AMD Radeon RX 9070 Review: A Solid Card Overshadowed by Its Sibling

AMD’s Radeon RX 9070 enters the graphics card arena with a price tag of $550, aiming to deliver a compelling gaming experience for PC enthusiasts. While the card presents a solid foundation for gaming, particularly at 1440p resolution, it finds itself in an awkward position due to the existence of its more powerful sibling, the Radeon RX 9070 XT, priced just slightly higher at $600. This internal competition casts a shadow over the RX 9070, making it a difficult recommendation in most scenarios.

The RX 9070 is a capable GPU that can handle some 4K gaming scenarios, albeit with compromises in settings. However, its sweet spot lies in the 1440p resolution, where it delivers a smoother and more enjoyable gaming experience. The card also proves to be a viable option for intensive graphics rendering tasks.

In terms of direct competition, the RX 9070 goes head-to-head with Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 5070, which shares a similar manufacturer-suggested price. In our testing, the RX 9070 demonstrated a slight edge in synthetic benchmarks and some games, potentially making it an attractive alternative for those seeking to avoid Nvidia’s supply constraints.

However, pushing the RX 9070 to its limits at 4K resolution with maximum in-game settings often requires significant compromises, diminishing the overall experience. Furthermore, the decision between AMD and Nvidia hinges on individual preferences, particularly regarding features like DLSS 4 and multi-frame generation. For gamers heavily invested in single-player titles and high-refresh-rate monitors, these Nvidia-exclusive technologies hold considerable appeal, despite AMD’s advancements in FidelityFX Super Resolution 4 (FSR 4) upscaling software.

The RX 9070 XT, on the other hand, competes directly with the RTX 5070 Ti, offering comparable performance at a more affordable price point. While the RX 9070 surpasses the RTX 5070 in several benchmarks and games while sharing the same $550 price, it may not be the ideal choice for budget-conscious gamers.

Under the hood, AMD’s new graphics cards leverage the company’s latest RDNA 4 architecture. This architecture represents an upgrade over RDNA 3, incorporating new pipelines to enhance ray tracing performance. Unlike Nvidia’s Blackwell architecture, derived from its AI training chips, AMD’s RDNA architecture relies on "computing units." AMD claims that its latest computing units offer improved efficiency compared to previous generations, allowing for increased overall performance with fewer units.

The RX 9070 shares the same VRAM specifications as the RX 9070 XT, featuring 16 GB of GDDR6 VRAM with a 644.6 GB/s memory bandwidth. In contrast, the RTX 5070 utilizes 12 GB of GDDR7 memory. This larger memory capacity gives the RX 9070 potential advantages at higher resolutions, although this is offset by other specifications. The RX 9070 features 56 compute units, while the RX 9070 XT boasts 64. Additionally, the RX 9070 includes 112 AI accelerators, compared to the 128 found in its more expensive counterpart. The RX 9070’s boost clock speeds are also reduced to 2.51 GHz, compared to the RX 9070 XT’s 2.97 GHz.

One advantage of the RX 9070 is its lower power consumption, drawing 220 W compared to the XT’s 304 W. AMD recommends a 550 W minimum PSU for the RX 9070, but recommends a 700W PSU for the RX 9070 XT.

For our review, AMD provided the Acer Nitro Radeon RX 9070 16 GB graphics card. This card features a standard two-slot, three-fan design and operates silently within a PC tower. Connectivity options include three DisplayPort 2.1 ports and a single HDMI 2.1 port. The card does not automatically install any unwanted software upon installation.

Unlike Nvidia, AMD does not offer first-party Founders Edition graphics cards, resulting in variations in thermals, layout, and other technical details across different card manufacturers. AMD also retains the dual 8-pin power connectors, avoiding the controversy surrounding potentially melting power connectors on the RTX 5090.

Our benchmark tests were conducted on a system equipped with an Intel Core Ultra 9 285K CPU and 32 GB of DDR5, 6400 MT/s RAM, ensuring ample power for both AMD and Nvidia graphics cards.

Benchmark results reveal that AMD’s cards excel in synthetic tests. The RX 9070 outperformed the RTX 5070 in several scenarios, including those that stress ray tracing capabilities. In 3D Mark Port Royal, the RX 9070 scored 17819 compared to 13835 on the RTX 5070. It also matched the RTX 5070 in 3D Mark Speed Way tests and exceeded Nvidia’s low-level GPU by 900 points in 3D Mark Steel Nomad.

Regarding AI performance, AMD’s cards demonstrated a significant advantage over Nvidia. The Radeon RX 9070 achieved a score of 25961 in Geekbench AI, falling just 684 points short of the RX 9070 XT and surpassing the RTX 5070 Ti by nearly 4,000 points.

In gaming, the RX 9070 outperformed the RTX 5070 in some titles, such as Horizon Zero Dawn: Remastered, achieving 89 FPS at 4K without upscaling and 116 FPS with FSR on balanced settings. This also surpassed the RTX 5070 Ti.

However, in Cyberpunk 2077, the RX 9070 achieved approximately 18 FPS at 4K, slightly below the RTX 5070. Even with AMD’s last-gen FSR 3 upscaling, the RX 9070 reached 44 FPS in benchmarks, marginally higher than the RTX 5070 with Nvidia’s latest upscaler. At 1080p, the Radeon card excelled, managing 120 FPS compared to Nvidia’s 110 FPS with upscaling on balanced settings.

Some games, like Black Myth Wukong, exhibit better performance on Nvidia cards. Titles like Alan Wake II, with FSR 2 enabled and ray tracing disabled, struggled to reach 60 FPS at 4K. With ray tracing enabled, framerates dropped to the mid to low 30s.

Certain games, particularly those with FSR 4 support, thrive on AMD’s latest GPUs. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 maintained over 60 FPS even with ray tracing on high settings. In Star Wars Outlaws, with FSR 3 enabled, frame rates averaged 80 to 90 FPS, with minimal impact when enabling ray tracing.

During testing, some games exhibited hitching and frame drops, potentially due to pre-release drivers. AMD’s Adrenalin software is still undergoing refinement.

The RX 9070 offers a viable option for gamers seeking slightly cheaper GPUs, particularly for 1080p or 1440p resolutions. However, it may not be the top choice.

AMD has a history of prioritizing hardware while its software lags behind Nvidia’s. AMD’s FSR 4, powered by the AI accelerators on RDNA 4, represents an improvement over previous generations but lacks the widespread adoption of Nvidia’s DLSS 4. While DLSS 4 and multi-frame generation receive significant attention, FSR 4 proves sufficient for achieving stable framerates on mid-range GPUs.

However, the limited number of games that currently support FSR 4 poses a challenge. While support is available in Sony’s PlayStation 5 to PC ports, along with Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Monster Hunter Wilds, Kingdom Come Deliverance II, and Civilization VII, it pales in comparison to the 75+ games that support DLSS 4 at launch.

For lower-level GPUs, AI upscaling plays a crucial role in achieving desired performance levels. While the RX 9070 excels at 1440p, achieving consistent 4K performance may require compromises. The RTX 5070 offers a more compelling option due to its broader support for upscaling technologies and the growing adoption of multi-frame generation.

However, the RX 9070 XT presents a significant challenge to the RX 9070. Priced at just $50 more, the RX 9070 XT offers a substantial performance boost, making it the preferred choice unless stock availability becomes a major issue. If you can find the RX 9070 XT at or near $600, it is undoubtedly the superior option.