Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti review: A proper high-end GPU, if you can find it at MSRP

A decent upgrade from the RTX 4070 Ti, but a smaller bump from the 4070 Ti Super.

Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti / Asus GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Prime
(Image: © Tom's Hardware)

Why you can trust Tom's Hardware Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.

Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti Full RT and DLSS 4 Testing (Coming later...)

Testing the RTX 5070 Ti in games that support DLSS 4 requires some extra effort. We ran short on time, and we're already looking forward to the RTX 5070 and AMD RX 9070 XT and 9070 GPUs. But we're going to run some tests similar to our DLSS 4, MFG, and full RT 5080 and 5090 benchmarks as soon as we can. We'll discuss things in more detail once we have more numbers. Until then, here's the short recap of Multi Frame Generation. It's a key element in Nvidia's performance claims for the entire Blackwell family of GPUs, and the results — if taken purely at face value — can be highly misleading.

YouTube YouTube
Watch On

Above, you can see a video in which Bryan Catanzaro, Nvidia's VP of Applied Deep Learning Research, discusses the changes to DLSS 4. Some changes only affect the RTX 50-series GPUs while others apply to all RTX cards. DLSS upscaling is one that gets changed for everything with a new Transformers algorithm.

The short summary is that DLSS Transformers are more computationally intensive but yield better image quality results. We've played around with Cyberpunk 2077 and feel there's more to this than just marketing hype. Even with the Balanced and Performance modes, DLSS Transformers can still look very good at 4K. It could actually deliver on Nvidia's "better than native" claims for DLSS.

What about Multi Frame Generation is a different can of worms. As the name implies, it generates multiple frames rather than interpolating just one. It can run in three modes: 2X (generate a single frame), 3X (generate two frames), and 4X (generate three frames). In principle, it's a lot like the original framegen, just with more generated frames.

It takes two input images plus motion vectors and depth buffers and works to generate high-quality intermediate frames. In practice, there are some big changes compared to DLSS 3 on the RTX 40-series. MFG runs off the Blackwell tensor cores. We don't know if that means it can leverage the FP4 number format, but that would make sense. The OFA in the 40-series was a fixed function unit, and Nvidia apparently has reached the point where it can do better framegen via a software algorithm running a new AI model than by the old OFA. The new tensor-based framegen also runs faster than the OFA variant, even on an RTX 40-series GPU (or at least on the RTX 4090).

Nvidia Neural Rendering deep dive

(Image credit: Nvidia)

There are around 75 games and applications that are DLSS 4 enabled, according to Nvidia, either with native support or via Nvidia App overrides. (Nearly all of them are via the Nvidia App right now.) You can use the new DLSS Transformers model to get improved image quality, with a slight hit to performance relative to the previously existing DLSS CNN (Convolutional Neural Network) models but with higher image quality. The performance hit does vary by the generation of hardware, however, and we expect transformers will run quite a bit slower than the CNN model on the 30- and 20-series RTX cards.

MFG now has native support in several games, including the latest 2.2.1 Cyberpunk 2077 patch, Alan Wake 2, and Hogwarts Legacy. We still need to test the 5070 Ti (and previous generation cards it replaces), so we'll hold off on any charts or analysis right now. But what we know of MFG from the 5080 and 5090 suggests it's not going to be a universal win.

In our view, MFG basically needs at least 30 FPS for rendered performance, and 40+ FPS is better, with MFG either doubling, tripling, or quadrupling that. But it does necessarily scale perfectly, often getting more like 75% better for each additional generated frame. At the same time, delays are introduced, and depending on the game, user, and controller of choice, the final result can be better or worse than the non-framegen / non-MFG experience.

The resulting output on your monitor generally looks smoother, but it doesn't necessarily feel that much better. The 5080, for example, got 36 FPS with 4K RT-Overdrive and DLSS Quality Transformers. Turning on MFG bumped that to 66, 95, and 122 FPS, with input sampling happening at 33, 32, and 31 FPS, respectively. That means responsiveness got worse at each level while the frame smoothing got better.

What happens with a slower GPU like the 5070 Ti? The gains will be smaller and in some cases a game might feel like it's running worse than before, even though the reported FPS is higher. So, check back and we'll update this section with more details.

More to come....

