AMD’s Radeon RX 9070: Comprehensive Performance and Value Analysis

A multi-generation performance comparison illustrating how AMD’s Radeon RX 9070 advances speed, efficiency, and overall capability within the $500 class

Hardware by Tasnim Yoshi on Dec 08, 2025

The market for midrange graphics cards has changed a lot over the last few generations of hardware. The way products are named has changed, prices are less predictable, and positioning between generations has gotten more complicated. To see how each release fits into its larger market segment, you need to look at various models across several years, focusing on a desired price point rather than a specific product tier. This overview looks at how Radeon GPUs that cost around $500 have done compared against each other and how the most recent iteration stacks up.

Problems with product positioning and pricing

We recently looked at GeForce RTX 5070 and compared it to a few older 70-series GPUs. Now we're going to look at the last six years of Radeon GPUs that cost roughly $500 to evaluate how well the new Radeon RX 9070 compares against its predecessors.

AMD’s Radeon RX 9070, Comprehensive Performance and Value Analysis, compared to Its Predecessors,$500 Segment, NoobFeed

We usually try to make comparisons basic, like looking at the Radeon RX 700 XT series, which includes the 5700 XT, 6700 XT, and 7700 XT. But the newest model is not a 700-class item. It acts more like a 70-class product, like the GeForce name, and it costs more than $500. Because of this, we couldn't find a clear way to compare it to other similar GPUs, thus we had to base this analysis on a pricing range instead of a specific price point.

We have looked at RX 9070 and thought that the non-XT version wasn't as good as the XT at first. It cost $550, which was only $50 less than the XT model. It was only 8% cheaper but also 12% slower, so the XT model had a superior cost per frame. When it first came out, there were problems with availability that made prices vary. In some places, the non-XT model was even a better deal.

At the time we tested this content, 9070XT was still priced far higher than its MSRP in most places. On the other hand, the 9070 was regularly available at MSRP. The non-XT variant fits our $500 target price better.

The 9070XT is currently available for its MSRP of $600, while 9070 has dropped to as low as $510. However, most variants are priced at $550. Prices are likely to go up soon. 5700 XT was the most powerful 5000-series GPU and cost $400. This is the closest price-aligned product we could find to compare.

With that as a base, we wanted to find out if RX 9070 is better than 5700 XT, how it compares to the 6700 XT from 2021, and how it compares to 7900 GRE from last year. We played all of them against each other at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K, utilizing two quality presets for each game.

How well does Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 work?

With the default preset, RX 9070 got 316 frames per second (fps) at 1080p, 243 fps at 1440p, and 139 fps at 4K. The 9070 is 25% quicker than the 700GRE, 29% faster than the 7800 XT, and 48% faster than the 7700XT at 1440p. It is 87% quicker than the 6700 XT and 167% faster than 5700XT. 5700 XT's pricing of $400 is more like $510 today when you take inflation into account.

The margins stayed about the same with the Extreme preset. The gap over the 6700 XT expanded to 108%, and the advantage over 5700 XT grew to 190% at 1080p and stayed the same at 4K.

Phantom Liberty in Cyberpunk 2077

At 1080p, the RX 9070 was almost 40% faster than the 7900 GRE at low settings. At 1440p, it was 27% faster, and at 4K, it was 28% faster. At 1440p, the boost over 6700 XT was 97%, and over 5700 XT, it was 187%.

AMD’s Radeon RX 9070, Comprehensive Performance and Value Analysis, compared to Its Predecessors,$500 Segment, NoobFeed

RX 9070 was still 25% faster than 7900 GRE at 1080p and 1440p with the high preset, and it was 33% faster at 4K. It was 93% faster at 1080p, 107% faster at 1440p, and 137% faster at 4K than 6700 XT. When compared to 5700 XT, the improvements were between 173% and 205%.

Remastered version of Horizon Zero Dawn

At 1080p, RX 9070 was 28% quicker than 7900 GRE, 82% faster than 6700 XT, and 132% faster than 5700 XT when set to medium. At 1440p, it made the disparities bigger by 37%, 103%, and 156%, respectively.

