AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT Review

For the last couple of generations, AMD has been pushing hard to compete with Nvidia at the high end. Now, with the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT, Team Red has shifted its focus away from the ultra-high-end, leaving that to the RTX 5090, and instead concentrated on delivering the best graphics card for the majority of gamers. And with the RX 9070 XT, they've hit the mark spectacularly.

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT, priced at $599, goes head-to-head with the $749 GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, establishing itself as one of the premier GPUs available today. What makes it even more appealing is the inclusion of FSR 4, marking the first time AMD has brought AI upscaling to their graphics cards. This makes the RX 9070 XT the go-to choice for 4K gaming, especially if you're not looking to spend $1,999 on the RTX 5090.

Purchasing Guide

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT will be available starting March 6, at a base price of $599. Keep in mind that prices may vary, especially with third-party cards that might be priced higher. Aim to find one 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 introduces significant enhancements to its shader cores, but the real game-changers are the new RT and AI Accelerators. The AI Accelerators power FidelityFX Super Resolution 4 (FSR 4), AMD's first foray into AI upscaling. While FSR 4 doesn't necessarily boost framerates over FSR 3.1, it significantly enhances image accuracy, resulting in superior image quality. For those more focused on performance, the Adrenalin software includes an option to disable FSR 4 entirely.

AMD has also refined its shader cores, improving performance per core. Despite having fewer Compute Units (64) than its predecessor, the Radeon RX 7900 XT (84), the RX 9070 XT offers a notable generational leap at a lower launch price. Each Compute Unit features 64 Streaming Multiprocessors (SMs), 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—16GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus compared to 20GB on a 320-bit bus, which means a reduction in both capacity and bandwidth. Despite this, it's still sufficient for most 4K gaming scenarios. It's a bit disappointing that AMD didn't maintain the memory specs from the previous generation.

The RX 9070 XT has a slightly higher power budget than the RX 7900 XT, requiring 304W compared to 300W. Interestingly, my testing showed that the older card consumed more power, peaking at 314W, while the RX 9070 XT maxed out at 306W. This power budget is standard for modern GPUs, making cooling manageable. Notably, AMD isn't releasing a reference design for the RX 9070 XT, so you'll need to look to third-party manufacturers. I reviewed the Powercolor Radeon RX 9070 XT Reaper, which boasts a compact triple-fan design and maintained temperatures at 72°C during testing.

The card uses standard power connectors, requiring two 8-pin PCI-E connectors, which makes it an easy upgrade for most users with a recommended 700W power supply. It includes three DisplayPort 2.1a and one HDMI 2.1b port, as expected from a modern GPU, though the addition of a USB-C port would have been a nice touch for added versatility.

FSR 4

For years, AMD has been in need of an AI upscaling solution to rival Nvidia's DLSS. Previous versions of FidelityFX Super Resolution suffered from issues like ghosting and fuzziness, but the RX 9070 XT introduces FSR 4, powered by AI accelerators within the Compute Units. FSR 4 analyzes previous frames and game engine data to upscale lower-resolution images to your native resolution, resulting in improved image quality compared to the temporal upscaling of FSR 3, though it does come with a performance cost.

In Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 at 4K Extreme settings, using FSR 3.1 in Performance mode, the RX 9070 XT achieved 134 fps. Switching to FSR 4 dropped this to 121 fps, a 10% performance hit, but with enhanced image quality, particularly in details like grass and in-game text. In Monster Hunter Wilds at 4K max settings with FSR 3 and ray tracing enabled, the card delivered 94 fps, but with FSR 4, it dropped to 78 fps—a 20% decrease. AMD acknowledges this performance drop as expected, banking on the improved image quality to win over users, especially those focused on single-player experiences where visuals matter more than frame rate.

FSR 4 is an opt-in feature that can be disabled in the Adrenalin software, and it was off by default on my review unit, possibly due to early drivers.

AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT & 9070 – Benchmarks

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Performance

AMD has delivered a powerhouse with the Radeon RX 9070 XT. Priced at $599, it undercuts the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti by 21% yet is, on average, 2% faster. While there are games where the RTX 5070 Ti outperforms the RX 9070 XT, the fact that they're competitive at all is a testament to AMD's efforts.

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 new $749 RTX 5070 Ti. It truly excels at 4K, maintaining its lead even with ray tracing enabled, making it an exceptional entry-level 4K GPU.

All tests were conducted using the latest drivers available. 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.

While 3DMark isn't a playable game, it provides a useful comparison of GPU potential. The RX 9070 XT outperforms the RX 7900 XT by 18% in Speed Way, though it falls 18% behind the RTX 5070 Ti. However, in the Steel Nomad benchmark, the RX 9070 XT's performance jumps to 26% over the RX 7900 XT and even surpasses the RTX 5070 Ti by 7%.

In Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, the RX 9070 XT leads the RTX 5070 Ti by 15%, although this game seems to favor AMD hardware, as the RX 7900 XT only trails by 6%.

Cyberpunk 2077 has historically favored Nvidia, but the RTX 5070 Ti's lead over the RX 9070 XT is minimal at just 5%, despite the significant price difference. At 4K with Ray Tracing Ultra and FSR 3 in performance mode, the RX 9070 XT achieves 71 fps, while the RTX 5070 Ti with DLSS in performance mode reaches 75 fps.

Metro Exodus, tested without upscaling at 4K, sees the RX 9070 XT achieve 47 fps, nearly matching the RTX 5070 Ti's 48 fps, while the RX 7900 XT lags behind at 38 fps.

Red Dead Redemption 2 showcases the RX 9070 XT's Vulkan performance, hitting 125 fps at max settings, compared to the RTX 5070 Ti's 110 fps and the RX 7900 XT's 106 fps.

The RX 9070 XT falls 13% behind the RTX 5070 Ti in Total War: Warhammer 3, with 76 fps versus 71 fps for the RX 7900 XT.

In Assassin's Creed Mirage, the RX 9070 XT outperforms the RTX 5070 Ti by 12%, achieving 163 fps compared to 146 fps, and beats the RX 7900 XT by 9%.

The RX 9070 XT's most impressive win comes in Black Myth Wukong, where it achieves 70 fps at 4K with the Cinematic Preset and FSR at 40%, compared to the RTX 5070 Ti's 65 fps with DLSS, marking an 8% lead for AMD. This is particularly notable given the intense ray tracing effects in the game.

Forza Horizon 5 sees the RX 9070 XT edge out the RTX 5070 Ti with 158 fps versus 151 fps, a 5% improvement.

Quietly announced at CES 2025, the Radeon RX 9070 XT feels like AMD's strategic response to Nvidia's Blackwell GPUs. At $599, it represents a return to more reasonable pricing in the graphics card market. While it doesn't match the raw power of the RTX 5080 or RTX 5090, those cards are overkill for most users and come with a much higher price tag.

The last truly great flagship GPU 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's the first worthy flagship contender we've seen since then, delivering exceptional value and performance for gamers.