You may want to read some of the stuff here:
TPU - Increase in performance of 9070 with new drivers
The 9070xt isn't exactly amazing for the price...but when compared against the rather lackluster offering that the 5070ti has proven to be (for the cost associated with it), I'd (and have) put my money on the 9070xt. I'm not saddened, and have no buyer's remorse with the purchase. There seems to be little difference between the highest end 9070xt and the "budget" versions other than the coolers...and the coolers aren't really causing wild shifts in performance based on the initial line-up breakdown.
That said, your usage case might not match mine.
1) QHD resolution
2) 2 Monitors
3) Aiming for 144 Hz refresh
4) I disable motion blur and so many of the visual options because I think layering a screen with vaseline to make it "better" is fundamentally counter productive.
5) I am not using DLSS, transform, or any shenanigans to interpolate frames because I think that the 3090 being equal to a 4070 is a bad joke, and advertising claiming that they are better with these features enabled is not asking enough from a card that costs the better part of a grand.
If you can agree with these statements, and the improvement over time rather than broken launch but relatively stable current state is the way to go, then you should agree. If instead you want the newer frame generation techniques and can stand with much more expense...then that's an option too.
What you should be aware with on the cards:
1) Next gen AMD is likely going to be a substantial shift in its structure, which means this gen will likely not have a huge shelf life for support and drivers.
2) FSR is nice in the games it works on. Not nice enough to take the performance hit (frame time variation), but nice enough to see it isn't as crap as it was initially.
3) RT is better on the 9070 xt. I turn it off because it isn't something I see as good juice for the massive squeeze...but if your hang-up with AMD was RT then the performance hit for enabling it is no longer a slide show
4) Theoretically the cards trade blows on performance and electrical draw. I...haven't seen either doing an amazing job with this. I personally view it as a toss-up in the real world, but the initial quantitative data indicates AMD is a little less efficient wholistically.
5) If you want something better than the 9070xt then you need Nvidia. That said, for QHD there's no reason to want more.
MSI NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti 16GB VENTUS 3X OC
Can get this for £679, any good?
Or for same price Sapphire Nitro 9070xt
The Ventus is the barebones card.
Coolers are not great, but good. No RGB, not great on overclock. Stable. I have the 3080 Ventus, and it's a competent card. If you want something to set, run, and forget then it isn't bad. That said, if things go sideways my experience with MSI's customer service indicates they are not going to be any more helpful than an ulcer. If there's even a whif of being not right you want to return it while the purchase point warranty is still in effect.
