AMD’s strategic decision to launch midrange RDNA 4 GPUs appears to be a well-timed move. The high-end RTX 5090 and 5080 from NVIDIA are currently selling at significantly high prices, and their availability is limited. Although the RTX 5070 Ti has impressed us, its price is nearing the $1,000 launch price of the 5080. Now, AMD’s Radeon 9070 and 9070 XT, set to launch on March 6, have the opportunity to provide serious competition in the market.
Based on early briefings from AMD, including some impressive benchmarks that we have not yet tested, the RDNA 4 GPUs seem to offer compelling performance for 4K and 1440p gaming, particularly for discerning gamers who are not ready to spend over $1,000 on a graphics card. The Radeon 9070 starts at $549, and more notably, the 9070 XT has a launch price of $599, which is relatively reasonable. As with any product launch, prices may fluctuate based on demand and the decisions of card manufacturers, but these prices are impressive compared to the RTX 5070 ($549 MSRP) and 5070 Ti ($749 MSRP).
A significant selling point for these new cards is AMD’s Fidelity FX Super Resolution 4 (FSR4) upscaling technology. Unlike previous versions, this technology is now powered by machine learning, similar to NVIDIA’s DLSS. According to AMD, this results in better image quality while upscaling from lower resolutions, as well as low latency and frame generation.
In practical terms, AMD claims that the 9070 XT can run Space Marine 2 at an average of 53 fps in 4K, but with FSR 4 enabled, this jumps to 182 fps. This performance leap is similar to what we’ve seen with NVIDIA’s RTX 50-series GPUs, which can generate multiple frames. Currently, FSR 4 is supported on more than 30 titles, and for other games like Star Citizen and Forza Horizon 5, AMD claims its HYPR-RX driver-level upscaler can also improve performance by up to 3X.
Both the Radeon RX 9070 and 9070 XT come equipped with 16GB of VRAM, unlike the 12GB found in the RTX 5070. The 9070 XT is likely better suited for driving 4K 240Hz screens, given its specifications. It features 64 RDNA 4 compute units, 64 hardware ray tracing accelerators, and 128 hardware AI accelerators, while the 9070 includes 56 compute units and RT accelerators, as well as 112 AI units. The 9070 XT also draws significantly more power — 304 watts compared to 220W — and has a more than 500MHz boost clock lead. The standard 9070 will likely be more suitable for players who primarily game in 1440p but occasionally play in 4K.
Interestingly, most of AMD’s benchmarks compare the new cards to the
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