AMD Radeon RX 9070: In-Depth Review

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 arrives at a pivotal moment for graphics cards, following closely on the heels of Nvidia’s latest generation. Priced at $549, the RX 9070 directly challenges the underwhelming GeForce RTX 5070, a competition where AMD emerges victorious, making it a prime choice for 1440p gaming enthusiasts. Yet, the situation is nuanced, with AMD's own pricing strategy complicating matters. The RX 9070 is only $50 less than the superior Radeon RX 9070 XT, and despite being 8% slower and 9% cheaper, the minimal price gap makes the XT a tempting upgrade. Still, when it comes to choosing between AMD's offerings, Team Red's prospects look promising.

Purchasing Guide

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 is set to launch on March 6, with a starting price of $549. Expect various models at higher price points. For the best value, aim to purchase a model as close to the base price as possible, especially given its close pricing to the RX 9070 XT.

AMD Radeon RX 9070 – Photos

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Specs and Features

Like its sibling, the RX 9070 XT, the RX 9070 leverages the new RDNA 4 architecture, offering substantial performance enhancements. It significantly outpaces the previous generation's Radeon RX 7900 GRE, despite having 30% fewer compute units. With 56 Compute Units and 3,584 shaders, along with Ray and AI Accelerators, the RX 9070 excels in ray tracing and introduces AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) 4, marking the debut of AI upscaling on AMD GPUs.

The card comes equipped with 16GB of GDDR6 VRAM on a 256-bit bus, mirroring the 7900 GRE's configuration, ensuring robust performance at 1440p for years to come. While GDDR7 memory would have been a nice addition, it would likely have increased the price. AMD recommends a 550W power supply for the RX 9070, which has a 220W power budget, though my testing showed peaks 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 slight factory overclock.

FSR4

Since the rise of DLSS in 2018, AI upscaling has become a key method for boosting performance without sacrificing image quality. FSR 4 introduces this capability to AMD GPUs, using AI to upscale lower resolution images to native resolution. While this technology slightly reduces performance compared to FSR 3, the trade-off is improved image quality with fewer artifacts. The Adrenalin software allows toggling between FSR 3 and FSR 4, letting users choose between performance and quality 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 competes fiercely with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070, generally outperforming it by 12% at 1440p. It also boasts a 22% lead over the RX 7900 GRE, despite fewer cores. The tested Gigabyte Radeon RX 9070 Gaming OC model, with a 7% clock speed boost, further enhances its performance.

All testing was conducted using the latest public drivers available at the time: Game Ready driver 572.60 for Nvidia cards and Adrenalin 24.12.1 for AMD, with review drivers for the RX 9070 and 9070 XT from AMD, and for the RTX 5070 from Nvidia.

In 3DMark, the RX 9070 nearly ties with the RTX 5070 in ray tracing tests but significantly outperforms it in non-ray tracing tests. Real-world gaming benchmarks show the RX 9070 excelling in titles like Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Cyberpunk 2077, even in games traditionally favoring Nvidia hardware.

The RX 9070's performance in Metro Exodus, Red Dead Redemption 2, and other titles further underscores its value, often outpacing the RTX 5070 by significant margins. With 16GB of VRAM, the RX 9070 is well-equipped for future gaming demands, making it a compelling choice over the RTX 5070, which, despite its GDDR7 memory, falls short in performance and value.