AMD Radeon RX 9070 Review

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 is one of AMD’s first RDNA4 graphics cards, launching the Radeon 9000 series of GPUs. Hitting the shelves the day after the poorly received RTX 5070 launch, the RX 9070 and 9070 XT are immediately in a strong position, allowing these cards to seize the mid-range market, targeting gamers playing at 1440p and 4K. The AMD Radeon RX 9070 is the cheaper of the two cards, available at $549, the same as the RTX 5070.

The RX 9070 and 9070 XT are the competition we’ve been waiting to see, as NVIDIA has continued to dominate the desktop gaming space with its RTX 4000-series and, more recently, the sold-out RTX 5080 and RTX 5090. However, with the RTX 70-class GPUs continuing to disappoint, it makes sense for builders and gamers to look elsewhere, and this is precisely where AMD can outshine its Team Green competitors… if the performance is any good.

We’ve reviewed the RX 9070 XT, and from our benchmarking, this is one of the best cards launched in 2025. However, the only proper way to tell if the RX 9070 is also good is by putting it through the wringer in a range of gaming benchmarks, which is precisely what we’ve done in this review. The RX 9070 is designed to compete with the RTX 5070, so seeing where the performance lies when these graphics cards go head-to-head will be interesting.

In this review, we’ll analyse and assess the specs, architecture, and design of the AMD Radeon RX 9070 and look at some gaming benchmarks to see how it compares to its competitors. We’ve worked tirelessly to provide a massive selection of comparative graphs that showcase performance across modern cards from the previous generation and current.

Specification

As we’ve alluded to above, the RX 9070 has launched with an MSRP of $549, which is $100 more expensive than the RX 7700 XT and $50 more than the RX 7800 XT, while sitting at the same price as the RTX 5070. The RX 9070 directly targets the RTX 5070 with regards to its performance, so being priced the same is fairly competitive, especially if the 1440p and 4K performance is any better.

However, I feel the biggest competitor for the RX 9070 is its more powerful sibling, the RX 9070 XT. The reason is that the RX 9070 XT is $50 more, and you can leverage substantial performance gains. Unless you’re massively restricted to a budget, I feel most gamers will bite the bullet and pay an extra $50 for a massive boost to gaming performance. Because of this, we think the RX 9070 may have a hard time. If it were $50 cheaper, creating a more significant gap versus the RX 9070 XT, it would be a different story. However, with the current pricing, it isn’t easy to justify not spending $50 more.

The rest of the specs of the RX 9070 are relatively similar to those of the RX 9070 XT on paper. It has 16GB of GDDR6 VRAM sitting on a 256-bit memory bus. It also has a similar number of stream processors, compute units, and ray tracing units. One of the big differences between the two is the clock speed, with the RX 9070 boosting at 2.54GHz, while the RX 9070 XT maxes out at 2.97GHz, which is highly impressive. It’s worth noting that the RX 9070 uses the same generation of compute and ray tracing units as the 9070 XT, designed to enhance gaming and ray tracing performance across the board.

The RX 9070’s power consumption is 220W, which is lower than that of the RX 9070 XT, the previous generation’s 7700 XT and 7800 XT, and the RTX 5070. This means those looking to upgrade to the RX 9070 likely won’t need to buy a new power supply.

Design

On the design front, we’ll be looking at the Gigabyte Gaming OC model of the RX 9070. While AMD does provide a reference model, they often have a range of MSRP cards available, and the Gigabyte Gaming OC model is one of these. Unfortunately, as an MSRP graphics card, the RX 9070 Gaming OC model is not exactly famed for its looks.

This is a basic graphics card with a black shroud and black fans. Fortunately, Gigabyte has opted for a triple-fan design, so there’s no shortage of airflow, keeping the card nice and cool. The front of the card features a dark black plastic shroud. The overall look from the front is pretty simplistic, but its dark colouring helps it to blend in with other black components.

The top of the Gigabyte Gaming OC variant has a small strip of RGB text, which will be visible if you install the card traditionally. This card’s RGB lighting can be configured within software like Gigabyte’s Control Center, allowing you to customise patterns and lighting effects and synchronise it with the rest of your build. Additionally, if you’re not a fan of the text, it can be slid to the left to provide a small strip of RGB LEDs, offering a different look.

