We recently revisited Nvidia's GeForce RTX 5070 and stacked it against several previous-gen 70-series cards. Today, we're looking across the aisle to see what AMD has been doing in that same stretch of time – specifically, how the last six years of Radeon GPUs around the $500 mark measure up against the new Radeon RX 9070.
Normally, we'd focus on AMD's 70-class XT lineup: the 5700 XT, 6700 XT, and 7700 XT, and we technically could, but things get a little messy this generation. The newest model sits above the traditional $500 bracket, which makes a direct XT-to-XT comparison less meaningful. So instead, we're anchoring this review to a price range rather than a strict naming convention to keep things consistent.
Of course, we've already reviewed the Radeon RX 9070, and upon release we found it underwhelming compared with the XT version. It wasn't a bad card, but at $550 – just $50 under the XT – it offered only an 8% price cut for a 12% drop in performance. Given that, we recommended most buyers spend the extra $50 for the 9070 XT.
Then real-world pricing complicated things. Shortly after release, neither card was available at MSRP, and in several regions the non-XT model actually became the better buy. When we completed this round of testing, the 9070 XT was still sitting well above MSRP in most markets, while the standard 9070 was far more likely to show up at its intended price. That's ultimately why the non-XT became the focus of this comparison.
As of now, the Radeon 9070 XT has returned to its $600 MSRP, while the 9070 has dipped as low as $510 – though most models currently sit at the $550 MSRP – and prices are expected to rise soon. Our goal was to evaluate Radeon GPUs priced near $500, or as close as the market allows. The 5700 XT, AMD's flagship in the 5000 series, originally retailed for $400, making it the closest fit for the bottom end of this range, so that's what we had to go with.
So the key questions become: Is the RX 9070 a stronger release than the 5700 XT? How does it stack up to the 6700 XT from 2021? And does it outperform last year's 7900 GRE? To answer all of that, we're putting every card through the same set of tests at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K, using two quality presets per title to get a clear sense of performance.
Let's get into the results…
Test System Specs
| CPU / Motherboard / Memory | AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Gigabyte X670E Master [BIOS F38e] G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB 32GB DDR5-6000 CL30 |
|
| Graphics Card |
Radeon RX 5700 XT 8GB
Radeon RX 6700 XT 12GB Radeon RX 7700 XT 12GB Radeon RX 7800 XT 16GB Radeon RX 7900 GRE 16GB Radeon RX 9070 16GB |
|
| ATX Case | MSI Prospect 700R | |
| Power Supply | Kolink Regulator Gold ATX 3.0 1200W | |
| Storage | TeamGroup T-Force Cardea A440 M.2 PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD 4TB | |
| Operating System | Windows 11 | |
| Display Driver | AMD Radeon Adrenalin 25.11.1 WHQL | |
Benchmarks
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
Basic
Starting with Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 using the basic preset, the RX 9070 delivered 316 fps at 1080p, 243 fps at 1440p, and 139 fps at 4K. Looking at the 1440p results, the 9070 is 25% faster than the 7900 GRE, 29% faster than the 7800 XT, and 48% faster than the 7700 XT.
Compared with the 6700 XT, the RX 9070 is a massive 87% faster, and 167% faster than the 5700 XT – though that model sold for $400, which, after adjusting for inflation, is closer to $510 in today's money.
Extreme
The margins are similar using the extreme preset, with the 9070 again just over 20% faster than the 7900 GRE. The gain over the 6700 XT grows to 108%, and an enormous 190% over the 5700 XT, a result also reflected at 4K.
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
Low
Next up is Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty at low settings. At 1080p, the RX 9070 was almost 40% faster than the 7900 GRE, 27% faster at 1440p, and 28% faster at 4K. Compared with the 6700 XT, we're looking at a huge 97% uplift at 1440p, and a 187% improvement over the 5700 XT.
High
Switching to the high preset, the RX 9070 beat the 7900 GRE by 25% at both 1080p and 1440p, extending to a 33% lead at 4K. Compared with the 6700 XT, the 9070 offers a 93% performance increase at 1080p, 107% at 1440p, and 137% at 4K. Versus the 5700 XT, gains reach 173% at 1080p, 186% at 1440p, and 205% at 4K.
Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered
Medium
Moving on to Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered at medium settings, the RX 9070 delivered 28% higher performance than the 7900 GRE at 1080p, 82% higher than the 6700 XT, and 132% higher than the 5700 XT. These margins increased at 1440p, where the 9070 was 37% faster than the 7900 GRE, 103% faster than the 6700 XT, and 156% faster than the 5700 XT.
Very High
Using the very high preset, the RX 9070 was again 28% faster than the 7900 GRE at 1080p, 37% faster at 1440p, and 42% faster at 4K. For 6700 XT owners, the 9070 delivers a 91% uplift at 1080p, 107% at 1440p, and 135% at 4K. Compared with the 5700 XT, performance improves by roughly 150 – 200%.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
Medium
In Kingdom Come: Deliverance II at medium settings, the RX 9070 was 18% faster than the 7900 GRE at 1080p, 20% faster at 1440p, and 26% faster at 4K. It was still a substantial upgrade over the 6700 XT: 83% faster at 1080p, 93% at 1440p, and 102% at 4K.
Once again, the improvement over the 5700 XT is huge – 155% at 1080p, 157% at 1440p, and 159% at 4K.
Ultra
At ultra settings, the RX 9070 is around 20% faster than the 7900 GRE, 90 – 110% faster than the 6700 XT, and more than 150% faster than the 5700 XT.
Rainbow Six Siege X
Medium
The RX 9070 is extremely strong in Rainbow Six Siege X, beating the previous $550 Radeon GPU – the 7900 GRE – by 43% at 1080p, 41% at 1440p, and 39% at 4K. For 6700 XT owners, the gains are even greater, with performance more than doubling: a 117% uplift at 1080p, 129% at 1440p, and 138% at 4K. Naturally, 5700 XT users would see enormous improvements, reaching up to 175%.
Ultra+
Switching to the Ultra+ preset reduces the margins somewhat. The RX 9070 is 28% faster than the 7900 GRE at 1080p, 24% faster at 1440p, and 17% faster at 4K – down from nearly 40% using medium settings. Still, 6700 XT owners would more than double their performance with an upgrade to the RX 9070.
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2
Medium
Space Marine 2 is heavily CPU-bound, so at medium settings we can hit CPU limits quickly – even with the 9800X3D. This is why the RX 9070 tops out at 147 fps at 1080p, only 12% faster than the 7900 GRE. That margin increases to 22% at 1440p and 30% at 4K, where the results are more GPU-limited.
The RX 9070 remains a strong upgrade over the 6700 XT, offering 62% more performance at 1080p, 90% at 1440p, and 103% at 4K. The 5700 XT struggles here, managing just 60 fps at 1080p even on medium settings, so the 9070 represents a dramatic improvement.
Ultra
At the Ultra preset, we see similar trends. The RX 9070 was 17% faster than the 7900 GRE at 1080p, 21% faster at 1440p, and 30% faster at 4K. Compared with the 6700 XT, it was 85% faster at 1080p, 96% at 1440p, and 110% at 4K.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Medium
Finally, we have Shadow of the Tomb Raider using the medium preset. Here, the RX 9070 averaged 278 fps at 1080p, 214 fps at 1440p, and 129 fps at 4K. This made it 23% faster than the 7900 GRE at 1080p, 26% faster at 1440p, and 30% faster at 4K. Compared with the older 6700 XT, it was 73% faster at 1080p, 80% faster at 1440p, and 90% faster at 4K.
Highest
With the highest preset enabled, the RX 9070 still delivered 234 fps at 1080p – 26% faster than the 7900 GRE, 49% faster than the 7700 XT, 73% faster than the 6700 XT, and 117% faster than the 5700 XT. The margins remained similar at 1440p and 4K.
Performance Summary
Medium
Here's a look at the 7-game average based on the medium-quality data. On average, the Radeon RX 9070 was 28% faster than the 7900 GRE – not a huge generational leap, but certainly respectable.
