Nvidia RTX 5070 Founders Edition Review

As I left Nvidia’s CES 2025 keynote back in January, one claim made by the tech giant on stage was buzzing across the crowd around me: the RTX 5070 claim of RTX 4090 performance at a fraction of the cost.

This was something that, when it was announced on stage, I was admittedly blown away by. But as I started to think about it more, it became obvious that this claim was only possible using Nvidia’s newly announced Multi-frame Generation, something team Green acknowledged themselves soon after. 

Yet, a $549 GPU that offers the promise of last-gen’s flagship’s performance, at least on paper, is compelling. But as I finished up testing ahead of this review, I couldn’t help but be somewhat disappointed by the result. 

Specifications:

• CUDA Cores: 6144
• Tensor Cores: 5th Generation 988 AI TOPS
• Ray Tracing Cores: 4th Generation 94 TFLOPS
• Base Clock: 2.33 GHz
• Boost Clock: 2.51 GHz
• Memory: 12GB GDDR7 VRAM
• Memory Interface Width: 192-bit
• Memory Bandwidth: 672 GB/sec
• I/O: 3x DisplayPort 2.1b; 1x HDMI 2.1b
• Max GPU Temp: 85 Celsius
• Total Graphics Power: 250 W
• Required PSU: 650 W
• Price: $549 MSRP

RTX 5070 Founders Edition First Look

Like the rest of the Blackwell Founders Edition line up, the RTX 5070 Founders Edition comes in the same eco-friendly packaging that is so much easier to fit on a shelf compared to the 40-series clamshell behemoths. This 100% plastics free packaging should be the norm, in my opinion, for all GPUs moving forward, and I hope this is something Nvidia continues in the years to come. 

Once out of its box, the RTX 5070 Founders Edition looks like a shrunk down version of the RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 Founders Editions before it. It’s got the same Mobius strip design with the RTX 5070 badge stamped on the front, while it also features the same Double Flow fan  design of this generation. The RTX 5070 Founders Edition also requires the same 12VHPWR connection, though like the rest of the Founders boards, this is at an angle to (hopefully) prevent stress on the cables that could result in melting pins. 

The RTX 5070 Founders Edition sports all the same Blackwell technologies under the hood as the rest of the line up, specifically DLSS 4 providing the key the 5070 needs to provide that 4090-performance claim made at CES. The RTX 5070 will also support new rendering tech, such as RTX Neural Shaders, RTX Skin, RTX Mega Geometry, and more.

We do a larger breakdown on the benefits of Blackwell in Chris’ excellent piece from Nvidia’s Editor’s Day, which as always we recommend you take a look at. He also has an excellent DLSS 4 primer he wrote for IGN, which is worth a read as well.

The RTX 5070 Founders Edition comes in at $549, about $50 cheaper than last generation’s RTX 4070 Super, though it still needs to be seen as to whether this GPU will eventually sell for its actual MSRP as all of the Blackwell family has seen price gouging and scalping since the 5090 launch. The RTX 5070 Founders Edition boasts 6144 CUDA cores, compared to the RTX 4070 Super’s 7168 CUDA cores. We do see an upgrade to GDDR7 VRAM, though it’s the same 192-bit bus and 12GB as its Ada Lovelace predecessor. However, it should be noted that specification comparisons across architectures don’t always translate to a 1:1 comparison.

RTX 5070 Synthetic And Gaming Benchmarks

Putting the card to the test, we ran the RTX 5070 Founders Edition through a gamut of testing, from gaming benchmarks to 3DMark’s suite of synthetic testing. While we’re keen to put the RTX 4090 performance claim to the test with Nvidia’s AI features, we also put the RTX 5070 Founders Edition through its paces with both regular rasterized testing and ray tracing loads. 

