ASUS PRIME Radeon RX 9070 XT OC Edition review: 4K gaming for less!

The ASUS PRIME Radeon RX 9070 XT OC Edition is a brand new graphics card based on AMD’s latest entry into the GPU market. Designed to deliver top-notch 4K gaming performance at a competitive price, and built upon the RDNA 4 architecture, this graphics card brings significant improvements in ray tracing, power efficiency, and cooling compared to its predecessors. Equipped with 16GB of GDDR6 memory, an efficient triple-fan cooling system, and support for AMD’s latest AI-based upscaling tech (FidelityFX Super Resolution 4), the Radeon RX 9070 XT promises an excellent balance of raw performance and modern gaming features. But how well does it do compared to NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 5070 Ti and AMD’s previous Radeon RX 7900 series? Is it the best choice for gamers looking for a new and powerful graphics card? Read this review to find out:

ASUS Prime Radeon RX 9070 XT OC Edition: Who is it good for?

This graphics card is a great choice if you want:

• Ultra visual settings and high frame rates in games at 1440p and 4K resolutions
• Improved ray tracing performance and support for AMD FSR 4
• A powerful GPU that doesn’t get hot
• A graphics card with a more reasonable price

Pros and cons

Here’s what I appreciate about the ASUS Prime Radeon RX 9070 XT OC Edition:

• Excellent performance at any resolution, including 4K
• Improved ray tracing performance compared to older Radeon GPUs
• Support for AMD’s FSR 4 upscaling technology
• Plenty of fast GDDR6 memory (16 GB)
• Effective cooling system and surprisingly quiet operation
• Relatively low power use for its performance (around 300 Watts)

As for downsides:

• The card is quite large, so you may need a larger case to fit it comfortably
• NVIDIA still leads in ray tracing performance

Verdict

After testing its performance, power consumption, and cooling efficiency, the ASUS PRIME Radeon RX 9070 XT has proven to be an excellent choice for high-resolution gaming. It outperforms older AMD Radeon cards and competes well against NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 5070 Ti in many games (including those that utilize ray tracing), even at 4K resolutions. Although NVIDIA still leads in ray tracing performance, AMD has significantly closed the gap, which is fantastic for gamers. Furthermore, the Radeon RX 9070 XT operates at cooler temperatures than its competitors. If you’re looking for a powerful, well-cooled, and cost-effective GPU for 1440p and 4K resolution gaming, the ASUS PRIME Radeon RX 9070 XT is an outstanding option, particularly if you can find it at a price that’s close to $599 (AMD’s recommended pricing for this card).

Unboxing the ASUS Prime Radeon RX 9070 XT OC Edition

Unboxing the ASUS Prime Radeon RX 9070 XT OC Edition is a straightforward and pleasant experience. The packaging looks nice and feels sturdy. It’s designed to protect the card during shipping, and the thick foam padding inside does a great job of keeping everything safe and secure.

The box showcases the GPU and some of its main features

When I opened the box, the graphics card was the first thing I saw, wrapped in an anti-static bag to prevent any electrical damage. The card was also placed in a custom foam insert that kept it from moving around. In addition to the GPU, I also found a quick start guide, a leaflet with warranty details, and a Thank You card.

The card looks good but there are no accessories included

The packaging is practical and protective. It looks good, and it includes everything you need to get started, which is the card.🙂

Design and hardware specifications

Built on AMD’s new RDNA 4 architecture, the Radeon RX 9070 XT is designed to deliver high frame rates, even in 4K resolutions. According to AMD’s official product page, the Radeon RX 9070 XT features 64 Compute Units (CUs) with a boost frequency up to 2970 MHz, but the ASUS Prime model I’m testing takes that a notch further, up to 3010 MHz. It also integrates sixty four 3rd Gen Ray Accelerators, which handle ray tracing calculations, and one hundred and twenty eight 2nd Gen AI Accelerators, used for advanced upscaling and content creation tasks. The card provides 128 ROPs (Render Output Units), which contribute to its ability to handle high resolutions and complex visuals efficiently. This helps in achieving smoother and more detailed graphics in games and other applications.