The card’s rear features a sturdy metal backplate fastened to the GPU’s IO bracket. A small cutout towards the right of the GPU allows air to flow through the heatsink. It’s great to see a backplate used on this GPU, as it provides extra rigidity and a much more premium feel to the card.

Lastly, for power, the Gigabyte RX 9070 Gaming OC features two PCI-E eight-pin GPU power headers. AMD haven’t jumped to the 12VHPWR connector NVIDIA uses, but we may see it implemented with future cards. Both PCI-E headers have a small LED on top indicating whether the connectors are properly seated. This is handy for troubleshooting and first-time builders, as you can clearly see if the GPU is plugged in properly.

Architecture

The RDNA4 architecture powers the lineup of RX 9000 graphics cards. AMD has made multiple claims that RDNA4 is a game-changer for graphics card architecture, with this new generation bringing improvements to compute units, ray tracing units, and AI acceleration. Additionally, with AMD stepping away from top-end graphics cards, it’s no surprise that RDNA4 offers significant performance improvements to make these mid-range cards a more justifiable option in the GPU space.

As we’ve covered in our RX 9070 XT review, all of the improvements that AMD has made to RDNA4 are in an attempt to bring massive performance gains to rasterised gameplay and to increase AI capabilities. AI is a big part of the PC component market, with most manufacturers claiming that their new parts cater to AI workloads. For this reason, it’s not shocking that AMD has done this to compete with NVIDIA, which has based much of its performance gains for the RTX 5000-series on AI.

Hardware aside, FSR, Fluid Motion Frames and AMD Frame Generation have also improved. One of the big focuses of FSR4 is image quality improvement. Compared to FSR 3.1 upscaling, FSR4 improves stability, preserves more detail, and reduces image ghosting. This tech is available in over 30 games at launch and will continue to be supported in newer and older games with future driver updates. It’s also worth noting that you can force FSR4 through the AMD Adrenalin software, which works in FSR 3.1-supported titles.

Fluid Motion Frames is AMD’s equivalent of Multi Frame Generation, launched in 2024. This tech increases framerates and perceived smoothness, making choppy games more playable immediately. This technology is also entirely driver-side, which means it can be switched on in any game where the performance isn’t quite up to scratch. AFMF 2.1 offers better smoothness and less ghosting and minimises artifacts.

Performance

As always, all of our benchmarking and testing is done by our in-house benchmarker, Harry Coleman, who has worked tirelessly to gather all the data needed for our RX 9070 content. The AMD Radeon RX 9070 and a range of competitor graphics cards have been tested in our primary benchmarking system paired up with the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D to provide the best framerates possible across all of the titles we tested. The games featured in this benchmarking section provide a mix of AAA games and modern Esports titles to see how the RX 9070 holds up in a range of games.

Cyberpunk 2077

Settings: 4K, Shadow Quality High, Indirect Lighting High, Reflections High, Crowd Density High, Particle Quality High, Volumetric Lighting High, Motion Blur off, GTAO Quality High, Grass Quality High, Contact Shadows High VSync Off, DLSS: On/Off, Ray Tracing: On/Off, Textures: High

The first game we decided to run was Cyberpunk 2077, in which the resolution was set to 4K, and the rest of the settings were set to high. In this particular benchmark, the RX 9070 offered a highly impressive showing of 68FPS, eight frames more than the RTX 5070. This card is slightly better than the RX 7900 XT by two FPS and offers a reasonable boost compared to the RTX 5070.

After switching on FSR, ray tracing, and AMD’s Frame Gen technology, the RX 9070 jumped to 81FPS, beating the RTX 5070 by about 20 frames. Keep in mind that this is still at 4K and with ray tracing enabled, which AMD tends to struggle with more. Despite this, it’s highly impressive that the RX 9070 can outperform the RTX 5070.