Jarred Walton

Jarred Walton is a senior editor at Tom's Hardware focusing on everything GPU. He has been working as a tech journalist since 2004, writing for AnandTech, Maximum PC, and PC Gamer. From the first S3 Virge '3D decelerators' to today's GPUs, Jarred keeps up with all the latest graphics trends and is the one to ask about game performance.

Read more
Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Founders Edition
Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 review: $549 price and performance look decent on paper
Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 Founders Edition card photos and unboxing
Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 Founders Edition review: Incremental gains over the previous generation
AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 review photos
AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 review: Excellent value, if supply is good
Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 announcement
Nvidia's GeForce RTX 5070 at $549 — How does it stack up to the previous generation RTX 4070?
Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition card photos and unboxing
Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition review: Blackwell commences its reign with a few stumbles
DLSS4 and MFG meet full RT
Nvidia DLSS4, MFG, and full ray tracing tested on RTX 5090 and RTX 5080
Latest in GPUs
RTX 4090 48GB
Blower-style RTX 4090 48GB teardown reveals dual-sided memory configuration — PCB design echoes the RTX 3090
Despite external similarities, the RTX 3090 is not at all the same hardware as the RTX 4090 — even if you lap the GPU and apply AD102 branding.
GPU scam resells RTX 3090 as a 4090 — complete with a fake 'AD102' label on a lapped GPU
WireView Pro 90 degrees
Thermal Grizzly's WireView Pro GPU power measuring utility gets a 90-degree adapter revision
Nvidia Ada Lovelace and GeForce RTX 40-Series
Analyst claims Nvidia's gaming GPUs could use Intel Foundry's 18A node in the future
RX 9070 XT Sapphire
Lisa Su says Radeon RX 9070-series GPU sales are 10X higher than its predecessors — for the first week of availability
RTX 5070, RX 9070 XT, Arc B580
These are the best GPU 'deals' based on real-world scalper pricing and our FPS per dollar test results
Latest in Reviews
Bambu Lab H2D
Bambu Lab H2D Review: For Elite Crafters
Lenovo Thinkpad X9
Lenovo Thinkpad X9 review: The prettiest business PC
Samsung 9100 Pro SSD
Samsung 9100 Pro SSD Review: Samsung’s Capable Answer to Phison’s Storage Gauntlet
Thermalright Assassin Spirit 120 V2 Plus
Thermalright Assassin Spirit 120 V2 Plus review: Essential cooling, with a reverse fan
Corsair E400U
Corsair EX400U review: Game-changing USB4 speed in a magnetic, phone-friendly form factor
KYY X90D Triple Portable Monitor
KYY X90D Triple Portable Monitor Review: A screaming dual-screen bargain at $250
  • Jame5
    Basing any performance/$ valuation on this card at MSRP is foolish. There is no FE to anchor it to MSRP. The cards released to the press are slated to be sold $150 above MSRP.

    So why even discuss the card as a decent value at $749 when it will cost 20% more than that at launch?

    *Edit to correct for the fact that it was 20% over MSRP, so $150, not $200 above.
    Reply
  • JarredWaltonGPU
    Jame5 said:
    Basing any performance/$ valuation on this card at MSRP is foolish. There is no FE to anchor it to MSRP. The cards released to the press are slated to be sold $200 above MSRP.

    So why even discuss the card as a decent value at $749 when it will cost 20% more than that at launch?
    The further down the stack you go, the less likely pricing is to be completely bonkers. RTX 5090? Yeah, it was always going to sell like hotcakes. 5080 is the step down option so it's not too surprising to see it sell out. But the 5070 Ti? I suspect it will be reasonably available at $749.

    Yes, there will be $799 to $899 variants, with more bling and a modest overclock. But you don't need to buy those to get a decent card. And we've added the caveat that it's only a good card if you can find it at MSRP.

    The same thing basically happened with the 40-series. 4090 and 4080 were mostly sold above MSRP. But 4070 Ti and 4070 were pretty readily available at close to MSRP. The 4070 Ti Super supply is gone now, but it was pretty easy to acquire one at MSRP since it launched a year ago.
    Reply
  • DRagor
    the 5070 Ti can get away with 16GB by virtue of costing $749
    Except it will not cost 749 so it makes no sense to say it.
    Reply
  • Jame5
    JarredWaltonGPU said:
    The further down the stack you go, the less likely pricing is to be completely bonkers. RTX 5090? Yeah, it was always going to sell like hotcakes. 5080 is the step down option so it's not too surprising to see it sell out. But the 5070 Ti? I suspect it will be reasonably available at $749.

