The overclocked TUF Gaming Radeon RX 9070 is a powerful 1440p card, but it's pricey and faces stiff competition, including from the Radeon RX 9070 XT.
ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 9070 OC Edition - RDNA 4 Impresses, But the Price Doesn't
VIEW GALLERY - 72
Kosta Andreadis
Senior Editor
Manufactured by ASUS with an MSRP of $709.99
20 minutes & 15 seconds read time
Quick Navigation
Introduction
RDNA 4 - AMD Levels the Playing Field
Specs and Test System
Physical Design and Cooling
The Games and Tests
Gaming Performance Analysis - 1080p, 1440p, and 4K
Benchmarks - 3DMark Synthetic Tests
Benchmarks - 1080p Gaming
Benchmarks - 1440p Gaming
Benchmarks - 4K Gaming
FSR 4 and AMD Frame Generation
Path Tracing Performance - 1440p
Temperature and Power Efficiency
Final Thoughts
TweakTown's Rating: 84%
The Bottom Line
With RDNA 4's ray-tracing and FSR 4, the ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 9070 OC Edition delivers impressive performance when compared to the RTX 5070. However, NVIDIA's DLSS still has the edge. Ultimately, there's the Radeon RX 9070 XT - which feels like the better option.
Pros
Great 1440p performance
RDNA 4 ray-tracing is a game changer
FSR 4 image quality is excellent, a real DLSS alternative
ASUS's TUF Gaming design runs quiet and cool
16GB of VRAM
Cons
Current OC model pricing
Costs more than some Radeon RX 9070 XT models
FSR 4 adoption is currently limited, so DLSS still has the advantage
Should you buy it?
AvoidConsiderShortlistBuy
Buy at Amazon for $1499 USD
Introduction
With the arrival of RDNA 4 and the new Radeon RX 9070 and Radeon RX 9070 XT combo, alongside NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5070 and GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, there's some real competition in the mid-range and enthusiast space as we head into 2025. On AMD's side, significant improvements to ray-tracing performance and the arrival of the new AI-powered FSR 4 upscaling have seen Team Red close the feature and software gap. And as we saw in our initial review of the Radeon RX 9070, the performance gap between the XT and non-XT model isn't as big as you'd think, with the latter easily outperforming the similarly-priced GeForce RTX 5070 in most gaming workloads, including those with ray-tracing.
A quick look around the ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 9070 OC Edition
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When looking at the mid-range RDNA 4 and RTX Blackwell offerings, our testing has also shown that the Radeon RX 9070 and GeForce RTX 5070 deliver a nice little bump to performance when overclocked. We immediately noticed this when testing the ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 5070 OC Edition, which is also true in this in-depth review of the ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 9070 OC Edition.
Usually, our benchmarks compare the performance of the reviewed card against a reference spec design, which in this case would be the GeForce RTX 5070 Founders Edition. But since we're talking about two identical-looking (at a glance) ASUS TUF Gaming models that sport a similar design and excellent thermal performance, we've decided to pit these two GPUs head-to-head in this review. As OC models with comparable prices, $709.99 versus $719.99, it's a like-for-like RDNA 4 versus RTX Blackwell showdown.
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VIEW GALLERY - 72 IMAGES
Yes, the current state of GPU pricing based on supply and demand means that OC models for both RDNA 4 and RTX Blackwell cards are currently being sold at prices much higher than the MSRP prices set by AMD and NVIDIA. ASUS's premium TUF Gaming models are no exceptions, and here you're looking at a 30% markup, which is worth keeping in mind throughout this review. Increased pricing like this can impact the value of picking up a GPU like the Radeon RX 9070 or GeForce RTX 5070, however, it currently affects all models. Hopefully, if you're reading this in the second half of 2025, pricing has stabilized thanks to the widespread availability of PC gaming GPUs.
Either way, the ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 9070 OC Edition delivers excellent 1440p gaming performance and is also ready for 4K gaming. When compared to the TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 5070, both cards, on average, deliver near-identical 1440p gaming performance. However, the story becomes much more nuanced once you dig deeper into the individual game results.
