Over the past few generations, AMD has been fiercely competing with Nvidia in the high-end graphics card market. With the launch of the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT, Team Red has shifted its focus from the ultra-high-end segment dominated by the RTX 5090, to delivering the best graphics card for the majority of gamers. Priced at $599, the Radeon RX 9070 XT goes head-to-head with the $749 GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, positioning itself as one of the top GPUs on the market. AMD enhances this offering with the introduction of FSR 4, marking the first time AI upscaling is available on an AMD graphics card. This makes the Radeon RX 9070 XT an excellent choice for 4K gaming, especially for those not willing to spend nearly $2,000 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 that could cost more. 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 enhancements, particularly with its new RT and AI Accelerators. The AI Accelerators are crucial for the new FidelityFX Super Resolution 4 (FSR 4), which introduces AI upscaling to AMD's lineup. While FSR 4 may not boost frame rates as much as FSR 3.1, it significantly enhances image quality. Users can toggle FSR 4 on or off via the Adrenalin software, allowing for flexibility between performance and visual fidelity.
AMD has also optimized the shader cores, resulting in better performance per core. Despite having fewer Compute Units (64) than the previous Radeon RX 7900 XT (84), the Radeon RX 9070 XT achieves a notable performance increase at a lower price point. Each Compute Unit contains 64 Streaming Multiprocessors, totaling 4,096, along with 64 ray accelerators and 128 AI accelerators.
The Radeon RX 9070 XT comes with 16GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, a downgrade from the 20GB on a 320-bit bus found in the RX 7900 XT. While this reduces memory capacity and bandwidth, it remains sufficient for most 4K gaming needs.
With a power budget of 304W, slightly higher than the 300W of its predecessor, the Radeon RX 9070 XT still offers efficient power usage. In testing, it consumed up to 306W, less than the 314W peak of the RX 7900 XT.
Cooling the Radeon RX 9070 XT is manageable, thanks to third-party designs like the Powercolor Radeon RX 9070 XT Reaper, which features a compact triple-fan setup and maintains temperatures at 72°C during testing.
The card requires two 8-pin PCI-E power connectors and comes with three DisplayPort 2.1a and one HDMI 2.1b port, standard for modern GPUs. While a USB-C port would have added versatility, the current configuration meets most users' needs.
FSR 4
For years, AMD has sought an AI upscaling solution to rival Nvidia's DLSS. The Radeon RX 9070 XT introduces FSR 4, utilizing AI accelerators to enhance image quality, albeit at a slight performance cost. FSR 4 analyzes previous frames and game engine data to upscale lower-resolution images to native resolution, outperforming the previous temporal upscaling of FSR 3 in terms of image quality.
In games like Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, the Radeon RX 9070 XT achieved 134 fps at 4K with FSR 3.1, but this dropped to 121 fps with FSR 4, a 10% performance decrease with improved visuals. Similarly, in Monster Hunter Wilds, the card managed 94 fps with FSR 3 and ray tracing, but this fell to 78 fps with FSR 4, a 20% drop. While this performance hit is notable, the enhanced image quality is a trade-off that may appeal to gamers prioritizing visuals over frame rates.
FSR 4 is an opt-in feature, and users can revert to FSR 3.1 via the Adrenalin software, which was disabled by default in the review sample.
AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT & 9070 – Benchmarks
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Performance
The Radeon RX 9070 XT, priced at $599, offers a 21% price advantage over the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti while being, on average, 2% faster. This competitive edge makes it an attractive option for gamers.
In comprehensive testing, the RX 9070 XT proved 17% faster than the RX 7900 XT, which launched at $899 two years ago, and 2% faster than the RTX 5070 Ti. Its performance at 4K is particularly impressive, maintaining a lead even with ray tracing enabled, making it an excellent entry-level 4K gaming card.
All tests were conducted with the latest drivers: Nvidia cards used Game Ready Driver 572.60, while AMD cards used Adrenalin 24.12.1, with pre-release drivers for the Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070.
In 3DMark's Speed Way benchmark, the 9070 XT outperformed the 7900 XT by 18% but trailed the RTX 5070 Ti by the same margin. However, in the Steel Nomad benchmark, it jumped 26% ahead of 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 360
In Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, the Radeon RX 9070 XT led the RTX 5070 Ti by 15%, showcasing a preference for AMD hardware. In Cyberpunk 2077, the RTX 5070 Ti had a slight 5% advantage, but this was within the margin of error considering the price difference.
Metro Exodus, tested without upscaling, saw the Radeon RX 9070 XT achieving 47 fps at 4K, nearly matching the RTX 5070 Ti's 48 fps. In Red Dead Redemption 2, the Radeon RX 9070 XT delivered 125 fps, outperforming the RTX 5070 Ti's 110 fps and the 7900 XT's 106 fps.
The Radeon RX 9070 XT faced a 13% performance deficit to the RTX 5070 Ti in Total War: Warhammer 3, but regained ground in Assassin's Creed Mirage, achieving 163 fps compared to the RTX 5070 Ti's 146 fps and the 7900 XT's 150 fps.
A standout performance came in Black Myth Wukong, where the Radeon 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. This highlights the significant improvement in ray tracing capabilities over the Radeon RX 7900 XT, which managed only 60 fps.
In Forza Horizon 5, the Radeon RX 9070 XT secured 158 fps, a slight 5% improvement over the RTX 5070 Ti's 151 fps.
The Radeon RX 9070 XT, introduced quietly at CES 2025, represents a strategic move by AMD to offer a high-performance, cost-effective alternative to Nvidia's offerings. While not matching the raw power of the RTX 5080 or RTX 5090, it delivers exceptional value and performance for most gamers, reminiscent of the value provided by the GTX 1080 Ti at its launch in 2017.
