For the last couple of generations, AMD has been fiercely competing with Nvidia at the high end. However, with the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT, Team Red has shifted focus away from the ultra-high-end RTX 5090 and instead concentrated on creating the best graphics card for the majority of gamers – a goal it has undoubtedly achieved.

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT, priced at $599, is a formidable competitor to the $749 GeForce RTX 5070 Ti. This competitive pricing positions it as one of the top GPUs available today. AMD further enhances its appeal with FSR 4, introducing AI upscaling to an AMD graphics card for the first time. This makes the Radeon RX 9070 XT an excellent choice for 4K gaming, especially for those not willing to splurge $1,999 on the RTX 5090.

Purchasing Guide

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT will be available starting March 6 at $599. However, prices may vary due to third-party cards which might be priced higher. Aim to purchase 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 brings significant enhancements to its shader cores, but the true highlights are its new RT and AI Accelerators. The AI Accelerators power FidelityFX Super Resolution 4 (FSR 4), marking the debut of AI upscaling on AMD GPUs. While FSR 4 may not boost framerates over FSR 3.1, it significantly enhances image quality. Users can toggle FSR 4 off in the Adrenalin software for better performance if needed.

AMD has also improved its shader cores, leading to better per-core performance. Despite the RX 9070 XT having fewer Compute Units (64) than its predecessor, the RX 7900 XT (84), it delivers a substantial generational leap at a lower launch price. Each Compute Unit contains 64 Streaming Multiprocessors (SMs), totaling 4,096 SMs, along with 64 ray accelerators and 128 AI accelerators.

However, the RX 9070 XT comes with less memory than the RX 7900 XT, featuring 16GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus compared to 20GB on a 320-bit bus. This reduction affects both capacity and bandwidth, though it remains sufficient for most 4K gaming. It's worth noting that sticking with GDDR6 while reducing memory is a slight disappointment.

Despite being more efficient, the RX 9070 XT requires a slightly higher power budget of 304W compared to the 300W of the 7900 XT. Interestingly, my tests showed the 7900 XT consuming more power, peaking at 314W, while the 9070 XT peaked at 306W.

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

The RX 9070 XT uses standard power connectors, requiring two 8-pin PCI-E connectors, ensuring easy upgrades with a recommended 700W power supply. It offers three DisplayPort 2.1a and one HDMI 2.1b ports, meeting expectations for a modern graphics card. However, the absence of a USB-C port is a missed opportunity for added flexibility.

FSR 4

For years, AMD has sought an AI upscaling solution to rival DLSS. While previous versions of FidelityFX Super Resolution performed well, they suffered from ghosting and fuzziness. The Radeon RX 9070 XT introduces FSR 4, an AI-powered upscaling technology.

Similar to DLSS, FSR 4 leverages the GPU's AI accelerators to analyze previous frames and game engine data to upscale lower-resolution images to native resolution. Although FSR 4 offers better image quality than FSR 3, it does impact performance. In Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 at 4K Extreme settings with FSR 3.1 set to "Performance," the RX 9070 XT achieved 134 fps. Switching to FSR 4 reduced this to 121 fps, a 10% performance drop, though with enhanced image quality, particularly in elements like grass and in-game text. In Monster Hunter Wilds, the RX 9070 XT managed 94 fps at 4K with FSR 3 and ray tracing enabled, but dropped to 78 fps with FSR 4, a 20% decrease.

This performance trade-off is expected, as AI upscaling is more resource-intensive than temporal upscaling. AMD has confirmed that the performance drop is intentional, emphasizing improved image quality. This trade-off may be more appealing for single-player games where visual fidelity is prioritized over frame rate. Fortunately, FSR 3.1 remains available, and FSR 4 can be toggled off in the Adrenalin software.

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% while being, on average, 2% faster. Although the RTX 5070 Ti may outperform the RX 9070 XT in some games, their 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 new $749 RTX 5070 Ti. Its performance at 4K, especially considering its cost, is exceptional, making it the ideal 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, except for the RTX 5070, which used review drivers. AMD cards were tested on Adrenalin 24.12.1, except for the Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070, which used pre-release drivers provided by AMD.

While 3DMark isn't a playable game, it provides insight into potential performance. The 9070 XT outperformed the 7900 XT by 18% in Speed Way, though it lagged 18% behind the RTX 5070 Ti. In the Steel Nomad benchmark, the performance gap widened to 26% over the Radeon RX 7900 XT, and the 9070 XT 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 outpaced the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti by 15%, with the Radeon RX 7900 XT only 6% behind. Cyberpunk 2077, traditionally favoring Nvidia, saw the RTX 5070 Ti lead the RX 9070 XT by just 5% at 4K with Ray Tracing Ultra and FSR 3 set to performance mode. In Metro Exodus, tested without upscaling at 4K, the RX 9070 XT achieved 47 fps, closely matching the RTX 5070 Ti's 48 fps, while the RX 7900 XT lagged at 38 fps.

Red Dead Redemption 2, a Vulkan performance showcase, saw the RX 9070 XT reach 125 fps, outstripping the RTX 5070 Ti's 110 fps. However, in Total War: Warhammer 3, the RX 9070 XT trailed the RTX 5070 Ti by 13%. In Assassins Creed Mirage, the RX 9070 XT regained its lead, achieving 163 fps compared to the RTX 5070 Ti's 146 fps and the 7900 XT's 150 fps.

The RX 9070 XT's most impressive victory came in Black Myth Wukong, where it hit 70 fps at 4K with the Cinematic Preset and FSR set to 40%, outperforming the RTX 5070 Ti's 65 fps. Forza Horizon 5 showed the RX 9070 XT reaching 158 fps, slightly ahead of the RTX 5070 Ti's 151 fps.

Announced quietly at CES 2025, the Radeon RX 9070 XT feels like AMD's strategic move against Nvidia's Blackwell graphics cards. At $599, it represents a return to reasonable 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 significantly more expensive.

The last great flagship graphics card was arguably the GTX 1080 Ti, which launched for $699 in 2017. While the RX 9070 XT doesn't claim the title of the fastest consumer card, it feels like the first worthy flagship since then, delivering high performance at a more accessible price point.