AMD impressed us with the Radeon 9070 XT, but now we turn to its cheaper sibling, the RX 9070. Priced at $550, it competes with Nvidia's RTX 5070, but its biggest rival may be AMD's own.
AMD Radeon RX 9070 Review: One Hit, One Miss?
- Thread starter Steve
- Start date
The problem with the non XT version is very obvious. While I can understand that the performance will be lower, but the price difference is too small. Ideally, this should be a difference of at least 100 bucks from the XT variant to be attractive. 50 bucks for a more than proportionate performance lost is not ideal.
fadingfool
Posts: 463 +625
Looks like a £100 - £200 difference in price in the UK at the moment (if you can even find the XT) - can get 9070's for £600 and some XT's listed at £700 though out of stock (the cheapest one in stock is £779). There is limited last gen cards available in this class or above - though still a few 7800XTs at close to RRP. The £100 price differential certainly makes the 9070 look more interesting.
llamapanda
Posts: 96 +133
So there's the traditional AMD missed opportunity: learning from past pricing mistakes and over-charging for the lesser card versus its stable-mate(s). At $500 it would be a mainstream no-brainer, but for barely 10% more everyone will just buy the XT. Was that the plan all along?
Perhaps we'll see more of these binned chips making their way into 9060s or 9050s that clean up at $250-350: the sector full of people still working their way through decade-old Steam libraries that don't need MFG, FSR or RT to max out their framerate needs.
Perhaps we'll see more of these binned chips making their way into 9060s or 9050s that clean up at $250-350: the sector full of people still working their way through decade-old Steam libraries that don't need MFG, FSR or RT to max out their framerate needs.
Peter Farkas
Posts: 713 +612
I am still on a 3060ti that I had to deshroud, fans are fixed with cable ties. I really want an upgrade. The first 5070 I see under £600 in stock I will order it. I love the fficient 9070 as well, just don't want to miss out on the Nvidia features. 5070 will allow me Cyberpunk 2077 with pathtracing and MFG at high frame rates. That is what I want.
demonicmaniac
Posts: 39 +67
As a EU person concerned with the power bill and noise I do have to say I much prefer the 9070. It's a lot like the AMD cpus where the XT turboed up to 125w giving like 15% more performance vs a non XT model using 80% more power. Absolutely agree it should be 500 and 600 though - or here in europe 600€ and 700€ - instead of 629€ and 689€
demonicmaniac
Posts: 39 +67
you might want to look into the gamersnexus vid - mfg requires massive amounts of vram per extra frame generated, mfg 4x saturates the 5070 vram and has it stutter massively dropping below 30 fps base. if you want to use path tracing + mfg beyond normal fg I'd definitely check your expectations for resolution/quality whether a 5070 can actually do that
zamroni111
Posts: 576 +308
But any new pc version of console games will struggle on 12 GB vram
Peter Farkas
Posts: 713 +612
I have only seen the Indiana Jones pathtracing crashing due to insufficient VRAM. Are you aware of any more?
I believe the point of the 9070 is to stay close to MSRP. It's lower powerbudget and deactivated CUs(and smaller cooler), mean that it's not really going to be the target of AIBs looking to making OC versions of it. The 97XT will be filled with $700-800 overclocked versions and the 97 will be easily found at or around MSRP.
However, people have found that the 97 has plenty of room for overclocking in and of itself so it might be popular with the budget crowd as I expect prices to be high well until the end of summer. I have a feeling it will be October before prices start to normalize with either the 90 series or 50 series.
However, people have found that the 97 has plenty of room for overclocking in and of itself so it might be popular with the budget crowd as I expect prices to be high well until the end of summer. I have a feeling it will be October before prices start to normalize with either the 90 series or 50 series.
Peter Farkas
Posts: 713 +612
cheers bud. I saw that which was in 4K, I play in 1440p so I can only guess if that persists there or not. I will have to check with others like HWUB, TechYes City, Optimum tech etcc..
just realised CP2077 RT Ultra 1440p is in there in GN's video. 9070 and 5070 head to head.no idea on 1440p pathracing with MFG though.
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"However, no one outside of AMD seems to understand this approach, and even some within AMD appear equally confused." -> maybe AMD has good yields for the chip and does not want to sell too many good chips in the 9070 so they price it accordingly.
I find the 9070 a better card than the 9070XT because of the much better power efficiency. Probably limiting the 9070XT to 950mv will bring the power consumption way down (while losing a bit of performance).
Regarding the recent reviews I don't understand the double measure. Bash nVidia for overpromising and a week later give AMD a pass for the same thing. Less performance than promised, higher power consumption than advertised.
These are still good products, but the current market (wafers are allocated to high margin products) does not allow for better pricing, and the old node does not allow for performance increases.
I find the 9070 a better card than the 9070XT because of the much better power efficiency. Probably limiting the 9070XT to 950mv will bring the power consumption way down (while losing a bit of performance).
Regarding the recent reviews I don't understand the double measure. Bash nVidia for overpromising and a week later give AMD a pass for the same thing. Less performance than promised, higher power consumption than advertised.
These are still good products, but the current market (wafers are allocated to high margin products) does not allow for better pricing, and the old node does not allow for performance increases.
Power efficency is something that people often forget about. The "heat cost" of performance in a small room is annoying and the electricity costs can add up quickly for those who don't have cheap electricity like the US. Heck, electricity isn't even that cheap in the metro US anymore.
Steve from Gamernexus has a whole other look on it and I tend to agree with him on this one. It is actually as good as the XT but in a different perspective.
By the same metric you rated the XT model, I would put this one at 80/100.
It literally destroy the 5070 and cost the same while offering 16GB of VRAM and it is even as efficient, if not more.
By the same metric you rated the XT model, I would put this one at 80/100.
