Trying to figure out whats causing slow frame rates in a PC is sort of like solving for a mysterious leak in your home. It could be the graphics card, or it could be slow storage, outdated RAM, the CPU one, or all of the above. While doing a complete overhaul is a surefire way to solve the problem, its expensive and not financially savvy in the slightest. Ideally, you isolate the issue, then methodically make upgrades as needed.So, yeah, my PC is getting old. The Monster Hunter Wilds graphics benchmark made me realize I would need some upgrades sooner than later (ideally, before Grand Theft Auto 6 and The Witcher 4), as it chugged and textures were slow to load in. My RTX 3070 Ti is an unlikely suspect, being the newest component in my setup, and otherwise not having issues running most games pretty well at 1440p resolution. On the other hand, my 2018 Intel Core i5-9600K is probably the culprit, having fallen below the minimum required specs in many new, graphically demanding games coming out.With the RTX 5070 Ti showing up at my doorstep, I didnt feel like I could fairly assess it with my preexisting hardware. So, this review took me on a journey during which I explored multiple hardware scenarios, ultimately ending up with a near-total rebuild of my PC. My testing illustrates how a new GPU can inject life into an outdated build, and how sometimes thats not the case. Additionally, I explored how much just refreshing the hardware surrounding the GPU can improve gaming performance, even if you have an old-ish graphics card. Plus, unlike fixing a leak, these are issues that I actually had fun solving.I compared anecdotal performance in Avowed and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, then checked out controlled benchmarks in Cyberpunk 2077 and Monster Hunter Wilds all in 1440p and on the highest possible settings, including ray tracing when possible.Giving my old PC a $750 implantHooking up the $749.99 Asus Prime RTX 5070 Ti to my preexisting rig required just a bit of tweaking; I needed to plug in an additional PCIe power cable into my 750 W power supply to connect to the GPU. My 3070 Ti uses just two PCIe cables from the power supply, while the RTX 50-series cards released so far require three. Once I powered it on, I reinstalled the Nvidia GPU driver and got to gaming. It was illuminating in ways I didnt expect to run games with the RTX 5070 Ti installed, as some titles performed much better than before, while others didnt improve enough over my RTX 3070 Tis performance to warrant the 5070 Tis high cost. It simply depends on what you play.In Avowed, which is a very CPU-intensive game (my 2018 CPU just made the cut for minimum spec requirements), the RTX 5070 Ti made it possible to get about 10 more frames per second on average than I was getting before. It went from a relatively stable 40-50 frames per second (with dips to about 35) in the 3070 Ti to a more stable 50-60 in the RTX 5070 Ti. Performance improved more once ray tracing was turned off, of course. Based on the miniscule performance gains in this title, Id be kicking myself for having paid for the RTX 5070 Ti.Cyberpunk 2077 is more reliant on the GPU than other open-world games Ive tried. And so the 5070 Ti delivers considerably improved performance despite being installed in my older system. With Frame Generation (FG, a feature exclusive to RTX 40- and newer GPUs) turned off, the 5070 Ti achieved an average of 57 frames per second in the games benchmark with ray tracing set to Psycho mode and the very intensive path-tracing graphical mode on (which does an even better job than ray tracing in terms of showing how light bounces realistically) more than doubling what my 3070 Ti could do. With FG turned on with the 5070 Ti, the frame rate shot up to 100. Having FG at my disposal is an incredible asset (especially in this aging PC), letting me keep the quality cranked up without sacrificing frame rate. But big graphically demanding games that are primarily taxing to GPUs, and not to CPUs as well, arent so common.To my surprise, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle ran well enough on my old rig with the 3070 Ti that I could have gotten through it without too much trouble. Despite bypassing errors about not having enough VRAM to run high graphical settings, it ran comfortably between 60-70 frames per second. With the RTX 5070 Ti, primed to take advantage of the new DLSS 4 update, there were plenty of new options to turn on, including path tracing, quality toggles for various ray-tracing effects, and Multi Frame Generation (MFG, exclusive to RTX 50-series cards, can display up to three AI-created frames for every one frame rendered traditionally). Performance shot up to about 130 frames per second without path tracing, and about 75 with it on.The most brutal test for