What it’s like to make use of the RTX 5070 Ti, earlier than and after a much-needed PC overhaul

Attempting to determine what’s inflicting sluggish body charges in a PC is type of like fixing for a mysterious leak in your house. It could possibly be the graphics card, or it could possibly be sluggish storage, outdated RAM, the CPU — one, or the entire above. Whereas doing a whole overhaul is a surefire approach to clear up the issue, it’s costly and never financially savvy within the slightest. Ideally, you isolate the problem, then methodically make upgrades as wanted.

So, yeah, my PC is getting outdated. The Monster Hunter Wilds graphics benchmark made me understand I would wish some upgrades ahead of later (ideally, earlier than Grand Theft Auto 6 and The Witcher 4), because it chugged and textures had been sluggish to load in. My RTX 3070 Ti is an unlikely suspect, being the latest element in my setup, and in any other case not having points operating most video games fairly properly at 1440p decision. Alternatively, my 2018 Intel Core i5-9600K might be the wrongdoer, having fallen beneath the minimal required specs in lots of new, graphically demanding video games popping out.

With the RTX 5070 Ti displaying up at my doorstep, I didn’t really feel like I may pretty assess it with my preexisting {hardware}. So, this assessment took me on a journey throughout which I explored a number of {hardware} eventualities, in the end ending up with a near-total rebuild of my PC. My testing illustrates how a brand new GPU can inject life into an outdated construct, and the way generally that’s not the case. Moreover, I explored how a lot simply refreshing the {hardware} surrounding the GPU can enhance gaming efficiency, even in case you have an old-ish graphics card. Plus, not like fixing a leak, these are points that I truly had enjoyable fixing.

I in contrast anecdotal efficiency in Avowed and Indiana Jones and the Nice Circle, then checked out managed benchmarks in Cyberpunk 2077 and Monster Hunter Wilds — all in 1440p and on the very best doable settings, together with ray tracing when doable.

Giving my outdated PC a $750 implant

Hooking up the $749.99 Asus Prime RTX 5070 Ti to my preexisting rig required only a little bit of tweaking; I wanted to plug in a further PCIe energy cable into my 750 W energy provide to connect with the GPU. My 3070 Ti makes use of simply two PCIe cables from the ability provide, whereas the RTX 50-series playing cards launched to date require three. As soon as I powered it on, I reinstalled the Nvidia GPU driver and acquired to gaming. It was illuminating in methods I didn’t anticipate to run video games with the RTX 5070 Ti put in, as some titles carried out a lot better than earlier than, whereas others didn’t enhance sufficient over my RTX 3070 Ti’s efficiency to warrant the 5070 Ti’s excessive value. It merely relies on what you play.

In Avowed, which is a really CPU-intensive recreation (my 2018 CPU simply made the lower for minimal spec necessities), the RTX 5070 Ti made it doable to get about 10 extra frames per second on common than I used to be getting earlier than. It went from a comparatively secure 40-50 frames per second (with dips to about 35) within the 3070 Ti to a extra secure 50-60 within the RTX 5070 Ti. Efficiency improved extra as soon as ray tracing was turned off, in fact. Primarily based on the miniscule efficiency good points on this title, I’d be kicking myself for having paid for the RTX 5070 Ti.

Cyberpunk 2077 is extra reliant on the GPU than different open-world video games I’ve tried. And so the 5070 Ti delivers significantly improved efficiency regardless of being put in in my older system. With Body Era (FG, a function unique to RTX 40- and newer GPUs) turned off, the 5070 Ti achieved a median of 57 frames per second within the recreation’s benchmark with ray tracing set to “Psycho” mode and the very intensive path-tracing graphical mode on (which does a good higher job than ray tracing when it comes to displaying how gentle bounces realistically) — greater than doubling what my 3070 Ti may do. With FG turned on with the 5070 Ti, the body price shot as much as 100. Having FG at my disposal is an unimaginable asset (particularly on this getting older PC), letting me hold the standard cranked up with out sacrificing body price. However massive graphically demanding video games which are primarily taxing to GPUs, and to not CPUs as properly, aren’t so widespread.

To my shock, Indiana Jones and the Nice Circle ran properly sufficient on my outdated rig with the 3070 Ti that I may have gotten by it with out too a lot hassle. Regardless of bypassing errors about not having sufficient VRAM to run excessive graphical settings, it ran comfortably between 60-70 frames per second. With the RTX 5070 Ti, primed to benefit from the brand new DLSS 4 replace, there have been loads of new choices to activate, together with path tracing, high quality toggles for varied ray-tracing results, and Multi Body Era (MFG, unique to RTX 50-series playing cards, can show as much as three AI-created frames for each one body rendered historically). Efficiency shot as much as about 130 frames per second with out path tracing, and about 75 with it on.

