A powerful gaming GPU that’s nearly the right price

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 doesn’t have an easy task ahead of it, and that’s mainly thanks to its price. At $549 it has the same MSRP as the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070, and the new AMD GPU largely wins out in this battle. But this graphics card’s bigger problem isn’t Nvidia so much as AMD itself, with the substantially more powerful 9070 XT costing just $50 more.

At the time of writing, there were also stock problems, despite reports pointing to a much bigger supply of this new AMD graphics card than the RTX 5070. In a market sector that’s now looking uncomfortably cramped, if you’re looking to buy the best graphics card for your budget, is it worth considering the Radeon RX 9070 if prices settle down to a more reasonable level?

To find out, I’ve run several games at various different settings on the ASRock Steel Legend OC Radeon RX 9070 card we were sent for testing. Our benchmarks include demanding new titles such as Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, to veteran high-speed classics such as Doom Eternal, while looking at ray tracing and the new AMD FSR 4 resolution upscaling tech.

Specs

The Radeon RX 9070 is basically the same as its bigger sibling, the 9070 XT, but with a few parts of the GPU disabled, and a lower clock speed. The rest is all the same – you still get 16GB of GDDR6 VRAM running at 20Gbps, and it’s attached to a 256-bit memory interface. Comparatively, while the RTX 5070 uses the latest high-speed GDDR7 memory, it’s attached to a narrower 192-bit bus than the 9070 so, in actuality, the total memory bandwidth of the 5070 is only a little higher, at 672GB/s, compared to 644.6GB/s on the 9070.

In case that all sounds a bit baffling, the TLDR here is that the memory system on the 9070 is nearly as fast as the one on one RTX 5070, despite the latter using faster (and more expensive) memory chips. Importantly, the Radeon RX 9070 also has 16GB of VRAM, compared with just 12GB on the RTX 5070, which is much better for future proofing. We’re already seeing games pushing the limits of 12GB cards, even at just 1080p, and that situation is only going to get worse over the coming years.

Meanwhile, the GPU is the same Navi 48 chip found in the 9070 XT, but AMD has disabled eight compute units on it. These are the fundamental building blocks of AMD GPUs, and they each contain several of the tiny stream processors that work together to render your games, and they also each contain one of AMD’s new RT cores for ray tracing. As a result, you get eight fewer RT cores on the 9070 compared to the 9070 XT, and 512 fewer stream processors, for a total of 3,584.

The clock speed of the 9070 has also been reduced substantially compared to the 9070 XT, with the 9070 having a top boost clock of 2.52GHz, while the 9070 XT can boost all the way up to 2.97GHz. The latter has a substantial impact on power draw, with AMD saying the 9070 has a total board power of 220W, compared to 304W on the 9070 XT, and there’s a stark difference in our own power draw tests for the two GPUs, as we’ll see later. There’s no 16-pin power connector on 9070 cards either, unlike some 9070 XT cards, with only two standard eight-pin sockets required.

Features

One of the main selling points of the Radeon RX 9070 compared to its AMD predecessors is its AI performance. You’ll find 112 of AMD’s new AI cores in the 9070, which are required to process the company’s new FSR 4 resolution upscaling tech, as well as other AI applications. The former is potentially a big deal for gamers, as it shows AMD finally catching up with Nvidia in the world of resolution upscaling, using machine learning and AI hardware to do the work.

Resolution upscaling is where your GPU renders game elements such as your HUD, menus, and text at your screen’s full native resolution, but renders the 3D game world at a lower resolution before blowing the resulting 2D image up to the full resolution of your screen. This can boost performance considerably, with the best upscaling tech analyzing the scene and using AI to make it look as much like your screen’s native resolution as possible.

AMD has previously been at a disadvantage here, as the image quality of its FSR 3 upscaling tech looked significantly worse than Nvidia DLSS Super Resolution, with exaggerated blurriness and nasty digital noise and artifacts appearing.

FSR 4 changes all that, and it looks fantastic. As you can see in the Marvel Rivals screenshots below, the noise and blurriness of FSR 3 has all gone with FSR 4, with the end result looking very similar to Nvidia’s very latest version of DLSS that uses a new transformer model. Look at the sharpness of the wires and the patterns on the lanterns, and you can see that FSR 4 looks much sharper. Note, the 1080p native image below doesn’t have any anti-aliasing, which is why edges look so jagged.

In our tests we’ve also found that, while FSR 4 is a tiny bit slower than FSR 3 when it comes to frame rates with like-for-like settings, it looks so much better that it’s absolutely worth taking this small performance hit. FSR 4 on the Performance setting still looks better than FSR 3 on the Quality setting, so you may as well use the former.

