The AMD Radeon RX 9070 has entered the market at an intriguing juncture, following closely on the heels of Nvidia's latest generation of graphics cards. Priced at $549, the RX 9070 directly competes with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070, a card that has been met with lukewarm reception. This competition is one that AMD is poised to win, positioning the Radeon RX 9070 as a top choice for gamers seeking high performance at 1440p resolution.

However, the decision isn't straightforward due to AMD's own product lineup. The Radeon RX 9070 is only $50 less than the more powerful Radeon RX 9070 XT. While the 9070 is about 8% slower and 9% cheaper than the 9070 XT, the small price gap makes the XT a tempting upgrade for those willing to spend a bit more for enhanced performance. Nonetheless, AMD's offerings continue to strengthen its position in the market.

Purchasing Guide

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 is set to launch on March 6, with a starting price of $549. Be aware that various models may be priced higher. For the best value, consider purchasing a model as close to the starting price as possible, especially given its proximity in cost to the Radeon RX 9070 XT.

AMD Radeon RX 9070 – Photos

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Specs and Features

Built on the cutting-edge RDNA 4 architecture, the Radeon RX 9070 mirrors the RX 9070 XT's technological foundation. This new architecture significantly boosts performance, allowing the RX 9070 to surpass the Radeon RX 7900 GRE by a wide margin, despite having 30% fewer compute units.

The RX 9070 features 56 Compute Units, each equipped with 64 Streaming Multiprocessors (SMs), totaling 3,584 shaders. Each compute unit also includes one Ray Accelerator and two AI Accelerators, summing up to 56 and 112, respectively. These enhancements enable the RX 9070 to excel in games utilizing ray tracing and introduce AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) 4, marking the debut of AI upscaling on AMD GPUs.

Like its XT counterpart, the RX 9070 comes with 16GB of GDDR6 VRAM on a 256-bit bus, a configuration well-suited for 1440p gaming for years to come. While Nvidia opted for GDDR7 in its latest cards, AMD's choice to stick with GDDR6 helps maintain a competitive price point.

AMD suggests a minimum power supply of 550W for the RX 9070, which has a power budget of 220W. My testing showed a peak consumption of 249W, suggesting a 600W PSU for safety. Notably, AMD has foregone a reference design for the RX 9070, leaving production to third-party manufacturers. I tested the Gigabyte Radeon RX 9070 Gaming OC 16G, a triple-slot card with a slight factory overclock.

FSR4

Since the rise of DLSS in 2018, AI upscaling has become a key method for enhancing performance while maintaining image quality. FSR 4 introduces this technology to AMD GPUs, using AI to upscale lower resolution images to native resolution, improving upon the temporal upscaling of FSR 3 by reducing artifacts like ghosting.

However, FSR 4 incurs a slight performance hit compared to FSR 3. For example, in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 at 1440p on the Extreme preset, FSR 3 achieves 165 fps, while FSR 4 drops to 159 fps. Similarly, in Monster Hunter Wilds at 4K with ray tracing, the RX 9070 gets 81 fps with FSR 3, but 76 fps with FSR 4. The Adrenalin software allows users to toggle between FSR 3 and FSR 4, offering a choice between better image quality or slightly higher performance.

AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT & 9070 – Benchmarks

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Performance

Priced at $549, the AMD Radeon RX 9070 outperforms the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 in most scenarios at 1440p, averaging a 12% speed advantage. It also boasts a 22% performance lead over its predecessor, the RX 7900 GRE, despite having fewer cores. The tested model, the Gigabyte Radeon RX 9070 Gaming OC, features a 7% boost clock increase, which translates to a 4-5% performance gain.

All tests were conducted using the latest public drivers available at the time of writing. In 3DMark, the RX 9070 and RTX 5070 are neck-and-neck in the Speed Way test with ray tracing, but the RX 9070 pulls ahead by 20% in the Steel Nomad test without ray tracing.

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 at 1440p with FSR 3 set to Balanced, the RX 9070 achieves 165 fps, surpassing the RTX 5070's 131 fps and the RX 7900 GRE's 143 fps. In Cyberpunk 2077 at 1440p with Ray Tracing Ultra, the RX 9070 edges out the RTX 5070 by 3%, a significant achievement in a game traditionally favoring Nvidia.

Metro Exodus, tested without upscaling, sees the RX 9070 averaging 71 fps, an 11% lead over the RTX 5070's 64 fps. Red Dead Redemption 2 at 1440p with Vulkan yields 142 fps for the RX 9070, a 23% lead over the RTX 5070's 115 fps.

In Total War: Warhammer 3, the RX 9070 and RTX 5070 are nearly tied at 1440p, but the RX 9070 pulls ahead at 4K. Assassin's Creed Mirage at 1440p with the Ultra preset and FSR set to Balanced sees the RX 9070 achieving 193 fps, an 18% lead over the RTX 5070's 163 fps.

Black Myth Wukong at 1440p with the Cinematic preset results in a close race, with the RX 9070 at 67 fps and the RTX 5070 at 66 fps. Forza Horizon 5 at 1440p sees the RX 9070 averaging 185 fps, outperforming the RTX 5070's 168 fps and the RX 7900 GRE's 152 fps.

The Radeon RX 9070's launch timing against the RTX 5070 plays to AMD's advantage. With both cards priced at $549, the RX 9070's superior performance and 16GB of VRAM make it a compelling choice, offering better value and longevity compared to the RTX 5070's GDDR7 memory.