    Yes, there will be $799 to $899 variants, with more bling and a modest overclock. But you don't need to buy those to get a decent card. And we've added the caveat that it's only a good card if you can find it at MSRP.

    The same thing basically happened with the 40-series. 4090 and 4080 were mostly sold above MSRP. But 4070 Ti and 4070 were pretty readily available at close to MSRP. The 4070 Ti Super supply is gone now, but it was pretty easy to acquire one at MSRP since it launched a year ago.
    You should go check out Microcenter.

    They just (this morning in time for the reviews) conveniently have a sale on the Asus card that was passed to reviewers. The list price is $899. They have magically slashed it for review day today back to MSRP at $749.

    It is the ONLY listing available at MSRP.

    *Edit: To be clear, before that all of the available options start at $899. Your high end guess is the floor for where people are starting their profit margins.
    Reply
  • ingtar33
    JarredWaltonGPU said:
    The further down the stack you go, the less likely pricing is to be completely bonkers. RTX 5090? Yeah, it was always going to sell like hotcakes. 5080 is the step down option so it's not too surprising to see it sell out. But the 5070 Ti? I suspect it will be reasonably available at $749.

    Yes, there will be $799 to $899 variants, with more bling and a modest overclock. But you don't need to buy those to get a decent card. And we've added the caveat that it's only a good card if you can find it at MSRP.

    The same thing basically happened with the 40-series. 4090 and 4080 were mostly sold above MSRP. But 4070 Ti and 4070 were pretty readily available at close to MSRP. The 4070 Ti Super supply is gone now, but it was pretty easy to acquire one at MSRP since it launched a year ago.
    there is only one. count them one. sku at 749. it's made by PNY. no one else has one at MSRP. so your whole 3 paragraphs of nvidia glazing is pointless. because there aren't any cards availible at 750
    Reply
  • JarredWaltonGPU
    Jame5 said:
    You should go check out Microcenter.

    They just (this morning in time for the reviews) conveniently have a sale on the Asus card that was passed to reviewers. The list price is $899. They have magically slashed it for review day today back to MSRP at $749.

    It is the ONLY listing available at MSRP.
    We'll see what happens tomorrow AM. Early listing are always bunk. I would not buy or recommend the 5070 Ti as an $899 or higher card, at all. Even $799 is a reach, but for a blinged out model it would be okay.

    The graphics card companies and retail outlets are getting greedy at launch, but give it a couple of weeks and I wager we'll see plenty of $749~$799 5070 Ti cards on Newegg.
    Reply
  • Gururu
    Thank you for the review. It's expectedly pricey, and still great performance for $250 less than next tier. Still out of my league, nVidia definitely not throwing bones yet.
    Reply
  • HideOut
    Admin said:
    The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti replaces the prior-generation RTX 4070 Ti and the 4070 Ti Super in the high-end segment. It offers solid performance improvements over the former but only modest gains over the Super. Thankfully, it's also $50 cheaper.

    Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti review: A proper high-end GPU : Read more
    50 reviews appeared online in the last houur or whatever. The only one that reccomends this card is the one with affiliate links. Amazingi how that works.
    Reply
  • YSCCC
    LMAO, a proper high end GPU and struggles to find points to be listed in the Pros:

    Pros+
    Good balance of performance and price - Price... seriously? we all know that nobody will be getting it near MSRP, maybe as bad as Ampere where MSRP didn't exist till release of Ada +
    16GB VRAM and 256-bit interface - Which will be not enough for most titles really soon above 1440p+
    Latest Nvidia architecture and features - Which bring... MFG? and....?

    At this point of time I think the now cheaper 7900XTX with 24 GB of Vram, the old 4080 super and the 7900XT 20GB will be the real proper high end card... at least if we don't turn on the RT we can be gaming without FG for a year or so longer
    Reply
  • JayGau
    All the tech channels on YouTube are saying that this card will not be sold at 750$. Jaytwocents even slightly broke the embargo on purpose to expose this craziness. There is not FE for this GPU and AIBs are cranking up tbe prices. Stocks will be awful like the other 5000 cards so they have no reasons to sell it at MSRP. The 5080 is now sold at $1300+ (even $1600), and the 5090 at 3000$. So thinking that the 5070 Ti will magically go to 750$ in two weeks is either naive or dishonest.
    Reply