Independent Reviews of AMD's Latest GPUs Are In: RX 9070 XT Stuns with Price and Power
AMD has officially unveiled the highly anticipated Radeon RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT, already being dubbed the “silent revolution” in the GPU market. While sales begin today, early benchmarks and expert reviews suggest a potential shift in the ongoing battle against NVIDIA.
The new GPUs are powered by the Navi 48 XTX (RX 9070 XT) and Navi 48 XT (RX 9070) chips, delivering impressive efficiency. The RX 9070, with its 56 compute units, outperforms the previous flagship RX 7900 GRE by 13% at 1080p and comes close to the RTX 4070 Ti. Meanwhile, the RX 9070 XT, despite having 64 CUs, has closed the performance gap with the high-end RX 7900 XTX to just 2-4% in 4K, indicating significant architectural optimizations.
AMD’s biggest advantage? Aggressive pricing. The RX 9070 XT, priced at $599, competes directly with the RTX 5070 Ti, which carries a recommended price of $750. In some cases, it even achieves parity. For instance, in Horizon Zero Dawn, the RX 9070 outperforms the RTX 5070 by 30%, while in Returnal, the gap between AMD’s GPU and NVIDIA’s Ti variant is less than 5%. Even with ray tracing enabled, AMD’s latest GPUs show noticeable improvements: the RX 9070 XT beats its predecessor by 4%, and in 4K tests with FSR 4, frame rates see a staggering 3.7x increase.
AMD’s new FSR 4 upscaler, according to Computerbase, is now closer than ever to NVIDIA’s DLSS 4 in quality, supporting over 30 games at launch. Meanwhile, the Fluid Motion Frames 2.1 technology, embedded at the driver level, allows frame generation in virtually any game with minimal artifacts. This is particularly beneficial for the RX 9070 XT, whose 16GB of GDDR6 memory with a bandwidth of 644.6GB/s ensures stability in demanding scenes.
Despite the RX 9070 XT’s official 304W power draw, tests on custom models from Sapphire and ASUS reveal that even under peak loads, GPU temperatures remain below 83°C, while GDDR6 memory stays within 90°C. In contrast, the reference RTX 5070 Ti often exceeds 85°C under similar conditions, raising questions about its cooling efficiency.
Experts agree: the success of these GPUs will depend on availability. If NVIDIA continues to struggle with RTX 5070 Ti supply, and AMD’s partners keep prices close to the suggested $549 and $599, Radeon has a strong chance of winning over disillusioned gamers. However, early listings of custom RX 9070 XT models in Europe show prices reaching €869, only €10 cheaper than the scarce RTX 5070 Ti.
The Radeon RX 9070 XT isn’t just a “solid response to NVIDIA”—it’s a strategic move shifting the focus from sheer performance to a balance of price, efficiency, and innovation. Will these new GPUs rewrite the rules of the game? The answer will become clear within a week as the first units land in gamers’ hands.