AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT review: Best $599 4K GPU?
For the past few generations, AMD has struggled to compete with Nvidia in the high-end GPU market. However, with the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT, Team Red is shifting its focus to delivering the best value for mainstream gamers.
Priced at $599, this card goes head-to-head with the $749 GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, making it one of the most compelling GPUs available today.
Adding to its appeal, AMD introduces FSR 4, marking the first time AI upscaling has been included in an AMD graphics card. Simply put, if you're looking for a 4K gaming GPU without spending $1,999 on an RTX 5090, the RX 9070 XT is the way to go.
Specs and features
Built on the RDNA 4 architecture, the RX 9070 XT brings improvements to its shader cores, but the standout features are its new RT and AI accelerators.
The AI accelerators power FidelityFX Super Resolution 4 (FSR 4), enhancing image quality significantly over previous versions. While it doesn’t necessarily improve frame rates compared to FSR 3.1, it does provide much better visual accuracy. For those prioritizing performance, AMD allows users to toggle FSR 4 off via the Adrenalin software.
AMD has also optimized shader core efficiency, enabling the RX 9070 XT to outperform the previous-generation RX 7900 XT despite having fewer compute units (64 vs. 84). This is achieved with 4,096 streaming multiprocessors, 64 ray accelerators, and 128 AI accelerators.
However, there is a reduction in memory compared to the RX 7900 XT. The RX 9070 XT comes with 16GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, instead of the 20GB on a 320-bit bus found in the older card. While this may affect bandwidth, it remains sufficient for most 4K gaming scenarios.
In terms of power consumption, the RX 9070 XT requires 304W, a slight increase from the 7900 XT's 300W. Despite this, it proves to be more power-efficient in testing. Unlike previous generations, AMD is not releasing a reference design for the RX 9070 XT, meaning all available models will come from third-party manufacturers.
Cooling is handled well by third-party designs. The PowerColor Radeon RX 9070 XT Reaper, for instance, maintained temperatures at 72°C during testing.
The card also sticks with traditional power connectors, requiring two 8-pin PCI-E connectors—avoiding the melting adapter issues seen with some Nvidia GPUs. Display outputs include three DisplayPort 2.1a and one HDMI 2.1b. However, the lack of a USB-C port may disappoint some users.
FSR 4: A game-changer for AMD
AI upscaling has long been a missing piece for AMD, especially with Nvidia's DLSS dominating in this space. FSR 4 finally changes that, leveraging AI accelerators to enhance image quality.
However, this improvement comes at a performance cost. 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 reduced this to 121 fps—a 10% drop in performance but with superior image quality. Similarly, in Monster Hunter Wilds, the switch from FSR 3 to FSR 4 resulted in a 20% performance loss, from 94 fps to 78 fps.
While the drop in frame rates may concern some, FSR 4 is an opt-in feature. Users can toggle it off if they prefer higher performance.
AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT benchmarks
At $599, the Radeon RX 9070 XT delivers exceptional performance, competing closely with the $749 RTX 5070 Ti. Across multiple benchmarks, it is on average 2% faster than the 5070 Ti and 17% faster than the RX 7900 XT, which launched at $899.
Test system:
Priced at $599, this card goes head-to-head with the $749 GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, making it one of the most compelling GPUs available today.
Adding to its appeal, AMD introduces FSR 4, marking the first time AI upscaling has been included in an AMD graphics card. Simply put, if you're looking for a 4K gaming GPU without spending $1,999 on an RTX 5090, the RX 9070 XT is the way to go.
Specs and features
Built on the RDNA 4 architecture, the RX 9070 XT brings improvements to its shader cores, but the standout features are its new RT and AI accelerators.
The AI accelerators power FidelityFX Super Resolution 4 (FSR 4), enhancing image quality significantly over previous versions. While it doesn’t necessarily improve frame rates compared to FSR 3.1, it does provide much better visual accuracy. For those prioritizing performance, AMD allows users to toggle FSR 4 off via the Adrenalin software.
AMD has also optimized shader core efficiency, enabling the RX 9070 XT to outperform the previous-generation RX 7900 XT despite having fewer compute units (64 vs. 84). This is achieved with 4,096 streaming multiprocessors, 64 ray accelerators, and 128 AI accelerators.
However, there is a reduction in memory compared to the RX 7900 XT. The RX 9070 XT comes with 16GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, instead of the 20GB on a 320-bit bus found in the older card. While this may affect bandwidth, it remains sufficient for most 4K gaming scenarios.
In terms of power consumption, the RX 9070 XT requires 304W, a slight increase from the 7900 XT's 300W. Despite this, it proves to be more power-efficient in testing. Unlike previous generations, AMD is not releasing a reference design for the RX 9070 XT, meaning all available models will come from third-party manufacturers.
Cooling is handled well by third-party designs. The PowerColor Radeon RX 9070 XT Reaper, for instance, maintained temperatures at 72°C during testing.
The card also sticks with traditional power connectors, requiring two 8-pin PCI-E connectors—avoiding the melting adapter issues seen with some Nvidia GPUs. Display outputs include three DisplayPort 2.1a and one HDMI 2.1b. However, the lack of a USB-C port may disappoint some users.
FSR 4: A game-changer for AMD
AI upscaling has long been a missing piece for AMD, especially with Nvidia's DLSS dominating in this space. FSR 4 finally changes that, leveraging AI accelerators to enhance image quality.
However, this improvement comes at a performance cost. 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 reduced this to 121 fps—a 10% drop in performance but with superior image quality. Similarly, in Monster Hunter Wilds, the switch from FSR 3 to FSR 4 resulted in a 20% performance loss, from 94 fps to 78 fps.
While the drop in frame rates may concern some, FSR 4 is an opt-in feature. Users can toggle it off if they prefer higher performance.
AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT benchmarks
At $599, the Radeon RX 9070 XT delivers exceptional performance, competing closely with the $749 RTX 5070 Ti. Across multiple benchmarks, it is on average 2% faster than the 5070 Ti and 17% faster than the RX 7900 XT, which launched at $899.
Test system:
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D
- Motherboard: Asus ROG Crosshair X870E Hero
- RAM: 32GB G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo @ 6,000MHz
- SSD: 4TB Samsung 990 Pro
- CPU Cooler: Asus ROG Ryujin III 360
- Game performance results:
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 – 15% faster than the RTX 5070 Ti
- Cyberpunk 2077 – 5% slower than the RTX 5070 Ti at 4K Ray Tracing Ultra
- Metro Exodus – 24% faster than the RX 7900 XT, on par with the 5070 Ti
- Red Dead Redemption 2 – 125 fps (RTX 5070 Ti: 110 fps)
- Total War: Warhammer 3 – 13% slower than the 5070 Ti
- Assassin’s Creed Mirage – 12% faster than the 5070 Ti
- Black Myth: Wukong – 8% faster than the 5070 Ti
- Forza Horizon 5 – 5% faster than the 5070 Ti
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