AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT Review

For the past few generations, AMD has strived to compete with Nvidia's high-end offerings. However, with the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT, Team Red strategically targets the majority of gamers, abandoning the ultra-high-end market dominated by the RTX 5090. This focus results in a graphics card that excels for most users.

Priced at $599, the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT rivals the $749 GeForce RTX 5070 Ti in performance. This alone establishes it as a top contender, further enhanced by the inclusion of FSR 4, AMD's first foray into AI upscaling. This makes it an ideal choice for 4K gaming, especially for those unwilling to spend $1,999 on the RTX 5090.

Purchasing Guide

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT launched March 6th, starting at $599. However, expect price variations among third-party cards. Aim for a price under $699.

AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT – Photos

Specs and Features

Built on the RDNA 4 architecture, the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT boasts improved shader cores, but its standout features are the new RT and AI Accelerators. The AI Accelerators power FidelityFX Super Resolution 4 (FSR 4), introducing AI upscaling to AMD graphics cards. While not always boosting frame rates significantly over FSR 3.1, FSR 4 delivers superior image quality. A toggle in Adrenalin software allows disabling FSR 4 for prioritizing frame rates.

Beyond AI upscaling, enhanced shader cores provide better per-core performance. Despite having 64 Compute Units (compared to 84 in the Radeon RX 7900 XT), the 9070 XT achieves a substantial generational leap at a lower price. Each Compute Unit features 64 Streaming Multiprocessors (SMs), totaling 4,096, along with 64 ray accelerators and 128 AI accelerators.

However, the Radeon RX 9070 XT has 16GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, less than the RX 7900 XT's 20GB on a 320-bit bus. This reduces capacity and bandwidth, but remains sufficient for most 4K gaming. The continued use of GDDR6 is a minor drawback.

While the new architecture is more efficient, the RX 9070 XT's power consumption is slightly higher than the 7900 XT, requiring 304W versus 300W. This is a typical power budget for modern cards, simplifying cooling. AMD is not releasing a reference design; users rely on third-party manufacturers. My review unit, the Powercolor Radeon RX 9070 XT Reaper, maintained a temperature of 72°C during testing despite its compact triple-fan design.

The Radeon RX 9070 XT uses two 8-pin PCI-E power connectors, simplifying upgrades for most users with a 700W power supply (as recommended by AMD). Connectivity includes three DisplayPort 2.1a and one HDMI 2.1b ports. The absence of a USB-C port is a missed opportunity.

FSR 4

FSR 4, AMD's AI upscaling solution, finally rivals DLSS. Previous FSR versions suffered from ghosting and fuzziness. FSR 4 uses AI accelerators to analyze previous frames and game engine data to upscale lower-resolution images. While image quality improves over FSR 3, a performance hit is expected.

In *Call of Duty: Black Ops 6* at 4K Extreme settings (FSR 3.1 set to "Performance"), the RX 9070 XT achieved 134 fps, dropping to 121 fps with FSR 4 (a 10% decrease). *Monster Hunter World* showed a 20% performance drop with FSR 4 at 4K max settings with ray tracing. This performance reduction is expected due to the increased computational demands of AI upscaling. FSR 4 is optional and can be disabled in Adrenalin software.

AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT & 9070 – Benchmarks

Performance

The Radeon RX 9070 XT delivers impressive performance. At $599, it undercuts the RTX 5070 Ti by 21% while offering comparable speed. Across various tests, it's approximately 17% faster than the RX 7900 XT and 2% faster than the RTX 5070 Ti. Its strength is particularly evident in 4K gaming, even with ray tracing enabled.

Testing utilized the latest drivers: Game Ready Driver 572.60 for Nvidia (except the RTX 5070, using review drivers), and Adrenalin 24.12.1 for AMD (except the RX 9070 XT and RX 9070, using pre-release drivers). 3DMark results show mixed results, but generally reflect real-world performance trends.

Specific game benchmarks highlight the RX 9070 XT's performance relative to competitors in titles such as *Call of Duty: Black Ops 6*, *Cyberpunk 2077*, *Metro Exodus*, *Red Dead Redemption 2*, *Total War: Warhammer 3*, *Assassin's Creed Mirage*, *Black Myth: Wukong*, and *Forza Horizon 5*. Results vary depending on the game and its optimization for AMD or Nvidia hardware.

The Radeon RX 9070 XT's performance, especially considering its price, represents a significant step forward for AMD. While not surpassing the RTX 5080 or 5090, it offers exceptional value for most gamers, avoiding the excessive cost of those higher-end cards. It feels like a return to the value proposition of flagship graphics cards like the GTX 1080 Ti.

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