Earlier than I examined the Radeon RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT, I questioned simply what else AMD may attempt. In any case, we have seen good efficiency, aggressive pricing and even gigantic price reductions on legacy playing cards to enhance their worth, but AMD nonetheless makes up a fraction of the discrete graphics card market in accordance with the Steam {Hardware} Survey. What makes RDNA 4 any totally different?
There’s nonetheless going to be a mountain to climb when it comes to thoughts share, however these new RDNA 4 graphics playing cards embody two crucial items of the puzzle: a viable different to DLSS within the type of FSR 4 and considerably improved ray tracing efficiency. These enhancements enable for some convincing outcomes, helped additional by – dare we are saying – refreshingly cheap pricing, with the RX 9070 at £524/$549 and the 9070 XT at £569/$599.
Our testing exhibits the RX 9070 delivers round eight to 10 p.c extra efficiency on combination than the RTX 5070 whereas occupying the identical MSRP. In the meantime, the RTX 5070 Ti beats the RX 9070 XT by 5 p.c at 4K and three p.c at 1440p, however the AMD card prices $150 much less – making it the simpler card to suggest general of this Nvidia and AMD quartet.
The playing cards we have got in for testing are typical of the bulk that may doubtless promote, being giant, quiet and well-built playing cards with manufacturing unit overclocks – and inflated costs to match. Not like most playing cards although, these are Sapphire Pure variations in white, making them a pleasant alternative for a white gaming PC if you happen to’re into that aesthetic pattern.
The 9070 XT we’re testing right here has a sticker value of $679, an $80 premium, whereas the non-XT is $620 – a $70 premium over MSRP. Each fashionable Sapphire card I’ve ever had has been quiet and performant and I’ve no actual qualms with both of those. Twin PCIe eight pin energy inputs present the juice, whereas video outputs include two DisplayPort 2.1A ports and two HDMI 2.1 ports.
By way of specs, the RX 9070 has 56 compute models up towards the complete complement of 64 inside the XT mannequin. A lift clock of two.54GHz on the non-XT up towards 2.97GHz on the XT exhibits fairly a divide – however as you will see shortly, the hole on these Sapphire fashions is far tighter. Sapphire appears to have taken the non-XT’s enhance clock as much as 2.7GHz – which isn’t insignificant, whereas a small bump to simply over 3.0GHz on the XT will not have as a lot of an affect. The ability differential is actually extensive although – 220W on the non-XT up towards a curiously particular 304W on the brand new AMD flagship.
Each playing cards get 16GB of reminiscence, serviced by a 256-bit reminiscence interface. As a reminder, there isn’t any GDDR7 – and correspondingly luxurious reminiscence bandwidth figures right here like Nvidia’s 50-series playing cards, with AMD sticking with the higher tried-and-tested GDDR6.
AMD
RX 9070 XT
RX 9070
RX 7900 GRE
Stream Processors
4096
3584
5120
Compute Models
64
56
80
Increase clock
2.97GHz*
2.54GHz*
2.25GHz
Sport clock
2.40GHz
2.07GHz
1.88GHz
ROPS
128
128
160
Reminiscence
16 GB GDDR6
16 GB GDDR6
16 GB GDDR6
Reminiscence bus width
256-bit
256-bit
256-bit
Reminiscence bandwidth
640GB/s
640GB/s
576GB/s
Complete Graphics Energy
304W*
220W*
260W
PSU suggestion
750W
650W
600W
Energy connector
2 or 3x 8-pin
2 or 3x 8-pin
2x 8-pin
Worth
$599
$549
$549
Launch Date
March sixth 2025
March sixth 2025
July twenty seventh 2023
*The Sapphire 9070 XT and 9070 playing cards we’re taking a look at are clocked greater than reference, at 3.01GHz and a pair of.70GHz respectively. That additionally will increase TDP nominally, at 317W and 245W respectively.
Taking a fast take a look at energy utilization, it is clear that AMD’s playing cards do pull extra energy than their respective Nvidia rivals. In Black Delusion Wukong, for instance, the 9070 XT is at 91 p.c of the RTX 5070 Ti’s frame-rate, however requires 33 p.c extra energy, figuring out to six.3 joules per body versus Nvidia’s 4.3 joules per body. On the vanilla 9070, energy drops considerably, however the card nonetheless attracts 13 p.c extra energy whereas delivering a nigh-equivalent consequence, figuring out to five.4 joules per body on the 9070 and 4.8 joules per body on the 5070 – benefit Nvidia.
In different video games, the story could be a bit totally different. Hitman sans RT tends to favour AMD architectures, and right here the 9070 XT beats the 5070 Ti by 5 p.c whereas drawing 16 p.c extra energy – 2.0 joules per body versus 1.8 joules per body on Nvidia. The non-XT card is extra environment friendly as soon as once more, beating the vanilla 5070 by 21 p.c whereas requiring simply 2.6 p.c extra energy.
The video overview offers a pair extra examples of how effectivity varies on a per-game foundation, however the wanting it’s that the XT is pushed more durable than the non-XT, making the previous extra much less environment friendly than the latter within the try and make up floor towards its Nvidia counterpart.
Alongside every graphics card, we’re utilizing a top-end system primarily based across the quickest gaming CPU, the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D, to shift the burden to the graphics card as a lot as doable. We even have 32GB of Corsair DDR5-6000 CL30 reminiscence, a high-end Asus ROG Crosshair X870E Hero motherboard and a 1000W Corsair PSU. With all that mentioned, let’s get into the benchmarks correct.
AMD Radeon RX 7090 / 7090 XT Evaluation
Introduction [This Page]
RT benchmarks: Alan Wake 2, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Cyberpunk 2077
RT benchmarks: Dying Mild 2, F1 24, Hitman: World of Assassination
RT benchmarks: Indiana Jones and the Nice Circle, Metro Exodus Enhanced Version, A Plague Story: Requiem
Sport benchmarks: Alan Wake 2, Black Delusion: Wukong, Cyberpunk 2077
Sport benchmarks: F1 24, Forza Horizon 5, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2
Sport benchmarks: Hitman: World of Assassination, A Plague Story: Requiem
Conclusions, worth and proposals
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