AMD RX 9070 XT Review: AMD's RDNA 4 Champion for 1440p Gaming

Since the RX 970 series GPUs didn't reach reviewers until after their March 6 launch, which was delayed by retail cancellations and overseas trips, this analysis benefits from over a month of hands-on testing.

Three distinct 9070 XT models, alongside the non-XT 9070, have been evaluated against Nvidia's latest mid-range offerings.

In addition to standard performance benchmarks, power-profile overclocking and voltage tuning have been explored, and a refreshed price–performance assessment reflects real-world street prices rather than AMD’s original MSRP.

Cards Used in Testing

Six GPUs were tested: four from AMD—the Aorus Elite, ASRock Taichi, and Steel Legend 9070 XTs, plus the non-XT 9070 Hellhound purchased at retail—and two from Nvidia, the RTX 5070 and RTX 5080.

 AMD provided the Aorus Elite, the Taichi sourced through a system builder, and the Steel Legend, which was removed from a Best Buy pre-built machine. To round out the AMD roster, the 7900 GRE and flagship 7900 XTX were also included. 

Temperatures & Power Draw

Under gaming load, AMD’s cards draw significant power but deliver frames to back it up. The non-XT 9070 consumed the least at 230 W, followed by the RTX 5070 at 252 W and the 7900 GRE at 265 W. 

The 9070 XT pulled 340 W, the RTX 5080 343 W, and the 7900 XTX peaked at 347 W. None of these cards appeared thermally constrained: during “Sweat Sessions” in Marvel Rivals, both the 9070 XT and 5080 ran at about 55 °C, while the rest hovered near 65 °C—even the blower-style XTX.

Gaming Benchmarks

Using your mix of AAA blockbusters and esports titles, you set the non-XT 9070 as the baseline. It outpaced the 7900 GRE by 19%, matched or slightly beat the equally priced RTX 5070 by 4%, fell 10.5% behind the 7900 XTX, 17% behind its XT sibling, and trailed the RTX 5080 by 37%. 

However, one title—Blacksmith Wukong—is notoriously Nvidia-favored and skewed overall results by a 37% gap between the 9070 XT and RTX 5080.

Handling the Wukong Anomaly

Recognizing that specific engines favor one architecture, you removed that outlier game. Without Wukong, the 9070 beats the GRE by 21% and the 5070 by almost 8% but now trails the 7900 XTX by 12.4%, the 9070 XT by 17%, and the RTX 5080 by 33%.

Switching your baseline to the 9070 XT (including Wukong) leads every card except the 5080 by 17%. Excluding Wukong narrows that gap to about 14%.

Price-to-Performance Value Comparison

Real-world street prices rarely match MSRPs. Your AMP RTX 5080 tested at 90% above the Orus Elite XT's price despite Nvidia's MSRP only being 66% higher. With 16 GB of VRAM across these cards, that extra cost nets you less than a 20% performance gain.

Charting dollars per frame at 1440p, the 9070 XT Steel Legend is top-value at MSRP, but at market prices, the non-XT 9070 Hellhound shines—especially at 4K, where it leads in real-world markets despite slightly lower performance.

Overall, securing a 9070 or 9070 XT at fair pricing delivers a stellar 1440p experience. The XT offers flagship performance for the best value, while the base 9070 keeps you close behind at a lower cost.

9070 XT Variant Comparisons

Focusing on the three 9070 XT cards, their launch MSRPs were $759 for the Aorus Elite, $729 for the Taichi, and $599 for the Steel Legend (now around $669 street price). The Steel Legend's 304 W board draw matches AMD's target, while the Taichi and Aorus draw 340 W.

In gaming, the Steel Legend ran the hottest (≈ 60 °C), the Aorus Elite around 55 °C, and the Taichi the coolest at about 50 °C. Performance varied only slightly: the Aorus Elite averaged 90 FPS, the Taichi 88 FPS (98% of Elite), and the Steel Legend 85 FPS (94% of Elite).

By choosing the Steel Legend, you can save up to 22% on MSRP and still capture 94% of peak performance—enabling you to select the card you prefer without sacrificing much.

Overclocking, Undervolting, and Over-Powering

As with previous AMD generations, undervolting yields better gains than adding voltage. You lowered the voltage to the minimum stable level and increased the power limit by 10%, resulting in a consistent 3% performance uplift across all XTs.

By contrast, RTX 5080 cards can achieve a 7–10% increase with similar tweaks, further widening the gap. Unless AMD grants deeper voltage control, tweaked 5080s will always lead, but the 9070 XT remains a compelling value.

Final Thoughts

AMD has delivered a lineup of killer GPUs this generation. The 9070 and 9070 XT exceeded expectations, outpacing Nvidia's RTX 5070 and closing in on the more expensive 5080 at a fraction of the cost—even amid questionable MSRP practices.

If you're purely focused on gaming performance, the 9070 XT is the no-brainer choice for value, while the base 9070 isn't far behind. Nvidia's DLSS 4, multiframe AI upscaling, and CUDA ecosystem remain differentiators, but for raw frame rates, there is little reason to look past AMD in this round.

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