AMD RX 9070 Review ft. Sapphire
Launching alongside the RX 9070 XT, today we also have a full review of the slightly cheaper RX 9070 (non-XT). This cut-down Navi 48 GPU targets a $549 MSRP and, as such, is going head-to-head with Nvidia's RTX 5070 which we reviewed only yesterday. But with just a $50 gap between the RX 9070 and the XT model, does AMD's own product positioning make sense? All that and more is explored in this analysis.
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
00:41 Recap and spec overview
01:48 Test setup
03:02 Alan Wake 2
03:41 Black Myth: Wukong
04:11 Cyberpunk 2077
04:14 Final Fantasy XVI
05:14 Forza Horizon 5
05:47 Ghost of Tsushima
06:21 Horizon Forbidden West
06:54 The Last of Us Part 1
07:20 Plague Tale: Requiem
07:42 Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2
08:09 Starfield
08:36 Total War: Warhammer III
08:55 12-game average results
10:57 Cost per frame analysis
11:55 RT Alan Wake II
12:28 RT Black Myth: Wukong
12:57 RT Cyberpunk 2077
13:19 RT F1 24
13:40 RT Ratchet & Clank
14:00 RT Returnal
14:12 RT Shadow of the Tomb Raider
14:23 RT Star Wars Outlaws
14:43 RT 8-game average
15:18 FSR 4 analysis
18:56 Meet the Sapphire Pulse & ASRock Taichi
20:19 Thermals and acoustics
21:24 Power draw and efficiency
23:18 Closing thoughts
In lieu of an official AMD reference (or MBA) card, today we are using the Sapphire RX 9070 Pulse for our testing. This card still comes at reference specifications, however, while there's a range of factory overclocked models set to launch at retail tomorrow.
It's also worth noting that while this is a standalone review for the RX 9070, we do have a day one review for the RX 9070 XT, and you can find that HERE.
RX 9070 XT
RX 9070
RX 7900 GRE
RX 7800 XT
RX 7700 XT
Architecture
RDNA 4
RDNA 4
RDNA 3
RDNA 3
RDNA 3
Manufacturing Process
TSMC N4
TSMC N4
TSMC N5 GCD + N6 MCD
TSMC N5 GCD + N6 MCD
TSMC N5 GCD + N6 MCD
Transistor Count
53.9 billion
53.9 billion
57.7 billion
28.1 billion
28.1 billion
Die Size
357 mm²
357 mm²
300 mm² GCD
220 mm² MCD
200 mm² GCD
150 mm² MCD
200 mm² GCD
150 mm² MCD
Compute Units
64
56
80
60
54
Ray Accelerators
64
56
80
60
54
Stream Processors
4096
3584
5120
3840
3456
Game GPU Clock
2400 MHz
2070 MHz
1880 MHz
2124 MHz
2171 MHz
Boost GPU Clock
Up to 2970 MHz
Up to 2520 MHz
Up to 2245 MHz
Up to 2430 MHz
Up to 2544 MHz
ROPs
128
128
192
96
96
AMD Infinity Cache
64MB
64MB
64MB
64MB
48MB
Memory
16GB GDDR6
16GB GDDR6
16GB GDDR6
16GB GDDR6
12GB GDDR6
Memory Data Rate
20 Gbps
20 Gbps
18 Gbps
19.5 Gbps
18 Gbps
Memory Bandwidth
645 GB/s
645 GB/s
576 GB/s
624 GB/s
432 GB/s
Memory Interface
256-bit
256-bit
256-bit
256-bit
192-bit
Board Power
304W
220W
260 W
263W
245W
First, let's take a quick look at the specs. The RX 9070 is built on the new Navi 48 die, measuring 357mm², and it's worth pointing out this is a monolithic chip, so AMD is not using a chiplet-based design as per RDNA 3. In total, Navi 48 silicon packs in 53.9 billion transistors.
While a full Navi 48 GPU packs in 64 Compute Units, the 9070 is cut down to 56 CUs, and each CU houses 64 Steam Processors, for a total of 3584 shaders. There's also 56 Ray Accelerators – one per CU – and 128 ROPs.
As for clock speed, the RX 9070 runs notably slower than its sibling, the RX 9070 XT, and instead it sports a rated game clock of 2070MHz and a boost clock of up to 2520MHz.
The memory configuration is the same between both GPUs though, with 16GB of GDDR6 memory clocked at 20Gbps, operating over a 256-bit memory interface, for total memory bandwidth of 645 GB/s. 64MB of Infinity Cache is also present.
Power draw for the RX 9070 rated at 220W Total Board Power (TBP), but we are using our updated GPU power testing methodology in this review, so read on for our most detailed power and efficiency testing yet.The post AMD RX 9070 Review ft. Sapphire first appeared on KitGuru.
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