AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT: In-Depth Review

For several generations, AMD has been striving to compete with Nvidia at the high end of the graphics card market. However, with the launch of the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT, Team Red has shifted its focus from the ultra-high-end, dominated by the RTX 5090, to delivering the best graphics card for the majority of gamers. Priced at $599, the Radeon RX 9070 XT goes head-to-head with the $749 GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, establishing itself as one of the top GPUs available today. What sets it apart is the inclusion of FSR 4, marking the first time AMD has introduced AI upscaling to its graphics cards. This makes the RX 9070 XT an excellent choice for 4K gaming, especially for those who don't want to spend $1,999 on the RTX 5090.

Purchasing Guide

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT will be available starting March 6, with a starting price of $599. Be aware that prices may vary due to third-party cards, but aim to find one under $699 for 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 showcases significant enhancements in its shader cores, but the standout features are the new RT and AI Accelerators. The AI Accelerators power FidelityFX Super Resolution 4 (FSR 4), AMD's first foray into AI upscaling. While FSR 4 doesn't necessarily boost framerates over FSR 3.1, it significantly enhances image quality. For those prioritizing performance, the Adrenalin software offers a convenient toggle to disable FSR 4.

Beyond AI upscaling, the Radeon RX 9070 XT boasts improved shader cores, delivering better performance per core. Despite having fewer Compute Units (64) than its predecessor, the Radeon RX 7900 XT (84), the RX 9070 XT achieves a substantial performance leap at a lower launch price. Each Compute Unit features 64 Streaming Multiprocessors (SMs), totaling 4,096, along with 64 ray accelerators and 128 AI accelerators.

However, the RX 9070 XT comes with reduced memory compared to the RX 7900 XT: 16GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus versus 20GB on a 320-bit bus. This results in lower memory capacity and bandwidth, but it remains sufficient for most 4K gaming needs.

The RX 9070 XT has a slightly higher power budget than the RX 7900 XT, requiring 304W compared to 300W. Despite this, my testing revealed that the RX 7900 XT consumed more power, peaking at 314W versus the RX 9070 XT's 306W. With a standard power budget, cooling the RX 9070 XT isn't challenging, although AMD has opted not to release a reference design. Instead, third-party manufacturers like Powercolor offer models like the Radeon RX 9070 XT Reaper with a compact triple-fan design, maintaining temperatures around 72°C during testing.

The RX 9070 XT uses standard power connectors, requiring two 8-pin PCI-E power connectors and a recommended 700W power supply. It features three DisplayPort 2.1a and one HDMI 2.1b, though the addition of a USB-C port would have been a welcome enhancement.

FSR 4

For years, AMD has sought an AI upscaling solution to rival Nvidia's DLSS. While previous versions of FidelityFX Super Resolution offered solid performance, they suffered from ghosting and fuzziness. The Radeon RX 9070 XT introduces FSR 4, an AI-powered upscaling solution that analyzes previous frames and game engine data to enhance image quality. Although FSR 4 offers better visuals than its predecessor, it comes with a slight performance cost.

In Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 at 4K Extreme settings, the RX 9070 XT achieved 134 fps with FSR 3.1 set to "Performance," but this dropped to 121 fps with FSR 4, a 10% performance loss, though with improved image quality. Similarly, in Monster Hunter Wilds, the card delivered 94 fps at 4K max settings with FSR 3 and ray tracing, but dropped to 78 fps with FSR 4, a 20% decrease. This performance trade-off is expected, as AI upscaling is more computationally intensive than temporal upscaling. AMD acknowledges this, emphasizing the improved image quality as a compensating factor, particularly for single-player games.

FSR 4 is an opt-in feature, easily toggled off in the Adrenalin software. It was disabled by default on my review unit, possibly due to early drivers.

AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT & 9070 – Benchmarks

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Performance

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT delivers impressive performance at its $599 price point, undercutting the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti by 21% while being, on average, 2% faster. Although the RTX 5070 Ti outperforms the RX 9070 XT in some titles, their close competition is a testament to AMD's success.

Across a comprehensive 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 RTX 5070 Ti. The RX 9070 XT excels at 4K, maintaining its lead even with ray tracing enabled, making it an ideal entry-level 4K graphics card.

All tests were conducted using the latest available drivers. Nvidia cards used Game Ready Driver 572.60, except for the RTX 5070, which was on 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.

3DMark benchmarks provide insight into potential performance differences. In Speed Way, the RX 9070 XT outperformed the RX 7900 XT by 18% but lagged 18% behind the RTX 5070 Ti. In Steel Nomad, the RX 9070 XT's performance increased to 26% over the RX 7900 XT and even surpassed the RTX 5070 Ti by 7%.

Test System

In Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, the RX 9070 XT led the RTX 5070 Ti by 15%, though the RX 7900 XT trailed by only 6%. Cyberpunk 2077, traditionally favoring Nvidia, saw the RTX 5070 Ti beating the RX 9070 XT by just 5%, a significant improvement over previous generations. In Metro Exodus, both cards were neck-and-neck at 4K, with the RX 9070 XT achieving 47 fps compared to the RTX 5070 Ti's 48 fps.

Red Dead Redemption 2 showcased the RX 9070 XT's Vulkan performance, achieving 125 fps compared to the RTX 5070 Ti's 110 fps. However, in Total War: Warhammer 3, the RX 9070 XT fell 13% behind the RTX 5070 Ti. In Assassin's Creed Mirage, the RX 9070 XT regained ground, outperforming the RTX 5070 Ti by 12% and the RX 7900 XT by 9%.

The most surprising victory for the RX 9070 XT was in Black Myth Wukong, where it achieved 70 fps at 4K with the Cinematic Preset and FSR set to 40%, beating the RTX 5070 Ti's 65 fps by 8%. Forza Horizon 5 saw the RX 9070 XT slightly ahead of the RTX 5070 Ti, with 158 fps compared to 151 fps.

Quietly announced at CES 2025, the Radeon RX 9070 XT seems like AMD's strategic response to Nvidia's Blackwell graphics cards. At $599, it offers a return to more reasonable pricing in the graphics card market. While not as fast as the RTX 5080 or RTX 5090, the RX 9070 XT is a formidable flagship that echoes the value and performance of the GTX 1080 Ti, which launched at $699 in 2017.