AMD RX 9070 vs Nvidia RTX 5070 — South African price battle

South African gamers in the market for a new good mid-range GPU are better off buying the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT than the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti.

Nvidia launched its RTX 5070 series on 28 February 2025 and made a contentious claim that it offered the same performance as its previous-generation flagship RTX 4090 GPU.

That is despite its modest $549 manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) coming in at roughly a third of the MSRP of the former flagship.

However, multiple reviewers have rubbished Nvidia’s claim after benchmarking the card in numerous games.

Ars Technica said the performance was only possible when using some “very creative comparing of non-comparable numbers.”

The Linus Tech Tips Labs found the card offered less than a 10% performance uplift over the RTX 4070 Super and could only outrun the RTX 4090 with lots of AI upscaling.

When this is applied, strange artefacting can make the games look much worse than when rendering without upscaling.

The higher-end RTX 5070 Ti has performed much better, boasting about 30% better performance than the RTX 5070. However, its MSRP is $200 (36%) higher.

AMD launched its challenger to the RTX 5070 series just a week after Nvidia’s announcement.

The Radeon RX 9070 offers 1440p performance roughly on par with the RTX 5070 and has the same $549 MSRP.

Its non-upscaled 4K performance is better though, likely due to its 16GB memory instead of 12GB.

However, the RTX 5070 performs better with ray tracing turned on and comes with Nvidia’s DLSS 4 AI upscaling, which is generally considered better than AMD FSR upscaling.

The higher-end AMD RX 9070 XT also nearly matches the Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti in performance. However, it has a $150 lower MSRP.

Therefore, the general consensus has been that the XT card is a great deal — if you could buy it for a price close to its MSRP.

GPU scalping is still a major issue, and AMD and Nvidia’s partners who produce the cards have often complained that the MSRPs are unrealistic when considering the additional costs they incur.

Although much less popular than in the past, cryptocurrency mining also continues to impact GPU supply.

Due to these factors, it is rare to find a card selling at or near its MSRP, especially during the initial launch period.

South African gamers have to pay even more than those in the US or bigger markets due to high import taxes, VAT, and shipping fees.

MyBroadband analysed South African pricing for the RTX 5070 and RX 9070 to see which cards made for the most compelling options locally.

At the time of publication, the most affordable RTX 5070 was R14,499, about 45% more expensive than its US MSRP.

The competing RX 9070 was R13,999, about 40% more than its price in the US.

The saving of just R500 (3.6%) over the Nvidia option is not great when testing by Linus Tech Tips found the RX 9070 was about 4% slower.

In addition, the RTX 5070’s performance advantage extends when using ray-tracing and AI upscaling. Therefore, the RTX 5070 would be the better card at current pricing.

Keep in mind that reviewers expect AMD to slash the RX 9070’s price in the coming months, as it did with previous poor-value non-XT cards.

When comparing the two higher-end cards, AMD comes out on top, despite the XT’s starting price coming with a much bigger premium than the other cards.

The most affordable RX 9070 XT was priced at R16,999 from Wootware, about 55% more expensive than its US MSRP.

The cheapest RTX 5070 Ti at the time of publication was a Palit model from Wootware retailing for R18,999. That was about 39% more expensive than its US MSRP.

The R2,000 or 10.5% saving sis more than sufficient when considering the RX 9070 XT is basically on par with the Ti card.

It should be emphasised that now might not be the best time to buy any of these cards, given the initial high demand that inflates pricing.

The table below compares the prices of the most affordable and most expensive RX 9070 and RTX 5070 cards in South Africa.