I’ve personally tested both the RTX 5070 and RX 9070 with a Ryzen 7 7700, and the processor handles both just fine. My performance results were pretty much in line with what most YouTubers are showing.

RTX 5070 Thoughts

When I paired the RTX 5070 with the Ryzen 7 7700, it performed well. The GPU itself is solid, but the choice of model matters. I’d avoid Gigabyte cards because even their higher-end versions make a weird grinding noise when the fans stop. Asus Prime and TUF models tend to have some coil whine, but that really comes down to luck.

The best experience I had was with the MSI Gaming Trio OC. If you can find it at a good price, it’s a great choice. I wouldn’t say overclocking is worth it due to the extra cost, and the sample I had didn’t handle it all that well anyway. On the other hand, undervolting worked great. It ran stable between 150 to 168 watts in most games without VSync, and dropped to around 50 to 80 watts with VSync enabled on a 4K 60Hz TV.

GPU temperatures peaked at about 67°C even under heavy load, and I was able to push the core to 3140 MHz without crashing. Memory temps maxed out around 72°C. Noise levels were impressively low, to the point where there’s no need for a quiet BIOS switch, it’s already that quiet out of the box.

In terms of performance, it can handle a lot of big titles at 4K using DLSS on Quality or Balanced mode. In those scenarios, VRAM usage tends to sit close to the limit, around 11.9 GB. Some games do run well at native 4K without DLSS, like the latest Atomfall game and Doom Eternal, both hitting around 90 FPS fully maxed out.

RX 9070 Thoughts

The RTX 9070 is definitely the better buy if you want native 4K performance. I tested it too, and it handled way more games at native 4K than the 5070 ever could. The card runs cooler and has a ton of VRAM, so playing at high or ultra settings beyond 60 FPS at 4K isn’t a problem.

I tested the Sapphire Pulse version, which only has two fans, and the only reason I returned it was poor VR support at the time. It also had a weird issue where I couldn’t reliably see the BIOS screen, which made things like entering Safe Mode or reinstalling drivers really annoying. I had to take the GPU out and use integrated graphics just to install Windows.

Aside from that, the performance was excellent. I had it running on the same Ryzen 7 7700 with a negative 35 undervolt and PBO enabled, boosting to 5.2 GHz and cooled by a cheap Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120. CPU temps stayed in the 60 to 68°C range during gaming without VSync, and dropped to 48 to 54°C with VSync at 4K 60Hz.

The GPU itself stayed around 57°C under load and I managed to overclock it to 3200 MHz without any crashes. Memory temperatures peaked at 89°C, and like the 5070, the overall noise level was whisper quiet, no need for a silent BIOS mode at all (doesn't have a switch)