AMD Radeon RX 9070 Review

The AMD Radeon RX 9070: A Strong Contender in the Mid-Range GPU Market

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 enters the graphics card arena at an opportune moment. Following Nvidia's latest generation launch, the RX 9070, priced at $549, directly challenges the underperforming GeForce RTX 5070. This competition is one AMD easily wins, making the RX 9070 a compelling choice for 1440p gaming.

However, AMD's internal competition presents a slight complication. The RX 9070 is only $50 cheaper than its superior sibling, the Radeon RX 9070 XT. While the performance difference—approximately 8%—justifies the price gap mathematically, the extra $50 for significantly better performance is hard to ignore. Nevertheless, AMD's offerings present a strong showing for Team Red.

Purchasing Guide

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 launches March 6th, with a starting price of $549. Expect price variations across different models. Prioritize models closest to the MSRP, given its proximity in price to the RX 9070 XT.

AMD Radeon RX 9070 – Photos

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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 containing 64 Streaming Multiprocessors (SMs), totaling 3,584 shaders. Each compute unit includes one Ray Accelerator and two AI Accelerators (56 and 112 respectively). These enhancements, particularly to ray tracing and AI acceleration, enable the RX 9070 to compete effectively in ray-traced games. The improved AI Accelerators facilitate the introduction of FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) 4, bringing AI upscaling to AMD GPUs for the first time.

The RX 9070 features 16GB of GDDR6 VRAM on a 256-bit bus, similar to the 7900 GRE, sufficient for 1440p gaming for several years. 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 peak consumption of 249W; a 600W PSU is recommended for safety.

Importantly, unlike previous generations, AMD isn't releasing a reference design. All RX 9070 cards will be from third-party manufacturers. The reviewed card was 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 crucial for performance enhancement without significant image quality loss. FSR 4 finally brings this capability to AMD GPUs.

FSR 4 utilizes previous frames and in-game data, processed through an AI model, to upscale lower resolution images to the native resolution. This differs from FSR 3's temporal upscaling, lacking an AI algorithm to refine details, potentially causing 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 observed in Monster Hunter World.

The Adrenalin software allows users to choose between FSR 3 (slightly better performance) and FSR 4 (better image quality), catering to individual preferences.

AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT & 9070 – Benchmarks

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Performance

Priced identically to the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070, the RX 9070 consistently outperforms it at 1440p, showing a 12% average lead and a 22% advantage over the RX 7900 GRE. This is remarkable, considering the 30% reduction in cores.

Note that the tested RX 9070 was factory overclocked (approximately 7% boost clock). This contributes to the performance advantage.

Testing utilized current public drivers (Nvidia Game Ready driver 572.60 and AMD Adrenalin 24.12.1). The RX 9070 and 9070 XT were tested with AMD's review drivers, as was the RTX 5070.

The RX 9070 excels in 3DMark, indicating strong potential performance. In games, it consistently outperforms the RTX 5070 in titles like Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Cyberpunk 2077, Metro Exodus, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Assassin's Creed Mirage. While Total War: Warhammer 3 and Black Myth Wukong showed closer results, the RX 9070 still holds its own. Forza Horizon 5 also demonstrates a significant performance lead.

The RX 9070's superior performance and 33% more VRAM than the RTX 5070 make it the more future-proof and value-driven option.