AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT review: this new GPU blows the RTX 5070 out of the water

Breathe out, untense your muscle tissues, and loosen up, as a result of after years of being misplaced within the wilderness AMD has lastly give you an honest GPU for a tremendous worth. I don’t have to achieve for obscure use instances to counsel eventualities the place the brand new AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT is definitely value shopping for, as a result of this time AMD has genuinely give you the products, with a graphics card that largely beats Nvidia at its personal sport.

It won’t have an equal of Nvidia’s newest multi body gen tech at its disposal, however this new GPU sees AMD catching up with Nvidia in a number of key areas. For a begin, ray tracing is not a problem, with the Radeon RX 9070 XT even out-performing the RTX 5070 in quite a lot of our ray-traced benchmarks, and it will probably do path tracing too. Secondly, AMD’s new FSR 4 tech is an absolute sport changer on the subject of upscaling, with an enormous enchancment in picture high quality over FSR 3.

I’ve examined the Radeon RX 9070 XT in a number of video games, testing body gen, upscaling, ray tracing and commonplace rasterization, and all of it provides as much as a agency new entry on our information to the most effective graphics card. It’s not all good, as I’ll clarify over this evaluate of the ASRock Taichi OC model of this card, however that is AMD’s strongest GPU for over a decade by far.

Specs

The Radeon RX 9070 XT is the present finest showcase for AMD’s new RDNA 4 structure, with it utilizing a maxed-out Navi 48 GPU. It incorporates 64 of AMD’s new compute models, which at the moment are constructed on a 4nm course of. AMD says it has designed its new compute unit be extra environment friendly than the earlier design, and in addition to hit larger clock speeds. Certainly, the utmost enhance clock of two.97GHz is considerably larger than even the two.5GHz of the top-end Radeon RX 7900 XTX from the final technology.

What’s extra, there’s room to push the clock velocity additional, as proven by our ASRock Taichi mannequin’s most enhance clock of three.1GHz. AMD specifies a 2.4GHz sport clock because the frequency most certainly to be hit throughout gaming, however that is fairly conservative – our overclocked pattern was frequently going over 3GHz throughout sport testing.

The brand new GPU structure additionally sees AMD shifting to a brand new strategy to ray tracing, with a brand new core design that the corporate says doubles the throughput of ray tracing calculations in comparison with the RDNA 3 design. Every compute unit incorporates certainly one of these new RT cores, so that you get 64 within the 9070 XT. AMD can also be assured that the brand new RT core is as much as the job of path tracing, which was past the scope of its last-gen GPUs in our exams.

AMD has additionally made massive strides with its AI core design with RDNA 4, which the corporate says can deal with neural rendering options equivalent to neural radiance cache, and which is now used to energy AMD’s FSR 4 decision upscaling tech.

Not like the RTX 5070, the 9070 XT additionally comes with 16GB of VRAM. It’s not as quick because the GDDR7 reminiscence used within the GeForce RTX 5070, but it surely’s cheaper and out there in bigger provide. As you’ll see from our exams later, there’s additionally an excellent argument to be made for prioritizing capability over efficiency on the subject of reminiscence on this worth bracket.

There’s an enormous quantity on the finish of the specs checklist, although, which is the 304W energy draw, and this determine will climb larger on overclocked playing cards as effectively. ASRock has even fitted its Taichi 9070 XT with a 16-pin energy connector, regardless of all the issues with cables melting on Nvidia GPUs (although solely on playing cards that draw significantly extra energy than this card). On the plus aspect, this does look a lot neater than three 8-pin energy sockets on the subject of cabling, however you’ll need to ensure that the plug is firmly linked to the socket earlier than you turn in your PC.

Not like the svelte RTX 5070 playing cards – particularly the Founders Version – our ASRock pattern can also be a hefty beast, taking on three slots with an enormous cooler that sports activities three followers. This seems to be pretty typical of different RX 9070 XT card designs too.

FSR 4

As I discussed earlier, one of many massive new applied sciences AMD is launching with its new GPUs is FSR 4, its new upscaling tech that sees AMD FSR utilizing machine studying with AI cores for the primary time. It requires one of many new Radeon RX 9000-series GPUs to run, but it surely seems to be massively higher than FSR 3.

That’s a low bar, after all, as FSR has seemed fairly horrible up till now in comparison with Nvidia DLSS, particularly now that the latter has moved to the brand new transformer mannequin that appears even higher than earlier than. I’m very happy to say that FSR 4 seems to be completely improbable, although. I attempted it out in each Name of Responsibility Black Ops 6 and Marvel Rivals for this evaluate, and it’s an evening and day distinction on the subject of picture high quality.

Check out the comparative screenshots from Marvel Rivals beneath and you may see the distinction up shut. All these screenshots have been taken with the in-game decision set to 1080p with Extremely settings, and utilizing the Efficiency preset for every upscaling tech.

The native res screenshot has no anti-aliasing in any respect, which is why the traces are so jagged, however take a look at the wires within the FSR 3 screenshot in comparison with FSR 4 – they’re a lot sharper, and far much less blurry. There’s additionally a lot much less digital noise across the traces on FSR 4 than FSR 3. In the event you take a look at the circle patterns on the lanterns, you’ll additionally see that they’re sharper and extra clearly outlined on FSR 4 than FSR 3.

When it comes to efficiency, there’s a slight hit from utilizing FSR 4 in comparison with FSR 3 utilizing like-for-like settings, however the former seems to be so significantly better, to the purpose the place FSR 4 on the Efficiency setting nonetheless seems to be extra steady and fewer blurry than FSR 3 on the High quality setting, so you could as effectively use it.

On the time of writing, FSR 4 needs to be enabled by way of the AMD Radeon settings app in Marvel Rivals, and it then replaces FSR 3 as the usual mannequin within the sport. AMD has particularly made the FSR 4 API a drop-in alternative for any video games that already use FSR 3.1, which means it’s simple for builders to implement the brand new tech, and you may even allow it your self in some video games.

This was the identical in Name of Responsibility Black Ops 6, though on this case as soon as it was enabled within the AMD Radeon settings, FSR 4 then additionally appeared as a separate choice within the sport menus, so you possibly can select between each FSR 3 and FSR 4. Once more, the sport seems to be nice with FSR 4 enabled, even utilizing the Efficiency setting, and it supplies an honest step up in body charges as effectively.

Nevertheless, you at the moment have to disable variable shading (VRS) within the graphics settings to get essentially the most out of FSR 4 on this sport. With VRS enabled, we discovered that FSR 4 on the High quality setting was really slower than utilizing the native decision.

Keep in mind that each one these exams have been run within the undemanding Tutorial for the sport, because it’s simply repeatable on the subject of getting constant outcomes. They present you the distinction in efficiency between every FSR setting, however precise body charges within the sport can be slower than these figures.

How we check

To evaluate the efficiency of the Radeon RX 9070 XT, I’m working quite a lot of benchmarks utilizing actual video games, somewhat than artificial benchmarks. Every check is run thrice, recorded with Nvidia FrameView, and I report the imply common of the outcomes, discarding any apparent anomalies. I report two figures for body charges – firstly, the typical, which provides you an concept of the final body price you’ll obtain. Secondly, I report the 1% low, which is a mean of the bottom one % of outcomes recorded throughout the benchmark.

The latter is a extra dependable indicator of efficiency than the minimal, because it removes outliers, equivalent to moments the place a Home windows system occasion that’s unrelated to the efficiency of the GPU causes the sport to stutter. In different phrases, the 1% low is what you possibly can anticipate the precise minimal body price to be in these video games.

We’ve examined our ASRock Taichi pattern at its default overclocked settings. As such, keep in mind {that a} inventory velocity card can be somewhat slower than the outcomes listed beneath, in all probability with round a 2-3fps efficiency distinction.

To make a comparability, I additionally ran our F1 24 check with the cardboard underclocked to the usual 2.97GHz velocity, and the body price dropped by 2fps at 1440p. This ASRock card can be somewhat sooner than inventory velocity, however not by an enormous margin.

GPU check system specs:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
• CPU cooler: Corsair H100X RGB Elite
• Reminiscence: 32GB 6,000MHz G.Talent TridentZ RGB, CL28
• Motherboard: MSI MAG X870E Carbon WiFi
• SSD: 2TB WD Black SN850X
• PSU: Corsair RM1000X Shift

Benchmarks

Name of Responsibility Black Ops 6

I at all times wish to kick off the benchmarks part with a sport that finest reveals off the facility of a GPU, and on this case that’s Name of Responsibility Black Ops 6. AMD hasn’t simply improved ray tracing energy with RDNA 4, but it surely’s clearly additionally made massive strides on the subject of rasterization efficiency, and the 9070 XT actually shines right here. Not solely does the 9070 XT stomp all around the RTX 5070 and all of the last-gen AMD GPUs on this sport, but it surely even beats the RTX 5080 (sure, actually).