We’re using our Starforge Systems Voyager II test bench this year for all our GPU reviews. We wrote up why we made this decision in a separate post, but here are the specs for your quick reference:

• CPU: Intel Core i7-14700K
• CPU Cooler: Starforge Custom Bitspower 360mm Liquid Cooler
• RAM: Teamgroup Delta RGB 32GB DRR5 6000 CL38 (2x16GB)
• Motherboard: MSI Z790 Tomahawk Wifi DDR5
• Cables: CableMod Pro ModMesh Sleeved Cable Extensions (Black)
• Primary Storage: 2TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD (min 7000 read)
• Power Supply: Corsair HX1200i 1200 Watt Platinum
• RGB Fans: 6 x Bitspower 120mm ARGB
• Case: Lian Li O11D EVO RGB Mid-Tower (SMITE Custom Printing Version)

The cards tested:

Nvidia

• RTX 5090 Founders Edition
• RTX 5080 Founders Edition
• ASUS PRIME RTX 5070 Ti
• RTX 4090 Founders Edition
• RTX 4080 Super Founders Edition
• ASUS TUF RTX 4070 Ti Super
• RTX 4070 Super Founders Edition

AMD

• Radeon RX 7900 XTX Reference Model
• Radeon RX 7900 XT Reference Model
• Radeon RX 7800 XT Reference Model

Like our recent 50-series GPUs, we want to test these cards as they will actually be used. This means that when we test ray tracing, unless otherwise specified, we test with Nvidia’s Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) or in the case of our AMD cards FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) turned on and, when applicable, with frame generation turned on. 

We tested these GPUs at both 1440p and 4K, the latter being because with technologies like DLSS, FSR and Frame Generation, these cards can, in theory, punch above their weight class. For any graph detailing FSR or DLSS, these were tested with the Performance preset with all games settings at their highest. We also ensured that ReSizeable BAR and XMP profiles were enabled within our system BIOS.

To test DLSS 4’s Multi-frame Generation, we tested a suite of popular titles which have this feature enabled, either within the game settings themselves or at the driver level with the Nvidia App’s driver override feature. While we utilize in-game benchmarks as much as possible, with Hogwart’s Legacy, Dragon Age: The Veilguard and Star Wars Outlaws, we ran a predefined, repeatable circuit with each test to get as close as possible to the same pass with each card. For Marvel Rivals we used a section of a recent game replay from the same perspective each time. 

RTX 5070 Founders Edition Synthetic Benchmarks

In Firestrike Ultra, the RTX 5070 Founders Edition sees a 15% performance improvement over the RTX 4070 Super Founders Edition, though it’s one of the few victories for the new Blackwell GPU across the gamut of our tests. It performs 16% better that AMD’s RX 7800 XT, though it lags behind our ASUS PRIME RTX 5070 Ti by about 21%. 

In TimeSpy Extreme this pattern continues, though the percentage lead over 4070 Super shrinks to just 7%, while it maintains a wide lead over RX 7800 XT. Compared to last generation’s AMD flagship, the RX 7900 XTX, we see the RTX 5070 Founders Edition come in 22% slower overall. This trend is continued with the Port Royal ray tracing benchmark, which sees the RTX 5070 Founders Edition take a marginal lead over the RX 7900 XT (though it’s well within the margin of error), while the 4th generation RT cores of the 5070 helps give it a 36% boost in performance over the RX 7800 XT.

RTX 5070 Founders Edition Gaming Benchmarks

We see much of the same pan out with our real-world raster benchmarks. In Cyberpunk 2077 at 1440p the RTX 5070 Founders Edition takes a 17% lead over RTX 4070 Super Founders Edition and the RX 7800 XT, and even ekes out a marginal 3% lead over the RTX 4070 Ti Super. However, across our tests at 1440p this is the best result, as we see marginal increases at 1440p over the RTX 4070 Super Founders Edition in everything from Black Myth Wukong to Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail. In Total War: Pharaoh we see just a 1% lead over RTX 4070 Super, though the 5070 maintains an 8% edge over RX 7800 XT.

