Sales of Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 video cards will begin tomorrow. Today, specialized media published their first reviews. AMD surprised a little with its statements during the announcement of these new products. If the company compared the younger RX 9070 model with its own Radeon RX 7900 GRE of the previous generation, then it put the older RX 9070 XT against the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, while honestly admitting that the RX 9070 XT is slower than the Nvidia solution, but only by 2%. It would seem that the winner in this confrontation is already known, but reviews of new products show that not everything is so clear.
Image source: TechPowerUp
The Radeon RX 9070 XT is based on the Navi 48 XTX graphics processor with 64 compute units (CU), 4096 shader units (stream processors), 256 texture units (TMU), 96 rasterization units (ROP), 64 RT accelerators and 128 AI acceleration units. The chip is specified with frequencies of 1660 MHz (base), 2400 MHz (gaming) and 2970 MHz (Boost). In turn, the Radeon RX 9070 is equipped with a Navi 48 XT chip with 56 execution units, 3584 stream processors, 56 RT cores and 112 AI accelerators. The chip has declared reference frequencies of 1330 MHz (base), 2070 (gaming) and 2520 MHz (Boost).
Sapphire Radeon RX 9070 XT Nitro+ OC PCB. Image source: TechPowerUp
Both video cards received 16 GB of GDDR6 memory with a speed of 20 Gbps per contact, 256-bit bus support and a total bandwidth of 644.6 GB/s. The GPU cards also have 8 MB of L2 cache and 64 MB of high-speed Infinity Cache (L3) cache. The cards are connected via the PCIe 5.0 interface. Each model has three DisplayPort 2.1a ports and one HDMI 2.1b (may differ for custom models) to output images. The reference power consumption of the older model is declared at 304 W, and for the younger one – 220 W. In this indicator, AMD video cards turned out to be close to Nvidia analogs – the GeForce RTX 5070 and GeForce RTX 5070 Ti consume 250 and 300 W, respectively. The new products will not be released in the AMD reference design. All tasks for the implementation of the cards are assigned to the company’s partners. The latter will release models with both reference characteristics and additional GPU overclocking, as well as increased energy consumption indicators.
Asus TUF Gaming Radeon RX 9070 OC PCB
Along with the cards, the company introduced the FidelityFX Super Resolution 4 (FSR 4) AI image scaling technology, developed specifically for the RDNA 4 architecture. It provides high image quality and low latency. AMD promises that the Radeon RX 9070 XT with FSR 4 will be able to increase FPS by 2.1–3.7 times, depending on the game. At launch, the new technology will be supported by more than 30 games, and more than 75 games will receive support in 2025. AMD has also simplified the process of integrating FSR 4 for developers. In addition, the company introduced an updated version of Fluid Motion Frames 2.1 (AFMF 2.1), an additional frame generator that significantly increases FPS and operates at the driver level, making it suitable for use in any game. In the new version, AMD has improved the quality of frame generation and reduced the number of artifacts.
Let’s start with the junior Radeon RX 9070 model. The recommended price of the video card is $549. Nvidia priced its RTX 5070 at the same price, reviews of which were published yesterday. According to Computerbase and TechPowerUp, the Radeon card is faster than its competitor in raster graphics (without using scaling and ray tracing technologies) at all resolutions – by about 4% at 1080p, 6% at 1440p and 7% at 4K. Moreover, in some cases it is faster with ray tracing. Computerbase and TechPowerUp had different versions of cards from different manufacturers, each with its own level of additional factory overclocking. But this detail does not change the overall picture.
TechPowerUp writes that at 1080p, the new Radeon was on average 4% faster than the GeForce RTX 5070, 8% faster than the GeForce RTX 4070 Super, and about 13% faster than the Radeon 7900 GRE. The Radeon RX 9070 showed the same raster performance as the RTX 4070 Ti, was 1% behind the Radeon RX 7900 XT, 4% slower than the RTX 4070 Ti Super, 14% slower than the Radeon RX 7900 XTX, and 15% slower than the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti.
According to Computerbase, the Radeon RX 9070 is 27% faster than the Radeon RX 7800 XT at 1440p. The difference with the Radeon RX 7900 XT was only 3% in favor of AMD’s previous-generation flagship. At the same time, the new Radeon was 5% faster than the GeForce RTX 5070.
At 4K, the Radeon RX 9070 is 23% faster than the RX 7800 XT; 9% faster than the GeForce RTX 4070 Super; and 4% faster than the RTX 5070. The new card is also 3% slower than the Radeon RX 7900 XT, 9% slower than the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super, 21% slower than the Radeon RX 7900 XTX, and 22% behind the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti.
As for the older Radeon RX 9070 XT model with a recommended price of $599, according to TechPowerUp, at 1080p resolution, the new product turned out to be on average 22% faster than the Radeon 7900 GRE, 14% faster than the GeForce RTX 5070, and 10, 9, and 7% faster than the Radeon RX 7900 XT, GeForce RTX 4070 Ti, and RTX 4070 Ti Super, respectively. It lagged behind the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and GeForce RTX 5070 Ti by only 2–3%.