Alan Wake 2

Settings: 4K, Post-Processing High, Texture Resolution High, Texture Filtering High, Volumetric Lighting High, Global Illumination Quality High, Shadow Detail High, Terrain Quality High, Ray-Tracing: Enabled, Ray Tracing Preset High, DLSS: On/Off, Frame Generation: On/Off

In Alan Wake 2 at 4K high settings, the RX 9070 performed poorly in this rasterised benchmark. With an average output of 29FPS, I’d argue that this is unplayable for most gamers. We’d like to see 60FPS as a minimum, but as you can see from the rest of the results, not even the RTX 5070 can reach this output.

When ray tracing and FSR were switched on, performance worsened significantly. The RX 9070 sat at 8FPS, while the RTX 5070 hovered around 30FPS. Again, the performance here is pretty unplayable. Even with the 30FPS from the RTX 5070, this won’t be very smooth compared to what you’d see at 60FPS.

Marvel Rivals

Settings: 4K, Graphics Quality High, Global Illumination Lumen GI- High Quality, Reflection Quality Screen Space Reflections, Model Detail High, Post-Processing High, Shadow Detail High, DLSS On/Off, Frame Gen On/Off

In the hit Esports title Marvel Rivals at 4K high settings, the RX 9070 offered a substantial output of 70FPS, sitting just below the RTX 5070 at 71FPS. Marvel Rivals isn’t a particularly hard title to run, but we’re blown away with how well the RX 9070 holds its own at 4K, especially without the assistance of settings like FSR and Frame Generation.

Once we switched on DLSS and Frame Gen, the RX 9070 surged up to 156FPS, which is a 16FPS gain versus the RTX 5070. Ultimately, at framerates this high, a 16FPS gain won’t really be visible. However, those with high refresh rate displays are definitely benefitting from picking up an AMD GPU in this benchmark.

COD Black Ops 6

Settings: 1440p/4K, Graphics Preset Custom, Texture Resolution High, Depth of Field On, Detail Quality High, Particle Resolution High, Shader Quality High, Shadow Quality High, Screen Space Shadows High, DLSS On/Off, Frame Gen On/Off

In COD Black Ops 6, we played two different runs at 1440p and 4K. In the 1440p run, the RX 9070 averaged 143FPS, yet again beating out the RTX 5070 at 119FPS. This is a pure rasterised benchmark, so the RX 9070 isn’t receiving any extra help from FSR or AMD Frame Gen. Again, this demonstrates the RX 9070’s strengths at 1440p.

After increasing the resolution to 4K, performance dropped slightly, but the RX 9070 again proves its strength at 4K. With an average of 101FPS, the RX 9070 beats the RTX 5070 by a whopping 25FPS. This is a massive gain overall, putting the RX 9070 in a better position compared to the RTX 5070.

Hogwarts Legacy

Settings: 4K Effects High, Material High, Fog High, Sky High, Foliage High, Post Process High, Shadows High, Textures High, View Distance High, Population High, Anti Aliasing TAA High, Windowed Fullscreen

The last AAA game we ran was Hogwarts Legacy at 4K high settings. In this benchmarking run, the RX 9070 hit 80FPS, 10FPS above the RTX 5070. Yet again, the RX 9070 shows that it’s a powerful competitor at this resolution, easily beating out most of the alternatives.

Apex Legends

Settings: 1440p, Anti-aliasing TSAA, Texture Filtering 8X, Model Detail High, VSync Disabled, Effects High, Ambient Occlusion Quality High

In Apex Legends at 1440p, the RX 9070 is just below the game’s framerate cap of 296FPS. The vast majority of modern cards that we’ve benchmarked in Apex Legends at 1440p get close to the max framerate, so it’s no surprise that the RX 9070 XT, based on our other benchmarks, does so well in this title.

Fortnite

Settings: 1080p, Competitive, View Distance Far, FPS Unlimited, VSync Off, Anti-Aliasing TAA, Shadows Off, Reflections Off, Textures Low

The last game we ran to benchmark the RX 9070 XT was Fortnite. The resolution is set to 1080p, and the rest of the settings are dialled to low to ensure we can hit the highest framerates possible. The RX 9070 was one of the strongest cards we tested in this benchmark, with an output of 423FPS, about 30FPS below the RTX 5070. This is the only benchmark where we saw a significant gain with the RTX 5070, which is disappointing considering this is 1080p.

Conclusion