AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT Review: Have They Finally Done It?

[redgarl]

Good value.

Finally good RT!

But not really enough performance to upgrade my 3080 so looks like I'm waiting for either 5000 series pricing to get near supposed MSRP or the Super refresh to bring better value.

Pal... the only way to get more performances is to buy a 5090.

The 5070TI, the 4080, the 4080S, the 5080, the XTX... they are all basically the same GPUs!

 

[nnguy2]

Hang on, you gave this card an 85 when it, like the 5070 (which got 60), also had inflated performance claims? It’s also got worse efficiency than the 5070 Ti and worse RT than a 5070. Like the 5070, it achieved only a 20% perf uplift at its price point. What gives?

Found Jensen Huang's account!

 

[redgarl]

Hang on, you gave this card an 85 when it, like the 5070 (which got 60), also had inflated performance claims? It’s also got worse efficiency than the 5070 Ti and worse RT than a 5070. Like the 5070, it achieved only a 20% perf uplift at its price point. What gives?

Providing a FULL tier of performance uplift at the same price as the 5070 is already a major win.

Not to mention, the 5070 only has 12GB of GDDR.

And you forgot to take into the fray, that Jensen CLAIMED that the 5070 was faster than the 4090...

 

[yRaz]

Not gonna lie, bit disappointed but I'm going to buy one anyway because that's just the market we're in. And while not a modern 4K card, this will play ESO and EvE at 4k just fine

 

[redgarl]

Not gonna lie, bit disappointed but I'm going to buy one anyway because that's just the market we're in. And while not a modern 4K card, this will play ESO and EvE at 4k just fine

Not sure what you were expecting then, because AMD said it was on parity with a 5070 TI, which it is.

 

[yRaz]

Not sure what you were expecting then, because AMD said it was on parity with a 5070 TI, which it is.

Price to performance. I don't see this as offering $600 of value, but given the market conditions that's just the way it is. Doesn't help that we 10X'd the amount of money in circulation over the last 8 years, but that's another issue onto itself.

 

[phxrider]

I get that value perspective here. But it's a 7900 XT with less RAM and 50% better RT. A good value I guess, especially if you can actually find it at MSRP. But, for those hoping that AMD was finally going to release the GPU we've all been waiting for, perhaps not.

Maybe GPUs really are maxing out and we can't expect major upgrades going forward. At least the next generation will be on a new node and likely you'll see some uplifts there... for a price.

You do realize, though, that's pretty much exactly what was promised? They never said it was going to be an XTX successor or compete with the Nvidia 80 series, they specifically said they are going after the mid-range which is actually the 7800XT and GRE, and Nvidia 70 series. So the next gen after the 7800XT/GRE being about as fast as the 7900XT with improved RT is very much in line with reasonable expectations, IMO.

If you were expecting miracles, that's on you.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Price to performance. I don't see this as offering $600 of value, but given the market conditions that's just the way it is. Doesn't help that we 10X'd the amount of money in circulation over the last 8 years, but that's another issue onto itself.

Why is it not $600 in value? It's averaging better then a $1000 7900xtx, and it's embarrassing the $"750" 5070ti in value.

 

[EdmondRC]

The 9070 XT is a better value all around than the 5070 with the exception of a few games when you turn on the full RTX where Nvidia clearly still has a major advantage. The thing is though, in most cases you wouldn't want to play those settings on the 5070 either as it's barely up to the task, if at all. It's also very unlikely that the 5070 will be available at or around MSRP, there is a much better chance you'll be able to get the 9070 XT close to its MSRP. This is why Techspot gave it an 85 vs the 60 that it gave to the 5070. I think both scores are too high, but that's just me, the 9070 XT should probably be a 75 and the 5070 a 40. In my opinion the 5070 is unbuyable at $549, it shouldn't even be above $400 given the pathetic value the card brings to the table, the 12GB VRAM is just unacceptable for a $500 GPU when more and more games are crossing that threshold. The 9070 XT should be $499 at most.

 

[DanteSmith]

"It is also surprising that they did not test the most-played game on Steam."

What surprises me is that you guys test GPUs in a game that runs at 400–500 FPS. It completely distorts the purpose of the GPU test, and then they'll claim "AMD is lying." Depending on the game selection, you can shape whatever narrative you want.

At least AMD used demanding titles for the GPU. Overall, a good improvement, considering the performance in non-buggy/irrelevant games.