At 1440p, the Radeon RX 9070 XT is 25% faster than the Radeon 7900 GRE, 6% faster than the GeForce RTX 5070, and 9% and 4% faster than the Radeon RX 7900 XT and GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super, respectively. At the same resolution, it is 6% slower than the Radeon RX 7900 XTX, while the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti is 8% faster.
The transition to the new RDNA 4 architecture allowed AMD to significantly increase the efficiency of CUs. For comparison, the Radeon RX 9070 XT with 64 execution units lags behind the Radeon RX 7900 XTX (96 execution units) by an average of 4-6%. In fact, in raster graphics, the RX 9070 XT offers the level of performance of the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti. At the same time, the new product from AMD is $ 150 cheaper (if we compare the recommended prices of both, the RRP of the RTX 5070 Ti is $ 750).
Ray tracing on the new Radeon cards works as AMD promised in its presentation — slightly faster than the previous generation. However, it all depends on the game. On average, the Radeon RX 9070 is 4% faster than the Radeon RX 7900 XT under light RT load, and the Radeon RX 9070 XT is 4% faster than the Radeon RX 7900 XTX under the same conditions, according to Computerbase. TechPowerUp writes that the relative ray tracing performance of the Radeon RX 9070 at 1080p is the same as the RX 7900 XTX. At the same time, it is 6% lower than the GeForce RTX 4070 Super, and on average 7% lower than the RTX 5070. It is also 12% higher than the Radeon RX 7900 XT and the regular GeForce RTX 4070, and 25% higher than the Radeon RX 7900 GRE.
At 1440p, the Radeon RX 9070’s ray tracing performance is 2% faster than the RX 7900 XTX; 3% slower than the GeForce RTX 4070 Super; and 4% slower than the RTX 5070. At 4K, the RX 9070’s ray tracing performance is 23% slower than the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super. However, it’s 10% faster than the GeForce RTX 5070 (thanks to its small 12GB of memory) and 6% faster than the RTX 4070 Ti (also with 12GB of memory).
The Computerbase portal notes the incredible work of AMD on the FSR 4 scaling technology. According to reviewers, FSR 3.1 and FSR 4 are simply not comparable. The new version of the AMD upscaler can compete in image quality even with DLSS 4 from Nvidia, the authors of the review believe. But at the moment, only the scaling function is available within FSR 4 (you can see examples below in the gallery). The same analogue of DLSS Ray Reconstruction is missing.
According to TechPowerUp, the power consumption of the Radeon RX 9070 in the Asus TUF Gaming OC version in idle mode is 9 W, in games the card consumed 242 W, and rare short-term surges (20 ms) are 295 W. Computerbase writes that their version of the Radeon RX 9070 in the Sapphire Pure version consumed 223 W in games. This is probably due to the difference in the power limits that manufacturers set for their solutions. The power consumption of the Radeon RX 9070 XT in the Sapphire Nito+ OC version in idle mode was 10 W, in games the card consumed 351 W. Rare short-term (20 ms) power surges were 417 W.
Asus TUF Gaming Radeon RX 9070 OC Power Consumption
Sapphire Radeon RX 9070 XT Nitro+ OC Power Consumption
TechPowerUp tested the temperature readings of several versions of the Radeon RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT from different manufacturers. The temperature of the RX 9070 XT graphics chips did not exceed 60 degrees Celsius. At the hottest point of the GPU, it was up to 83 degrees. The GDDR6 memory chips heated up to 90 degrees in some models. The RX 9070 models also had a GPU temperature of less than 60 degrees. At the hottest point, the chip heated up to 79 degrees (ASRock Steel Legend), and the temperature of the memory chips did not exceed 86 degrees. Computerbase reports that their Radeon RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT in the Sapphire Pure OC version have GPU temperatures of 53 and 54 degrees Celsius. At the hottest point of the chip, they reached 70 and 77 degrees Celsius, while the GDDR6 memory chips warmed up to 80 and 86 degrees, respectively.
Temperatures
Reviewers agree that the Radeon RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT perform very well against their competitors. The transition to a new architecture has increased their energy efficiency, reduced operating temperatures, provided raster performance at the level of more expensive models of competitors and predecessors, and not lag far behind them in ray tracing, and in some cases even win.
However, the most important question now is the availability of cards in stores and their real cost. According to the Computerbase portal, in Europe, the recommended price of the Radeon RX 9070 model is €629, and the RX 9070 XT model is €689. The tested custom models of video cards from AMD partners are priced significantly higher. The cost of the same Sapphire Radeon RX 9070 Pure is €739, and the RX 9070 XT model is €799. These are not the most advanced versions from Sapphire. For example, the same Sapphire Radeon RX 9070 Nitro+ is priced at €779, and the RX 9070 XT Nitro+ is €869. Other manufacturers offer their solutions even more expensive (table below). Speaking of the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, its recommended price in Europe is €879, but in stores its price is much higher, and the card itself is almost impossible to buy due to shortages. The GeForce RTX 5070 model only went on sale today, so there is no information about it yet.
Prices in Europe. Image source: Computer Base
TechPowerUp adds that in the US, the Sapphire Radeon RX 9070 XT Nitro+ has a MSRP of $730 (excluding VAT, unlike in Europe, where prices include VAT). Asus has not specified the price of the TUF Gaming OC Radeon RX 9070 at the time of publication.