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

Breathe out, untense your muscle tissues, and chill out, as a result of after years of being misplaced within the wilderness AMD has lastly provide you with an honest GPU for an incredible value. I don’t have to succeed in for obscure use instances to recommend situations the place the brand new AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT is definitely price shopping for, as a result of this time AMD has genuinely provide you with the products, with a graphics card that largely beats Nvidia at its personal recreation.

It may not 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 numerous our ray-traced benchmarks, and it might probably do path tracing too. Secondly, AMD’s new FSR 4 tech is an absolute recreation changer in terms 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 perfect graphics card. It’s not all excellent, as I’ll clarify over this evaluation 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 greatest showcase for AMD’s new RDNA 4 structure, with it utilizing a maxed-out Navi 48 GPU. It comprises 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 likewise to hit greater clock speeds. Certainly, the utmost enhance clock of two.97GHz is considerably greater 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 pace additional, as proven by our ASRock Taichi mannequin’s most enhance clock of three.1GHz. AMD specifies a 2.4GHz recreation clock because the frequency more than likely to be hit throughout gaming, however that is fairly conservative – our overclocked pattern was frequently going over 3GHz throughout recreation testing.

The brand new GPU structure additionally sees AMD transferring to a brand new method 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 comprises certainly one of these new RT cores, so that you get 64 within the 9070 XT. AMD can 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.

In contrast to 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, however it’s cheaper and accessible in bigger provide. As you’ll see from our exams later, there’s additionally a great argument to be made for prioritizing capability over efficiency in terms of reminiscence on this value bracket.

There’s a giant quantity on the finish of the specs checklist, although, which is the 304W energy draw, and this determine will climb greater on overclocked playing cards as properly. 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 facet, this does look a lot neater than three 8-pin energy sockets in terms of cabling, however you’ll wish to be sure that the plug is firmly linked to the socket earlier than you turn in your PC.

In contrast to the svelte RTX 5070 playing cards – particularly the Founders Version – our ASRock pattern can 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, however it appears to be like massively higher than FSR 3.

That’s a low bar, in fact, as FSR has appeared 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 more than happy to say that FSR 4 appears to be like completely incredible, although. I attempted it out in each Name of Responsibility Black Ops 6 and Marvel Rivals for this evaluation, and it’s an evening and day distinction in terms of picture high quality.

Check out the comparative screenshots from Marvel Rivals under and you may see the distinction up shut. All these screenshots had 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 have 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. Should you have 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 appears to be like so significantly better, to the purpose the place FSR 4 on the Efficiency setting nonetheless appears to be like extra secure and fewer blurry than FSR 3 on the High quality setting, so chances are you’ll as properly 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 recreation. AMD has particularly made the FSR 4 API a drop-in alternative for any video games that already use FSR 3.1, that means it’s straightforward 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 recreation menus, so you may select between each FSR 3 and FSR 4. Once more, the sport appears to be like nice with FSR 4 enabled, even utilizing the Efficiency setting, and it offers an honest step up in body charges as properly.

Nonetheless, you presently must disable variable shading (VRS) within the graphics settings to get probably the most out of FSR 4 on this recreation. 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 had been run within the undemanding Tutorial for the sport, because it’s simply repeatable in terms of getting constant outcomes. They present you the distinction in efficiency between every FSR setting, however precise body charges within the recreation shall be slower than these figures.

How we check

To evaluate the efficiency of the Radeon RX 9070 XT, I’m working numerous benchmarks utilizing actual video games, relatively than artificial benchmarks. Every check is run 3 times, 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 thought 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 in the course of 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 may count on 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 pace card shall be somewhat slower than the outcomes listed under, 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 pace, and the body price dropped by 2fps at 1440p. This ASRock card shall be somewhat quicker than inventory pace, 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.Ability 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 recreation that greatest exhibits 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, however it’s clearly additionally made massive strides in terms of rasterization efficiency, and the 9070 XT actually shines right here. Not solely does the 9070 XT stomp everywhere in the RTX 5070 and all of the last-gen AMD GPUs on this recreation, however it even beats the RTX 5080 (sure, actually).

That’s outstanding when you think about that the latter prices $999, and realistically prices rather 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 recreation utilizing the Excessive graphics preset, and that’s with none assist from FSR as properly. Comparatively, the RTX 5080 averages 142fps and the 5070 solely averages 97fps. The 9070 XT has some superb uncooked shader energy at its disposal for the worth.

The sport is even easily playable at 4K, the place the 9070 XT’s 99fps common with a 78fps 1% low is a incredible outcome, particularly in comparison with the respective 65fps and 48fps from the RTX 5070. I additionally benchmarked this recreation at 4K with each FSR body gen and FSR 4 on the standard preset, the place the 9070 XT averaged 157fps, a great 29fps in entrance of the RTX 5080, whereas the 5070 may solely common 89fps. Due to FSR 4, the sport additionally appears to be like actually good at these settings, in contrast to with FSR 3.