ASUS Prime Radeon RX 9070 XT OC Edition can reach a top speed of 3010 MHz

The ASUS Prime Radeon RX 9070 XT OC Edition features a 16 GB GDDR6 memory configuration. It can reach speeds of up to 20 Gbps on a 256-bit memory interface, delivering a high bandwidth of 640 GB/s. This ensures smooth performance in high-resolution gaming, as well as in complex rendering tasks. Additionally, AMD’s Infinity Cache Technology introduces a 64 MB on-die cache, which helps reduce memory latency and improve effective bandwidth, optimizing data transfer between the GPU and video RAM.

There are three fans on the card

The Radeon RX 9070 XT supports FidelityFX Super Resolution 4 (FSR 4), AMD’s latest AI-based upscaling tech that improves frame rates and image quality. AMD claims significant gains when using FSR, especially at higher resolutions. This helps the card keep performance high in visually complex titles that have lots of lighting and geometry details.

Radeon RX 9070 XT supports the latest AMD FSR 4

Image source: AMD

Regarding outputs, the ASUS Prime Radeon RX 9070 XT OC Edition comes with one HDMI 2.1b port and three DisplayPort 2.1a ports, letting you connect up to four monitors at a max resolution of 7680 × 4320. DisplayPort 2.1a allows for high refresh rates at 4K and 8K resolutions, if you have a monitor that supports it.

For output, you get three DisplayPort and one HDMI

Cooling is handled by a triple-fan design that uses large heatsinks and carefully placed heat pipes for efficient thermal dissipation.

The triple-fan design helps keep the GPU cool at all times

The design also includes a sturdy backplate that helps keep the card rigid. That’s a good thing, as you don’t want it sagging under its own weight, potentially damaging the GPU or the motherboard’s PCI Express slot.

There’s a metallic backplate on the ASUS PRIME Radeon RX 9070 XT OC Edition

In terms of power, the board typically draws around 300 Watts at maximum, which is reasonable for this performance level. You’ll see three standard 8-pin power connectors on the card.

The board requires three power connectors

A thing you may want to keep in mind is the size of the GPU, which is quite large: 31.2 cm long (12.3 inches), 13 cm wide (5.1 inches), and 5 cm thick (2 inches). Make sure your PC case has enough space for it.

If you want more details about this graphics card’s hardware specs and features, visit its official webpage: ASUS Prime Radeon RX 9070 XT OC Edition.

Overall, this GPU has excellent hardware specs and a solid design. It’s built for 4K gaming and can surely deliver high frame rates and great image quality, especially with FSR turned on.

Using the ASUS Prime Radeon RX 9070 XT OC Edition

Once I installed the ASUS Prime Radeon RX 9070 XT OC Edition on my PC, I tested how it performed in day-to-day activities, not just in benchmarks. The system I used for my tests had the following hardware:

Installing the graphics card into my test computer took a bit of effort and attention, but I managed to pull it off reasonably fast. However, the card’s size is something to consider when planning what case you want to buy for your gaming computer. I recommend a Mid Tower case, as that should provide you with enough space to accommodate the GPU.

Keep in mind that this is a large card

In everyday use, the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT runs quietly and efficiently, making it a great choice for both gaming and general tasks. During regular use, like web browsing, watching videos, or working on documents, the GPU stays cool, and the fans turn off completely when the card is idle. This means zero noise when you’re not pushing the card. Even when the fans do turn on, they stay quiet unless the graphics card is under heavy load.

The card runs any daily task with ease

For gaming, the Radeon RX 9070 XT delivers smooth performance at 4K resolutions. The game I actually played while testing this board, Star Wars Outlaws, loaded quickly, frame rates stayed high, and there were no stutters or slowdowns. The 16 GB of VRAM ensures that modern games with high-resolution textures run without issues, even at ultra settings.

Playing Star Wars Outlaws on this GPU was a delight

If you’re into video editing, 3D rendering, or streaming, the Radeon RX 9070 XT could be a good option. It comes with AV1 hardware encoding and decoding, which can improve streaming quality and lower processor usage. The high memory bandwidth and AI-hardware may also help in creative tasks like editing videos or working with 3D models, especially in software that supports AMD’s optimizations.

