AMDand Nvidia have been up against each other many times, but 2025 seems to be another big year for competition. Nvidia was the first to unveil itsBlackwell GPUs,which feature PCIe 5.0 and GDDR7 memory. While Nvidia was hogging all the limelight with itsRTX 5000series, AMD has been quietly working on its twoRadeon RX 9070graphics cards.
But now, the wait is over. AMD hasofficially announcedthe MSRP of their latest mid-range GPUs. TheRX 9070and the9070XTwill launch onMarch 6that$549and$599respectively. The pricing positions the GPUs close to the RX7900XT and the 7900XTX, which are quite a bit more expensive than these new releases.
AMD RX 9070XT and 9070 Sales Start On March 6th
Although benchmarks and reviews aren’t out just yet, AMD claims the 9070XT is42% fasteron average than the now-discontinued 7900GRE. The card was tested in thirtygames running at 4K resolutionwith both ray-tracing and rasterization included. This roughly equates to the9070XT being 10% faster than the last generation’s 7900XTand slightly slower than the flagship 7900XTX. AMD seems to focus more on the value proposition of consumer-level graphics cards instead of groundbreaking technological advancements.
Make sure you have at least a gold-rated 750W PSU to go with the beefy RX 9070XT and the RX 9070.
The 9070XT goes head-to-head with Nvidia’s RTX 5070Ti as the former delivers rasterized performance close to that of the latter. Remember thatFSR 4 vs DLSS 4will have a completely different story, as Nvidia has the upper hand in theAI frame generationsegment. That being said, it’s impossible to find a 5070Ti at its MSRP of $750 thanks torampant scalping. This makes the 9070XT a highly viable option, if AMD manages to fulfill the demand and not have stock shortages.
As for specs, both graphics cards get a healthy amount of VRAM at16GBand a bandwidth of256-bit.RDNA 4 brings improvementsinAV1 video encoding,which enhances live game streaming. It also promises better ray-tracing and AI functionalities, which is a step in the right direction. AMD decided to stick with the trustworthy8-pin power connectorinstead of adapting the newer 16-pin 12VHPWR connector used in Nvidia cards. The RTX 5000 series hasn’t solved the lingering issue of melting power connectors, and users have been left stranded with unnecessary hassle, which won’t be the case with the 9070XT.
The launch price of the 9070XT is on point but not everything is perfect about this release. The non-XT 9070 has a substantial gap from the XT version regarding raw performance and specifications, but AMD missed the plot. The launch price of the non-XT version is eerily close to that of the XT, which is only an extra $50. This isn’t the first time AMD has poorly priced a GPU compared to its stronger brother.
Those who have been in the PC space know that back in December 2022, AMD launched the 7900XT for $900, and the much faster 7900XTX for only $100 more. This move poorly positioned the capable 7900XT in the territory of its bigger brother and the tech community didn’t react well. Later,they dropped the priceand the sales figures picked up.