Photo of the ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 9070 OC Edition
Photo of the ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 9070 OC Edition
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RDNA 4 - AMD Levels the Playing Field
Below is a summary of AMD's new RDNA 4 architecture, applicable to all models.
AMD's new RDNA 4 architecture presents a massive improvement over the chiplet design that we saw with RDNA 3. Returning to the monolithic design of RDNA and RDNA 2 might sound like a regression, especially when AMD CPUs have gone in the other direction, but this isn't the case. In a nutshell, RDNA 4 is built for 2025. This GPU architecture embraces ray-tracing performance as a key pillar, lays the groundwork for neural rendering, and supercharges AI performance for the new FSR 4 and complex AI workloads. Throw in revamped media engine for creators and streamers, and support for next-gen DisplayPort 2.1a displays, and RDNA 4 presents a new and revitalized direction for Radeon graphics.
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RDNA 4's overhauled Compute Unit, which houses all of the raster, ray-tracing, and AI hardware, has seen several enhancements over RDNA 3 and is one of the reasons why the Radeon RX 9070 and Radeon RX 9070 XT deliver impressive performance gains. The RDNA 4 Compute Unit, or CU, features an enhanced memory subsystem, improved scalar units (for raw raster), dynamic register allocation to reduce latency and bottlenecks, and increased efficiency. The improvements also mean that Radeon RX 9000 Series GPUs can ship with much higher clock speeds than their RDNA 3 counterparts, hitting close to 3 GHz in several XT models, with OC variants pushing 3.1+ GHz.
The show's star, at least in terms of the massive improvement over what has come before, has to be the arrival of RDNA 4's 3rd Generation Ray-Tracing Accelerators. AMD is aware that game developers across PC and console are embracing ray-tracing, which presents a realistic depiction of lighting and related effects like shadows and reflections. The only problem is that real-time ray-tracing is complex, requiring the right blend of raw performance and innovative technologies to enhance efficiency and deliver a playable experience.
One area RDNA 4's RT Accelerator delivers where RDNA 3's don't is the arrival of "Oriented Bounding Boxes," an innovative method of handling ray-tracing Bounding Volume Hierarchy (BVH) data. Think of it as efficiently tracing rays through an environment and geometry with a lower memory cost and less hardware. RDNA 4's RT Accelerator also adds a second intersection engine to double the performance of specific raytracing workloads and calculations. The results can be seen in titles with heavy ray-tracing like Alan Wake 2 and Cyberpunk 2077, where the Radeon RX 9070 XT delivers a significant 30+% performance improvement over the previous gen flagship - the Radeon RX 7900 XTX. A card with 50% more RT Accelerators than the Radeon RX 9070 XT. The Radeon RX 9070 also delivers ray-tracing performance faster than the Radeon RX 7900 XTX.
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RDNA 4 also fully embraces AI, with new AI accelerators that support FP8 while delivering double the FP16 and four times the INT8 performance compared to RDNA 3's AI accelerators. For gamers, this means the new AI-powered FSR 4 leverages AI to deliver a massive improvement in image quality over FSR 3. However, AMD's custom AI model, which was trained on powerful AMD Instinct hardware, is FP8-based, so it is exclusive to RDNA 4 hardware.
AMD is also looking to introduce its answer to NVIDIA's DLSS Ray Reconstruction for Path Tracing with Neural Supersampling and Denoising. However, it's currently only a tech demo, which means Path Tracing, although possible on RDNA 4, does not look anywhere near as good as it does running on a GeForce RTX GPU.
With improved raw performance and a massive boost to ray-tracing and AI performance, RDNA 4 presents an enormous leap forward over RDNA 3. However, catching up to GeForce RTX in these areas and offering a viable DLSS alternative does mean that early adopters will need to wait for game support and AMD to deliver its Path Tracing solution. With 30+ FSR 4-ready titles on day one, and over 100 to arrive by the end of the year, there will still be a massive deficit compared to DLSS 3 and DLSS 4 as we head into 2026. Falling behind for over five years in these areas means there's a lot of catching up to do, and this will take time.
