Before I tested the Radeon RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT, I wondered just what else AMD could try. After all, we’ve seen good performance, competitive pricing and even gigantic cost reductions on legacy cards to improve their value, yet AMD still makes up a fraction of the discrete graphics card market according to the Steam Hardware Survey. What makes RDNA 4 any different?
There’s still going to be a mountain to climb in terms of mind share, but these new RDNA 4 graphics cards include two critical pieces of the puzzle: a viable alternative to DLSS in the form of FSR 4 and significantly improved ray tracing performance. Those improvements allow for some convincing results, helped further by – dare we say – refreshingly reasonable pricing, with the RX 9070 at £524/$549 and the 9070 XT at £569/$599.
Our testing shows the RX 9070 delivers around eight to ten percent more performance on aggregate than the RTX 5070 while occupying the same MSRP. Meanwhile, the RTX 5070 Ti beats the RX 9070 XT by five percent at 4K and three percent at 1440p, but the AMD card costs $150 less – making it the easier card to recommend overall of this Nvidia and AMD quartet.
The cards we’ve got in for testing are typical of the majority that will likely sell, being large, quiet and well-built cards with factory overclocks – and inflated prices to match. Unlike most cards though, these are Sapphire Pure versions in white, making them a nice choice for a white gaming PC if you’re into that aesthetic trend.