The only downer is that it’s currently only supported in a small number of games – 30 to be precise, but it’s designed to be a drop-in API replacement for games that already support FSR 3.1, so hopefully game support will grow in the near future.

How we test

To test the gaming performance of the AMD Radeon RX 9070, I’m running several benchmarks using real games, rather than synthetic benchmarks. Each test is run three times, recorded with Nvidia FrameView, and I report the mean average of the results, discarding any obvious anomalies. I report two figures for frame rates – firstly, the average, which gives you an idea of the general frame rate you will achieve. Secondly, I report the 1% low, which is an average of the lowest one percent of results recorded during the benchmark.

The latter is a more reliable indicator of performance than the minimum, as it removes outliers, such as moments where a Windows system event that is unrelated to the performance of the GPU causes the game to stutter. In other words, the 1% low is what you can expect the actual minimum frame rate to be in these games.

I’ve tested our ASRock Steel Legend sample at its default overclocked settings, which raises the boost clock to 2.7GHz. As such, bear in mind that a stock speed card will be a little slower than the results listed below, usually with around a 2fps performance difference.

GPU test system specs:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
• CPU cooler: Corsair H100X RGB Elite
• Memory: 32GB 6,000MHz G.Skill TridentZ RGB, CL28
• Motherboard: MSI MAG X870E Carbon WiFi
• SSD: 2TB WD Black SN850X
• PSU: Corsair RM1000X Shift

Benchmarks

Call of Duty Black Ops 6

I’m going to start with one of the all-out wins for the Radeon RX 9070, which is Call of Duty Black Ops 6. The Black Ops 6 system requirements are fine to run the game on a low-spec system from a few years ago, but the top Extreme preset is really demanding, and is a good indicator of raw rendering performance. There’s no ray tracing in this game – at the top settings, you’re really stressing a GPU’s pure rasterization performance, and the Radeon RX 9070 has this in spades.

At 2,560 x 1,440, for example, without any help from FSR upscaling or frame gen, the 9070 averages a solid 140fps, compared to just 97fps for the RTX 5070. It’s even quicker than the RTX 4080 in this test, and only a smidgen away from the RTX 4080 Super – a great result for a GPU in this price bracket. The 9070 XT is significantly quicker in this game for not much more money, though, even beating the RTX 5080 with its average frame rate of 162fps.

Step up to 4K, and the Radeon RX 9070 averages a still-decent 89fps with a 1% low of 67fps, while the RTX 5070 is only running at 65fps with a 1% low of 48fps. This game also has the benefit of supporting AMD’s latest FSR 4 tech, which improves performance while still looking fantastic. Engaging the Performance mode, for example, still looks good, and bumped up the 4K average frame rate to 109fps on the RX 9070.

As a final test, I ran the Radeon RX 9070 with FSR 4 on the Quality setting, and with FSR frame gen enabled, at 4K. At these settings, the game is still responsive and looks good, and the Radeon RX 9070 averages 141fps. Comparatively, the RTX 5070 with the equivalent DLSS settings only averages 89fps, and it had visible glitching around the HUD elements. In short, this game is a straight win for the Radeon RX 9070.

F1 24

Another good showcase for the Radeon RX 9070’s abilities is F1 24, which enables ray tracing at the Ultra High settings by default, and shows how far AMD’s progressed when it comes to ray tracing performance. At 1080p using these settings, the Radeon RX 9070 averages a solid 130fps, while the RTX 5070 is well behind on 111fps, showing that AMD can beat the competition when it comes to ray tracing now as well.

Even without any help from FSR, the Radeon RX 9070 averages 101fps in this game at 1440p at the Ultra High settings, while the RTX 5070 lags behind on 89fps. This game also shows up the extra power you get from paying the extra for the 9070 XT, though, with the slightly more expensive GPU even beating the RTX 4080 Super with an average of 121fps.

Similarly, at 4K, the Radeon RX 9070 is again ahead of the RTX 5070, averaging 60fps compared to 53fps. Again, though the 9070 XT is the better GPU here, with a solid 1% low of 60fps and average of 73fps. Of course, you can also boost performance in this game by enabling FSR upscaling and frame gen, but there’s no support for FSR 4, and these results come with the caveat that FSR 3 looks horrible in this game, with nasty ghosting and noise around the edges of the spinning tyres, for example.

With FSR 3 on the quality setting, and frame gen engaged, the Radeon RX 9070 produces a superb frame rate of 168fps at 4K in F1 24, which on the face of it makes a mockery of the RTX 5070’s 94fps with the equivalent DLSS settings. However, it’s not a straight win, as the image quality on the RTX 5070 is much better.

