AMD Radeon RX 9070 review: Also a $549 graphics card, faster than Nvidia RTX 5070
A stunning debut for RDNA 4
🏆 Review score: 5 out of 5
🏅 Editor’s Choice Award
Pros:
✅ 📈 Delivers faster performance than the Nvidia RTX 5070
✅ 💪 Superior rasterization power and greatly improved ray tracing capability
✅ 📉 Coolest running and most efficient GPU I’ve tested so far in 2025
✅ 🧠 16GB of video memory on a mid-range GPU is huge!
Cons
❌ 📏 It’s ginormous
❌ 🫥 FSR 4 missing ahead of launch
❌ 🦥 Can’t push frame rates as high as Nvidia Multi-Frame Generation
Shortcut Review
The AMD Radeon RX 9070 has delivered a stunning debut for RDNA 4, with higher fps than the Nvidia RTX 5070 and greatly expanded ray tracing capability. For the same $549 price as the Nvidia RTX 5070, AMD’s mid-range graphics card delivers greater rasterization performance while using less power and lower temperatures. It also features a full 16GB of video memory, which allows it to produce more original frames. That extra 4GB of VRAM also gives you more bandwidth to add visual settings like path tracing.
I wish the AMD Radeon RX 9070 could be smaller, and there likely will be more compact cards in the future. FSR 4 is absent ahead of launch as few to no games are supported ahead of our review embargo, but we will update this review once 30 games add support after launch. The only thing that the Nvidia RTX 5070 has over the AMD RX 9070 is Multi-Frame Gen, which can push 4K frame rates to 120-200fps, depending on the game. If that’s a feature you can totally skip or deplore for generating fake frames, the AMD Radeon RX 5700 is the better graphics card to buy.
Full Review
📏 It’s huge. The AMD Radeon RX 9070 is a huge graphics card. Measuring 298 x 131 x 58mm, this specific model is a 2.9-slot card. That’s huge compared to the shrunken-down Nvidia RTX 50-series cards I’ve been reviewing all month. You’re likely going to need a mid-tower or a Mini-ITX case with a large GPU chamber to fit this card.
🆕 Enter RDNA 4. We’re finally into RDNA 4 with this AMD Radeon RX 9070 graphics card. This latest generation AMD architecture introduces 3rd-generation ray and 2nd-generation AI accelerators. The new chipset Thanks to these changes, AMD is finally introducing path tracing and its first truly AI-powered upscaling solution with FSR 4.
🧠 16GB video memory. Another fantastic spec the RX 9070 introduces into the mid-range is 16GB of GDDR6 memory. 16GB of VRAM has been limited to only high-end GPUs for too long. This extra video memory gives the RX 9070 more leash to render original frames, enable more visual effects, and just run more smoothly overall.
📈 Raster power. The AMD Radeon RX 9070 pulls ahead of the Nvidia RTX 5070 with greater pure rastering performance. I run Forza Horizon 5, and the first CyberPunk 2077 test without enabling any DLSS or FSR to measure pure rasterization. In these two cases, the RX 9070 is ahead fo the RTX 5070 at almost every resolution by a few to a couple of frames. Furthermore, the 3DMark Steel Nomad synthetic benchmarks show how much more pure potential AMD’s GPU has.
📺 4K delight. The AMD Radeon RX 9070 is a surprisingly solid 4K graphics card. AMD mid-range GPU delivered over 60fps in multiple 4K Ultra games like Forza Horizon 5, Space Marine 2, and Helldivers 2, all without having to resort to using FSR to boost frame rates. The RX 9070 only failed to deliver an over 30fps experience in Black Myth Wukong, but it was still one frame faster than the RTX 5070.
🌅 Way improved ray tracing. The RX 9070 displays one of the most remarkable improvements in ray tracing performance I’ve seen in a graphics card. AMD put up synthetic ray tracing scores consistently higher than the RTX 5070. The RX 9070 was also able to render heavily ray-traced games like Black Myth: Wukong at higher fps than Nvidia’s mid-range GPU. Beyond benchmarks, the RX 9070 is able to enable path tracing on games like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, whereas the option was completely disabled on RDNA 3 GPUs like the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE.
🧑🤝🧑 FSR 4 and frame generation. AMD has made some big claims that FSR 4 will introduce an up to 3.5 times increase in FPS. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to confirm these claims ahead of launch because there were no games with an FS4 4 beta test. AMD says FSR 4 will support 30 games at launch, including Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, Marvel Rivals, Call of Duty Black Ops 6, and Space Marine 2 – and 75 more games adding support later in 2025. We’ll be updating this review with FSR 4 impressions soon, so stay tuned.
🛷 Cool runnings. The AMD Radeon RX 9070 also proved to be the coolest running and most power-efficient GPU I’ve tested in 2025 so far. It’s no surprise the RX 9070 can keep temperatures low considering how massive its cooler and heatsinks are and it’s also adopted the flowthrough design seen in both Nvidia and Intel Battlemage cards.
Should you buy the AMD Radeon RX 9070?
Yes, if…
✅ 🏃♂️ You want the faster mid-range graphics card over the Nvidia RTX 5070
✅ 💪 You care more about pure rasterization power than generated frames
✅ 📉 You want a cool running and efficient graphics card
No, if…
❌ ⚡You want 120-200 fps at 4K (get the Nvidia RTX 5070 instead)
❌ 🤏 You’re building in PC in a compact case (get the Nvidia RTX 5070 instead)
Kevin Lee is The Shortcut’s Creative Director. Follow him on Twitter @baggingspam.
