For the last couple of generations, AMD has been striving to challenge Nvidia's dominance in the high-end graphics card market. With the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT, however, Team Red has strategically shifted focus, conceding the ultra-high-end to the RTX 5090 and instead aiming to deliver the best graphics card for the majority of gamers—a goal it resoundingly accomplishes.

Priced at $599, the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT goes head-to-head with the $749 GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, positioning itself as one of the premier GPUs available today. AMD enhances its appeal with the introduction of FSR 4, marking the first time an AMD graphics card has featured AI upscaling. This makes the RX 9070 XT the go-to choice for 4K gaming, especially for those not willing to spend $1,999 on the RTX 5090.

Purchasing Guide

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT will be available starting March 6 at a base price of $599. Be aware that prices may vary, as third-party versions may be priced higher. Aim to purchase one under $699 for the best value.

AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT – Photos

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Specs and Features

Built on the RDNA 4 architecture, the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT showcases significant advancements, particularly with its new RT and AI Accelerators. The AI Accelerators power FidelityFX Super Resolution 4 (FSR 4), bringing AI upscaling to AMD GPUs for the first time. While FSR 4 doesn't necessarily boost frame rates over FSR 3.1, it significantly enhances image quality. For those prioritizing performance over image quality, the Adrenalin software offers a toggle to disable FSR 4.

AMD has also refined its shader cores, enhancing performance per core. Despite featuring 64 Compute Units compared to the 84 in the previous Radeon RX 7900 XT, the RX 9070 XT delivers a substantial generational improvement at a more accessible price. Each Compute Unit contains 64 Streaming Multiprocessors (SMs), totaling 4,096, along with 64 ray accelerators and 128 AI accelerators.

However, the RX 9070 XT has less memory than its predecessor, with 16GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus versus 20GB on a 320-bit bus. This results in reduced capacity and bandwidth, but it remains sufficient for most 4K gaming scenarios. The new architecture is more efficient, though the RX 9070 XT has a slightly higher power budget of 304W compared to the 300W of the 7900 XT. In testing, the 7900 XT still consumed more power, peaking at 314W versus 306W for the 9070 XT.

Cooling the RX 9070 XT is manageable with its standard power budget, and it relies on third-party manufacturers since AMD does not offer a reference design. The Powercolor Radeon RX 9070 XT Reaper I reviewed features a compact triple-fan design, maintaining temperatures at 72°C during tests. The card requires two 8-pin PCI-E power connectors and includes three DisplayPort 2.1a and one HDMI 2.1b port, though the absence of a USB-C port is a missed opportunity for added versatility.

FSR 4

For years, AMD has sought an AI upscaling solution to rival Nvidia's DLSS. Previous versions of FidelityFX Super Resolution struggled with ghosting and fuzziness, but the Radeon RX 9070 XT's AI-powered FSR 4 addresses these issues. Like DLSS, FSR 4 uses AI accelerators to analyze previous frames and game engine data to upscale lower-resolution images to native resolution, resulting in superior image quality compared to FSR 3, albeit with a slight performance trade-off.

In Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 at 4K Extreme settings with FSR 3.1 set to "Performance", the RX 9070 XT achieved 134 fps. Switching to FSR 4 dropped performance to 121 fps, a 10% reduction, but with noticeable improvements in image quality, particularly in elements like grass and text. Similarly, in Monster Hunter Wilds, the RX 9070 XT delivered 94 fps at 4K with FSR 3 and ray tracing enabled, but this fell to 78 fps with FSR 4—a 20% drop. While this performance hit is disappointing, it's expected due to the more demanding nature of AI upscaling. AMD assures that the enhanced image quality compensates for the performance drop, which may be more appealing to players focused on single-player experiences.

FSR 3.1 remains available, and FSR 4 is an opt-in feature that can be toggled off in the Adrenalin software, where it was disabled by default on my review sample.

AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT & 9070 – Benchmarks

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Performance

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT delivers exceptional value at $599, undercutting the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti by 21% while being, on average, 2% faster. Although the RTX 5070 Ti outperforms the RX 9070 XT in some games, their competitive performance is a significant victory for AMD.

Across my test suite, the RX 9070 XT was about 17% faster than the RX 7900 XT, which launched at $899 two years ago, and 2% faster than the new $749 RTX 5070 Ti. The RX 9070 XT particularly excels at 4K, maintaining its lead even with ray tracing enabled, making it the ultimate entry-level 4K graphics card.

All graphics cards were tested on the latest available drivers. Nvidia cards used Game Ready Driver 572.60, except for the RTX 5070, which used review drivers. AMD cards were tested on Adrenalin 24.12.1, except for the Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070, which used pre-release drivers provided by AMD.

While 3DMark isn't a playable game, it offers valuable insights into the potential performance of graphics cards. The RX 9070 XT outperforms the 7900 XT by 18% in Speed Way, though it falls 18% behind the RTX 5070 Ti. In the Steel Nomad benchmark, however, the RX 9070 XT's performance jumps to 26% over the RX 7900 XT and even surpasses the RTX 5070 Ti by 7%.

In Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, the Radeon RX 9070 XT leads the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti by 15%, while outperforming the Radeon RX 7900 XT by 6%. In Cyberpunk 2077, traditionally favoring Nvidia, the RX 9070 XT achieves 71 fps at 4K with the Ray Tracing Ultra preset and FSR 3 in performance mode, compared to the RTX 5070 Ti's 75 fps with DLSS—a modest 5% difference despite the significant price gap.

Metro Exodus, tested without upscaling, sees the RX 9070 XT deliver 47 fps at 4K, nearly matching the RTX 5070 Ti's 48 fps, while the RX 7900 XT lags at 38 fps. In Red Dead Redemption 2, the RX 9070 XT achieves 125 fps, outpacing the RTX 5070 Ti's 110 fps and the RX 7900 XT's 106 fps.

The RX 9070 XT falls 13% behind the RTX 5070 Ti in Total War: Warhammer 3, with 76 fps compared to the 7900 XT's 71 fps. In Assassin's Creed Mirage, it rebounds with 163 fps, outperforming the RTX 5070 Ti's 146 fps by 12% and the RX 7900 XT's 150 fps by 9%. The RX 9070 XT's most surprising victory comes in Black Myth Wukong, where it achieves 70 fps at 4K with the Cinematic Preset and FSR set to 40%, compared to the RTX 5070 Ti's 65 fps with DLSS—an 8% lead. In Forza Horizon 5, the RX 9070 XT delivers 158 fps, edging out the RTX 5070 Ti's 151 fps by 5%.

Announced quietly at CES 2025, the Radeon RX 9070 XT feels like AMD's strategic counter to Nvidia's Blackwell graphics cards. At $599, it represents a return to sensible pricing in the graphics card market. While not as fast as the RTX 5080 or RTX 5090, those cards are overkill for most users and cost at least $400 more.

The last great flagship graphics card was arguably the GTX 1080 Ti, launched at $699 in 2017. While the RX 9070 XT may not claim the title of the fastest consumer card, it feels like the first worthy flagship since then, offering exceptional performance at a competitive price point.