Cyberpunk 2077

Next up is this generation’s Crysis, the game that continues to push GPUs to their limit several years after its release: Cyberpunk 2077. AMD’s GPUs have historically struggled with the ray tracing in this game compared to Nvidia, so I was interested to see how the company’s newly designed RT cores cope with its demands now.

To find out, I ran the game at the straight Ultra ray tracing preset, with no FSR enabled. At these settings, the Radeon RX 9070 averages 72fps with a 1% low of 57fps at 1080p, which is only 1fps away from the RTX 5070. AMD’s new GPU can’t beat the RTX 5070 here, but it basically matches it. Comparatively, the more powerful 9070 XT again pulls away at 86fps, showing why it’s worth the extra money if you can afford it.

Moving up to 1440p tells the same story, with just 1fps separating the Radeon RX 9070 from the RTX 5070 on the 1% low, but both GPUs have unplayable average frame rates of 45fps in this test. Again, the 9070 XT is a fair way ahead of both cards, with an average of 55fps.

The big test for the Radeon RX 9070 here, though, is path tracing. Even AMD’s high-end GPUs have previously struggled to cope with the demands of this complex ray tracing tech, especially compared to Nvidia’s GPUs, so I was hoping the new 9070 would close the gap. The good news is that the Radeon RX 9070 can actually do it now.

You’ll need to enable FSR frame gen and upscaling, and there’s sadly no support for FSR 4 so the game doesn’t look as good as on an Nvidia card with DLSS 4 either, but with these settings the Radeon RX 9070 averages 120fps at 1080p with path tracing. Meanwhile, the RTX 5070 is slightly quicker at 127fps using similar DLSS settings, showing it has an advantage when it comes to path tracing.

The RTX 5070 can pull its trump card here, though, as it can use multi frame gen to smooth the frame rate even further to a massive 235fps. The Radeon RX 9070 can do path tracing, which is definitely progress, but the RTX 5070 is the better option here, especially in games that support multi frame gen.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

Another really hardcore ray tracing test is Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. This live-action puzzler requires ray tracing at every single graphics preset, and it even has a Full RT section to enable path tracing features if your GPU is powerful enough to run it. To start, I ran this game at the Ultra settings at 1080p, to see how the AMD Radeon RX 9070 coped with it.

While the 9070 XT can handle this game really well, the 9070 is a fair bit behind, and this is again an area where the RTX 5070 is a superior choice. At 1440p, for example, the Radeon RX 9070 averages 92fps, which is still a great result in this title, but the RTX 5070 averages 100fps, while the 9070 XT climbs even further to 105fps.

Upping the ante to 4K shows the Radeon RX 9070 dropping to an average of 59fps, which is well ahead of the 45fps from the last-gen Radeon RX 7800 XT, but again behind the 64fps of the RTX 5070 and 67fps of the 9070 XT.

I was interested to see if the new 9070 could handle any of the Full RT settings with path tracing in this game. These settings were previously unavailable to AMD GPUs, but they’ve now been opened up on the new cards. The RTX 5070 couldn’t handle these settings at all in our tests, as the game wants more than 12GB of memory, resulting in performance plummeting to 5fps, and the game usually crashing to the desktop.

The Radeon RX 9070 copes a little better here, thanks to its 16GB of VRAM, but the game is still unplayable. With the Supreme graphics preset selected, Full RT maxed out, FSR 3 upscaling set to quality, and FSR frame gen enabled, the 9070 averages 47fps at 1080p, with a 1% low of 23fps. The lighting looks amazing, but the game is so stuttery that it’s unplayable, as the starting frame rate is so low.

To make matters worse, FSR frame gen doesn’t work well in the game at the moment, with the frame rate jumping very suddenly between highs and lows as it struggles to keep up. I tried dropping the graphics preset to Ultra, and the Full RT settings to Medium, again with the same FSR settings, but the game was still unplayable, despite reporting an average of 93fps, as FSR frame gen was so juddery – AMD GPUs simply can’t run this game well with path tracing right now.

Doom Eternal

Finally, Doom Eternal is another good test of raw rendering performance, and it scales really well into hundreds of frames per second as more GPU power is added. Running at 1440p with the Ultra Nightmare settings, and no ray tracing, the Radeon RX 9070 averages a massive 447fps, pulling ahead of the (still absurdly high) 423fps of the RTX 5070. Again, though, the 9070 XT’s 500fps average shows how much more power is available from this GPU’s bigger sibling.

Move up to 4K, and the Radeon RX 9070 is still averaging a massive 260fps, compared to 226fps on the RTX 5070, while the 9070 XT climbs beyond 300fps. In terms of rasterization power, the Radeon RX 9070 is a great GPU, but again you can see why it’s worth spending a little extra money on the 9070 XT.

