AMDs newly revealed Radeon RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT mid-range GPUS are set to compete against the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 and 5070 Ti, respectively. At least, we wont have to wait long before we see how well these new cards stack up, as the cards are set to launch on March 6 through a range of OEMs. Skipping any mention of a RX 8000 series (to better align with the GPU nomenclature with the latest Ryzen 9 series CPUs) doesnt mean its fully two generations ahead, though it is built with 4K and 1440p gaming in mind for more recent games. The lower-level GPU, the RX 9070, comes in at 56 of the companys RDNA 4 compute units with 16 GB of VRAM (GDDR6 running at 20 Gbps) on a 256-bit memory bus and a boost clock of 2.54 GHz. The RX 9070 XT stands taller with 64 compute units, more AI accelerators, and a 2.97 Ghz boost clock. The higher-end GPU also maintains 16 GB VRAM, equivalent to Nvidias RTX 5070 Ti. Whats Going On Under the Hood with RX 9000 Series GPUs? Image: AMD The RX 9070has 53.9 billion transistors versus 55.8 billion on the RX 7900 XT. Nvidia CEOJensen Huang was more than ready to proclaim, Moores law is dead, but theres still somehting interesting going on considering the 7900 XT contained 84 RDNA 3 compute units at launch in 2022. Each RDNA 4 CU is supposed to support higher clock speeds than RDNA 3. AMD also claims its new GPUs are more power efficient than the past or current generation, meaning it should be able to get more done than the RX 79000 series with less total compute units. The RX 9070 demands 220 W of board power compared to 250 W on the RTX 5070. Meanwhile, the RX 9070 XT has 304 W of total board power compared to 300 W on the RTX 5070 Ti. However, the RX 9070 will still recommend a 650 W PSU, while the 9070 XT will ask for a 750 W power supply, same as the equivalent Nvidia cards. RDNA 4 sports a new structure with an extra computing unit designed with ray tracing in mind. According to AMD, the compute unit is 40% faster than RDNA 3, and theres a promised two times increase in ray tracing performances per compute unit versus the past-gen architecture thanks to a reconfigured, more-optimized raytracing pipeline. The new architecture supports PCIe Gen 5 along with HDMI 2.1b and DisplayPort 2.1a. Team Red also promoted its second-gen AI accelerators. The RX 9070 should be able to hit 1,165 peak TOPS of AI performance versus the RX 9070 XT at 1,557 TOPS.Ignoring all the talk about AI, AMD purports more gamers are looking to upgrade off the RX 6800 XT or the Nvidia RTX 3080 and RTX 3090. For gen-on-gen performance, Team Red claims youll get 33% better performance in a Cyberpunk 2077 at 1440p with ray tracing enabled on the RX 9070 compared to last years RX 7900 GRE. The XT will get over 66% better in the same game at 4K ultra-performance versus the RX 7900 GRE. The frames arent as significant in a game like F1 24 or Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2, but theres still a bigger uplift in native gaming performance. How Much Will the Radeon RX 9000 GPUs Cost? AIB partners are the usual stock, including Acer, Yeston, Gigabyte, Sapphire, and more. Image: AMD AMD waited until its full announcement to drop its final pricing on the RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT. Well update this story once we get official word for how much each card will cost. Its a tough market, and Nvidias latest issues with RTX 50-series availability have made customers nervous about the cost of upgrading. AMD said it was working with the companies making its AIBs to have enough stock at launch, but time will tell.AMD said it doesnt have to play in the same exclusive, ultra-expensive pool as the big dogs at Nvidia. Instead, its focusing on the mid-range GPUs that, perhaps, a few more gamers can afford. That doesnt mean these cards are cheap. AMD may have focused on running cards for under $700, though Nvidia still holds an edge in gaming software. The company now has to bet more gamers would prefer to save some bucks (and, depending on availability, actually be able to buy one) rather than relying on tricks like multi-frame gen. However, AMD is still promoting how its next generation of FSR provides better framerates than the last generation. AMDs FSR 4 Is Looking to Take On DLSS 4 for AI Upscaling Image: AMD AMDs FidelityFX Super Resolution 4 for the RDNA 4 architecture is supposed to improve the upscaling tech trying to take on DLSS 4 by reducing regular complaints of ghosting or anti-aliasing artifacts. Just like always, FSR takes a lower-resolution image and upscales it to a higher-resolution image, all while keeping the performance of the lower-end. AMD said FSR-4 can create near-native results for its supported games on the Radeon RX 9070 and 9070 XT.Whether thats true will be up to the eagle-eyed players keen to point out any issue with a non-native frame, especially when you throw frame generation into the mix. AMD compared native 4K to FSR 3.1 and FSR 4, claiming the latter seems closer to native with fine details and far-away images. As for performance, AMD claimed a larger uplift in FPS on a 9070 XT in a game like Warhammer 40K: Space Marine II, going from 53 FPS to 102 FPS at 4K. Increased frames are slightly lower on games like Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered. Thats all before frame gen, as well. As for multi-frame gen, thats still off the table. AMD indicated it has worked on prototypes for that AI capability but is mostly there to encourage benchmarking rather than improve the user experience. No matter what card you choose, upscaling is a boon for gamers who cant spend $2,000 on an RTX 5090. The question will be how it compares to DLSS 4. AMD also has a new AMF 2.1 model to make generated frames look smoother than before. Nvidia made a big deal about the transformer model of DLSS. AMDs widening software gulf is nowhere clearer than with 3x or 4x multi-frame gen, a capability exclusive to the RTX 50 series of GPUs. The more frames you generate with AI, the more likely you find odd artifacts (and in our tests, we certainly have). But when comparing mid-range GPUs, those extra frames may be worth the drawbacks to some budget-conscious gamers.AMD said its supporting more than 30 games with FSR 4 at launch, including recent games like Marvels Spider-Man 2 and Kingdom Come Deliverance II. The chipmaker said it planned to have more than 75 games support the technology going into 2025. FSR 4 will be supported on RDNA 4 only, while the company promised more games to support FSR 3.1 throughout the year.