Probably the most brutal take a look at for my outdated system, as talked about earlier than, was none apart from Monster Hunter Wilds. Regardless of the GPU, this recreation and its {hardware} benchmarks didn’t wish to play properly with my machine. The Intel i5 9600K is one era beneath Wilds’ minimal specs, and the downsides of not assembly it had been much less forgiving than I anticipated. Textures typically loaded in slowly, and body charges had been something however secure — even with the RTX 5070 Ti put in. Neither GPU may obtain a secure 60 frames per second with all settings turned up, with the newer GPU including only a handful of frames onto what the 3070 Ti may do. Body Era within the 5070 Ti tremendously improved the efficiency, going as much as 94 frames per second.

Typically, the RTX 5070 Ti’s enhancements had been noticeable in my outdated machine. But when I didn’t have a near-total PC rebuild on the horizon, I’d positively remorse shopping for it. As beforehand talked about, I (responsibly for this assessment, however irresponsibly for my price range) lined myself up with some key upgrades to get probably the most out of the brand new GPU. I acquired an AMD Ryzen 7 9700X processor, 32 GB of a lot sooner DDR5 RAM, and a contemporary motherboard totaling $399.99. I saved my outdated case, the ability provide, and my PCIe 3.0 M.2 SSDs (full setup right here).

Naturally, the very first thing I did with this brand-new setup was slot within the older RTX 3070 Ti. I wished to see simply how a lot a brand new CPU may uplift efficiency within the video games I used to be taking part in, or not.

Avowed on this new system was a a lot smoother expertise with the RTX 3070 Ti put in. The body price hung round within the 70s irrespective of the placement (to reiterate, that is higher than the efficiency I acquired with the 5070 Ti put in in my outdated system). If I used to be eager on holding my GPU, or having a troublesome time discovering an RTX 5070 Ti in inventory, I’d be ecstatic with this enchancment, to the purpose that I won’t improve to this 50-series era.

That enthusiasm wore off shortly as a result of, in Cyberpunk 2077, my upgrades made subsequent to no distinction to the body price. Good to know, however not stunning. Identical goes for Indiana Jones; there have been minor enhancements, however nothing to put in writing house about.

Monster Hunter Wilds yielded some attention-grabbing enhancements with the combo of the sooner processor and reminiscence. The jittery efficiency and texture pop-in was eradicated, and I used to be thrilled to wave goodbye to that mess. That stated, it averaged out to the same, however smoother-appearing frames price as my older PC configuration. Whereas I’d be depressing enduring the uneven gameplay I famous earlier with both GPU in my outdated construct, I feel I may tolerate this expertise with the RTX 3070 Ti.

Most likely the half you’ve been ready to learn

I lastly let the RTX 5070 Ti get to work within the new configuration, and it felt like such a very long time coming, what with the entire permutations I’d been testing (and the enjoyable however hectic weekend of PC constructing).

There have been monumental body price enhancements in the entire video games I’d been testing. Avowed soared above 100 frames per second. It feels great to play with out staring on the frames per second counter. The 5070 Ti made brief work of Cyberpunk 2077’s most intense graphical settings, operating it with path tracing, “Psycho” ray-tracing settings, and Multi Body Era (set to 2 frames generated by AI) at 124 frames per second. Doubling MFG to 4 frames resulted in efficiency going as much as a whopping 219 frames per second. If in case you have a high-refresh-rate monitor that goes above 144 Hz, the 5070 Ti will allow you to squeeze extra worth out of your tech.

Indiana Jones’ many ray-tracing options embody in depth path tracing together with MFG, making it doable to expertise one of the best visuals and a excessive body price. With all settings switched to their most values, I used to be in a position to get about 100 frames per second. Some individuals could also be delicate to the latency launched by MFG, however as long as I saved it at 2x as a substitute of 4x, issues felt effective for me. With out MFG on, the 5070 Ti ran the sport at a clean 70 frames per second — not dangerous.

In the long run, I solved my PC issues, and it runs higher — with or with out the RTX 5070 Ti. Nvidia is positioning the RTX 5070 Ti as being an awesome card to replace to from the RTX 3070 Ti, and The Verge’s assessment considers it to be on the extent of an RTX 4080, however cheaper. I, too, can attest that it’s an awesome improve, and that it’ll be a superb element to maintain round for the following 5 years or so. However, for anybody on the market whose PC elements are already 5 or extra years outdated, you might need larger issues than only a GPU. And even a strong GPU like this one can’t magically make them go away.

The Asus Prime RTX 5070 Ti is obtainable to buy from a number of retailers. It was examined utilizing a retail unit offered by Nvidia. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These don’t affect editorial content material, although Vox Media might earn commissions for merchandise bought by way of affiliate hyperlinks. You’ll find extra details about gamerlifemedia’s ethics coverage right here.