Overall, the Radeon RX 9070 XT offers a smooth experience for both gaming and everyday use. It runs cool, quiet, and power-efficient when idle, but delivers strong performance when you need it.

Performance in games and benchmarks

I wanted to measure how well the ASUS Prime Radeon RX 9070 XT OC Edition performs, so I ran several gaming benchmarks on Ultra quality settings, turning on ray tracing whenever it was available. To put the results into perspective, I compared them with the ones of two (older) RDNA 3 cards, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and 7900 XT, and also included the newly released ASUS PRIME GeForce RTX 5070 Ti.

For these tests, I set each game to its highest graphics preset and enabled ray tracing at high quality in the titles that support it. I also decided not to use FSR or DLSS, so we could see how each card performs at native settings, without any form of upscaling or image reconstruction.

When testing Cyberpunk 2077 with RT Ultra settings, the Radeon RX 9070 XT falls behind the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti by 16% at 4K resolution. However, compared to AMD’s previous generation, it is 24% ahead of the Radon RX 7900 XTX and a massive 44% ahead of the Radeon RX 7900 XT, showcasing AMD’s improved ray tracing capabilities. Under the same set of settings, the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti edges out the Radeon RX 9070 XT by 17% at 1440p resolution. At the same time, Radeon RX 9070 XT outperforms the previous-gen Radeon RX 7900 XTX by a significant 27% and the RX 7900 XT by an even more extreme 44%! While the Radeon 9070 XT struggles to match NVIDIA in ray tracing performance, its generational leap over older Radeon cards makes it a much more viable option for playing ray-traced games without significant compromises.

Benchmark results in Cyberpunk 2077

In The Callisto Protocol at 4K Ultra with ray tracing enabled, the Radeon RX 9070 XT performs 7% worse than the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, though it manages to outperform the Radeon RX 7900 XTX by 15% and the Radeon RX 7900 XT by 34%. On the other hand, in 1080p and 1440p resolutions, the ASUS Prime Radeon RX 9070 XT edges out the NVIDIA competitor. In 1440p, the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti trails behind by 5%, and in 1080p it’s 17% in RX 9070 XT’s rearview mirror. This indicates that, while NVIDIA still keeps an edge in ray-traced lighting, AMD’s improvements in RDNA 4 over RDNA 3 are significant. Gamers looking for a balanced experience in visually demanding games will find the Radeon RX 9070 XT capable of delivering smooth 4K gameplay with ray tracing turned on.

Benchmark results in The Callisto Protocol

Moving to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Next-Gen Update at RT Ultra settings, the Radeon RX 9070 XT lags behind the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti by 12% at 4K resolution, but gets ahead of the Radeon RX 7900 XTX by 16% and the Radeon RX 7900 XT by 38%. This shows, once more, that while AMD’s ray tracing performance still trails NVIDIA in high resolutions, its improvements over RDNA3 are substantial enough to make ray-traced games at 4K more playable than on previous Radeon cards.

Benchmark results in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Next-Gen Update

In Total War: WARHAMMER III at Ultra settings, the Radeon RX 9070 XT matches the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti at 4K resolution, while comfortably beating the Radeon RX 7900 XT by 20%. Surprisingly so, the Radeon RX 9070 XT outperforms the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti by 7% in 1440p, and by 10% in 1080p resolution. Since this game relies heavily on CPU and GPU efficiency, but doesn’t use ray tracing, the Radeon RX 9070 XT’s strong performance at high resolutions suggests it is great at rasterization.

Benchmark results in Total War WARHAMMER III

Assassin’s Creed Mirage at Ultra High settings highlights, yet again, the Radeon RX 9070 XT’s strength in rasterized (non-ray-traced) gaming. At 4K resolution, it beats the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti by 20%, while at 1440p, it edges it out by 28%, and at 1080p, it outperforms it by 37%. Unfortunately, I didn’t test this game on the other two graphics cards you’ve seen in the previous charts, so I don’t have their results.

Benchmark results in Assassin’s Creed Mirage

In Resident Evil Village at Max settings with ray tracing on, the Radeon RX 9070 XT falls 14% behind the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti at 4K, but still manages to outperform the Radeon RX 7900 XT by 6%, indicating an improvement in AMD’s ability to handle ray-traced effects.