That’s outstanding when you think about that the latter prices $999, and realistically prices way more than this determine as there’s so little inventory. At 2,560 x 1,440, the Radeon RX 9070 XT averages 162fps on this sport utilizing the Excessive graphics preset, and that’s with none assist from FSR as effectively. Comparatively, the RTX 5080 averages 142fps and the 5070 solely averages 97fps. The 9070 XT has some wonderful uncooked shader energy at its disposal for the value.

The sport is even easily playable at 4K, the place the 9070 XT’s 99fps common with a 78fps 1% low is a improbable outcome, particularly in comparison with the respective 65fps and 48fps from the RTX 5070. I additionally benchmarked this sport at 4K with each FSR body gen and FSR 4 on the standard preset, the place the 9070 XT averaged 157fps, an excellent 29fps in entrance of the RTX 5080, whereas the 5070 may solely common 89fps. Because of FSR 4, the sport additionally seems to be actually good at these settings, not like with FSR 3.

F1 24

However what about ray tracing, you say? Nicely, check out the F1 24 outcomes on the Extremely Excessive graphics preset, which permits ray tracing as commonplace. Once more, even with out FSR enabled, the 9070 XT’s 121fps common at 1440p is an excellent outcome, being solely 12fps behind the RTX 5080 and 20fps forward of the RTX 4080 Tremendous. The RTX 5070’s common of 89fps seems to be positively weedy compared.

You’ll be able to even run this sport at 4K with these settings on the 9070 XT, which averages 73fps with a 60fps 1% low, in contrast with 53fps and 41fps respectively on the RTX 5070. Once more, the 9070 XT is even sooner than the RTX 4080 Tremendous on this check, in addition to all of the last-gen AMD GPUs, together with the Radeon RX 7900 XTX.

FSR body gen additionally works very well on this sport in case you’re ranging from a body price of at the least 60fps. At 4K with FSR on the standard setting and body gen enabled, the 9070 XT even beats the RTX 4090, in addition to the RTX 5080, averaging an enormous 202fps with a 1% low of 110fps.

There’s a caveat right here, although, which is that whereas the above result’s nice by way of body charges, this sport doesn’t but help FSR 4, and FSR upscaling seems to be considerably worse than DLSS on this sport, with blurriness and horrible noise surrounding the sides of the shifting tyres, for instance. Even so, you may get an honest body price out of the 9070 XT at 1440p with out utilizing FSR in any respect.

Cyberpunk 2077

How a few actually demanding ray tracing check, then? AMD’s GPUs have traditionally struggled with the ray tracing in Cyberpunk 2077, which is extremely demanding, particularly in case you allow the brand new Overdrive mode with path tracing. AMD has performed an enormous sport of catch up right here, although, as you possibly can see within the outcomes beneath.

I’ll begin with a check that reveals the essential uncooked ray tracing energy of the GPU with none assist from FSR upscaling and body technology. At 1080p with the Extremely ray tracing preset, the Radeon RX 9070 XT averages 86fps, inserting it between the RTX 4070 Ti and 4080, and an excellent 13fps forward of the RTX 5070. With a 72fps 1% low you could possibly even play the sport at these settings while not having to allow FSR. It is likely to be a primary individual shooter, but it surely’s way more about spectacle than a twitchy aggressive first individual shooter the place excessive body charges are essential.

Transfer as much as 1440p, and the Radeon RX 9070 XT averages 53fps on this check, with a 45fps 1% low, which is borderline playable, however we wouldn’t advocate taking part in the sport at these settings. Even right here, although, the 9070 XT remains to be fortunately sitting between the RTX 4070 Ti and 4080, whereas resting effectively above the RTX 5070’s 45fps common.

However what about path tracing? Can AMD actually do it now? To search out out, I enabled the Overdrive setting within the sport, and in addition enlisted some assist from FSR on the standard setting with body gen enabled. As you possibly can see within the outcomes beneath at 1080p, the Radeon RX 9070 XT is once more fortunately sitting between the RTX 4070 Ti and 4080. As with F1 24, the caveat right here is that there’s no FSR 4 help for Cyberpunk 2077 but, so the sport seems to be worse on this GPU than on the Nvidia playing cards, however AMD can clearly do path tracing now.

The elephant within the room right here, after all, is the completely large outcome from the RTX 5070 right here, because of its help for Nvidia’s multi body gen tech with DLSS 4. With a mean of 235fps, this sport is de facto {smooth} on the RTX 5070 at these settings, making it a better option than the 9070 XT. The latter can do it, although, and it’s an excellent 35fps than the Radeon RX 7900 XTX on this check, exhibiting simply how far AMD has include its ray tracing tech.

