AMD is expected to launch its new Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 on March 6. The official launch date comes after two months of delays, but the wait could be well worth it if AMD can launch its new graphics cards with solid availability and realistic pricing.
The two new mid-range RDNA 4 GPUs represent a significant upgrade over the previous RDNA 3 hardware, bringing increased raw power, improved ray tracing, new FSR 4 capabilities, and more.
AMD’s Radeon RX 9070 XT is the more expensive card, with its $600 MSRP (about £570); the RX 9070 is set at $550 (about £520).
I’m expecting the new AMD GPUs to sell out despite promises of wide availability; that’s why I’ve put together this guide to hopefully help you land the new hardware ASAP.
Here are the best retailers to check out on March 6 when AMD’s RDNA 4 GPUs launch.
Where to buy AMD RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 in US: Quick links
Where to buy AMD RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 in UK: Quick links
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How much do AMD Radeon RX 9000 GPUs cost? RDNA 4 pricing explained.
AMD seriously undercut NVIDIA’s $750 RTX 5070 Ti with its $600 RX 9070 XT competitor, and the XT version should be the more popular card on launch day.
Both the NVIDIA RTX 5070 — which is expected to launch a day ahead of the new Radeon cards on March 5 — and AMD’s RX 9070 have a $550 MSRP.
Whether or not third-party manufacturers stick to the MSRP set by AMD remains to be seen.
NVIDIA has notably suffered severe stock shortages with the three RTX 5000 GPUs it has so far launched, and the MSRP seems to have only been a light suggestion.
The RTX 5070 Ti, despite a $750 MSRP, is approaching $1,000 at major retailers before any scalping, and there’s not actually any stock to sell.
AMD unveiled its RDNA 4 GPUs with promises of wide availability on March 6. Even if the MSRP isn’t met by third-party manufacturers, you should expect to see cheaper prices from Team Red compared to Team Green.
Should you buy an AMD Radeon RX 9000 GPU?
Despite worries that AMD would bungle its RDNA 4 announcement, the information shared in the official RX 9000-series presentation bodes well for the Radeon division.
Most of us were waiting to see how AMD priced its cards, and the revelation that the RX 9070 XT comes in at $150 cheaper than the RTX 5070 Ti is great news.
While I’m waiting for third-party reviews to share their performance findings, the graphs AMD shared point to the RX 9070 XT’s performance as being comparable to the RTX 5070 Ti.
Indeed, the standout news from AMD’s presentation is that the RX 9070 XT only drops about 2% in raw performance at a 4K resolution.
AMD, of course, cherry-picked the games it used to test the two GPUs, but with a mix of popular and demanding games on the chart, it’s easy to see the improvements that AMD has made to its RDNA 4 architecture.
The graph above also shows that AMD continues to lag behind in ray tracing performance, but that’s not much of a surprise.
NVIDIA has long been the go-to hardware for RT enthusiasts, and that section of the market should probably stick with Team Green.
However, for someone like me who doesn’t care as much about ray tracing performance, the RX 9070 XT is looking quite attractive, and I’ll be on the frontlines attempting to land a new GPU at the March 6 launch.
There’s also the matter of AMD’s new FidelityFX Super Resolution 4 (FSR 4) providing a much more significant performance boost compared to FSR 3.
AMD made the switch to machine learning for FSR 4, and the graph above demonstrates the performance gains available with the new upscaling technique.
Not only can FSR 4 quadruple frame rates in some games compared to the last-gen RX 7900 GRE, but it’s also now much better at providing small but high-quality details, a weakness with FSR 3.
Barring some unknown flaws that will be discovered by third-party reviews, the Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 should be the right choice for plenty of gamers who’d rather avoid the issues NVIDIA’s had, including melting power cables, faulty drivers, missing ROPs, and more.
