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AMD Radeon RX 9070 and RX...

AMD Radeon RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT review

9 March 2025 8:56 PM IST

AMD’s latest Radeon RX 9000 Series might be its most impressive GPU launch yet. For years, AMD has positioned itself as a budget-friendly alternative to NVIDIA, often delivering solid hardware but falling short in areas like ray tracing and driver support. However, the new Radeon RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT are changing the game. Priced at $549 and $599 respectively, these cards offer serious performance that makes them formidable contenders in the mid-range market.

Aiming for NVIDIA’s Throne

One of AMD’s biggest weaknesses has been its upscaling, frame generation, and ray tracing technologies, where NVIDIA has held a strong lead. However, with improved 4K gaming capabilities, enhanced ray tracing, and the latest FidelityFX Super Resolution 4 (FSR 4), AMD is closing the gap more than ever before. Even better, the RX 9070 XT significantly undercuts the RTX 5070 Ti by $150, making it an even more attractive option for gamers on a budget.

RX 9070 vs. RX 7900 Series – Spec Comparison

GPU

RX 9070 XT

RX 9070

RX 7900 XTX

RX 7900 XT

Architecture

Navi 48 (RDNA 4)

Navi 31 (RDNA 3)

Process

5nm

Transistors

53.9B

57.7B

Compute Units

Game Clock (MHz)

2400

2070

2300

2000

Boost Clock (MHz)

2970

2520

2500

2400

VRAM

16GB GDDR6

24GB GDDR6

20GB GDDR6

Memory Bus

256-bit

384-bit

320-bit

Memory Bandwidth

644.6GB/s

960GB/s

800GB/s

TDP

304W

220W

355W

300W

Price

$599

$549

$999

$899

Performance and VRAM Advantage

While the RX 9070 series may appear weaker than last-gen flagships on paper, don’t be fooled. AMD has smartly included 16GB of VRAM in both models, a crucial advantage over NVIDIA’s 12GB RTX 5070. With a 256-bit memory bus, the RX 9070 series ensures faster data transfer, benefiting high-resolution gaming and ray tracing.

PowerColor Hellhound Editions

Instead of releasing reference cards, AMD partnered with PowerColor for this launch. The PowerColor Hellhound Radeon RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT feature nearly identical designs, with the XT version boasting a bulkier 3.5-slot heatsink compared to the RX 9070’s 2.5-slot design. Notably, AMD sticks with traditional dual 8-pin PCIe connectors instead of the newer 12V-2x6 standard, making installation simpler but slightly messier for cable management.

Test Bench Setup

Our test system includes:

AMD Ryzen 9 9950X

ROG Maximus Z890 Hero

Samsung 990 Pro 1TB SSD

Kingston Fury 32GB DDR5

Windows 11 Home 64-bit

ASUS ROG Swift OLED PG32UCDM 4K Gaming Monitor

These GPUs will be tested against AMD’s Radeon RX 7900 series and NVIDIA’s RTX 40 and 50 Series. Stay tuned for our performance benchmarks to see if AMD’s latest GPUs truly live up to the hype.