buyers: build vs buy a gaming PC in the UK prices both routes with these cards.
• Monitor: both cards target 1440p at high refresh rates; the best gaming monitor for PC guide lists matching 1440p panels.

UK buying notes:

• Power supply:650 W for the GeForce RTX 5070, Radeon RX 9070 and Radeon RX 9070 GRE; 750 W for the Radeon RX 9070 XT and GeForce RTX 5070 Ti. Check the power connectors on the board partner's specification page against the PSU's cables.
• Consumer Rights Act 2015: a faulty card can be rejected for a full refund within 30 days, and a fault that appears within six months is presumed to have been there at delivery. Warranty terms beyond that come from ASUS, Gigabyte or XFX and differ by brand.
• Timing:TechSpot's UK price tracking has the cheapest RTX 5070 rising from £470 in November 2025 to £600 in August 2026, and the RX 9070 XT from £560 to £690. OC3D reports the DRAM shortage is expected to peak in mid-2027. Seasonal deal timing is covered in buy now or wait for Black Friday 2026.

Verdict: RTX 5070 or RX 9070 XT?

The Radeon RX 9070 XTis the better graphics card for most UK buyers: £668.99 on Amazon UK at the time of writing (September 2026), 24% faster than the GeForce RTX 5070 at 1440p in Hardware Unboxed's 52-game test, 16 GB of VRAM and the lowest cost per frame of the five cards compared. The GeForce RTX 5070 at £718.99 suits buyers who value DLSS 4.5 and 6X Multi Frame Generation, need CUDA, or want to keep a 650 W power supply. The Radeon RX 9070 at £627.00 is the pick for a 650 W PC, and the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti at £1,079.99 makes sense only for ray tracing on a bigger budget.