Those still using the 6700 XT are looking at roughly twice the performance, with an 80% increase on average at 1080p, 96% at 1440p, and 113% at 4K. Needless to say, if you've been holding out with a 5700 XT, not only have you stretched that GPU far, but you're in for one hell of an upgrade.
Ultra
With the ultra settings, the Radeon 9070 offers 25% greater performance than the 7900 GRE on average. That's a slight dip from the medium-quality margin, but effectively the same overall. It was also around 30% faster than the 7800 XT, 60% faster than the 7700 XT, 100% faster than the 6700 XT, and 160% faster than the 5700 XT.
Cost per Frame
MSRP
Using all of that data, here's how the various models compare in terms of value based on their MSRP, without adjusting for inflation (we'll do that next). To keep things simple, we'll focus on the 1440p data, as it's the most relevant in our opinion.
The Radeon 5700 XT lands at a cost of $8 per frame, making the 6700 XT 9% better in terms of value, despite costing 20% more. The jump from the 6700 XT to the 7700 XT was substantially larger, with the RDNA 3 GPU offering 26% better value. However, upon release, the 7700 XT wasn't well received, because the 7800 XT delivered even better value, reducing cost per frame by another 7%.
In the following generation we eventually received the 7900 GRE at retail, but RDNA 4 was underwhelming, and the GRE failed to improve on the value offered by the 7800 XT.
Fortunately, the RX 9070 is far more impressive, cutting the cost per frame of the GRE by nearly 20%, making it the best-value Radeon GPU released between $400 and $550 over the past six years.
MSRP Adjusted for Inflation
The value of the RX 9070 improves further once we adjust historical pricing for inflation. For example, the 5700 XT rises from $400 to $510 – a 28% increase.
Looking again at the 1440p data, the 6700 XT now becomes 15% better value than the 5700 XT. The 7700 XT also improves, coming in 34% better value than the 6700 XT, while the 7800 XT and 7900 GRE settle at roughly the same value – about $5.30 per frame. That positions the RX 9070 as 22% better value than those models.
What We Learned: The Best Value Radeon in Years?
Looking back at six years of Radeon launches in the $500 range, it's hard to miss the trend: the Radeon RX 9070 is the best deal yet – which shouldn't be surprising, right? The newest product is usually best, that's generally how it goes in tech, unless it's an Intel 11th-gen processor or an Intel Core Ultra chip, but we digress. What is surprising is just how easily the latest Radeon generation pulls ahead on value, even before adjusting for inflation.
The Radeon RX 5700 XT was widely regarded a strong value in 2019, delivering RTX 2070-class performance for $400 and landing about 20% ahead of Vega 64. At the time, the 5700 XT was consistently praised for its price-to-performance ratio and this reputation was boosted by AMD's last-minute decision to cut the launch price from the originally announced $450 (and $500 for the anniversary edition) down to a far more competitive $400.
The Radeon RX 9070 ends up with a ~$40 price increase over the 5700 XT (adjusted for inflation), delivering on average a 160% improvement in performance.
Once we adjust for inflation, the Radeon RX 9070 ends up with about a $40 price increase over the 5700 XT, but doubles the VRAM and pushes average performance forward by an impressive 160%.
Against the more recent 7900 GRE, the RX 9070 offers a 22% improvement in value. This is one of the reasons the RX 9070 series was so well received at launch. When available at their intended MSRPs (of course), the GPU offers strong performance per dollar, even more so once you account for improved ray tracing capabilities and FSR 4 support.
In our recent update to the Best GPUs, we recommended the Radeon RX 9070 over Nvidia's RTX 5070, while the 9070 XT was the clear choice over the heavily overpriced GeForce 5070 Ti. Just keep in mind that if all models are selling at MSRP, the 9070 XT is the stronger deal compared with the non-XT model, and that is the case right now.
But pricing rarely stays still. If costs continue to creep up, the vanilla Radeon RX 9070 could easily slide back into the value sweet spot. As always, check what's happening in your region, and remember: the XT edition is still about 10-15% faster.