Enable ray tracing in this game and the 9070 pulls off the same feat it managed in F1 24, which is pulling ahead of the RTX 5070, showing the big strides AMD has taken when it comes to improving ray tracing performance. At 1440p, the Radeon RX 9070 averages a great 289fps with ray tracing enabled, compared to 265fps for the RTX 5070.

Even 4K is fine for the Radeon RX 9070 in this game with ray tracing enabled, where it averages 163fps, with a 1% low of 108fps. Comparatively, the RTX 5070 averages 144fps in this game. The 9070 XT is even further ahead again, though, with a 192fps average.

Power draw

While the high power draw of the Radeon RX 9070 XT came as a bit of a shock to me when I looked at my wattage meter, I’m pleased to say that the Radeon RX 9070 is much more power efficient. That’s mainly thanks to the much lower clock speed of this GPU, but also partly down to the fact that it has some of the GPU’s parts disabled.

With the Radeon RX 9070 installed, our test rig pulled 395W from the mains at full load, and that’s with our ASRock Steel Legend sample running at its overclocked speed too. That’s a massive 130W less than with the ASRock Taichi 9070 XT OC running at its overclocked speed, and 92W less than the 9070 XT running at stock speed. It’s a little higher than the 369W drawn by our overclocked Asus RTX 5070 sample, but the difference here isn’t big enough to be a concern.

Price

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 price is ostensibly $549.99, matching the MSRP of the RTX 5070. In actuality, however, supply shortages have made it more expensive, as have price hikes shortly after the initial launch – realistically, you’re more likely to be spending at least $649.99 on one of these cards. That damages its appeal, and is bad for gamers, but the fact that the same issues have affected the RTX 5070 and 9070 XT, while supply of last-gen GPUs is steadily disappearing, means the Radeon RX 9070 is basically no less competitive as a result.

We advise ignoring scalpers on Ebay if you want to buy this GPU, and instead signing up to a notification system or pre-order at a genuine tech retailer, so you can buy a graphics card for as close to the MSRP as possible. It’s likely to take a few months before supply can keep up with demand.

Alternatives

AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT

The Radeon RX 9070’s main competitor isn’t so much the Nvidia RTX 5070 as its own stablemate, the Radeon 9070 XT. At MSRP, there’s only $50 separating the two GPUs, and even at current pricing there’s still not an enormous difference between prices of the two cards.

If you’re spending this much money on a GPU, you’ll get better value from the 9070 XT, which is significantly more powerful for only a little more money. It draws a lot of power, though, so you’ll need to make sure your PSU is up to the job. Read our full AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT review.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070

With even less stock than the Radeon RX 9070, the RTX 5070 is already at a disadvantage, and it’s also slower than the 9070 when it comes to raw rendering power, while its 12GB of VRAM weakens its future proofing.

There are solid reasons to consider this card, though, including the widespread game support for Nvidia’s DLSS tech, with this card supporting the full DLSS 4 suite, including multi frame gen, which uses AI to insert up to three AI-generated frames between the ones rendered by your GPU. This can work really well if your game already has a decent frame rate and your screen has a high refresh rate, resulting in smooth action. Read our full Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 review.

Verdict

It’s great to see AMD properly squaring up to Nvidia again, and the Radeon RX 9070 shows AMD playing a big game of catch up in ray tracing performance. Its new FSR 4 upscaling tech is fantastic as well. In terms of gaming rendering power, the Radeon RX 9070 is also clearly faster than the RTX 5070. The $549.99 MSRP for both these GPUs may be largely fictional now, but they’re still going up against each other, and the Radeon RX 9070 is generally more powerful, while also offering more VRAM.

Unlike the 9070 XT, however, it’s not a clean win for the 9070. While the 9070 can match or even beat the RTX 5070 in some ray tracing tests, the latter is quicker at path tracing, and its support for multi frame gen can make for really smooth frame rates in the right circumstances too. The fact that FSR 4 is only supported in a handful of games right now also makes the RTX 5070 look more appealing in a lot of games, as the image quality of DLSS looks much better than FSR 3, especially with the new DLSS 4 transformer model.

The main problem for the 9070, though, isn’t so much the RTX 5070, but AMD’s own 9070 XT. The difference between the GPUs might not be $50 when stock is short, but it’s a proportionally similar price difference, and the 9070 XT is significantly more powerful. If you can afford to stretch your budget, we’d absolutely recommend buying the 9070 XT over either the 9070 or RTX 5070.

The Radeon RX 9070 is a solid mid-range gaming GPU, if you can find it in stock, but it needs to be cheaper (both in real terms and in MSRP) to make it really worth considering over the 9070 XT.

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