AMD Radeon RX 9070: In-Depth Review

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 enters the market at a peculiar time for graphics cards. With Nvidia's latest generation just launched, the Radeon RX 9070, priced at $549, directly competes with the underwhelming GeForce RTX 5070. In this head-to-head, AMD's new offering emerges as the clear winner, making it the go-to choice for 1440p gaming enthusiasts. However, the decision isn't as straightforward as it seems, primarily due to AMD's own pricing strategy. The Radeon RX 9070 is only $50 less than the superior Radeon RX 9070 XT. While the 9070 is about 8% slower and 9% cheaper than the 9070 XT, the small price difference might push buyers towards the XT for its better performance. Nonetheless, when choosing between these two AMD options, Team Red's prospects look promising.

Purchasing Guide

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 is set to launch on March 6, starting at $549. However, expect various models to be priced higher. For the best value, aim to purchase a model as close to the starting price as possible, especially considering its proximity in price to the Radeon RX 9070 XT.

AMD Radeon RX 9070 – Photos

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Specs and Features

Like its sibling, the Radeon RX 9070 XT, the RX 9070 leverages the new RDNA 4 graphics architecture. This advancement significantly boosts performance, allowing the 9070 to outshine the previous generation's Radeon RX 7900 GRE, despite having 30% fewer compute units.

The Radeon RX 9070 boasts 56 Compute Units, each equipped with 64 Streaming Multiprocessors (SMs), totaling 3,584 shaders. Each compute unit also includes one Ray Accelerator and two AI Accelerators, summing up to 56 and 112, respectively. These enhancements enable the card to excel in ray tracing and introduce AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) 4, marking the debut of AI upscaling on AMD GPUs.

Similar to the 9070 XT, the RX 9070 comes with 16GB of GDDR6 VRAM on a 256-bit bus, sufficient for 1440p gaming for years to come. Although GDDR7, as used by Nvidia, would have been a nice addition, it likely would have increased the price.

AMD suggests a minimum 550W power supply for the RX 9070, which has a power budget of 220W. My tests showed a peak consumption of 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 slight factory overclock.

FSR4

Since the rise of DLSS in 2018, AI upscaling has been a game-changer for performance without sacrificing image quality. Previously an Nvidia-exclusive feature, FSR 4 now brings AI upscaling to AMD GPUs. It uses previous frames and in-game data to upscale lower resolution images to native resolution, improving upon the temporal upscaling of FSR 3 by reducing artifacts like ghosting.

However, FSR 4 incurs a slight performance hit compared to FSR 3 due to the AI model's computational demands. For example, in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 at 1440p on the Extreme preset, FSR 3 achieves 165 fps, while FSR 4 drops to 159 fps. Similarly, in Monster Hunter Wilds at 4K with ray tracing, the RX 9070 gets 81 fps with FSR 3, but 76 fps with FSR 4. 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, which also launched at $549 in 2024. This performance leap is impressive, especially considering the 9070's reduced core count.

I tested a factory overclocked version of the RX 9070, the Gigabyte Radeon RX 9070 Gaming OC, which has a boost clock of 2,700Mhz, about a 7% increase. This overclock should boost performance by around 4-5%.

All tests were conducted using the latest public drivers at the time: Nvidia's Game Ready driver 572.60 and AMD's Adrenalin 24.12.1, with review drivers for the RX 9070, 9070 XT, and RTX 5070.

In 3DMark, the RX 9070 performs well. In the Speed Way test with ray tracing, it scores 5,828 points, nearly matching the RTX 5070's 5,845. In Steel Nomad without ray tracing, the RX 9070 significantly outperforms the RTX 5070, scoring 6,050 to 5,034, a 20% lead.

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 at 1440p with FSR 3 set to Balanced, the RX 9070 achieves 165 fps, compared to 131 fps for the RTX 5070 and 143 fps for the RX 7900 GRE, a 26% and 15% lead, respectively.

Cyberpunk 2077, traditionally favoring Nvidia, sees the RX 9070 slightly ahead at 1440p with Ray Tracing Ultra, achieving 3% better performance than the RTX 5070.

In Metro Exodus, without upscaling, the RX 9070 averages 71 fps, compared to 64 fps for the RTX 5070, an 11% lead.

Red Dead Redemption 2 using Vulkan at 1440p sees the RX 9070 at 142 fps, significantly outperforming the RTX 5070's 115 fps, a 23% lead.

In Total War: Warhammer 3, the RX 9070 leads at 4K but is neck-and-neck with the RTX 5070 at 1440p, with scores of 135 fps and 134 fps, respectively.

Assassin's Creed Mirage at 1440p with the Ultra preset and FSR set to Balanced sees the RX 9070 at 193 fps, an 18% lead over the RTX 5070's 163 fps.

Black Myth Wukong at 1440p with the Cinematic preset shows a close race, with the RX 9070 at 67 fps and the RTX 5070 at 66 fps.

Forza Horizon 5 at 1440p sees the RX 9070 averaging 185 fps, compared to 168 fps for the RTX 5070 and 152 fps for the RX 7900 GRE, a 12% and 25% lead, respectively.

The Radeon RX 9070's launch timing against the RTX 5070 plays to AMD's advantage. Both cards are priced at $549, but the RX 9070's superior performance and 16GB of VRAM make it a better long-term investment, despite the RTX 5070's GDDR7 memory. Even if performance were equal, the RX 9070's larger VRAM capacity would make it the more compelling choice.