It literally destroy the 5070 and cost the same while offering 16GB of VRAM and it is even as efficient, if not more.
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AMD proved that they can make GPUs as efficient as Nvidia with this one. The only reason why the 7000 series was using more power is because of the node difference and the MCM design, which will eventually become the norm anyway in the future.
Monolithic GPUs are going to die in the high end eventually.
Peter Farkas
Posts: 713 +612
Well, I eventually bought a 9070 Pulse. Love th efficiency and that it beats the 5070. I hope FSR 4 and HYPR RX will also deliver. I am joining Team Red again after long years. Last I had AMD was two RX 6870s in Crossfire during the time when Battlefield 3 was released. I am excited!
Inthenstus
Posts: 315 +434
Why would anyone buy a 5070 lol it’s such a bad card
I have an RTX 4080 in my primary gaming computer and I don't think I'll be changing that out for a while or will need to since there are about 5 GPUs in that same graphics category now, seems like it'll be the target performance for the next 2-3 years at least.
That being said, my older gaming computer with a 5800X only has an RX580 in it, so we'll have to see what the 9060 XT looks like RAM and price wise. It's the same CUs as the 7600, so performance wise, I would imagine it will only be whatever the IPC gains and RT gains were this time around, but if it's <$400 with at least 12GB of VRAM I might pick one up. Else, I might get the B580 if it ever returns to $250
That being said, my older gaming computer with a 5800X only has an RX580 in it, so we'll have to see what the 9060 XT looks like RAM and price wise. It's the same CUs as the 7600, so performance wise, I would imagine it will only be whatever the IPC gains and RT gains were this time around, but if it's <$400 with at least 12GB of VRAM I might pick one up. Else, I might get the B580 if it ever returns to $250
Never underestimate the capability of stupid people to separate themselves from their money.
Cristallus
Posts: 6 +9
Rocky4040
Posts: 249 +322
Great review thank you. Both new cards from AMD are pretty decent. The problem with the 9070 non-XT is AMD cut its power budget way too much. If they would have given a bit more power to eat on it would have been a much better card for that price. I guess if you turn the overpower up to max in MSI after burner OC tool that would help it out a lot but out of the box its power cut too much to make it look to slow. It is a 1080p-1440p card I guess and for $550 if you can get it at this price is pretty decent.
As for the 9070XT at it's price it has solid 1440p performance and kind of not great performance at 4K unless you use FSR4 and frame gen. I do not care how it looks if my cards cannot render a game at the native resolution my screens support then the card has to go elsewhere & I get another more powerful card. I hate fake frames and fake rendering to try and make your system appear better than it is. If it sucks it sucks buy a better system if you can.
As for the 9070XT at it's price it has solid 1440p performance and kind of not great performance at 4K unless you use FSR4 and frame gen. I do not care how it looks if my cards cannot render a game at the native resolution my screens support then the card has to go elsewhere & I get another more powerful card. I hate fake frames and fake rendering to try and make your system appear better than it is. If it sucks it sucks buy a better system if you can.
Megalomaniac
Posts: 1,134 +1,209
Nothing has changed since the release of the 2080Ti.
The problem with AMD is that everytime we look at these charts, Nvidia is at the tippy top.
Until you sit at the top of the mountain, everything under your name is seen as "second best".
We live in a society that abhors "budget". How else do you get people to drop over $2000 on a video game component?
The problem with AMD is that everytime we look at these charts, Nvidia is at the tippy top.
Until you sit at the top of the mountain, everything under your name is seen as "second best".
We live in a society that abhors "budget". How else do you get people to drop over $2000 on a video game component?
Antias
Posts: 143 +125
So I just checked some prices here in AU (PCCaseGear...)
I purposely chose those brands and models in the "middle" of the pricing options for that model).
Exchange rates based on todays (8th March) market rate....
RX 9070 = $1150 AU (=$725 US) Sapphire Radeon RX 9070 Pulse Gaming
RX 9070 XT = $1350 AU (=$852 US) Gigabyte Radeon RX 9070 XT Gaming OC
These prices include GST (AU's sales tax - our laws state must show inclusive of tax prices so there is no surprises)
I purposely chose those brands and models in the "middle" of the pricing options for that model).
Exchange rates based on todays (8th March) market rate....
RX 9070 = $1150 AU (=$725 US) Sapphire Radeon RX 9070 Pulse Gaming
RX 9070 XT = $1350 AU (=$852 US) Gigabyte Radeon RX 9070 XT Gaming OC
These prices include GST (AU's sales tax - our laws state must show inclusive of tax prices so there is no surprises)
I have read on videocardz the reactions about pricing not being right.
A lot of people want these cards.
Most striking is that we may have to realise these cards won't get any cheaper... Usually details like these speak about bigger perspective. So the demand is huge.
One problem I noticed. Gfx makers are about to have too little to gain in the future, what I mean, is that for example the most demanding game, was simply conquered in terms of performance.
It struggled more because of RT... But even with RT, the latest cards can run it at RT ultra no problems (1440p). In few generations, gfx makers won't have for what game to give performance anymore... since even RT was conquered. So they made prices higher
Cyberpunk with ray tracing? Ultra ? No problem
A lot of people want these cards.
Most striking is that we may have to realise these cards won't get any cheaper... Usually details like these speak about bigger perspective. So the demand is huge.
One problem I noticed. Gfx makers are about to have too little to gain in the future, what I mean, is that for example the most demanding game, was simply conquered in terms of performance.
It struggled more because of RT... But even with RT, the latest cards can run it at RT ultra no problems (1440p). In few generations, gfx makers won't have for what game to give performance anymore... since even RT was conquered. So they made prices higher
Cyberpunk with ray tracing? Ultra ? No problem
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