This brings us to RDNA 4's enhanced Media Engine, which offers creators and streamers a big improvement to H.264, HEVC, and AV1 encoding and decoding. NVIDIA's lead in this area has meant that few creators use Radeon hardware. With RDNA 4, AMD is looking to close the gap and offer a viable alternative - especially regarding image quality using popular settings in apps like OBS.
Specs and Test System
Specifications
Here's a look at the specs for the new Radeon RX 9070 XT and Radeon RX 9070 compared to the previous generation's Radeon RX 7800 XT and Radeon RX 7900 XT.
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GPU Specs Radeon RX 9070 XT Radeon RX 9070 Radeon RX 7900 XT Radeon RX 7800 XT
Architecture RDNA 4 RDNA 4 RDNA 3 RDNA 3
Process TSMC 4nm TSMC 4nm TSMC 5nm + 6nm TSMC 5nm + 6nm
Stream Processors 4096 3584 5376 3840
Compute Units 64 56 84 60
Ray Accelerators 64 (3rd Gen) 56 (3rd Gen) 84 (2nd Gen) 60 (2nd Gen)
AI Accelerators 128 (2nd Gen) 128 (2nd Gen) 168 120
GPU Boost Clock 2970 MHz 2520 MHz 2394 MHz 2430 MHz
Memory 16GB GDDR6 16GB GDDR6 20GB GDDR6 16GB GDDR6
Memory Interface 256-bit 256-bit 320-bit 256-bit
Bandwidth 640 GB/sec 640 GB/sec 800 GB/sec 624 GB/sec
Total Board Power 304W 220W 300W 263W
Swipe / scroll right to see more ->
As detailed by AMD, both the Radeon RX 9070 and the Radeon RX 9070 XT are built using the same large 357mm RDNA 4 die - with the Radeon RX 9070 featuring 14% fewer Compute Units. The cutdown variant also sports lower clock speeds (which can still be overclocked), alongside a notably lower power rating of 220W. Drawing 38% more power, on paper, doesn't equate to 38% more performance for the Radeon RX 9070 XT. Compared to the ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 9070 OC Edition reviewed here, the beefier XT model is on average 10.6% faster for 1440p gaming and 11.8% faster for 4K gaming. This highlights that when it comes to efficiency, RDNA 4 is impressively efficient when scaled back and reigned in like this. The power rating is even lower than that of the GeForce RTX 5070.
Looking at the previous generation of Radeon hardware, the Radeon RX 9070 and Radeon RX 9070 XT can be considered the successor to the Radeon RX 7800 XT. Looking at the specs above, and the numbers paint the picture of a modest generational improvement. However, AMD's third-generation Ray Accelerators introduced with RDNA 4 sees the Radeon RX 9070's ray-tracing performance outclass the previous generation's flagship, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX. This would be like the GeForce RTX 5070 outperforming the GeForce RTX 4090 without DLSS 4 and Multi Frame Generation.
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Second-generation AI accelerators also make the Radeon RX 9070 a capable AI GPU, with 1156 TOPs of INT4 and 7578 TOPs of INT8 performance. This is the sort of AI hardware and performance that makes RDNA 4 a better-equipped GPU for 2025 and the current AI-boom that has seen generative AI make its way into apps and operating systems everywhere. It also means that the RDNA 4-exclusive FSR 4 can finally switch to a machine learning solution for upscaling to deliver comparable image quality to NVIDIA's DLSS for the first time. The image quality difference you see when moving from FSR 3 to FSR 4 is night and day, and a very welcome addition.
Like the XT model, the Radeon RX 9070 also features 16GB of GDDR6 memory, which, although is slower than the GeForce RTX 5070's 12GB of GDDR7 memory, the additional capacity does make it better equipped to handle specific 4K gaming and even AI workloads. The ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 9070 OC Edition ships with a generous 2670 MHz boost clock speed, which is 150 MHz higher than the reference spec for the GPU. This increase in clock speed, alongside solid launch drivers from AMD, leads to more performance in many games - which is great to see.