F1 24

However what about ray tracing, you say? Effectively, 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 appears to be like positively weedy compared.

You may even run this recreation 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 quicker 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 recreation in the event you’re ranging from a body price of a minimum of 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 recreation doesn’t but help FSR 4, and FSR upscaling appears to be like considerably worse than DLSS on this recreation, with blurriness and horrible noise surrounding the sides of the transferring 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 couple of 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 the event you allow the brand new Overdrive mode with path tracing. AMD has performed an enormous recreation of catch up right here, although, as you may see within the outcomes under.

I’ll begin with a check that exhibits 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 a great 13fps forward of the RTX 5070. With a 72fps 1% low you would even play the sport at these settings while not having to allow FSR. It may be a primary individual shooter, however it’s rather 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 suggest enjoying 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 properly above the RTX 5070’s 45fps common.

However what about path tracing? Can AMD actually do it now? To seek out out, I enabled the Overdrive setting within the recreation, and likewise enlisted some assist from FSR on the standard setting with body gen enabled. As you may see within the outcomes under 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 appears to be like 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, in fact, is the completely huge 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 recreation is de facto {smooth} on the RTX 5070 at these settings, making it a more sensible choice than the 9070 XT. The latter can do it, although, and it’s a great 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 properly at a 92fps common. I say moderately properly, 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 appears to be like incredible too. Once more, although, the RTX 5070’s help for multi body gen makes it a more sensible choice on this situation.

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. Nonetheless, 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 appears to be like smoother in motion than on the 9070 XT, enjoying the sport on the 5070 at these settings isn’t a fantastic 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, in fact, is Indiana Jones and the Nice Circle, however once more, AMD has made enormous progress with ray tracing, and the 9070 XT usually copes properly with this recreation. In my expertise, 60fps is the candy spot for this recreation, which has some fistfight motion, however doesn’t require super-fast response occasions.

I performed this recreation 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 under 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 recreation 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 a great 5fps in entrance of the RTX 5070. That’s with none assist from FSR as properly. Run this recreation 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 attention-grabbing check on this recreation, although, is the trail tracing mode that you would be able to entry with the Full RT settings. All these settings had 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 a minimum of really run the sport at these settings with out falling over. Nonetheless, the expertise is completely horrible, and might’t be really helpful, even simply at 1,920 x 1,080. It’s a must to allow body gen to run this recreation 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 recreation in comparison with DLSS body gen. I assumed I’d be capable to a minimum of get the bottom degree 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 in all places, with massive drops frequently.

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

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 high-quality so as to add ray tracing to the combination. 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 well achievable on this GPU with ray tracing, the place the 9070 XT averages 192fps, 48fps forward of the RTX 5070. Admittedly, you may allow DLSS on the RTX 5070, and there’s no help for FSR on this recreation, 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 suggest utilizing a minimum of 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 rather more power-frugal, drawing simply 395W in our exams at full load. There’s a value to pay for all that additional clock pace, and it comes within the type of energy draw.

In fact, the additional clock pace from our overclocked card was undoubtedly liable for a great 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 pace, 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 a great deal greater than the RTX 5080, and much more than the RTX 5070.

On the plus facet, the chunky cooler on this ASRock mannequin with its three followers does a fantastic 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, and so they had been surprisingly quiet as properly. Flick the change on the highest to the Quiet BIOS and the clock pace 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 value is $599 at MSRP, with overclocked playing cards demanding extra money. That’s a incredible value for the efficiency on provide, and whereas it’s $50 dearer than the RTX 5070, it’s price it for the faster body charges and additional VRAM for future proofing.

Options

AMD Radeon RX 9070

With a lot decrease energy draw and a barely cheaper value, the 9070 XT’s little sibling can be a major contender that largely beats the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070. It has the identical 16GB of VRAM and FSR 4 help, and it copes properly with our recreation exams as properly. You probably have a PSU that may deal with it, although, chances are you’ll as properly pay the additional $50 and get the quicker 9070 XT. Learn our full AMD Radeon RX 9070 evaluation.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070

Nvidia’s $549 card has the good thing about multi body gen, that 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 a fantastic selection. 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 evaluation.

Verdict

Welcome again, AMD, we had been apprehensive about you for some time then, however you’ve finished it. The Radeon RX 9070 XT is a mid-range GPU triumph. It may not have multi body gen, however that hardly appears to matter when a GPU is that this highly effective at its start line. Throughout practically 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 properly. The truth that this GPU even beats the RTX 5080 in some exams is just unimaginable for the worth.

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

It’s not all nice information, in fact. The facility consumption is ridiculously excessive, particularly on our overclocked pattern, and FSR 4 is barely 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.

Nonetheless, AMD has given its greatest new GPU the correct quantity of VRAM, an honest spec and, most significantly, the proper value, lastly offering Nvidia with some much-needed, credible competitors. Should you’re available in the market for a brand new graphics card that prices below $600, then make no mistake, the Radeon RX 9070 XT is the one to purchase.

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