For the last couple of generations, AMD has been striving to compete with Nvidia at the high end. However, with the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT, Team Red has shifted its focus from the ultra-high-end RTX 5090 to delivering the best graphics card for the majority of gamers – a goal it absolutely achieves.
The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT, priced at $599, goes head-to-head with the $749 GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, positioning it as one of the top GPUs on the market today. AMD enhances its appeal with FSR 4, introducing AI upscaling to an AMD graphics card for the first time. This makes the RX 9070 XT the ideal choice for 4K gaming, especially for those not willing to spend $1,999 on the RTX 5090.
Purchasing Guide
----------------The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT will be available starting March 6, with a starting price of $599. Be aware that prices may vary due to third-party cards, which might be priced higher. Aim to purchase one under $699 for the best value.
AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT – Photos
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Specs and Features
------------------Built on the RDNA 4 architecture, the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT brings significant improvements to its shader cores, but the real highlights are the new RT and AI Accelerators. The AI Accelerators power FidelityFX Super Resolution 4 (FSR 4), marking the debut of AI upscaling on AMD graphics cards. While FSR 4 may not boost framerates over FSR 3.1, it significantly enhances image quality. For those prioritizing framerates, the Adrenalin software offers a toggle to disable FSR 4.
AMD has also enhanced the performance of its shader cores, allowing the Radeon RX 9070 XT to deliver a substantial generational leap despite having fewer Compute Units (64) than its predecessor, the Radeon RX 7900 XT (84). Each Compute Unit contains 64 Streaming Multiprocessors, totaling 4,096, along with 64 ray accelerators and 128 AI accelerators.
However, the RX 9070 XT comes with less memory than the RX 7900 XT, featuring 16GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus compared to 20GB on a 320-bit bus. This reduction affects both capacity and bandwidth, yet it remains sufficient for most 4K gaming needs. The new architecture is more efficient, but the RX 9070 XT has a slightly higher power budget of 304W compared to the 7900 XT's 300W. In testing, the 7900 XT consumed more power, peaking at 314W, while the 9070 XT reached 306W.
Cooling the RX 9070 XT is manageable with its standard power budget. Notably, AMD has not released a reference design for this GPU, leaving third-party manufacturers to fill the gap. The Powercolor Radeon RX 9070 XT Reaper, with its compact triple-fan design, maintained a temperature of 72°C during testing.
The RX 9070 XT uses standard power connectors, requiring two 8-pin PCI-E connectors, and comes with three DisplayPort 2.1a and one HDMI 2.1b port. While a USB-C port would add flexibility, the current setup meets modern expectations.
FSR 4
-----For years, AMD has sought an AI upscaling solution to rival DLSS. The Radeon RX 9070 XT introduces FSR 4, which uses AI accelerators to analyze previous frames and game engine data for accurate upscaling. While FSR 4 improves image quality over FSR 3, it does come with a performance hit.
In Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 at 4K Extreme settings, the RX 9070 XT achieved 134 fps with FSR 3.1 set to "Performance," but this dropped to 121 fps with FSR 4, a 10% performance loss. Similarly, in Monster Hunter Wilds, the card managed 94 fps at 4K max settings with FSR 3 and ray tracing, but dropped to 78 fps with FSR 4, a 20% decrease. Despite the performance hit, the improved image quality is beneficial for single-player games where visuals are paramount.
FSR 4 is an opt-in feature, easily toggled off in the Adrenalin software, and was disabled by default on the review sample due to early drivers.
AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT & 9070 – Benchmarks
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Performance
-----------AMD has delivered a strong contender with the Radeon RX 9070 XT. Priced at $599, it undercuts the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti by 21% while being, on average, 2% faster. Although the RTX 5070 Ti outperforms in some games, the RX 9070 XT's competitive performance is a significant achievement for AMD.
Across the test suite, the RX 9070 XT was about 17% faster than the RX 7900 XT, which launched at $899 two years ago, and 2% faster than the new $749 RTX 5070 Ti. At 4K, the RX 9070 XT maintains its lead, making it an excellent entry-level 4K graphics card, even with ray tracing enabled.
All graphics cards were tested on the latest available drivers. Nvidia cards used Game Ready Driver 572.60, except for the RTX 5070, which was on review drivers. AMD cards were tested on Adrenalin 24.12.1, except for the Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070, which used pre-release drivers provided by AMD.
While 3DMark isn't a playable game, it provides a good comparison of graphics card potential. The RX 9070 XT outperformed the 7900 XT by 18% in Speed Way but was 18% behind the RTX 5070 Ti. In the Steel Nomad benchmark, the RX 9070 XT's performance increased to 26% over the 7900 XT and even surpassed the RTX 5070 Ti by 7%.
Test System
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Motherboard: Asus ROG Crosshair X870E Hero RAM: 32GB G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo @ 6,000MHz SSD: 4TB Samsung 990 Pro CPU Cooler: Asus ROG Ryujin III 360In Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, the Radeon RX 9070 XT led the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti by 15%, with the RX 7900 XT trailing by only 6%. In Cyberpunk 2077, the RTX 5070 Ti had a slight 5% lead over the RX 9070 XT at 4K with Ray Tracing Ultra preset and FSR 3 in performance mode. In Metro Exodus at 4K without upscaling, the RX 9070 XT achieved 47 fps, nearly matching the RTX 5070 Ti's 48 fps, while the RX 7900 XT managed 38 fps.
Red Dead Redemption 2 showcased the RX 9070 XT's Vulkan performance, achieving 125 fps compared to the RTX 5070 Ti's 110 fps. In Total War: Warhammer 3, the RX 9070 XT fell 13% behind the RTX 5070 Ti, with 76 fps compared to the 7900 XT's 71 fps. In Assassin's Creed Mirage, the RX 9070 XT outperformed the RTX 5070 Ti by 12%, achieving 163 fps against 146 fps.
The RX 9070 XT also excelled in Black Myth Wukong, achieving 70 fps at 4K with the Cinematic Preset and FSR set to 40%, compared to the RTX 5070 Ti's 65 fps. In Forza Horizon 5, the RX 9070 XT achieved 158 fps, slightly ahead of the RTX 5070 Ti's 151 fps.
Announced quietly at CES 2025, the Radeon RX 9070 XT feels like AMD's strategic move against Nvidia's Blackwell graphics cards. At $599, it represents a return to a more reasonable pricing model for high-performance GPUs. While not as fast as the RTX 5080 or RTX 5090, the RX 9070 XT offers a compelling flagship option for gamers, reminiscent of the GTX 1080 Ti's value when it launched at $699 in 2017.
