Does the Nvidia RTX 5090 make sense in late 2025, or should you buy the RTX 5070 Ti instead and use the saved money on other PC components?

It’s no secret that the Nvidia RTX 5090 is the most powerful GPU in the world, at least as of this writing. However, it is priced at $2300, which is significantly costlier than any other graphics card on the market. In fact, it costs three times more than the RTX 5070 Ti. This begs the question: Will the RTX 5090 deliver three times the performance of RTX 5070 Ti? That’s exactly what we plan to find out in this article with a detailed comparison of the two GPUs.
Note: Parts of this article are subjective and reflect the writer’s opinions.
Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti vs RTX 5090: Detailed Comparison
Both the Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti and RTX 5090 are powered by the same Blackwell architecture, but they have different hardware specs inside. In fact, there’s a substantial specs difference between the two GPUs. Let’s look at the specs list to understand what they are capable of.
Specs Comparison

Here are the specs of the Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti and RTX 5090:
Specifications | Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti | Nvidia RTX 5090 |
---|---|---|
Architecture | Blackwell | Blackwell |
Shader cores | 8960 | 21760 |
RT cores | 70 | 170 |
TMUs | 280 | 680 |
ROPs | 96 | 176 |
Base core clock speeds | 2295 MHz | 2017 MHz |
Boost core clock speeds | 2452 MHz | 2407 MHz |
Memory capacity | 16GB GDDR7 | 32GB GDDR7 |
Memory bus width | 256-bit | 512-bit |
Memory bandwidth | 896.0 GB/s | 1.79 TB/s |
Manufacturing node | 5nm | 5nm |
Thermal design power (TDPs) | 300W | 575W |
The specs table paints a clear picture. The Nvidia RTX 5090 is obviously a much better GPU. It has over twice the shader cores, TMUs, RT cores, ROPs, memory bandwidth, and a whole lot more. However, it consumes almost double the power and costs more than triple the price of the other GPU.
Performance Comparison
Here’s what the Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti and RTX 5090 are capable of in modern titles:
Games | Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti | Nvidia RTX 5090 |
---|---|---|
Clair Obscur Expedition 33 | 56 FPS | 89 FPS |
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 | 47 FPS | 76 FPS |
Cyberpunk 2077 | 56 FPS | 110 FPS |
Ghost of Tsushima | 62 FPS | 116 FPS |
Forza Horizon 5 | 123 FPS | 184 FPS |
The Last of Us Part 2 | 78 FPS | 123 FPS |
Horizon Forbidden West | 71 FPS | 125 FPS |
God of War Ragnarok | 94 FPS | 177 FPS |
Black Myth Wukong | 49 FPS | 92 FPS |
Silent Hill 2 Remake | 51 FPS | 84 FPS |
Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 | 50 FPS | 93 FPS |
Note: The two GPUs tested here were evaluated at a 4K resolution with High/Ultra Settings, unless otherwise specified. All the FPS numbers were sourced from the Testing Games channel on YouTube. For the tests, the two graphics cards were paired with a Ryzen 7 9800X3D CPU.
On average, the Nvidia RTX 5090 delivers 87% more FPS than the RTX 5070 Ti. Therefore, the former cannot even score double the performance of the latter, while we were expecting triple the performance. The appeal of the RTX 5090 has certainly faded after seeing this result, which is a sad state to see.
Some would argue that the Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti didn’t quite achieve the perfect 60 FPS at 4K resolution in all the tested games. Even though that is true, it certainly can achieve that with a little DLSS upscaling. Therefore, going with this GPU won’t necessarily be a compromise in gaming performance.
Price Comparison

The Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti is currently selling for around $2,300 to $2,599 on Amazon, while the RTX 5090 costs as much as $749.99 on Amazon. This makes the former 320% or over three times more expensive, which is a significant difference.
Final Verdict on Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti vs RTX 5090
The RTX 5090 is clearly better than the RTX 5070 Ti, as we knew it was. However, the performance difference isn’t as significant as we thought it would be. The former is not even twice as fast as the latter, despite costing three times the price. Therefore, the RTX 5090 is not worth the price it asks, and you should buy the RTX 5070 Ti instead. That is from a value perspective.
Essentially, you can buy the Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti, a high-end CPU, and a motherboard, and still save over $1000. You can then spend that amount on a high-end 4K OLED monitor. However, if you simply want the highest possible performance and don’t mind paying an exorbitant price, then you can get the RTX 5090.
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