AMD Radeon RX 9070 Review

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 enters the graphics card market at an interesting juncture. Hot on the heels of Nvidia's latest generation, this $549 card directly competes with the underwhelming GeForce RTX 5070. AMD easily wins this comparison, making the RX 9070 a compelling choice for 1440p gaming.

However, AMD's internal competition complicates matters. The RX 9070 is only $50 cheaper than the superior RX 9070 XT. While the price difference aligns with the 9070's approximately 8% lower performance, the extra $50 for significantly better performance is difficult to ignore. Despite this, AMD's offerings still present a strong showing for Team Red.

Purchasing Guide

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 launches March 6th, starting at $549. Expect variations in pricing from different manufacturers. Prioritize models closest to the starting price, given its proximity to the RX 9070 XT's price.

AMD Radeon RX 9070 – Photos

4 Images

Specs and Features

Like the RX 9070 XT, the RX 9070 utilizes the RDNA 4 architecture. This results in substantial performance gains, significantly outperforming the previous generation Radeon RX 7900 GRE despite having 30% fewer compute units.

The RX 9070 boasts 56 Compute Units, each with 64 Streaming Multiprocessors (SMs), totaling 3,584 shaders. Each compute unit includes one Ray Accelerator and two AI Accelerators (56 and 112 respectively). These improved ray tracing and AI acceleration capabilities allow the card to compete effectively in ray-traced games. Furthermore, the enhanced AI Accelerators enable FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) 4, marking AMD's debut in AI upscaling.

The RX 9070 features 16GB of GDDR6 VRAM on a 256-bit bus, similar to the 7900 GRE, sufficient for 1440p gaming for years to come. While GDDR7 would have been beneficial, it likely would have increased the cost.

AMD recommends a 550W power supply, with a 220W power budget. Testing revealed a peak consumption of 249W, suggesting a 600W PSU is advisable for safety.

Crucially, unlike previous generations, AMD isn't releasing a reference design for the RX 9070. All versions will be from third-party manufacturers. This review uses the Gigabyte Radeon RX 9070 Gaming OC 16G, a triple-slot card with a factory overclock.

FSR 4

Since DLSS's rise in 2018, AI upscaling has become a key performance enhancer. Previously an Nvidia-exclusive advantage, FSR 4 brings this technology to AMD GPUs.

FSR 4 leverages previous frames and in-game data through an AI model to upscale lower-resolution images to the native resolution. This differs from FSR 3's temporal upscaling, lacking the AI detail refinement, which sometimes resulted in artifacts.

The AI processing introduces a slight performance penalty compared to FSR 3. For example, in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 at 1440p (Extreme preset), FSR 3 yielded 165 fps, dropping to 159 fps with FSR 4. Similar results were seen in Monster Hunter Wilds.

The Adrenalin software allows users to choose between FSR 3 (slightly better performance) and FSR 4 (better image quality), offering flexibility based on individual preferences and game types.

AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT & 9070 – Benchmarks

11 Images

Performance

At $549, the RX 9070 directly challenges the RTX 5070, consistently outperforming it. At 1440p, it's on average 12% faster and 22% faster than the RX 7900 GRE (also launched at $549 in 2024), a significant improvement despite having 30% fewer cores.

Note: This review used a factory-overclocked RX 9070 (Gigabyte Radeon RX 9070 Gaming OC), with a reported 2700Mhz boost clock (approximately 7% overclock). This contributes to the performance gains. All cards were tested on their respective current drivers (Nvidia Game Ready driver 572.60 and AMD Adrenalin 24.12.1, with review drivers for the RX 9070, RX 9070 XT, and RTX 5070).

3DMark benchmarks showed competitive results. In Speed Way (ray tracing enabled), the RX 9070 scored 5,828 points versus the RTX 5070's 5,845 (essentially a tie). However, in Steel Nomad (no ray tracing), the RX 9070 achieved 6,050 points compared to the RTX 5070's 5,034 (a 20% difference).

Game benchmarks highlight the RX 9070's strengths:

• Call of Duty: Black Ops 6: 165 fps (1440p, FSR 3 Balanced) versus 131 fps (RTX 5070) and 143 fps (RX 7900 GRE).
• Cyberpunk 2077: A surprising 3% lead over the RTX 5070 at 1440p with Ray Tracing Ultra.
• Metro Exodus: 71 fps (no upscaling) versus 64 fps (RTX 5070).
• Red Dead Redemption 2: 142 fps (1440p, max settings, Vulkan) versus 115 fps (RTX 5070).
• Total War: Warhammer 3: Comparable performance at 1440p.
• Assassin's Creed Mirage: 193 fps (1440p, Ultra preset, FSR Balanced) versus 163 fps (RTX 5070).
• Black Myth Wukong: Near identical performance at 1440p.
• Forza Horizon 5: 185 fps (1440p) versus 168 fps (RTX 5070) and 152 fps (RX 7900 GRE).

The RX 9070's performance advantage over the RTX 5070 at the same price point is impressive. The 16GB VRAM also provides future-proofing, even considering the RTX 5070's use of GDDR7. The combination of better performance and significantly more VRAM makes the RX 9070 the superior value proposition.