Nvidia RTX 5070 hands-on preview: a sneak peek at the unreleased RTX Blackwell card hitting triple digit frame rates in Cyberpunk 2077 at 1440p and Avowed at 4K

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Over the past week or so, I’ve been experimenting with Nvidia’s RTX 5070 graphics card, which is part of the new RTX Blackwell series of GPUs. It’s the most affordable model from the RTX 50-series, priced at $549. Nvidia claims it offers the performance of an RTX 4090. However, history has shown that prices, especially in a market as scarce as this one, are subject to change. The card I have here is a Founders Edition, which is known for sticking closely to its Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP).

In addition, genuine competition for GPUs within this price range is also emerging, as AMD unveiled their own graphics cards priced at $549 and $599 yesterday. Consequently, the RTX 5070 will need to fight hard to establish its position in a GPU market that is becoming increasingly congested.

To whom does this benefit? It’s great news for us, PC gamers! With more competition emerging at an affordable price point in the GPU market, it can only mean positive things. Therefore, let’s cheer and welcome the renewed excitement that’s suddenly filling the GPU world!

From our perspective, it’s wise to approach marketing exaggerations from GPU producers with a degree of skepticism. The question is whether the RTX 4090’s claimed performance for $549 holds water. To find out, you’ll need to wait for our review to see how this card performs when compared to Nvidia’s previous top-tier model, considering or disregarding the impact of Multi Frame Generation technology.

The RTX 5070 and its rival, shaped like Radeon, won’t be available until next week, and reviews of these cards won’t surface until just before they hit the stores. However, I’m excited to give you a sneak preview: a hands-on exploration into the performance capabilities of the new Nvidia card, focusing on its performance in two upcoming games – Cyberpunk 2077, which showcases almost every graphical advance Nvidia has made in recent years, and Avowed, the latest RPG from Obsidian.

Nvidia RTX 5070 performance: Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077 | RT Ultra preset | 1440p | DLSS: Quality | Frame Gen x4

In today’s pricey market, this card falls into the mid-tier category, but it’s not cheap. You might not find it capable of running high-end ray tracing settings in games at a satisfactory level due to its cost.

Or:

Even though we’re living in an era where prices are sky-high, this card is considered mid-range. However, it’s not inexpensive. It may struggle to handle top ray tracing settings in games without compromising performance.

Indeed, I’ve been running the RTX 5070 with Cyberpunk 2077 at RT Ultra settings. But let me clarify, I’m not doing it out of sadism; rather, it’s due to the fact that Multi Frame Generation is a feature that surprisingly continues to perform well, even on this lower end of the RTX Blackwell GPU stack.

This video showcases the RTX 5070 graphics card being tested in PC Gamer’s setup. The system includes an AMD Ryzen 9800X3D processor, 32 GB of DDR5 RAM running at 6000 MHz, and a generous amount of storage for my extensive Steam library (although not all games are on it). In this demonstration, Cyberpunk 2077 is being played using the RT Ultra settings at 1440p resolution, with DLSS set to Quality and Frame Generation maxed out at its most intense 4x mode.

This GPU work is quite demanding, but the RTX 5070 is performing exceptionally well. I can’t disclose detailed performance figures just yet due to embargos, but what I can say is that the gameplay feels incredibly smooth. In fact, on average, I’m getting over 200 frames per second. Even during intense scenes where I struggle to hit my targets, there’s barely any visual artifacting when extra AI-generated frames are inserted between every two rendered ones.

Regarding the latency issue, I’d prefer not to disclose specific figures right now, but I can assure you that the Performance Cooperative Layer (PCL) isn’t causing any significant concerns for me while enjoying a single-player game in its entirety. The work Nvidia has done with Max-Q is truly impressive; I wouldn’t mind higher frame rates in triple digits at maximum settings with a $549 card using conventional rendering, but until we reach that point, I’m more than content with the current setup.

Nvidia RTX 5070 performance: Avowed

Avowed | Epic preset | 4K | DLSS: Quality | Frame Gen x4

Avowed is intriguing, as we’ve found some of the gameplay experiences to be puzzling due to inconsistent performance levels. At times, it may not run as smoothly as expected, even when achieving high frame rates. There seems to be a specific level where it becomes jerky, despite maintaining 90 FPS, giving off an unpleasant microstutter-like sensation.

In summary, it’s operating on an RTX 5070 at 4K resolution with Epic settings, delivering a consistent frame rate of over 100 fps for a silky-smooth experience. This is made possible by having 4x Multi Frame Generation activated and DLSS set to Quality mode.

In the game “Avowed,” Nvidia’s Deep Learning Super-Sampling (DLSS) and its Override feature are particularly useful because the game doesn’t natively support it. With DLSS Override, you can make the Transformer model work in games that don’t have the new DLSS model activated by default. However, what makes “Avowed” significant is that you can also activate Mesh Shading (MFG) on most games that already include traditional 2x Frame Generation. This means even games without native support for MFG can benefit from it through this workaround.

Here, I’ve successfully implemented 4x MFG, and it’s working wonderfully, offering an incredibly smooth and responsive gaming experience that eliminates any performance issues such as stuttering in this game with this graphics card. However, I occasionally have trouble figuring out how to climb a ladder in the game, something I also encounter in real life.

Although the gameworld appears stunningly realistic, without any noticeable flaws from artificial AI-generated frames, you might spot minor glitches when focusing on in-game markers. As you rotate your viewport, these quest markers may exhibit a slight anomaly, similar to what was observed in Cyberpunk 2077 with MFG activated, though I didn’t have the markers enabled in my game.

This graphics card delivers smooth, high-definition performance at over a hundred frames per second in 4K resolution, which may take some getting used to, but it’s certainly worth the adjustment.

Here you see a brief demonstration of what this card can accomplish, particularly when using the Multi Frame Generation feature. However, please note that the performance shown is just a representation of the frame rates you might get in games with this feature, and not how it performs in every game when only standard rendering is used. As more and more titles are releasing with frame generation at launch, this is becoming a common feature among all three GPU manufacturers. Consequently, it provides a significant slice of what major releases this year have to offer.

I understand your curiosity! However, I regret to inform you that we haven’t yet published our analysis on the real-time frame rates and comparisons with existing competitors. But rest assured, our review will be available next week. If you’re interested in seeing how it fares against the latest competition, you might need to wait a bit longer.

The competition among GPUs is intensifying significantly, and this particular model marks the initial salvo in the struggle for mid-range dominance. The upcoming days promise to be thrilling…

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2025-03-01 17:17