my old system, as mentioned before, was none other than Monster Hunter Wilds. No matter the GPU, this game and its hardware benchmarks did not want to play nicely with my machine. The Intel i5 9600K is one generation below Wilds minimum specifications, and the downsides of not meeting it were less forgiving than I expected. Textures often loaded in slowly, and frame rates were anything but stable even with the RTX 5070 Ti installed. Neither GPU could achieve a stable 60 frames per second with all settings turned up, with the newer GPU adding just a handful of frames onto what the 3070 Ti could do. Frame Generation in the 5070 Ti greatly improved the performance, going up to 94 frames per second.In most cases, the RTX 5070 Tis improvements were noticeable in my old machine. But if I didnt have a near-total PC rebuild on the horizon, Id definitely regret buying it. As previously mentioned, I (responsibly for this review, but irresponsibly for my budget) lined myself up with some key upgrades to get the most out of the new GPU. I got an AMD Ryzen 7 9700X processor, 32 GB of much faster DDR5 RAM, and a modern motherboard totaling $399.99. I kept my old case, the power supply, and my PCIe 3.0 M.2 SSDs (full setup here).Naturally, the first thing I did with this brand-new setup was slot in the older RTX 3070 Ti. I wanted to see just how much a new CPU could uplift performance in the games I was playing, or not.New system, old GPUAvowed on this new system was a much smoother experience with the RTX 3070 Ti installed. The frame rate hung around in the 70s no matter the location (to reiterate, this is better than the performance I got with the 5070 Ti installed in my old system). If I was keen on keeping my GPU, or having a difficult time finding an RTX 5070 Ti in stock, Id be ecstatic with this improvement, to the point that I might not upgrade to this 50-series generation.That enthusiasm wore off quickly because, in Cyberpunk 2077, my upgrades made next to no difference to the frame rate. Good to know, but not surprising. Same goes for Indiana Jones; there were minor improvements, but nothing to write home about.Monster Hunter Wilds yielded some interesting improvements with the combo of the faster processor and memory. The jittery performance and texture pop-in was eliminated, and I was thrilled to wave goodbye to that mess. That said, it averaged out to a similar, but smoother-appearing frames rate as my older PC configuration. Whereas Id be miserable enduring the choppy gameplay I noted earlier with either GPU in my old build, I think I could tolerate this experience with the RTX 3070 Ti.Probably the part youve been waiting to readI finally let the RTX 5070 Ti get to work in the new configuration, and it felt like such a long time coming, what with all of the permutations Id been testing (and the fun but stressful weekend of PC building).There were monumental frame rate improvements in all of the games Id been testing. Avowed soared above 100 frames per second. It feels wonderful to play without staring at the frames per second counter. The 5070 Ti made short work of Cyberpunk 2077s most intense graphical settings, running it with path tracing, Psycho ray-tracing settings, and Multi Frame Generation (set to two frames generated by AI) at 124 frames per second. Doubling MFG to four frames resulted in performance going up to a whopping 219 frames per second. If you have a high-refresh-rate monitor that goes above 144 Hz, the 5070 Ti will let you squeeze more value out of your tech.Indiana Jones many ray-tracing features include extensive path tracing along with MFG, making it possible to experience the best visuals and a high frame rate. With all settings switched to their maximum values, I was able to get about 100 frames per second. Some people may be sensitive to the latency introduced by MFG, but so long as I kept it at 2x instead of 4x, things felt fine for me. Without MFG on, the 5070 Ti ran the game at a smooth 70 frames per second not bad.In the end, I solved my PC problems, and it runs better with or without the RTX 5070 Ti. Nvidia is positioning the RTX 5070 Ti as being a great card to update to from the RTX 3070 Ti, and The Verges review considers it to be on the level of an RTX 4080, but cheaper. I, too, can attest that its a great upgrade, and that itll be a good component to keep around for the next five years or so. But, for anyone out there whose PC components are already five or more years old, you might have bigger problems than just a GPU. And even a powerful GPU like this one cant magically make them go away.The Asus Prime RTX 5070 Ti is available to purchase from multiple retailers. It was tested using a retail unit provided by Nvidia. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. 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