Nvidia’s RTX 5070: The Secret Catch Hiding in the Deal

Nvidia’s unveiling of the GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs at CES 2025 got gamers buzzing, especially with the arrival of new laptop variants, including the RTX 5070. 

The price tag, starting at $1,299, seems like a bargain compared to the more expensive RTX 5090, which starts at $2,899.

Before you get too excited, here’s the catch: the RTX 5070 only has 8GB of VRAM.

In this age, that’s not enough. Despite features like DLSS 4, Multi Frame Generation, and advanced cores, it limits the overall gaming experience.

Nvidia’s new 5th-gen tensor cores and 4th-gen RT cores are impressive, but they can’t fully make up for the VRAM deficit, especially for high-quality gaming experiences that demand more memory for higher textures and ray tracing.

In a press Q&A, Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang explained that the company aims for balance across the system, but he acknowledged, “We don’t always hit the right balance.” 

While Nvidia focuses on price and efficiency, the decision to use only 8GB of VRAM is a compromise, one that will ultimately affect gamers.

Sure, the RTX 5070’s VRAM is of the newer, faster GDDR7 variety, but the reality is, that it’s still not enough for modern gaming.

Even though it comes with next-gen technology, the 8GB limit falls short when running demanding games or utilizing ray tracing at higher settings. 

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And when compared to the desktop RTX 5070, which boasts 12GB of VRAM for a similar price, the laptop version feels underwhelming.

It’s hard to ignore the fact that AMD’s competing GPUs in the same price range come with 16GB of VRAM, making Nvidia’s choice even more perplexing.

Nvidia’s approach appears to be aimed at driving the laptop price down while pushing the need for more automated systems to manage the constant VRAM demands.

But is it worth it?

The RTX 5070 laptop’s power draw is slightly better than its Ti counterpart, ranging from 50 to 100 watts, but most gamers would gladly sacrifice a bit of battery life or heat output for a few more gigabytes of VRAM.

Ultimately, while the RTX 5070 laptop might appeal to those on a budget, its lack of VRAM will likely hold it back in the long run. Until we can run full reviews, one thing is clear: for 2025’s gaming needs, 8GB of VRAM simply isn’t cutting it.