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Item Details
GPU Radeon RX 9070
Architecture RDNA 4
Model ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 9070 OC Edition 16GB GDDR6
Interface PCI Express Gen 5
Stream Processors 3584
Compute Units 56
Ray Accelerators 56 (3rd Gen)
AI Accelerators 128 (2nd Gen)
Boost Clock Speed 2670 MHz (OC Mode), 2650 MHz (Default)
Memory 16GB GDDR6
Memory Interface 256-bit
Memory Bandwidth 640 GB/sec
AMD Infinity Cache 64 MB
Total Board Power 220W
Display 3 x DisplayPort 2.1a, 1 x HDMI 2.1b
Power Input 2 x 8-pin (750W PSU recommended)
Dimensions 330 x 140 x 62.5mm
Kosta's Test System
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Item Details
Motherboard ASUS ROG CROSSHAIR X670E HERO
CPU AMD Ryzen 9 7950X
GPU NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition
Display MSI MAG 321UPX QD-OLED 4K 240 Hz
Cooler ASUS ROG RYUO III 360 ARGB
RAM 32GB DDR5-6000 Corsair DOMINATOR TITANIUM RGB
SSD Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus-G M.2 PCIe Gen 4 SSD 4TB, Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus Plus M.2 PCIe Gen 4 SSD 8TB
Power Supply ASUS TUF Gaming 1000W Gold
Case Corsair 5000D AIRFLOW Tempered Glass Mid-Tower ATX PC Case
OS Microsoft Windows 11 Pro 64-bit
Physical Design and Cooling
At a glance there's not a lot separating the ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 9070 OC Edition from the GeForce RTX 5070 version we reviewed, outside of the 2 x 8-pin power connectors and the AMD Radeon branding. This is a good thing because ASUS's revamped TUF Gaming GPU design is impressive. In keeping with the TUF Gaming aesthetic, which is all about military-grade construction in GPU form, this is also quite a large card with the 'exoskeleton' frame, including empty space between the fins and the venting on the backplate.
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Visually, the brushed metal look with dark greys and shiny rivets make this the best-looking TUF Gaming design to date, which is backed up with premium components and cooling performance. In many of our benchmarks we struggled to get the GPU temperature to crack 50 degrees Celsius. With three large and silent axial fans, there's definite thermal headroom to push the generous out-of-the-box overclock even higher. As seen with all of ASUS's premium GPU releases this year, the shift to a phase-change GPU thermal pad as opposed to thermal paste, and special coating for the PCB, this card looks sturdy and is built to last.
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The ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 9070 OC Edition also features a Dual BIOS mode with a switch on the GPU that lets you toggle between Quiet and Performance mode profiles that primarily affects fan speeds and profiles. With its fantastic design, it's the little things that help make this ASUS TUF Gaming card as impressive as it is - from the military-grade chokes, MOSFETs, and capacitors, to the MaxContact design for the heat spreader to ensure that maximum surface area contact with the GPU. Also, as expected, the fans turn off when the GPU temperature drops below 55 degrees Celsius for actual silent performance when you're not gaming.
The Games and Tests
PC gaming not only covers a wide range of genres and styles, from indie games with simple 2D graphics to massive 3D worlds lit by cutting-edge real-time ray tracing technology. With that, the needs and requirements of each gamer vary. High refresh rates and latency reduction become more important than flashy visuals or playing at the highest resolution possible for those who live and breathe fast-paced competitive games. For those who want to live in a cinematic world and become a key player in an expansive narrative, ray-tracing, and high-fidelity visuals are a stepping stone toward immersion.
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Our chosen benchmarks cover various games, engines, APIs, and technologies. For the Radeon RX 9070, all tests are run at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K and include results for performance-boosting Super Resolution technologies like AMD's new AI-powered FSR 4, alongside older FSR 3, and FSR 2 versions. However, our benchmark results are still sorted using 'raw performance' or native rendering.
Here's the breakdown of games, settings, and what's being tested.
Games and Settings Benchmarked
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Game Details
Black Myth: Wukong A high-impact Unreal Engine 5 test showcasing a detailed cinematic world. The in-game benchmark tool with the 'Very High' fidelity setting without ray-tracing and with DLSS and FSR.
Cyberpunk 2077 Competitive multiplayer FPS test with DLSS and FSR. The in-game multiplayer benchmark tool is used with 'Ultra' quality settings.
Counter-Strike 2 Competitive multiplayer FPS test running on Valve's Source 2 engine. A stress test mod map is used to showcase CS2 at its most demanding.
