AMD may launch its next-gen Radeon RX 9070 XT GPU in two weeks, with prices starting below Nvidia’s cheapest offering. Team Red seems focused on providing a value solution that doesn’t skimp on features.
According to hardware leaker zhangzhonghao on the Chiphell forums, the upcoming RX 9070 XT graphics cards could debut at $479 for the reference models and $549 for the custom variants. These are by no means official figures, but they seem about right considering the card’s potential target. As a reminder, AMD has specifically changed its naming scheme to reflect the performance range in a similar way to Nvidia. Thus, RX 9070 XT is likely to counter the RTX 5070.
Looking at the recent benchmark leak showing an RX 9070 pushing 99fps in Black Ops 6 at 4K, and assuming there isn’t a huge difference between the RX 9070 XT and non-XT, we can expect similar or slightly higher performance than RX 7900 XTX. But that’s not all this card can muster. Against Nvidia, RX 9070 XT has also been spotted outperforming the RTX 4080 Super in 3DMark’s TimeSpy Extreme benchmark.
If you are not allergic to upscaling and frame generation, then FSR 4 could push that frame rate much higher. Based on the demo presented at CES, this new AI-based upscaling method has less garbled textures on fast-moving objects and a better resolve of transparent effects. But most importantly, there is a considerable reduction in ghosting behind moving particles – something that bothers me a lot with current FSR implementations.
Lastly, to power its cards, AMD is once more counting on the tried and tested 8-pin connectors, though manufacturers like ASRock have opted for the newer 12V-2×6 for the higher variant. While this is overkill for a card that won’t be anywhere near the 600W rating, it should help standardise what seems to be the future of GPU power. Not to mention simplifying upgrades by making them as simple as a drop-in swap.
AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT is rumoured to launch on January 23, with reviews shortly beforehand. Until then take the above with a grain of salt.