At 4K, which admittedly this isn’t going to be the best 4K card unless you turn on upscaling or image reconstruction features like FSR or DLSS, Cyberpunk 2077 is still the best case scenario with a 20% lead over the RTX 4070 Super Founders Edition and a 23% lead over the RX 7800 XT. Black Myth Wukong also sees the gap widen at 19% faster for the RTX 5070 over the 4070 Super, though Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail brings that gap back down to earth at just a 2% improvement on average.Returnal at 4K sees solid results for the RTX 5070 over the 4070 Super at an 11% improvement at 4K, and even improvements in the 1% Lows at 4K (7% better than RTX 4070 Super Founders Edition). 

Ray tracing starts to show some cracks compared to the last generation of Nvidia GPUs, though. The 12GB of VRAM struggles, especially in demanding titles like Cyberpunk 2077 and Black Myth Wukong. The former sees the RTX 4070 Super Founders Edition lead the RTX 5070 Founders Edition overall on average, including the 1% Lows which is an indicator of smooth gameplay overall. In Black Myth Wukong we do see the RTX 5070 Founders Edition lead the 4070 Super at 4K in average framerate by 5%, the 1% Lows are worse by that same 5%, while the RTX 4070 Super beats the RTX 5070 at 1440p. This is with both DLSS and Frame Generation enabled on both cards. 

Forza Horizon 5 sees the RTX 5070 Founders Edition perform better than the 4070 Super Founders Edition at 1440p on average with ray tracing, but gets soundly beat by 9% overall at 4K with the last-gen card seeing better 1% Lows as well. Returnal is the only game in our ray tracing test where the RTX 5070 Founders Edition came out on top on average at both 1440p and 4K, including better 1% Lows. Throughout our tests, the new Blackwell GPU bested the RX 7800 XT at all resolutions when ray tracing was turned on, and at times saw it better than the RDNA 3 flagship, the RX 7900 XTX, such as a 5% lead in Returnal at 4K (though it should be noted that AMD doesn’t have in-game frame generation in that title, while the Nvidia does).

RTX 5070 Founders Edition DLSS 3 vs DLSS 4 Tests (Including RTX 4090 Comparisons)

DLSS 4 and Multi-frame Generation are the flagship technologies on offer with the Blackwell GPUs right now, and it’s here where we see the actual claims of “4090 performance” pan out. In all our regular testing, the RTX 4090 Founders Edition soundly beat the RTX 5070 Founders Edition, and that shouldn’t have been in question. It’s a GPU with substantially more compute power and more VRAM - and it costs (at least when you can find it at MSRP) at least three times as much. 

Looking at just the RTX 5070 Founders Edition’s DLSS 4 MFG uplifts, we see some pretty great increases in framerate at 4K, from a 76% increase going from DLSS FG 2x to MFG 4x in Cyberpunk, while Star Wars Outlaws sees a 67% boost with the same frame gen parameters. One of the huge concerns with Multi-frame Generation, however, comes in the form of latency, especially if your starting framerate is already pretty low. However, since most of these games I had to physically play to test, I was able to check out how good they felt to play in the process. 

Marvel Rivals is the game I would be most concerned with because it’s a competitive shooter where every milisecond of latency could mean the difference between winning and losing a match. However, I didn’t notice a massive change in latency when playing a few matches going from native rendering to MFG 4x. The same can be said for Hogwarts Legacy and Star Wars Galaxies - both games felt great to play no matter which rendering style was in play. Cyberpunk 2077 exhibited some noticeable latency on mouse and keyboard, but using a controller it didn’t feel any worse than I would already expect with that input device.

Compared directly with the RTX 4090 Founders Edition in these same games, with DLSS Performance and Frame Generation enabled, the claim of 4090 Performance pans out - but only when the RTX 5070 Founders Edition utilizes Multi-frame Generation. 

I think anyone expecting anything different might have been drinking the Kool-Aid a bit heavily, but when it was announced on stage at CES 2025, it was announced in a way where it suggested that the card, overall, could give this level of performance across the board. As we saw when we tested the RTX 5080 Founders Edition, not even that GPU could equal the RTX 4090 in performance - until MFG was turned on.

