These are used prices, i wont say from where in case its not allowed on the forums. Never even considered the Ray Tracing option, does it really make that much of a difference?
So looks like the consensus is to go for the 6700xt then, even though according to the GPU heirarchy in the GPU section of the forum that model falls beneath the 3070?
To be honest, a lot of the reason I was going for the 3070 FE was because of the look of it, i think its really cool.
Raytracing CAN look fantastic when its done well, but the performance impact when running a more demanding implementation is just unrealistic for good overall performance for the vast majority of GPUs available right now. It has massive potential, but I wouldn't worry about it for at least the next few years. Due to the fact that GPUs are not up to it, a lot of the implementations right now are also rather poor, which really does somewhat negate the whole point.
The only game I regularly play where Raytracing really adds something is Darktide with Raytracing on medium or higher where it really adds to the ambience (better lighting, smoke effects, you name it which really adds to the grimy, grim ambience), but even with my 3080, performance isnt really consistent enough for me to leave it enabled for long periods of time on anything more than low, and more often than not I just disable it as my performance almost doubles at points.
And yes, as Budforce, also a 3080 and 3070 owner (and 3070TI 8GB mobile, basically a 3060ti), and I'm still recommending a 6700XT over a 3070. The only real advantage the 3070 has is DLSS, but I'd take better long term performance/minimum FPS without spikes, over DLSS
As you are playing at Ultrawide, I'd also recommend the 6700XT, as the extra VRAM will be of more worth to you to try and enable 60Hz native as much as possible without VRAM induced stutter, more so than someone playing at 1080p, as you are running greater than QHD resolution.
Simply put if you equate for the Starforce code being worth around £40, and you wanted the game, the 6700XT costing equivalent of 229 is a no brainer compared to the 3070 at this point. VRAM requirements have moved past 8GB faster than many expected, and its now starting to impact. As you're running at greater than QHD resolution, that will start to have a major impact on your minimum FPS, if the games you play start to hit VRAM induced limits, and therefore VRAM stutter. It's not pleasant.
