AMD Radeon 9070 XT Review: Better Than RTX 5070 Ti?

It’s always exciting when AMD drops a new GPU into the high-performance pool, and this time, the Radeon RX 9070 XT has made a big splash. Designed to challenge NVIDIA’s RTX 5070 Ti head-on, the 9070 XT promises top-tier performance for high-resolution gaming without breaking the bank. But does it actually deliver, especially in the face of NVIDIA’s DLSS wizardry and ray-tracing dominance?

I’ve tested the ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 9070 XT OC Edition across synthetic benchmarks and AAA games to find out if this card is the new sweet spot for gamers eyeing 1440p or even 4K gameplay. Let’s dive in with our in-depth AMD Radeon 9070 XT review.

Design

ASUS has stuck to its battle-tested TUF Gaming DNA with the RX 9070 XT OC Edition. It’s big, bold, and built like a tank. The card features a chunky triple-fan setup with a massive heatsink underneath, keeping thermals in check even under load. To improve airflow and reduce turbulence, the two outer fans spin in the opposite direction to the centre fan. This helps push air more smoothly across the heatsink, enhancing overall cooling efficiency.

The shroud uses an all-metal finish, giving it a premium feel that matches the “XT” moniker well. As for the gaming flair, the RGB is tastefully minimal, with a subtle glow on the TUF logo. That said, it comes with full support for AURA Sync and ARGB customizable lighting. The triple fan setup will take up space inside your cabinet, but once installed, it adds a confident, industrial look to any build.

The 9070 XT uses dual 8-pin PCIe power connectors, which is a blessing in disguise for many. Unlike NVIDIA’s newer 12VHPWR (which has faced reliability concerns due to melting issues in early implementations), AMD sticks with tried-and-true connectors that are widely supported and cable-mod-friendly. As for ports, it offers a single HDMI 2.1 port coupled with three DisplayPort 2.1 ports. This setup is great for high-refresh-rate gaming monitors and future-ready 4K displays.

AMD Radeon 9070 XT: What’s New?

Built on AMD’s next-gen RDNA 4 architecture, the Radeon RX 9070 XT brings noticeable gains in both raw performance and power efficiency. It packs 64 compute units alongside 16GB of GDDR6 memory, offering plenty of horsepower for today’s demanding AAA titles and creative workloads.

One of the standout upgrades is in the ray tracing department. AMD has doubled the performance of its Ray Accelerators, resulting in more realistic lighting, shadows, and reflections in supported games. While it still doesn’t match NVIDIA’s ray tracing chops, it’s a big step forward compared to RDNA 3.

The RX 9070 XT also introduces 128 AI Accelerators (similar to tensor cores)—a new addition designed to speed up AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution 4 (FSR 4) and other AI-driven features. FSR 4 uses machine learning to upscale lower-res images in real time, delivering higher frame rates without sacrificing too much visual fidelity. In supported games, that means smoother gameplay even at 4K, without needing to crank up the hardware budget.

While on paper, FSR 4 aims to do what DLSS 4 does, which is boost frame rates using AI without a major loss in image quality, the adoption rate has been far more limited. NVIDIA’s DLSS tech has had a head start and now boasts a huge list of officially supported titles, whereas FSR 4 is still in its early days (official list here). Yes, there are community mods that let players patch FSR 4 into games that don’t natively support it, but for the sake of consistency and fair testing, we’re sticking to official implementations, whether it’s FSR 4, 3, or even 2, for this review.

Test Bench Explained

To test the Radeon RX 9070 XT, we paired it with top-of-the-line components to eliminate any bottlenecks:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D – AMD’s gaming and productivity beast, ensuring the GPU is fully unleashed in both 1440p and 4K workloads.
• RAM: 32GB Kingston DDR5-8000MT/s – Fast, stable, and perfect for modern AAA games and multitasking.
• Motherboard: Gigabyte X870E AORUS PRO – Offers PCIe 5.0 support and rock-solid stability.
• AIO Cooler: MSI MAG Coreliquid i360 Black – Keeps the 9950X3D running cool even during intense gaming.
• PSU: MSI MAG A1000GL Black – A fully modular 1000W unit that easily powers this setup.
• Cabinet: MSI MAG PANO 100R PZ Black – Offers great airflow and plenty of room for the TUF triple-slot card.

