AMD is adopting a different approach with its next-generation graphics cards, as Radeon RX 9070 XT indicates from its name alone. This change in tactics isn’t merely skin-deep, though, as the company sets its sights firmly on the mid-range market with this particular pixel pusher, leaving high-end market share to its rivals. As such, there’s plenty to unpack about this GPU and you’ll find all you need to know about it down below.
All being well, Radeon RX 9070 XT should provide some welcome competition to Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 50 Series. The launch of the graphics card has strayed slightly from the norm, with board partners revealing much about it before scrubbing all details following an unexpected delay.
However Radeon RX 9070 XT shapes up, you can expect an in-depth Club386 review come launch. For now, let’s digest what we know about AMD’s latest and greatest in the here and now.
Release date
Radeon RX 9070 XT will arrive on the scene in March 2025. VP & GM of Ryzen CPU and Radeon graphics, David McAfee, confirmed the release window in a post on X. Recently, the company narrowed this down further to an ‘early March’ window.
RDNA4 early March
— Frank Azor (@AzorFrank) February 5, 2025
Rumours indicate that Radeon RX 9070 XT will launch March 6, but more details should emerge from AMD’s Radeon RX 9000 Series launch event on February 28. This should provide an official and in-depth look at RX 9070 XT and its siblings that was sadly missing from their initial CES 2025 tease.
Upon release, Radeon RX 9070 XT will have plenty of foes to face. It will arrive shortly after GeForce RTX 5070 Ti (February 20) but it’ll need to wrangle the spotlight more directly from RTX 5070. Some rumours claim that RTX 5060 will also launch in March alongside AMD’s contender but Nvidia will likely delay it to April.
Specs
Serving as the flagship of AMD’s RDNA 4 GPU architecture, Radeon RX 9070 XT packs the beefiest specs of its siblings. Team Red remains hush about some details but announcements from board partners have revealed much about the graphics card’s makeup.
| Radeon RX | 9070 XT |
|---|---|
| Launch date | March 2025 |
| Codename | Navi 48 XTX |
| Architecture | RDNA 4 |
| Process | TSMC N4 |
| Die size | 390 mm² |
| Stream processors | 4,096 |
| Boost clock | 2,970MHz |
| Peak FP32 TFLOPS | 48.7 |
| RT cores | TBC (3rd Gen) |
| AI accelerators | TBC (2nd Gen) |
| ROPs | 96 |
| Texture units | 256 |
| Memory size | 16GB |
| Memory type | GDDR6 |
| Memory bus | 256-bit |
| Memory clock | 20Gb/s |
| Bandwidth | 640GB/s |
| PCIe interface | Gen 5 |
| MSRP | <$899 |
AMD adopts TSMC’s N4 process in designing RDNA 4 GPUs, including the Navi 48 XTX die at the heart of Radeon RX 9070 XT. This should theoretically allow it to operate more efficiently than prior generation RX 7000 Series cards, but there’s no way to know for certain until TDPs and real-world power consumption come to light.
Second generation AI accelerators and third generation RT cores arrive as part and parcel of RDNA 4. AMD hasn’t revealed how much of a generational uplift we can expect from either. However, prior leaks indicate that the company has several new ray tracing features up its sleeve that will debut with Radeon RX 9070 XT and other RX 9000 Series cards.
The memory configuration of Radeon RX 9070 XT won’t deviate greatly from its forebears. AMD is equipping the graphics card with 16GB of GDDR6 VRAM, clocked at 20Gb/s and running on a 256-bit bus, for a total bandwidth of 640GB/s. For context, that’s slightly higher than RX 7800 XT and just blow GeForce RTX 5070. Curiously, some rumourmongers claim that a 32GB RX 9000 Series could be in the works too.
Alleged leaks show Radeon RX 9070 XT running with boost clocks up to 3,100MHz (3.1GHz) but this is likely an OC model rather than stock frequency. They also indicate that this will be the first generation of graphics cards from AMD to feature a PCIe Gen 5 interface.
Price
AMD has not shared an official price for Radeon RX 9070 XT but has stated that it will cost less than $899. The company provided this clarification following rumours that the graphics card’s MSRP was close to GeForce RTX 5070 Ti and 5080.
While we aren’t going to comment on all the price rumors, I can say that an $899 USD starting price point was never part of the plan.
— Frank Azor (@AzorFrank) January 27, 2025
Earlier rumours claim that Radeon RX 9070 XT pricing will begin at $479, rising to $549 for premium partner designs. This would put the pixel pusher in direct competition with Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 5070. An exact figure hasn’t materialised more recently but AMD apparently has “aggressive” pricing in mind for its next-gen graphics cards.
Should Radeon RX 9070 XT arrive with the aforementioned $479 price point, it’ll be more affordable than RX 7800 XT ($499) but more expensive than RX 7700 XT ($449).
Performance
No official performance data exists for Radeon RX 9070 XT. However, AMD claims that the graphics card is comparable to RX 7900 XT and GeForce RTX 4070 Ti at best.
FSR 4 (FidelityFX Super Resolution 4) will be on-hand to boost Radeon RX 9070 XT frame rates. It’s the first version in the series to employ machine learning in its upscaling process, finally mirroring Nvidia DLSS and Intel XeSS. The technology will be exclusive to RDNA 4 GPUs but could come to prior generations in the future.
Support for AMD’s upscaler should be suitably wide-reaching and to a high standard. The company claims it is working to enable FSR 4 in more titles prior to release, while enhancing the software stack of Radeon RX 9070 XT and its siblings. Meanwhile, rumours claim that it may be possible to inject the new version of the technology via upcoming drivers.
In lieu of frame rates, leakers are filling the gaps with claims that Radeon RX 9070 XT is less than 10% behind GeForce RTX 5080. Although, this is purely in terms of raster performance. It’s unclear how well the graphics card performs in ray traced workloads relative to its prior and current generation rivals.
