AMD just officially unveiled its Radeon RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT graphics cards, and I'm absolutely thrilled at the price we're getting on March 6. Designed to take on Nvidia's RTX 5070 series, the GPUs with come in at $549 and $599 respectively and the XT will boast up to 42% better performance than the last gen RX 7900 GRE.
It's pretty clear that AMD isn't gunning for the best graphics card crown this generation. Instead, it's sending cards like the RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT into the mid-range battlefield to take on the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti and its cheaper RTX 5070 sibling, I initially had fears that the red team would pick the wrong price point for these cards, but with the XT model coming in $150 cheaper than the new Blackwell card, I think we could be looking at a proper middle ground scrap.
AMD CEO Lisa Su previously claimed the company was aiming to cater to the "highest volume portion of the enthusiast gaming market," which explains why it's primarily focussing on mid-range graphics cards like the RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT for now. I'm personally all for graphics cards that cost a chunk under $1,000, even if options like the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 and its monstrous RTX 5090 sibling can practically pull off 4K PC gaming with zero compromise.
Should you buy an RX 9070 series graphics card?
Now that AMD has lifted the lid on its RX 9070 series GPUs, there are a few takeaways to consider. The first is that the RX 9070 XT beats the RTX 5070 Ti on price while allegedly providing 23% better gaming performance "per dollar" across 30 games. That's according to in-house benchmarks, and it's more based on the price in correlation to frame rates rather than actually boosting fps higher. Still, it's a bold claim that makes the XT even more attractive as a mid-range option.
Naturally, I'll be looking to benchmark the AMD Radeon RX 9070 and the XT model, and that'll ultimately help me decide whether they're worth buying over RTX 5070 series cards. The green team is learning pretty heavily about making AI upscaling and Multi-Frame Generation an intrinsic part of running PC games, and while alternatives like FSR 4 will provide similar fps-boosting abilities, RDNA 4 could be where players adverse to AI end up turning.
The RX 9070 Series will officially land on March 6, so watch this space for stock updates and more. If you'd rather stick with the green team, you'll also want to keep an eye on RTX 5070 stock since the non-Ti card will roll into town on March 5.
Looking for more components? Check out the best gaming CPU and the best RAM for gaming. Alternatively, take a peek at the best gaming handhelds if you want a machine you can take on the go.