AMD Radeon 9070 XT: Performance Analysis

Moving on to how this card performs, let’s start with some synthetic benchmarks. In 3DMark Time Spy, which simulates DirectX 12 gaming at 1440p, the card scores well above the 27,000 mark, positioning it as a strong contender in the high-end segment. Fire Strike Ultra, AMD’s battleground for 4K raster performance, showcases the 9070 XT’s raw horsepower, with scores hovering around 16,800, putting it a step ahead of the RTX 5070 Ti in traditional rendering. Even in Port Royal, which tests ray tracing capabilities, the card manages to stay competitive with a score of just over 11,300. While this doesn’t beat NVIDIA’s numbers, it does reflect how far AMD’s ray tracing engine has come since RDNA 2.

Moving into real-world gaming benchmarks, the 9070 XT really starts to flex its muscles, especially in native rendering scenarios. In games like Cyberpunk 2077, Indiana Jones and The Great Circle, and God of War Ragnarok, AMD's card consistently punches above its weight, outperforming the RTX 5070 Ti by anywhere between 5–10 FPS on average. This gap grows even wider in titles that are well-optimised for AMD, such as Forza Horizon 5, where the 9070 XT pulls ahead by a noticeable margin. Interestingly, in some titles like Black Myth Wukong, AMD's card is behind in 1440p native settings, but takes the lead in 4K gaming performance. The takeaway here is clear — for traditional rasterised workloads, the RX 9070 XT is often the better performer, delivering higher frame rates and smoother gameplay without relying on upscaling tricks.

That said, the story starts to change once you factor in ray tracing and frame generation. Just as we saw in the synthetic benchmarks, NVIDIA has the lead when Ray Tracing is involved. As such, while AMD has improved its RT capabilities, titles with heavy RT workloads still favour NVIDIA. Additionally, when it comes to Frame Generation, DLSS 4-supported titles can quadruple frame rates in some games. On the other hand, AMD's solution caps out at 2x and isn't quite as consistent.

Take Cyberpunk 2077, for instance. At 1440p with 2x frame generation enabled, the RTX 5070 Ti using DLSS + FG hit a buttery-smooth 182 FPS, while the RX 9070 XT with FSR + FG maxed out at 109 FPS. That alone gives NVIDIA a comfortable lead. But the margin widens even further when you turn on 4x Multi-Frame Generation (MFG), with the RTX 5070 Ti pushing up to a staggering 322 FPS on average. The same story plays out in Black Myth: Wukong, where NVIDIA stretches its legs even more, leaving AMD struggling to keep pace in AI-enhanced rendering.

But before drawing any hard conclusions, there are a couple of caveats worth pointing out. First, this performance gap largely appears in titles where we're comparing DLSS 4 to FSR 3, or even FSR 2 in some cases, due to limited support for FSR 4. And that leads to the second point: FSR 4 adoption is still in its infancy. To gauge its potential, we tested it in Spider-Man 2, and the improvements were noticeable. However, the game itself had some stability issues, making it unfit for inclusion in our official benchmark list. So, while AMD has clearly taken a step forward, it still lacks the ecosystem and polish that DLSS enjoys today.

Verdict

And that brings us to the big question: AMD Radeon 9070 XT or NVIDIA RTX 5070 Ti? In many ways, AMD's strengths lie in the basics: strong native performance, great efficiency, and significantly better value. With an MSRP of $599 and current Indian pricing ranging between ₹63,000 to ₹68,000, the RX 9070 XT undercuts NVIDIA by a big margin. The RTX 5070 Ti, on the other hand, carries a $749 MSRP, but street prices in India can easily touch ₹1,00,000 or more.

For that price difference, AMD delivers more frames-per-rupee. The 9070 XT is easily capable of 1440p ultra and even 4K gameplay in most modern games, especially those that don't heavily rely on ray tracing. It consistently beats the 5070 Ti in native rendering, and while FSR 3 isn't as refined as DLSS, it still holds its own. Add to that, things should only improve once FSR 4 rolls out to more titles.

That said, NVIDIA does justify its premium. The RTX 5070 Ti leads in ray tracing (at least right now), its frame generation tech is far superior, and it's already backed by a vast library of supported titles. DLSS 4 feels more mature, more consistent, and simply more widespread. For gamers who prioritise cinematic visuals, cutting-edge RT effects, or want the smoothest frame pacing possible, the RTX 5070 Ti still makes a strong case, if budget isn't a concern.

Editor's Rating: 8.5 / 10

Pros:

• Great native performance
• Handles both 1440p and 4K gaming
• Excellent value for money
• Cool and quiet operation

Cons:

• Ray tracing is still behind NVIDIA
• FSR 4 adoption is slow