Nvidia’s midrange GPUs through the years revisited — pitting the RTX 5070 versus the 4070, 3070 and 2070 in an all-encompassing gaming showdown

Nvidia’s midrange GPUs have long been a sweet spot for gamers seeking solid performance without breaking the bank, so it’s high time we revisit them. ComputerBase.de’s recent testing of the RTX 2070, 3070, 4070, and 5070 across 1080p and 4K resolutions provides valuable insights into how each generation has evolved—not just in raw performance, but in efficiency, thermal behavior, and the impact of architectural advancements. You might not be expecting any surprises in this roundup, and this might be lengthier than the average news piece, so let’s take a look.

Compared at 1080p

At 1080p, the generational improvements are usually the least evident because the games are more CPU-bound. Still, the scaling is clear when you look across a wider spread of titles. In Cyberpunk 2077 with ray tracing on medium and DLSS Balanced, the RTX 2070 averages 12.9 FPS, the 3070 nearly doubles that at 23.8 FPS, the 4070 reaches 48.2 FPS, and the 5070 peaks at 61.3 FPS. That kind of progression carries into other ray-traced workloads: Oblivion Remastered climbs from 24.9 FPS on the 2070 to 63.3 FPS on the 5070, while Quake 2 RTX rises from 52.6 FPS to 166.5 FPS over the same generational span.

In more forgiving rasterized titles like Diablo II: Resurrected and Overwatch 2, which start out comfortably above 100 FPS on the 2070, the latest cards push into the 300–380 FPS range at 1080p — far beyond the limits of most monitors, though the manufacturers are always pushing for more. The takeaway is that while not every title stresses modern GPUs equally at lower resolutions, the newer architectures consistently scale better in demanding scenarios, especially where ray tracing is involved.

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4k is a different story

The 4K benchmarks reveal a different story because this is where the GPUs really stretch their legs and the performance hierarchy comes into sharper focus. In Cyberpunk 2077 at ultra settings with ray tracing and FSR Balanced, the 4070 delivers 27.8 FPS, while the 5070 manages 32.0 FPS — a modest uplift, but still a generational gain. Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart tells a similar tale, with the 4070 at 92.6 FPS and the 5070 at 119.2 FPS, more than doubling the 2070’s 19.2 FPS baseline. Horizon: Forbidden West also benefits heavily, where performance climbs from 31.6 FPS on the 2070 to 91.1 FPS on the 5070, showing how newer GPUs increasingly make 4K playable even in modern open-world titles.