The AMD Radeon RX 9070 enters the graphics card market at an interesting juncture. Hot on the heels of Nvidia's latest generation, this $549 card directly challenges the underwhelming GeForce RTX 5070. AMD easily wins this comparison, making the RX 9070 a compelling choice for 1440p gaming.
However, the picture isn't entirely straightforward. AMD's own Radeon RX 9070 XT, a mere $50 more expensive, presents a tough competitor. While the 9070 is approximately 8% slower and 9% cheaper than its XT sibling, the performance uplift for the extra $50 is difficult to ignore. Despite this internal competition, AMD's offerings remain strong.
Purchasing Guide
The AMD Radeon RX 9070 launches March 6th, with a starting price of $549. Expect price variations across different models. Prioritize purchasing a card as close to this starting price as possible, especially considering its proximity in price to the RX 9070 XT.
AMD Radeon RX 9070 – Photos
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Specs and Features
Sharing the new RDNA 4 architecture with the RX 9070 XT, the RX 9070 boasts significant performance improvements. It substantially outperforms the previous generation Radeon RX 7900 GRE, despite possessing 30% fewer compute units.
The RX 9070 features 56 Compute Units, each containing 64 Streaming Multiprocessors (SMs), totaling 3,584 shaders. Each compute unit includes one Ray Accelerator and two AI Accelerators, resulting in 56 and 112 respectively. While SMs handle the majority of processing, enhancements to Ray and AI Accelerators enable the card to compete effectively in ray-traced games. Improved AI Accelerators facilitate the introduction of FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) 4, marking AMD's first foray into AI upscaling.
Similar to the 9070 XT, 16GB of GDDR6 VRAM on a 256-bit bus accompanies the RX 9070. This configuration, comparable to the 7900 GRE, should suffice for 1440p gaming for several years. While GDDR7 adoption would have been beneficial, it likely would have increased the cost.
AMD recommends a 550W power supply, with a 220W power budget. Testing revealed peak consumption of 249W; a 600W PSU is advised for safety.
Crucially, unlike previous generations, AMD isn't releasing a reference design for the RX 9070. All versions will be manufactured by third-party board partners. The review unit was a Gigabyte Radeon RX 9070 Gaming OC 16G—a substantial triple-slot card with a factory overclock.
FSR 4
Since DLSS's rise in 2018, AI upscaling has become a key performance enhancer without significant image quality loss. Previously an Nvidia-exclusive advantage, FSR 4 brings this technology to AMD GPUs.
FSR 4 utilizes previous frames and in-game data, processing them through an AI model to upscale lower-resolution images to native resolution. This differs from FSR 3's temporal upscaling, lacking an AI algorithm to refine details, potentially causing artifacts.
The AI processing introduces a slight performance penalty compared to FSR 3. For example, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 at 1440p with Extreme settings saw a drop from 165 fps (FSR 3) to 159 fps (FSR 4). Similarly, Monster Hunter World at 4K max settings with ray tracing experienced a decrease from 81 fps to 76 fps when switching to FSR 4.
Adrenalin software allows users to toggle between FSR 3 and FSR 4, prioritizing either performance or image quality.
AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT & 9070 – Benchmarks
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Performance
Priced at $549, the RX 9070 directly competes with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070, consistently outperforming it at 1440p. It also boasts a 22% advantage over the RX 7900 GRE. This is a significant improvement, especially given the 30% reduction in cores.
Note that the review unit was factory overclocked (approximately 7% boost clock). While not translating directly to a 7% performance gain, a 4-5% increase is expected.
Testing utilized current public drivers (Nvidia Game Ready driver 572.60 and AMD Adrenalin 24.12.1, with review drivers for the RX 9070, RX 9070 XT, and RTX 5070).
3DMark benchmarks highlight the RX 9070's potential. Speed Way (ray tracing enabled) showed a near tie with the RTX 5070, while Steel Nomad (no ray tracing) demonstrated a 20% performance advantage for the RX 9070.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (1440p, FSR 3 Balanced) showcased a 26% lead over the RTX 5070 and a 15% lead over the 7900 GRE. Cyberpunk 2077 (1440p, Ray Tracing Ultra) surprisingly resulted in a 3% lead for the RX 9070. Metro Exodus (no upscaling) yielded an 11% advantage. Red Dead Redemption 2 (1440p, max settings, Vulkan) displayed a remarkable 23% lead. Total War: Warhammer 3 showed a significant lead at 4K, but the difference narrowed at 1440p. Assassin's Creed Mirage (1440p, Ultra, FSR Balanced) showed an 18% lead. Black Myth Wukong resulted in a near tie. Forza Horizon 5 (1440p) showed a 12% lead over the RTX 5070 and a 25% lead over the 7900 GRE.
The RX 9070's strong showing against the RTX 5070, especially considering the price parity and the RX 9070's superior 16GB VRAM, makes it a compelling value proposition.