Transfer as much as 1440p, and the 9070 XT remains to be working moderately effectively at a 92fps common. I say moderately effectively, as a result of it has to make use of body gen to get there, however I discovered that the sport remains to be playable at these settings, and it seems to be improbable too. Once more, although, the RTX 5070’s help for multi body gen makes it a better option on this state of affairs.

Lastly, at 4K, the 9070 XT’s common of 45fps is unplayable, with its use of body gen making for horrible enter lag and stuttering. Nevertheless, don’t be fooled by the RTX 5070’s 80fps on this check both – this result’s reliant on multi body gen, and whereas it seems to be smoother in motion than on the 9070 XT, taking part in the sport on the 5070 at these settings isn’t an important expertise. Each GPUs merely have too low a base body price earlier than body gen is utilized.

Indiana Jones and the Nice Circle

The last word gaming ray tracing check proper now, after all, is Indiana Jones and the Nice Circle, however once more, AMD has made large progress with ray tracing, and the 9070 XT usually copes effectively with this sport. In my expertise, 60fps is the candy spot for this sport, which has some fistfight motion, however doesn’t require super-fast response instances.

I performed this sport over Christmas 2024 utilizing a Radeon RX 6950 XT, and I may nearly run it at 4K with the excessive graphics preset, so long as I used to be completely satisfied to tolerate occasional body price drops beneath 30fps, however the 9070 XT is massively higher, exhibiting simply how far AMD has include ray tracing.

Even at 4K, the 9070 XT can fortunately run this sport at 4K with the Extremely preset at a 67fps common, and a 59fps 1% low, which is identical outcome because the RTX 4070 Ti, and an excellent 5fps in entrance of the RTX 5070. That’s with none assist from FSR as effectively. Run this sport at 1440p and it’s even higher, with the 9070 XT averaging 105fps, once more sitting between the RTX 4070 Ti and RTX 4080.

The actually fascinating check on this sport, although, is the trail tracing mode that you could entry with the Full RT settings. All these settings have been beforehand lacking from the graphics menu on last-gen AMD GPUs, however they seem now on the 9070 XT, together with help for FSR upscaling and body gen.

With these settings maxed out utilizing the Supreme preset, the sport eats VRAM for breakfast, with the 12GB RTX 5070 stuttering alongside at simply 5fps, if it even managed to get by the check. Comparatively, the 16GB 9070 XT can at the least really run the sport at these settings with out falling over. Nevertheless, the expertise is totally horrible, and may’t be really useful, even simply at 1,920 x 1,080. It’s important to allow body gen to run this sport with the Full RT settings maxed out, and 48fps with body gen enabled makes for a stuttery, unplayable expertise, because the beginning body price is so low.

FSR body gen additionally behaved erratically in my testing on this sport in comparison with DLSS body gen. I believed I would be capable to at the least get the bottom stage Full RT setting working with the Extremely graphics preset on the 9070 XT with body gen enabled, however though the typical body price went up, it jumped everywhere, with massive drops frequently.

On the flip aspect, the RTX 5070 can’t run the sport at these settings both, because it doesn’t have sufficient VRAM. Sure, you could possibly run it on the Extremely preset on the RTX 5070 with multi body gen and get a massively sooner body price, however this isn’t a sport that you simply want sky excessive body charges to play, and the 9070 XT handles the usual Extremely settings simply effective.

Doom Everlasting

Lastly, our Doom Everlasting benchmark once more showcases the uncooked energy of the 9070 XT. With no ray tracing enabled, and the sport maxed out at 4K with the Extremely Nightmare settings, the 9070 XT averages 307fps, with a 190fps 1% low. This places the brand new GPU in entrance of all of the last-gen AMD GPUs, and once more sees it nestling between the RTX 4070 Ti and 4080. Comparatively, the RTX 5070’s 226fps common is a good distance behind.

You’re additionally completely effective so as to add ray tracing to the combo. At 2,560 x 1,440 with ray tracing, once more utilizing the Extremely Nightmare settings, the 9070 XT averages 322fps, an excellent outcome that’s once more in entrance of all of the last-gen AMD GPUs and the RTX 4070 Ti.

Even 4K is definitely achievable on this GPU with ray tracing, the place the 9070 XT averages 192fps, 48fps forward of the RTX 5070. Admittedly, you possibly can allow DLSS on the RTX 5070, and there’s no help for FSR on this sport, however the body charges are already so good on the 9070 XT that that is barely a problem.