Benchmark results in Resident Evil Village

F1 22 at Ultra High settings with ray tracing enabled is another game where the Radeon RX 9070 XT proves its power. While it is 3% slower than the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti at 4K resolutions, it leads the Radeon RX 7900 XT by an impressive 25%. The Radeon RX 9070 XT is 4% faster than the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti at 1080p and 15% above the Radeon RX 7900 XTX. At 1440p, it’s almost on par with the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti (roughly 2% behind), but stays 14% ahead of the Radeon 7900 XTX.

Benchmark results in F1 22

In Starfield, the ASUS PRIME Radeon RX 9070 XT proves to be an excellent GPU at 4K, outperforming the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti by 1% and delivering a huge 48% lead over the Radeon RX 7900 XT. The Radeon RX 9070 XT is almost 9% faster than the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti at 1080p and only 1% faster at 1440p. However, compared to the RDNA 3 cards – the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and 7900 XT – the Radeon RX 9070 XT is far ahead with a 22% improvement in 1080p and 33% in 1440p. AMD has significantly optimized its RDNA 4 architecture and it shows.

Benchmark results in Starfield

In 3DMark’s Time Spy Extreme, which tests DirectX 12 performance, the Radeon RX 9070 XT scored 4% higher than the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti and 3% higher than the Radeon RX 7900 XTX, confirming that it is one of the best AMD GPUs for high-resolution rasterization. In Speed Way, which includes ray tracing, the Radeon RX 9070 XT falls 20% behind the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, but it still outperforms the Radeon RX 7900 XTX by 24%, showing AMD’s notable improvement in handling ray-traced workloads. Lastly, in 3DMark Port Royal, a pure ray tracing benchmark, the Radeon RX 9070 XT is 6% slower than the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti but 34% ahead of the Radeon RX 7900 XT. Without question, while AMD still trails NVIDIA when it comes to ray tracing, it has made a significant leap in performance over its previous generation graphics cards.

Benchmark results in 3DMark

In terms of temperature management, the ASUS PRIME Radeon RX 9070 XT runs significantly cooler than its competition. Under load, it reaches a maximum temperature of 64°C, making it 12% cooler than the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti (73°C), 15% cooler than the Radeon RX 7900 XTX (75°C), and 17% cooler than the Radeon RX 7900 XT (77°C). This impressive thermal performance highlights the efficiency of AMD’s RDNA4 architecture, as well as the high-quality cooling solution on the ASUS PRIME model.

Maximum temperature readings

When looking at power consumption, ASUS PRIME Radeon RX 9070 XT draws 316W under full load, making it 5% more power-hungry than the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti (302W) but still 9% more efficient than the Radeon RX 7900 XTX (348W). Surprisingly, it consumes 2% more power than the Radeon RX 7900 XT (308W) despite being significantly faster in many benchmarks. While the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti remains the most power-efficient of the group, the Radeon RX 9070 XT achieves an excellent balance between power draw and performance, offering better energy efficiency than AMD’s previous generation while keeping thermals under control.

Highest power draw recorded

The ASUS PRIME Radeon RX 9070 XT is a fantastic gaming GPU that works great in 1440p resolutions and 4K. It offers strong rasterization performance while showing significant improvements in ray tracing over previous Radeon cards. While it still falls short of NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 5070 Ti in some ray-traced games, it outperforms the Radeon RX 7900 XT by as much as 48% at 4K resolution for certain titles, proving that AMD has taken a major step forward in performance efficiency. If you’re looking for a high-performance gaming experience at a competitive price, the Radeon RX 9070 XT is one of the best options in AMD’s lineup today.

What’s your opinion about the ASUS Prime Radeon RX 9070 XT OC Edition?

We have arrived at the end of this review and I think that the ASUS Prime Radeon RX 9070 XT OC Edition is a solid, well-rounded graphics card. It delivers great performance, modern features, and good power efficiency, making it a smart choice for gamers who want smooth 1440p and 4K gaming with improved ray tracing. But this is my opinion and I’m curious to learn yours: What do you think about this card? Will it be your next upgrade, or do you prefer an older model? Share your thoughts in the comments below.