In every MFG game we tested, all but one saw the RTX 5070 Founders Edition eke out a win compared to the RTX 4090 Founders Edition. With the exception of Star Wars Outlaws, the performance gain isn’t much - a 4% boost using MFG 4x in Cyberpunk or 3.5% increase in Hogwarts Legacy. We see the RTX 4090 beat the RTX 5070 Founders Edition by 36% in Dragon Age: The Veilguard, when the latter GPU is using MFG 4x while the Lovelace GPU kingpin is simply using regular Frame Generation.

These tests also seemed to stress the GPU’s 12GB of VRAM, and I had to restart the machine multiple times during testing to clear out the frame buffer. While the 4th generation of ray tracing cores do perform, because of how BVH structures work with ray tracing applications, the 12GB of VRAM feels limiting.

RTX 5070 Founders Edition Thermals and Power Consumption

One area I did not expect to be somewhat disappointed by was the RTX 5070’s thermal performance. While in our testing it doesn’t get super close to its 85 degree Celsius limit, it does get hotter than I was anticipating, sitting on average in the high 60s, with Star Wars Outlaws peaking at 74 degrees Celsius. Putting this in perspective, the more powerful ASUS PRIME RTX 5070 Ti peaked at 66 Celsius, while the RTX 5080 Founders Edition peaked at 67 Celsius. 

It’s not thermal throttling, but make sure your case has plenty of airflow should you buy this card. 

What makes these thermals somewhat disappointing is that it’s using a fraction of the power of the RTX 5080 while getting worse thermal performance. Our Founders Edition board peaked at 239 watts in Stars Wars Outlaws, with the majority of the games in our test bench sitting above 200 watts when fully maxed out.

RTX 5070 Founders Edition Final Thoughts

So what do we make of all this? First of all, if you are buying the RTX 5070 Founders Edition because of the claim of RTX 4090 Performance, you need to set realistic expectations. You are not getting RTX 4090 Performance across the board - only in select titles with very select settings used to achieve this. It should be noted too that despite DLSS 4 and MFG being enabled across quite a few titles since the 50-series launch in January, this doesn’t cover every game, so this claim will fall flat on its face in the vast majority of games out there.

Additionally, while our RTX 5070 Founders Edition sample performed on average better than the RTX 4070 Super Founders Edition we tested, ray tracing showed some of the Blackwell GPU’s cracks, especially at higher resolutions. Our RTX 5070 Founders Edition was solidly better than the RX 7800 XT from AMD’s RDNA 3 generation, though that card released over a year ago and came out for less money. 

There is also the AMD RDNA 4 elephant in the room. These cards release but a day apart, and can, in theory, provide a compelling alternative. It still remains to be seen whether or not AMD’s RDNA 4 offerings will compete at this price range, and it might be worth holding off buying anything till we see what Team Red has up their sleeve with the RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 - cards that only have a $50 price tag inbetween them (and the RX 9070 is priced exactly alongside the RTX 5070’s MSRP).

All that said, it's a solid 1440p performer and, thanks to DLSS and frame gen, it can perform well at 4K - in some titles. The 12GB of VRAM is a limiting factor with the latter resolution, but in our testing it can be a good entry level 4K card, provided you drop some settings down to scale with the silicon.

The RTX 5070 Founders Edition isn’t a bad card per se. For many holding onto aged GPUs, such as a 6000-series AMD GPU or the RTX 20 and RTX 30-series GPUs, this can be a solid buy - provided you can find it at MSRP. But if you’re an RTX 4070 Super holder, it may not be worth the uplift at the moment, especially with a little better ray tracing performance on average in our testing. It sits in this weird No Man’s Land of GPU performance: it’s better than the RTX 4070 Super and AMD’s last generation competition at this price range, but even with MFG it just doesn’t feel compelling enough on its own, especially with anticipated pricing issues and competition on the horizon.

Full disclosure: This product was provided by the manufacturer for the purposes of this review.