AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT And 9070 Aggressive Pricing And Launch Date Revealed
It took a minute, but details about pricing and availability for AMD's Radeon RX 9070 XT and Radeon RX 9070 cards, the first gaming GPUs to feature its RDNA 4 architecture (see our deep dive), are finally official. Gamers hoping AMD would be aggressive with its approach to pricing should be generally pleased, with the XT model carrying a $599 MSRP and the non-XT variant starting at $549.
To put those prices into context, rival NVIDIA priced its GeForce RTX 50 series as follows: $1,999 for the GeForce RTX 5090, $999 for the GeForce RTX 5080, $749 for the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, and $549 for the GeForce RTX 5070 (non-Ti).
A couple of things to note here. First, those Team Green MSRPs are as elusive as the cards themselves—it's damn near impossible to find any of the released models (5090, 5080, and 5070 Ti) in stock, and partner pricing on many custom models has risen significantly above NVIDIA's baseline MSRP.
Secondly, AMD of course isn't competing at the ultra high-end, having noted during its launch presentation today that, according to its internal data, 85% of gamers buy GPUs priced below $700. Steam's hardware survey suggests that's true, and it's within that majority segment where AMD is concentrating its efforts.
The accompanying marketing angle from AMD is that the Radeon RX 9070 series is "built for 4K gaming at a 1440p price." And from the sound of things, the Radeon RX 9070 XT is intended to compete with the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, offering similar performance for $150 less. We'll see how those claims pan out in our own testing, but in the meantime, AMD is providing its own benchmarks to support its stance, part of which hinges on AI-based upscaling via its FidelityFX Super Resolution 4 technology.
"These GPUs are designed to meet the demands of today's games, delivering enthusiast-class gaming experiences to gamers everywhere, while ready to support tomorrow's innovations. Through the power of advanced AI and Raytracing accelerators, we're not just improving frame rates – we're fundamentally enhancing the gaming experience. Offering incredible performance, AI-powered features, and next-gen display support at competitive price points, the Radeon RX 9000 Series delivers exceptional value for gamers looking to upgrade their systems," says David McAfee, CVP and GM of Ryzen CPU and Radeon Graphics.
Versus the previous generation Radeon RX 7900 GRE, AMD claims the non-XT Radeon RX 9070 delivers over 20% more performance on average at 1440p, while the Radeon RX 9070 XT is said to bump performance by 40% on average.
As for the finalized (and official) specs, the Radeon RX 9070 XT features 64 compute units, 16GB of GDDR6 memory, a 256-bit memory bus, 64MB of Infinity Cache, and 2.4GHz (game) and up to 2.97GHz (boost) clocks, wrapped in a 304W TDP.
The Radeon RX 9070, meanwhile, features 56 Compute Units and the same VRAM and Infinity Cache configurations, along with a 2.1GHz game clock, up to a 2.52GHz boost clock, and a 220W TDP.
In case you missed it, here's AMD's launch presentation from earlier today...
From a high level overview, AMD's pricing leans more towards the aggressive side. The question remains if it's aggressive enough to lure buyers away from its rival and into Radeon territory. There are also the questions of actual availability and partner pricing (versus AMD's baseline MSRPs), all of which will be answered soon—AMD says the Radeon RX 9070 XT and Radeon RX 9070 will be available starting March 6.
