The AMD Radeon RX 9070 emerges at a pivotal moment for graphics cards, right after the launch of Nvidia's latest generation. Priced at $549, it directly competes with the underwhelming GeForce RTX 5070. In this head-to-head, the Radeon RX 9070 emerges as a clear winner, making it the go-to choice for 1440p gaming enthusiasts. However, the decision becomes more nuanced due to AMD's own pricing strategy. The Radeon RX 9070 is only $50 less than the superior Radeon RX 9070 XT, which offers about an 8% performance boost for that extra $50. While the price difference is mathematically justified, it's challenging to overlook the better performance of the 9070 XT for such a marginal increase in cost. Nonetheless, when choosing between two AMD options, Team Red remains a strong contender.
Purchasing Guide
The AMD Radeon RX 9070 will hit the market on March 6, starting at $549. However, expect to see various models at higher price points. For the best value, aim to purchase a model 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 Radeon RX 9070, like its XT counterpart, leverages the new RDNA 4 graphics architecture. This advancement significantly boosts performance, allowing the 9070 to surpass the Radeon RX 7900 GRE by a wide margin, despite having 30% fewer compute units.
Equipped with 56 Compute Units, each boasting 64 Streaming Multiprocessors (SMs), the RX 9070 totals 3,584 shaders. Additionally, each compute unit features one Ray Accelerator and two AI Accelerators, resulting in 56 and 112 total, respectively. These enhancements enable the RX 9070 to excel in ray tracing and introduce AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) 4, marking the first foray into AI upscaling for AMD GPUs.
The RX 9070 comes with 16GB of GDDR6 VRAM on a 256-bit bus, mirroring the memory setup of the 7900 GRE. This configuration should suffice for 1440p gaming for years to come, although adopting GDDR7, as Nvidia did, might have justified a higher price.
AMD suggests a minimum 550W power supply for the RX 9070, which has a 220W power budget. My tests showed peak consumption at 249W, suggesting a 600W PSU for safety. Notably, AMD isn't 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 DLSS's rise in 2018, AI upscaling has become a key method for enhancing performance without sacrificing image quality. Traditionally an Nvidia exclusive, FSR 4 brings AI upscaling to AMD GPUs. It processes previous frames and in-game data through an AI model to upscale lower resolution images to native resolution, improving detail and reducing artifacts like ghosting seen in FSR 3's temporal upscaling.
FSR 4 does come with a slight performance hit compared to FSR 3. For example, in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 at 1440p on the Extreme preset, FSR 3 delivers 165 fps, while FSR 4 drops to 159 fps. Similarly, in Monster Hunter Wilds at 4K with ray tracing, the RX 9070 achieves 81 fps with FSR 3 but falls to 76 fps with FSR 4. However, the Adrenalin software allows users to toggle between FSR 3 and FSR 4, choosing 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 outperforms the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 in most scenarios. At 1440p, it's on average 12% faster than the RTX 5070 and 22% faster than its predecessor, the RX 7900 GRE, despite having 30% fewer cores.
The Gigabyte Radeon RX 9070 Gaming OC, which I tested, comes with a factory overclock. Although the exact specs weren't available at the time of writing, GPU-Z reported a 2,700Mhz boost clock, suggesting a 4-5% performance boost.
All tests were conducted using the latest public drivers at the time: Nvidia cards on Game Ready driver 572.60, and AMD cards on Adrenalin 24.12.1, with the RX 9070 and 9070 XT using AMD's review drivers, and the RTX 5070 using Nvidia's.
In 3DMark, the RX 9070 shows promising results. In the Speed Way test with ray tracing, it scores 5,828 points, nearly matching the RTX 5070's 5,845. In the Steel Nomad test without ray tracing, the RX 9070 significantly outperforms the RTX 5070, scoring 6,050 to 5,034.
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, a game AMD used to showcase the 9070 at CES 2025, the RX 9070 achieves 165 fps at 1440p with FSR 3 set to Balanced, outpacing the RTX 5070's 131 fps and the RX 7900 GRE's 143 fps.
Cyberpunk 2077, traditionally favoring Nvidia hardware, sees the RX 9070 slightly ahead by 3% at 1440p with the Ray Tracing Ultra preset. In Metro Exodus, without any upscaling, the RX 9070 leads by 11%, averaging 71 fps compared to the RTX 5070's 64 fps.
Red Dead Redemption 2 on Vulkan shows the RX 9070 with a 23% lead, reaching 142 fps at 1440p, compared to the RTX 5070's 115 fps. In Total War: Warhammer 3, the RX 9070 and RTX 5070 are neck and neck at 1440p, with the RX 9070 achieving 135 fps and the RTX 5070 at 134 fps.
Assassin's Creed Mirage sees the RX 9070 with an 18% lead, hitting 193 fps at 1440p with FSR set to Balanced. Black Myth Wukong, typically favoring Nvidia, results in a tie, with the RX 9070 at 67 fps and the RTX 5070 at 66 fps at 1440p. Forza Horizon 5, despite its age, sees the RX 9070 at 185 fps at 1440p, outperforming the RTX 5070's 168 fps and the RX 7900 GRE's 152 fps.
The launch of the Radeon RX 9070 closely following the RTX 5070 plays into AMD's favor. Both cards are priced at $549, yet the RX 9070 consistently outperforms the RTX 5070 across various benchmarks. Additionally, with 16GB of VRAM, the RX 9070 offers better future-proofing than the RTX 5070, despite the latter's use of GDDR7. This combination of superior performance and higher VRAM capacity makes the Radeon RX 9070 the superior choice for those seeking value and longevity in their graphics card investment.
