AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT Review

For the past few generations, AMD has been striving to match Nvidia's performance at the high end. However, with the launch of the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT, Team Red has strategically shifted its focus. Instead of challenging the ultra-high-end RTX 5090, AMD is now aiming to deliver the best graphics card experience for the majority of gamers—and it has succeeded brilliantly.

Priced at $599, the AMD 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. But AMD doesn't stop there; the inclusion of FSR 4 marks the first time an AMD graphics card features AI upscaling. 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 for under $699 to get 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 showcases significant enhancements, particularly in its RT and AI Accelerators. The AI Accelerators are crucial for the new FidelityFX Super Resolution 4 (FSR 4), introducing AI upscaling to AMD GPUs for the first time. While FSR 4 may not boost frame rates as much as FSR 3.1, it significantly enhances image quality. For those prioritizing frame rates, the Adrenalin software offers an easy toggle to disable FSR 4.

AMD has also improved the efficiency of its shader cores, allowing the RX 9070 XT to deliver a substantial performance leap despite having fewer Compute Units (64) than its predecessor, the 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 16GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, a reduction from the RX 7900 XT's 20GB on a 320-bit bus. This affects both memory capacity and bandwidth, but it remains sufficient for most 4K gaming needs.

Despite the new architecture's efficiency, the RX 9070 XT has a slightly higher power budget of 304W compared to the 7900 XT's 300W. Interestingly, my tests showed the 7900 XT consuming more power, peaking at 314W, while the 9070 XT reached 306W.

Cooling the RX 9070 XT is manageable, given its standard power budget. Notably, AMD has opted not to release a reference design, leaving third-party manufacturers to produce the GPU. I reviewed the Powercolor Radeon RX 9070 XT Reaper, which features a compact triple-fan design that maintained a temperature of 72°C during testing.

The RX 9070 XT uses standard power connectors, requiring two 8-pin PCI-E connectors, making it an accessible upgrade for most users with a recommended 700W power supply. It includes three DisplayPort 2.1a and one HDMI 2.1b port, though the addition of a USB-C port would have been a welcome enhancement.

FSR 4

For years, AMD has sought an AI upscaling solution to rival Nvidia's DLSS. While previous versions of FidelityFX Super Resolution offered good performance, they suffered from issues like ghosting and fuzziness. The Radeon RX 9070 XT introduces FSR 4, an AI-powered solution that analyzes previous frames and game engine data to upscale lower-resolution images to native resolution. Although 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, though with better image quality. Similarly, in Monster Hunter Wilds at 4K max settings with FSR 3 and ray tracing, the RX 9070 XT managed 94 fps, but this fell to 78 fps with FSR 4—a 20% drop.

This performance trade-off is expected, as AI upscaling is more computationally intensive than temporal solutions. AMD acknowledges this and emphasizes the improved image quality as a compensating factor, particularly beneficial for single-player games where visual fidelity is paramount. FSR 4 is an opt-in feature, easily toggled off in the Adrenalin software if needed.

AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT & 9070 – Benchmarks

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Performance

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT delivers exceptional performance for its $599 price point, outperforming the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, which costs $749, by an average of 2%. While there are games where the RTX 5070 Ti has the edge, the RX 9070 XT's competitive performance is a significant achievement for AMD.

Across my test suite, the RX 9070 XT was 17% faster than the RX 7900 XT, which launched at $899 two years ago, and 2% faster than the RTX 5070 Ti. At 4K, the RX 9070 XT maintains its lead, making it an excellent choice for entry-level 4K gaming, even with ray tracing enabled.

All tests were conducted using the latest available drivers. Nvidia cards were tested with Game Ready Driver 572.60, except for the RTX 5070, which used 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.

In 3DMark benchmarks, the RX 9070 XT outperformed the RX 7900 XT by 18% in Speed Way, though it lagged 18% behind the RTX 5070 Ti. In Steel Nomad, the performance gap widened to a 26% improvement over the RX 7900 XT, and the RX 9070 XT even surpassed the RTX 5070 Ti by 7%.

Test System

In Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, the RX 9070 XT led the RTX 5070 Ti by 15%, though the game favors AMD hardware, with the RX 7900 XT only 6% behind the new card.

Cyberpunk 2077, traditionally favoring Nvidia, saw the RTX 5070 Ti outperform the RX 9070 XT by just 5% at 4K with Ray Tracing Ultra and FSR 3 in performance mode, a significant narrowing of the gap compared to previous generations.

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 lagged at 38 fps, a 24% improvement.

Red Dead Redemption 2 showcased the RX 9070 XT's Vulkan performance, reaching 125 fps at max settings, outpacing the RTX 5070 Ti's 110 fps and the RX 7900 XT's 106 fps.

However, in Total War: Warhammer 3, the RX 9070 XT fell 13% behind the RTX 5070 Ti, with 76 fps compared to the RTX 5070 Ti's performance and the RX 7900 XT's 71 fps.

Assassin's Creed Mirage saw the RX 9070 XT reclaim its lead, achieving 163 fps, surpassing the RTX 5070 Ti's 146 fps by 12% and the RX 7900 XT's 150 fps by 9%.

In Black Myth Wukong, the RX 9070 XT achieved a surprising 70 fps at 4K with the Cinematic Preset and FSR set to 40%, outperforming the RTX 5070 Ti's 65 fps by 8%. This is a notable achievement given the game's intense ray tracing effects.

Forza Horizon 5 saw the RX 9070 XT edge out the RTX 5070 Ti by 5%, achieving 158 fps compared to 151 fps.

Announced quietly at CES 2025, the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT feels like a strategic move against Nvidia's Blackwell graphics cards. At $599, it represents a return to sensible pricing in the graphics card market. While it may not match the raw power of the RTX 5080 or RTX 5090, those cards are overkill for most users and significantly more expensive.

The RX 9070 XT evokes memories of the GTX 1080 Ti, which launched at $699 in 2017 as the fastest consumer card of its time. While the RX 9070 XT doesn't claim that title, it feels like the first worthy flagship since then, offering exceptional value and performance for gamers.