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- The RX 9070 XT is the most impressive AMD card to launch since the RX 580, as AMD played its best cards at the right time: releasing a mid-ranger that can compete with Nvidia’s counterparts for a lower price tag.
- Performance figures put the 9070 XT well above the RTX 5070 and marginally trailing the 5070 Ti in rasterization performance.
- Supply issues are being seen already, with US stores mostly sold out and UK stores headed toward the same fate.
With the announcement of the RX 9070 and 9070 XT models from AMD, the entire consumer market was collectively hoping for AMD to play their cards right. They got the pricing right, with the RX 9070 model aimed at $550, the same as the RTX 9070. Meanwhile, the 9070 XT comes in at $150 cheaper than the RTX 5070 Ti. All that remained was for AMD’s performance claims to be true, and thankfully, they are. I can now comfortably say that this is AMD’s most impressive GPU since 2017’s RX 580.
The RX 9070 Series
AMD’s flagship RDNA 4 cards include the two models, 9070 and 9070 XT. The architecture involves changes to all areas, including the shaders, Ray Tracing Cores, and AI Accelerators. With this architecture, AMD’s performance figures claimed up to 38% better performance than the $550 RX 7900 GRE. Similarly, the GPU is supposed to output as much as 51% and 26% more FPS than the ($1000) RX 6900 XT and the ($1500) RTX 3090 cards at 4K Ultra.
It all sounded great, and everybody was hoping that AMD would deliver. Well, the benchmarks are out, and the results are very positive.
The Performance
All the reviews we’ve seen from prominent channels/reviewers have been great. Looking at figures from the folks at Hardware Unboxed, for example, the RX 9070 XT outscored the RTX 5070 by 13.3% at 1440P resolution. Its lead over the RX 7900 GRE is 20.2%, which is not as high as AMD claimed but still quite sizeable, especially given the mere $50 MSRP difference. At 4K, the performance uplift is even more impressive: 32.1% faster than the 7900 GRE and only 1% slower than the RTX 5070 Ti!
Ray tracing numbers have also improved, although overall, Nvidia still reigns supreme in this department. The 9070 XT can’t catch up with the 5070 Ti but is just 2-3% slower than the RTX 5070. This is actually impressive, given that you won’t find the RTX 5070 at the cost price, but you will find the 9070 XT at or close to MSRP. Looking further toward the bright side, there’s a ~26% uplift at 1440P and 4K resolutions over the 7900 XTX!
Hitting Nvidia Where It Hurts And Making It A Big One
We’ve seen for years that AMD has never had the upper hand over Nvidia in enthusiast-grade GPUs, and ray tracing performance has been even more of a different story. Where AMD has done well for years, though, is the affordable and mid-range market (though the definition of the mid-range market has changed drastically over the years!). We saw this with the RX 580, a card that competed with the GTX 1060 while being cheaper. Similarly, AMD did extremely well with the 5700 XT, a card that beat the RTX 2070 while having a $100 cheaper MSRP.
This was AMD’s next big move in that category, with AMD comprehensively beating the $50 cheaper RTX 5070 and only being marginally slower than the much more expensive RTX 5070 Ti. Not only that, it was a great time for AMD to strike given the range of issues that plagued the recently launched RTX 5000 GPUs: melting power connectors, missing ROPs, and cards not available at even close to MSRP.
Scalpers On The Attack, Unfortunately
Early leaks alleged that the RX 9070 XT would be in more ready supply than the RTX 5000 cards, and we did see a ton of stock at Overclockers UK, for example. However, the dire situation with Nvidia’s cards meant that even more gamers are looking to move to Team Red. Add scalpers to the mix, and the new AMD cards are in the same turmoil that the RTX Blackwell cards have been facing.
Looking at PCPartPicker (US) and Overclockers UK, we see almost no stock available! A simple search on eBay shows us where these cards ended up. We see RX 9070 XT listings all priced well above $1000, which is already $400 above MSRP! At similar prices, you can actually grab the RTX 5070 Ti (although most of the listings for it are $1300 or more). Thus, this great card is being hampered by supply issues at the hands of scalpers and desperate gamers.
An Excellent Card, More Supply Needed!
Although, ultimately, a good card would be readily available to gamers who need it at a fair price, it isn’t a perfect world out there. Nvidia’s GPUs are facing the same issues, which itself was a contributing factor to AMD’s shortage. In any case, we’re hoping for things to improve. For that, we need better monitoring of marketplaces, bot detection systems, and limits on the number of cards a single customer can purchase.
In the meantime, you should be on the lookout for new stock and sign up for any waiting lists available for the new card.
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[Hardware Reviewer]
Hi! I’m Ali Tauseef, and I have been writing for Tech4Gamers since 2022. I love all things computer hardware but am particularly fond of CPUs and motherboards, and I like to stay up-to-date about the latest advancements in these worlds, and when possible, write about it. When I’m not doing that, I like to get into a little FPS action in CS2 or get lost in the vast world of RDR2.
Get In Touch: ali@tech4gamers.com
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