 

[yRaz]

Why is it not $600 in value? It's averaging better then a $1000 7900xtx, and it's embarrassing the $"750" 5070ti in value.

So I have a money mentality that I built up in the early 2000s. I know that our money is worth less now than it was then, but that doesn't change the fact(idea?) that $600 is lot of money. I don't look at things in terms of price, I look at them as the amount of hours I need to work and I don't really see trading ~13 hours of my time as a good value for what the product is offering. However, nVidia wants over 20 hours of my time for the same performance if you go by the market rate.

Is it a bad deal going by the market? No, but I'm free to think that the current market is garbage

 

[veLa]

Seems like a good value with the full perspective.

However, I’m disappointed and don’t think it’s enough to sway me from NVIDIA.

 

[redgarl]

The only thing I can think out of this, is that Nvidia imposed their ecosystem in so many games, that it is sabotaging their competition.

When the game rely on rasterization, AMD do really good, but when a game become a tech demo like Alan Wake, Wukong, Indiana Jones and Cyberpunk, then Nvidia is crippling their competition.

The video game industry needs to wake up and stop doing this. Anyway, if they want to sell their games, they need a console version running on AMD hardware anyway, so seeing what we can witness right now on the PC side is disgusting. There is no reason to see a game like Indiana Jones, not being able to run on high end hardware.

In the meantime, the best looking game to date is still God of War Ragnarok, and it doesn't feature any RT, and the game is a cross generation also, meaning it was developed to be running on PS4 and PS5. Devs have become lazy and prefer to flick the RT switch instead of coding for light effects, which is unacceptable.

 

[redgarl]

Seems like a good value with the full perspective.

However, I’m disappointed and don’t think it’s enough to sway me from NVIDIA.

900$ for a 5070TI... you have my blessing for throwing 50% more money for the same thing.

 

[MarcusNumb]

I vote with my wallet so if the 9070XT can be as close as possible to the MSRP, I'll pull the trigger. Perf uplift from my 3070ti to 9070XT at 1440p is more than enough for me, the only concern is power drawing but that I can handle with a new PSU, I need a new one anw cause 650w PSU is kinda short nowadays.

 

[yRaz]

I vote with my wallet so if the 9070XT can be as close as possible to the MSRP, I'll pull the trigger. Perf uplift from my 3070ti to 9070XT at 1440p is more than enough for me, the only concern is power drawing but that I can handle with a new PSU, I need a new one anw cause 650w PSU is kinda short nowadays.

A good PSU will last 10+years, I try to stress to people how important a quality PSU is. They aren't as exciting as a new GPU or CPU, but if they fail they can take your entire PC with them. Also, quality PSUs can handle things well beyond their rating. If you buy a good one you can basically add 20% to whatever it's rating is.

 

[cfenton]

"For example, XFX confirmed that the 9070 XT Mercury – a model featured in this review – will not cost $650. In fact, it won't even cost $700. Instead, the official MSRP is $770, and due to tariffs, its on-shelf price is expected to be $850 – which would be tragic if true."

I hate this kind of misleading pricing. If the MSRP is $600, then I should be able to buy one for $600, not $850. If the board partners won't do it, then AMD and Nvidia need to start cutting them out and making their own cards in higher volumes.

 

[yRaz]

"For example, XFX confirmed that the 9070 XT Mercury – a model featured in this review – will not cost $650. In fact, it won't even cost $700. Instead, the official MSRP is $770, and due to tariffs, its on-shelf price is expected to be $850 – which would be tragic if true."

I hate this kind of misleading pricing. If the MSRP is $600, then I should be able to buy one for $600, not $850. If the board partners won't do it, then AMD and Nvidia need to start cutting them out and making their own cards in higher volumes.

And people call me a fool for refusing to participate in this nonsense. If people don't buy the cards at $850 then it's not worth $850. I have a hardenough time justifying paying $600 for one of these, the idea of paying $850+ hurts. I might just continue to use my 6700XT for another year or two. I overpaid for it during the previous GPU shortage so I'm going to get my monies worth out of it. And for the games I play, it does 4k in the 90-100FPS range just fine and my aging eyes can't see anything past 120/144.

 

[mcnabney]

I predict that the few base XT cards priced around $600 will sell out immediately, but the large number of OC cards with lights and other non-performance features are going to be asking too much and not sell. The top XT cards want a 25% price premium for an OC less than 5%. Overpriced cards sitting on the shelf is bad for AMD.