Energy draw

There’s one massive draw back to the 9070 XT, and that’s its energy draw, and these figures aren’t helped by the truth that we’ve examined an overclocked pattern from ASRock, with 130MHz added to the enhance clock. There’s just one GPU that drew extra energy than the ASRock 9070 XT in our exams, and that’s the RTX 5090, with this 9070 XT card having related energy draw to the RTX 4090 when working video games.

Our check system pulled 525W from the mains with the ASRock Taichi 9070 XT put in, and we advocate utilizing at the least an 850W PSU for this card. That is one space the place the RTX 5070 completely wins out, with our system solely drawing 369W from the mains with the Nvidia card working at full pelt. Comparatively, the Radeon RX 9070 is way more power-frugal, drawing simply 395W in our exams at full load. There’s a worth to pay for all that further clock velocity, and it comes within the type of energy draw.

After all, the additional clock velocity from our overclocked card was undoubtedly chargeable for an excellent chunk of this determine, so I additionally ran our energy draw check with the GPU clocked all the way down to the usual 2.97GHz determine. At this velocity, our system drew 487W with the 9070 XT card (with a 2fps affect on body charges in F1 24), which isn’t as excessive because the RTX 4090, however remains to be an excellent deal greater than the RTX 5080, and much more than the RTX 5070.

On the plus aspect, the chunky cooler on this ASRock mannequin with its three followers does an important job of preserving this clocked-up GPU cool. The utmost GPU temperature solely hit 52°C throughout our exams, with a peak scorching spot temperature of 89°C. The followers spun as much as 1,480rpm throughout testing, they usually have been surprisingly quiet as effectively. Flick the change on the highest to the Quiet BIOS and the clock velocity drops to 2.97GHz, with the followers topping out at 999rpm – it’s splendidly quiet and solely somewhat slower.

Worth

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT worth is $599 at MSRP, with overclocked playing cards demanding more cash. That’s a improbable worth for the efficiency on supply, and whereas it’s $50 costlier than the RTX 5070, it’s value it for the faster body charges and further VRAM for future proofing.

Options

AMD Radeon RX 9070

With a lot decrease energy draw and a barely cheaper worth, the 9070 XT’s little sibling can also be a chief contender that largely beats the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070. It has the identical 16GB of VRAM and FSR 4 help, and it copes effectively with our sport exams as effectively. In case you have a PSU that may deal with it, although, you could as effectively pay the additional $50 and get the sooner 9070 XT. Learn our full AMD Radeon RX 9070 evaluate.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070

Nvidia’s $549 card has the good thing about multi body gen, which means you may get super-smooth body charges in video games that help it, so long as you’re already beginning at an honest body price within the first place – if you wish to max out all the attention sweet in Cyberpunk 2077, then it’s an important alternative. The RTX 5070 is slower than the 9070 XT in all places else, although, and it additionally solely comes with 12GB of VRAM. Learn our full Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 evaluate.

Verdict

Welcome again, AMD, we have been apprehensive about you for some time then, however you’ve executed it. The Radeon RX 9070 XT is a mid-range GPU triumph. It won’t have multi body gen, however that hardly appears to matter when a GPU is that this highly effective at its place to begin. Throughout almost all of our exams, the 9070 XT is considerably faster than the RTX 5070, even in video games with ray tracing enabled, and it has a great deal of shader energy at its disposal as effectively. The truth that this GPU even beats the RTX 5080 in some exams is solely unbelievable for the value.

In the meantime, FSR 4 has lastly given AMD the tech it must compete with Nvidia on the subject of decision upscaling. It seems to be improbable, even on the Efficiency setting, and it represents a monumental leap ahead from FSR 3.

It’s not all nice information, after all. The ability consumption is ridiculously excessive, particularly on our overclocked pattern, and FSR 4 is simply supported in a handful of video games too – on different video games, you’ll be caught with older variations of FSR that look horrible in comparison with DLSS.

Nevertheless, AMD has given its finest new GPU the correct amount of VRAM, an honest spec and, most significantly, the suitable worth, lastly offering Nvidia with some much-needed, credible competitors. In the event you’re out there for a brand new graphics card that prices underneath $600, then make no mistake, the Radeon RX 9070 XT is the one to purchase.

Don’t neglect to comply with us on Google Information for each day PC {hardware} information, evaluations, and guides, and be part of our neighborhood Discord to debate the evaluate and all the opposite newest goings on within the PC {hardware} world.