AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT Review: The GPU the Market Demands
AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT delivers powerful gaming performance at a great price, competing with higher-end GPUs while offering great value.
AMD had one job with the launch of its RDNA 4 graphics cards: to keep up with Nvidia’s Blackwell GPUs & with AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT, it did just that—and more.
The RX 9070 XT is the most powerful consumer graphics card AMD has ever released, surpassing the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX and almost matching the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 in 4K and 1440p gaming performance.
With a price of just $599 (about £510 / AU$870), it’s much more affordable than the RTX 4080 and RX 7900 XTX, especially when considering online price inflation. While AMD GPUs tend to stay closer to their MSRP compared to Nvidia’s inflated prices, the RX 9070 XT offers great performance at a reasonable cost.
The RX 9070 XT does have some drawbacks, like a 309W maximum power draw but that’s typical for high-end GPUs. It’s not the best choice for creative or AI tasks, areas where Nvidia excels. But for gamers, it’s hard to beat—especially at this price. Even if inflation hits, it’ll still be a more affordable option compared to other high-end GPUs like the RX 7900 XTX or RTX 4080.
AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT Specification
🎮 Native 4K Ultra Performance
| Game Title | Average FPS |
|---|---|
| F1 24 | 157 FPS |
| God of War: Ragnarok | 109 FPS |
| Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered | 99 FPS |
| Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 | 74 FPS |
| Dragon Age: The Veilguard | 76 FPS |
| Assassin’s Creed Mirage | 98 FPS |
| Resident Evil 4 (Ray Tracing) | 87 FPS |
| DOOM Eternal (Ray Tracing) | 144 FPS |
🔧 General Specifications
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Model | AMD Radeon™ RX 9070 XT |
| Family | Radeon RX |
| Series | Radeon RX 9000 Series |
| Board Type | Desktop |
| OS Support | Windows 10 (64-bit), Windows 11 (64-bit), Linux (x86 64-bit) |
| Additional Power Connector | 2×8-Pin |
🎯 GPU Specifications
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Compute Units | 64 |
| Boost Frequency | Up to 2970 MHz |
| Game Frequency | 2400 MHz |
| Ray Accelerators | 64 |
| AI Accelerators | 128 |
| Peak Pixel Fill-Rate | Up to 380.2 GP/s |
| Peak Half Precision Compute | 97.3 TFLOPs |
| Peak Single Precision Compute | 48.7 TFLOPs |
| Peak INT4 Performance | 1557 TOPs |
| Peak INT8 Performance | 779 TOPs |
| ROPs (Raster Operations) | 128 |
| Stream Processors | 4096 |
| Transistor Count | 53.9 Billion |
⚡ Power & Memory
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Typical Board Power (Desktop) | 304W |
| Minimum PSU Recommendation | 750W |
| GPU Memory | 16 GB GDDR6 |
| Infinity Cache Technology | 64 MB |
| Memory Speed | Up to 20 Gbps |
| Memory Interface | 256-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | Up to 640 GB/s |
🎥 Media & Rendering Support
| Feature | Supported |
|---|---|
| HDMI™ 4K Support | Yes |
| 4K H264 Decode | Yes |
| 4K H264 Encode | Yes |
| H265/HEVC Decode | Yes |
| H265/HEVC Encode | Yes |
| AV1 Decode | Yes |
| AV1 Encode | Yes |
🔌 Connectivity
| Port Type | Version |
|---|---|
| DisplayPort™ | 2.1a |
| HDMI™ | 2.1b |
AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT: Affordable Power with Widespread Availability
AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT is available starting March 6, 2025, with a base price of $599 (about £510 / AU$870). At launch, you can find it in the US, UK, and Australia from brands like Asus, Sapphire, and Gigabyte.
Compared to its competitors, the RX 9070 XT is priced about $150 lower than the RTX 5070 Ti and $50 more than the RTX 5070. It also matches the original MSRP of the RTX 4070 Super, though that card is now harder to find.
With competitive pricing and availability, the RX 9070 XT offers strong value, especially if it remains closer to MSRP than Nvidia’s alternatives making it a great option for gamers looking for high performance at a fair price.
AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT: Sleek and Powerful Design
AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT, particularly the Sapphire Pulse version I tested, lacks a reference card from AMD. With a 304W TGP, the card features a triple-fan cooler & a large heatsink, making it unsuitable for small form factor cases.
Due to its high power draw, it requires three 8-pin PCIe power connectors. If you have the necessary connectors, be prepared for some cable management challenges.
In terms of aesthetics, the Sapphire Pulse design is simple and understated, lacking the flashiness seen in other models like the RTX 5090. If you prefer a clean, non-flashy look, this card is a great option.
AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT: Power & Performance
The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT delivers gaming performance close to the RTX 4080, even with ray tracing enabled. For gamers on a budget, this card is a standout performer. It’s especially impressive considering it launches at a fraction of the price of Nvidia’s high-end offerings making it an incredible value.
In gaming, RX 9070 XT comes within 7% of the RTX 4080’s performance, with just a slight drop in 4K gaming, showcasing its power in raster-heavy tasks. It also outperforms the RTX 4070 Ti and RX 7900 XTX in 4K gaming thanks to its 16GB of VRAM. Even though it isn’t the best at AI or creative tasks, RX 9070 XT is competitive in raster-based workloads like gaming & photo editing.
Although RTX 5070 Ti is superior for ray tracing, RX 9070 XT is a formidable rival. It’s a fantastic option for anybody looking for a cost-effective update without sacrificing quality because it offers best gaming experience for the money.
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Pros and Cons
| ✅Pros | ❌Cons |
|---|---|
| 🔥 Near RTX 4080 performance at half the price | ⚡ High power consumption |
| 🎮 16GB VRAM for smooth 4K gaming | 🎨 Not great for creative work |
| 🚀 PCIe 5.0 support | 🚫 No AMD reference card |
Conclusion
AMD launches the Radeon RX 9070 XT, offering RTX 4080-level gaming performance at half the price. While it’s not ideal for creative work or AI tasks, it’s a dream come true for gamers frustrated with Nvidia’s RTX 50 series. Best of all, you might actually find it in stock at a reasonable price.