 

[WhiteLeaff]

It's your test that's broken, Steve. Not AMD's. TPU obtained better figures than those presented by AMD;

Stalker
1440p +35% vs GRE
4k +40%
https://www.techpowerup.com/review/sapphire-radeon-rx-9070-xt-nitro/27.html
Starfield
-1440p +26%
-4k +33%
https://www.techpowerup.com/review/sapphire-radeon-rx-9070-xt-nitro/28.html
Dragon Age
-1440p +30%
-4k +31

Sapphire Radeon RX 9070 XT Nitro+ Review - Beating NVIDIA

AMD's new RDNA 4 GPUs are launching today. The Sapphire Radeon RX 9070 XT Nitro+ is a fantastic custom design with powerful cooling and whisper-quiet fans. In terms of FPS, the RX 9070 XT offers competitive performance with similarly priced NVIDIA options in both raster and ray tracing.

www.techpowerup.com

And it's no use saying that W1zzard tested in a light scenario, he always chooses the most GPU-intensive scenarios.

Your conclusion is misleading because as well as being far below the numbers of other reviewers, as I've already mentioned, it includes obviously broken or irrelevant games that run at 400fps.

 

[DanteSmith]

It's your test that's broken, Steve. Not AMD's. TPU obtained better figures than those presented by AMD;

Stalker
1440p +35% vs GRE
4k +40%
https://www.techpowerup.com/review/sapphire-radeon-rx-9070-xt-nitro/27.html
Starfield
-1440p +26%
-4k +33%
https://www.techpowerup.com/review/sapphire-radeon-rx-9070-xt-nitro/28.html
Dragon Age
-1440p +30%
-4k +31

Sapphire Radeon RX 9070 XT Nitro+ Review - Beating NVIDIA

AMD's new RDNA 4 GPUs are launching today. The Sapphire Radeon RX 9070 XT Nitro+ is a fantastic custom design with powerful cooling and whisper-quiet fans. In terms of FPS, the RX 9070 XT offers competitive performance with similarly priced NVIDIA options in both raster and ray tracing.

www.techpowerup.com

And it's no use saying that W1zzard tested in a light scenario, he always chooses the most GPU-intensive scenarios.

Your conclusion is misleading because as well as being far below the numbers of other reviewers, as I've already mentioned, it includes obviously broken or irrelevant games that run at 400fps.

I was going to mention this, look at the same games on computerbase;

https://www.computerbase.de/artikel...eite-5#abschnitt_stalker_2_heart_of_chornobyl
https://www.computerbase.de/artikel...78/seite-3#abschnitt_dragon_age_the_veilguard


The results from the RT gaming tests are also pretty strange. TechPowerUp shows the 9070XT tied with the 5070 Ti in Alan Wake, while TechSpot shows these odd numbers. I think TechSpot is slipping in their tests... no wonder they leaked the power consumption data a day early. It's a mess.

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/sapphire-radeon-rx-9070-xt-nitro/37.html

 

[Cristallus]

All of you celebrating 9070 XT at $600 are hilarious.
RTX 5070 is essentially RTX 5060, while RTX 5070Ti and RTX9070 XT being 5060 Ti.

Imagine celebrating 60Ti class card for 600$. You deserve to be charged $1000+ for these things. Wait... you already are, and you have no one to blame but yourself. Can't blame AMD, NVIDIA and retailers trying to make some quick buck off fools.

 

[brucek]

When testing Counter-Strike 2, the 9070 XT was 10% slower than the 5070 Ti, a significant margin.

My concern was somewhat abated when I noted the difference is 1% lows of 281 vs 296 fps. Perhaps this explains the lack of focus on this scenario.

 

[Nobina]

I'm definitely not disappointed, but this is not the Ryzen of GPUs. This won't convert lifelong Nvidia users. Hopefully, RX 9070 is even better value.

 

[jbc029]

I'm definitely not disappointed, but this is not the Ryzen of GPUs. This won't convert lifelong Nvidia users. Hopefully, RX 9070 is even better value.

Initial Ryzen didn't convert many folks over, 1st gen either. It just let them get their foot in the door. Took them over two years to get to Zen 2 after that, and they didn't *really* arrive until Zen 3 over 4 years later.

This wasn't a "we're better" volley. It's a "we're good enough to be viable when the monopoly is gouging you" effort. RTX 5000 is very much following the hallmarks of what was eventually Intel's 14nm++++ era.