At the extremely high preset, the scaling was similar: it was 28% faster than 7900 GRE at 1080p, 37% faster at 1440p, and 42% faster at 4K. People who update from a 6700XT would see their performance almost double, and people who upgrade from a 5700XT would see their performance improve by 150–200%.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II

At 1080p, RX 9070 was 18% faster than 7900 GRE; at 1440p, it was 20% faster; and at 4K, it was 26% faster. It was also 83–102% quicker than the 6700XT, depending on the resolution, and 155–159% faster than the 5700XT. When set to ultra, the advantage over 7900 GRE grew to roughly 20%. The advantage over 6700 XT grew to between 90% and 110%, while the advantage over 5700 XT grew to more than 150%.

X for Rainbow Six Siege

The RX970 did a great job in this game, beating 7900 GRE by 43% at 1080p, 41% at 1440p, and 39% at 4K. People who upgrade from a 6700 XT would see performance more than double, with boosts of 117% to 138%. People who came from a 5700 XT should expect performance to be up to 175% better.

At 1080p, 28% ahead of 7900 GRE; at 1440p, 24%; and at 4K, 17%. Still, 6700 XT users would still get more than twice as much performance.

Space Marine 2 for Warhammer 40,000

This game needs a lot of CPU power and quickly runs out of it. RX 9070 reached a maximum of 147 fps at 1080p, which is only 12% quicker than the 7900 GRE. Margins went up to 22% at 1440p and 30% at 4K. It was 62% faster at 1080p, 90% faster at 1440p, and 103% faster at 4K than the 6700 XT.

5700 XT had a hard time, only getting 60 fps at 1080p with medium settings. So, RX 9070 is a huge step forward from that level. The hyper preset made the same kinds of margins.

The Shadow of the Tomb Raider

RX 9070 ran at 278 fps at 1080p, 214 fps at 1440p, and 129 fps at 4K when set to medium. Depending on the resolution, it was 23–30% faster than 7900 GRE and 73–90% faster than 6700 XT.

AMD’s Radeon RX 9070, Comprehensive Performance and Value Analysis, compared to Its Predecessors,$500 Segment, NoobFeed

At the fastest preset, it was 26% quicker than 7900 GRE at 1080p, 73% faster than 6700 XT, and 117% faster than the 5700 XT.

Average of Seven Games: Medium Settings

RX 9070 was 28% faster than 7900 GRE on average. For anyone who own a 6700 XT, the upgrade almost doubles the performance: 80% quicker at 1080p, 96% faster at 1440p, and 113% faster at 4K. Users who still have 5700 XT would experience big improvements in every area.

Ultra Settings: Seven-Game Average

RX 9070 worked 25% better than 7900 GRE at ultra settings. It was about 30% faster than the 7800XT, 60% faster than 7700XT, 100% faster than the 6700XT, and 160% faster than 5700 XT.

Price per Frame at MSRP

5700 XT costs $8 per frame based on the MSRP and 1440p results. Even though it costs 20% more, 6700 XT is worth 9% more. 7700 XT was 26% better than 6700 XT, while 7800 XT was even better, with an extra 7% improvement.

7900 GRE didn't make 7800 XT worth more. RX 9070, on the other hand, cut the cost per frame by almost 20% compared to the GRE. This makes it the best value Radeon GPU in the $400 to $550 range over the past six years.

Cost per Frame with Inflation Added

When you take inflation into account, the price of 5700 XT goes up from $400 to $510. With this change, 6700 XT is now a 15% better value than the 5700 XT. 7700 XT is 34% greater value than 6700 XT, while 7800 XT and 700 GRE are both worth about $530 per frame. RX 9070 is 22% greater than those models.

Final Thoughts

RX 9070 is the best deal yet when you look at six years of Radeon products that cost around $500. Not all new items are better value, but in this case, the latest version really does offer the best cost-to-performance ratio. RX 9070 is a lot better value than earlier versions, even if you don't take inflation into account.

In 2019, the 5700 XT was seen as a great deal because it offered RTX 2070-level performance at $400. It was acclaimed for being a good deal, especially after AMD lowered the price before it came out. RX 9070 costs $40 more when you take inflation into account, but it has twice as much VRAM and about 160% better performance on average.

RX 9070 is 22% better value than 7900 GRE. This makes sense because the 9070 series has been well-received: both 9070 models offer great value at their MSRP, especially with better ray tracing and FSR 4 compatibility.

In our most recent reviews, we choose RX 9070 over RTX 5070 and the 9070 XT over the expensive 5070 Ti. 9070 XT is the superior deal because it has better cost-per-frame characteristics, and that is still true today. But RX 9070 may become the superior choice again as prices change. Depending on the games tested, the XT version is about 10–15% faster on average.

Also, check our other AMD articles below: