AMD Radeon RX 9070: In-Depth Review

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 arrives at a pivotal moment in the graphics card market, just after Nvidia's latest generation launch, positioning AMD's new $549 card against the underwhelming GeForce RTX 5070. In this head-to-head, the Radeon RX 9070 emerges as the clear winner, making it a top choice for 1440p gaming enthusiasts. However, the decision isn't straightforward due to AMD's own product lineup. The Radeon RX 9070 is only $50 less than the superior Radeon RX 9070 XT. While the $50 difference reflects an 8% performance gap and a 9% price reduction, it's challenging to justify not opting for the XT model for its enhanced performance. Nevertheless, when choosing between two AMD options, Team Red's offerings shine brightly.

Purchasing Guide

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 is set to launch on March 6, with a starting price of $549. Keep in mind that various models may be priced higher. For those considering the 9070, it's advisable to purchase as close to the starting price as possible, especially given its proximity to the Radeon RX 9070 XT in terms of cost.

AMD Radeon RX 9070 – Photos

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Specs and Features

The AMD Radeon RX 9070, like its XT counterpart, is built on the innovative RDNA 4 graphics architecture. This advancement significantly boosts performance, allowing the 9070 to outperform the last generation's Radeon RX 7900 GRE by a wide margin, despite featuring 30% fewer compute units.

The Radeon RX 9070 is equipped with 56 Compute Units, each containing 64 Streaming Multiprocessors (SMs), resulting in a total of 3,584 shaders. Each compute unit also includes one Ray Accelerator and two AI Accelerators, totaling 56 and 112, respectively. These enhancements enable the RX 9070 to excel in games utilizing ray tracing. Moreover, the improved AI Accelerators have paved the way for the introduction of FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) 4, marking the first time AMD graphics cards benefit from AI upscaling technology.

Mirroring the 9070 XT, the RX 9070 comes with 16GB of GDDR6 VRAM on a 256-bit bus, similar to the 7900 GRE, ensuring robust performance for 1440p gaming for years to come. Although GDDR7, adopted by Nvidia, might have been preferable, its inclusion could have increased the price.

AMD suggests a minimum 550W power supply for the RX 9070, given its 220W power budget. My testing, however, showed peak consumption reaching 249W, suggesting a 600W PSU for safety. Notably, AMD is not releasing a reference design for the RX 9070; all versions will be from third-party manufacturers. I tested the Gigabyte Radeon RX 9070 Gaming OC 16G, a triple-slot card with a factory overclock.

FSR4

Since the advent of DLSS in 2018, AI upscaling has become a key method for enhancing performance without significant image quality loss. Previously exclusive to Nvidia, FSR 4 now brings AI upscaling to AMD GPUs. FSR 4 utilizes past frames and in-game data, processed through an AI model, to upscale lower resolution images to native resolution, differing from the temporal upscaling of FSR 3 by improving detail and reducing artifacts like ghosting.

However, FSR 4's AI model incurs a slight performance cost. In Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 at 1440p on the Extreme preset, FSR 3 achieves 165 fps, dropping to 159 fps with FSR 4. Similarly, in Monster Hunter Wilds at 4K with ray tracing, the Radeon RX 9070 gets 81 fps with FSR 3, decreasing to 76 fps with FSR 4. Yet, the Adrenalin software allows toggling between FSR 3 and FSR 4, enabling users to choose between better image quality or slightly higher performance based on their gaming needs.

AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT & 9070 – Benchmarks

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Performance

Priced at $549, the AMD Radeon RX 9070 competes directly with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070, outperforming it in many scenarios. At 1440p, it averages 12% faster than the RTX 5070 and boasts a 22% improvement over its predecessor, the RX 7900 GRE, despite having 30% fewer cores.

It's worth noting that I tested a factory overclocked version of the RX 9070, the Gigabyte Radeon RX 9070 Gaming OC, with a reported boost clock of 2,700Mhz, which likely contributed to a 4-5% performance increase.

Testing was conducted using current public drivers: Nvidia cards on Game Ready driver 572.60, AMD cards on Adrenalin 24.12.1, and the Radeon RX 9070 and 9070 XT on AMD's review drivers, as well as the RTX 5070 on Nvidia's review drivers.

In 3DMark, the RX 9070 shows promising potential, scoring 5,828 in the Speed Way test with ray tracing, closely matching the RTX 5070's 5,845. Without ray tracing in the Steel Nomad test, the RX 9070 significantly outperforms the RTX 5070, achieving 6,050 to 5,034 points.

My test system included an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D, Asus ROG Crosshair X870E Hero motherboard, 32GB G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo RAM at 6,000MHz, a 4TB Samsung 990 Pro SSD, and an Asus ROG Ryujin III 360 CPU cooler.

In Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, a game AMD showcased at CES 2025, the RX 9070 delivers 165 fps at 1440p with FSR 3 set to Balanced, surpassing the RTX 5070's 131 fps and the RX 7900 GRE's 143 fps. In Cyberpunk 2077, traditionally favoring Nvidia, the RX 9070 edges out the RTX 5070 by 3% at 1440p with Ray Tracing Ultra settings.

Metro Exodus, tested without upscaling, sees the RX 9070 achieving 71 fps compared to the RTX 5070's 64 fps. In Red Dead Redemption 2 using Vulkan, the RX 9070 leads with 142 fps against the RTX 5070's 115 fps. Total War: Warhammer 3 shows a close competition at 1440p, with the RX 9070 slightly ahead at 135 fps to the RTX 5070's 134 fps.

In Assassin's Creed Mirage, the RX 9070 reaches 193 fps at 1440p with the Ultra preset and FSR set to Balanced, outperforming the RTX 5070's 163 fps. Black Myth Wukong, a game typically favoring Nvidia, results in a near tie with the RX 9070 at 67 fps and the RTX 5070 at 66 fps. Forza Horizon 5 sees the RX 9070 averaging 185 fps at 1440p, ahead of the RTX 5070's 168 fps and the RX 7900 GRE's 152 fps.

The Radeon RX 9070's timely release post-RTX 5070 launch underscores AMD's competitive edge. With both cards priced at $549, the RX 9070's superior performance and 16GB of VRAM make it a compelling choice over the RTX 5070, ensuring better longevity and value for gamers.