For the last couple of generations, AMD has been fiercely competing with Nvidia at the high end of the graphics card market. However, with the launch of the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT, Team Red has strategically shifted focus from the ultra-high-end to delivering the best graphics card for the majority of gamers—a goal it has triumphantly achieved.
Priced at $599, the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT is a formidable contender against the $749 GeForce RTX 5070 Ti. This competitive pricing alone positions it as one of the top GPUs available today, but AMD enhances the value proposition with the introduction of FSR 4, marking the first time AI upscaling has been integrated into an AMD graphics card. For those seeking top-tier 4K gaming without the exorbitant $1,999 price tag of the RTX 5090, the Radeon RX 9070 XT is the ideal choice.
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 offerings, which might be priced higher. Aim to find a card under $699 for the best value.
AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT – Photos
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Specs and Features
The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT, built on the RDNA 4 architecture, boasts significant advancements in its shader cores, but the spotlight shines on the new RT and AI Accelerators. The AI Accelerators power FidelityFX Super Resolution 4 (FSR 4), introducing AI upscaling to AMD GPUs for the first time. While FSR 4 may not boost framerates as significantly as its predecessor, FSR 3.1, it offers superior image quality, particularly in complex scenes. Users can toggle FSR 4 on or off through the Adrenalin software, catering to preferences for either image quality or performance.
AMD has also enhanced the efficiency of its shader cores, allowing the Radeon RX 9070 XT to deliver impressive performance with just 64 Compute Units, compared to the 84 in the previous Radeon RX 7900 XT. Each Compute Unit contains 64 Streaming Multiprocessors, totaling 4,096, along with 64 ray accelerators and 128 AI accelerators.
Despite its advancements, the RX 9070 XT features 16GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, a reduction from the RX 7900 XT's 20GB on a 320-bit bus. While this represents a decrease in memory capacity and bandwidth, it remains sufficient for most 4K gaming needs.
The RX 9070 XT has a slightly higher power budget than its predecessor, requiring 304W compared to the 300W of the RX 7900 XT. However, my testing revealed the RX 7900 XT consumed more power, peaking at 314W, while the RX 9070 XT peaked at 306W.
Cooling the RX 9070 XT is manageable with its standard power budget. Notably, AMD has opted not to release a reference design for this GPU, leaving the market to third-party manufacturers. I reviewed the Powercolor Radeon RX 9070 XT Reaper, which features an efficient triple-fan design and maintains temperatures around 72°C.
The RX 9070 XT uses standard power connectors, requiring two 8-pin PCI-E connectors, and recommends a 700W power supply. Connectivity includes three DisplayPort 2.1a and one HDMI 2.1b port, meeting modern expectations. The addition of a USB-C port would have been welcome for added flexibility.
FSR 4
For years, AMD has sought an AI upscaling solution to rival Nvidia's DLSS. The Radeon RX 9070 XT introduces FSR 4, powered by AI accelerators, to address the ghosting and fuzziness issues plaguing earlier versions of FidelityFX Super Resolution. FSR 4 analyzes previous frames and game engine data to upscale lower-resolution images to native resolution, improving image quality over FSR 3's temporal upscaling, though with a slight performance hit.
In testing, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 at 4K Extreme settings with FSR 3.1 on "Performance" yielded 134 fps, dropping to 121 fps with FSR 4—a 10% performance loss, but with enhanced image quality. Similarly, in Monster Hunter Wilds at 4K max settings with FSR 3 and ray tracing, the RX 9070 XT achieved 94 fps, dropping to 78 fps with FSR 4—a 20% decrease. This trade-off is expected, as AI upscaling is inherently more demanding than temporal solutions. AMD emphasizes that the improved image quality should outweigh the performance drop, particularly for single-player gaming.
FSR 4 is an opt-in feature, easily toggled off in the Adrenalin software, and was disabled by default in my review sample, possibly due to early drivers.
AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT & 9070 – Benchmarks
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Performance
AMD has delivered a powerful 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. Though there are games where the RTX 5070 Ti outperforms the RX 9070 XT, their competitive performance is a significant achievement for AMD.
Across my test suite, the RX 9070 XT was approximately 17% faster than the RX 7900 XT, which launched at $899 two years ago, and 2% faster than the new $749 RTX 5070 Ti. Its prowess is particularly evident at 4K, where it maintains the same performance lead, making it an excellent entry-level 4K graphics card, even with ray tracing enabled.
All graphics cards were tested on the latest drivers available. Nvidia cards used Game Ready Driver 572.60, with the RTX 5070 on review drivers. AMD cards were tested on Adrenalin 24.12.1, except for the RX 9070 XT and RX 9070, which used pre-release drivers provided by AMD.
3DMark, though not a playable game, offers valuable insights into GPU performance. The RX 9070 XT outperformed the RX 7900 XT by 18% in Speed Way, though it trailed the RTX 5070 Ti by the same margin. In Steel Nomad, the RX 9070 XT's performance leap over the RX 7900 XT increased to 26%, even surpassing 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 360
In Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, the RX 9070 XT led the RTX 5070 Ti by 15%, with the RX 7900 XT trailing by just 6%. Cyberpunk 2077, typically favoring Nvidia, showed the RTX 5070 Ti with only a 5% lead over the RX 9070 XT, a significant improvement over previous generations.
Metro Exodus, without upscaling, saw the RX 9070 XT achieve 47 fps at 4K, nearly matching the RTX 5070 Ti's 48 fps. Red Dead Redemption 2 showcased the RX 9070 XT's Vulkan performance, reaching 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, achieving 76 fps compared to the RX 7900 XT's 71 fps. Assassins Creed Mirage saw the RX 9070 XT outperform the RTX 5070 Ti by 12%, reaching 163 fps against 146 fps.
The most surprising result came in Black Myth Wukong, where the RX 9070 XT achieved 70 fps at 4K with the Cinematic Preset and FSR set to 40%, surpassing the RTX 5070 Ti's 65 fps by 8%. This performance is a testament to the improved Ray Accelerators in the RDNA 4 architecture.
Forza Horizon 5 demonstrated the RX 9070 XT's competitiveness, achieving 158 fps compared to the RTX 5070 Ti's 151 fps.
Announced quietly at CES 2025, the Radeon RX 9070 XT seems like AMD's secret weapon against Nvidia's Blackwell graphics cards. At $599, it represents a return to sensible pricing in the graphics card market. While not as fast as the RTX 5080 or RTX 5090, those cards are overkill for most users and cost at least $400 more.
The last great flagship graphics card was arguably the GTX 1080 Ti, launched at $699 in 2017. While the RX 9070 XT may not claim the title of the fastest consumer card, it feels like the first worthy flagship we've seen since then.