Cyberpunk 2077 Cinematic open-world test with stunning visuals and DLSS and FSR. The in-game benchmark tool is used with 'Ultra' quality settings without ray-tracing.
Cyberpunk 2077 (RT) Cinematic open-world test with stunning visuals and DLSS and FSR. The in-game benchmark tool is used with the demanding 'Ray Tracing Ultra' quality setting.
DOOM Eternal (RT) Fast-paced single-player FPS gaming running on the id Tech and Vulkan with DLSS. The Mars Core campaign mission is used to benchmark.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard (RT) Cinematic RPG from veteran studio BioWare, benchmarking the action-packed introduction sequence with Ultra quality settings including ray-tracing with DLSS and FSR.
F1 24 (RT) Racing game with hardware-intensive in-race ray-traced visuals and DLSS and FSR. The in-game benchmark tool is used, with 'Ultra High' quality settings on a single lap of the Bahrain track.
Horizon Forbidden West Cinematic open-world test with stunning visuals and DLSS and FSR. The opening section is tested using the 'Very High' quality setting.
Marvel Rivals Multiplayer hero shooter set in the Marvel universe, in-game Practise Range map used to benchmark with 'Ultra' quality settings, DLSS and FSR.
Resident Evil 4 (RT) Capcom's visually impressive remake, Chapter 1 - The Village used to benchmark with 'Max' settings.
Returnal (RT) Third-person action roguelike with in-built benchmark that tests environment destruction, particle effects, ray-traced reflections, and more.
Total War: Warhammer III Action-packed real-time strategy with hundreds of on-screen characters. The in-game 'Battle' benchmark tool is used with the 'Ultra' quality setting.
Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 Cinematic third-person action game with impressive visuals. Opening mission tested using 'Ultra' quality setting with DLSS and FSR.
Path Tracing Games and Settings Benchmarked
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Game Details
Alan Wake 2 Full Path Tracing tested in 1440p using the new 'Ultra' setting with DLSS 4, Frame Generation, and Multi Frame Generation. Bright Falls town used to test.
Cyberpunk 2077 In-game benchmark tool used with the demanding 'RT Overdrive' or full Path Tracing mode, with DLSS 4 Performance, Frame Generation, and Multi Frame Generation.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Full Ray Tracing tested in this stunning first-person cinematic game, Marshall College walkthrough used to test with DLSS 4.
Gaming Performance Analysis - 1080p, 1440p, and 4K
Average Gaming Performance - 1080p Results
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1080p gaming is still the most popular resolution as you get the most bang for your buck across a wide range of GPUs. Here the ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 9070 OC Edition delivers 160 FPS which is within 7.5% of the Radeon RX 9070 XT at this resolution. However, when looking at a mid-range GPU like the Radeon RX 9070 in 2025, you're looking at a card better suited to 1440p and 4K gaming as you run into bottlenecks in 1080p. Plus, games look better running at higher resolutions, and AMD's new FSR 4 delivers fantastic results at 1440p and 4K. Here, the ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 9070 OC Edition also slightly edges out the TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 5070.
Average Gaming Performance - 1440p Results
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With an average performance of 122 FPS, the performance drop-off when moving from 1080p to 1440p is only 23.8% on the ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 9070 OC Edition. So you're getting excellent performance at this resolution. Performance that is 3.4% faster than the TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 5070, with the Radeon TUF Gaming variant pulling ahead in a number of titles. One game where RDNA 4 absolutely crushes it is Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, and here the TUF Gaming Radeon RX 9070 manages to beat the GeForce RTX 5080 at 1440p, with a result that is a whopping 37% faster than the TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 5070. This is not indicative of performance in most games, but if you're a Call of Duty fan, the choice is clear.
Jump over to another competitive shooter and it's a different store, with Counter-Strike 2 running 12% faster on the GeForce RTX 5070. There's a lot of back and forth when comparing these two cards, however, where the ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 9070 OC Edition delivers some truly impressive wins comes from a few titles with ray-tracing. Usually this is the one area where GeForce RTX is the clear winner, but that's not always the case when it comes to RDNA 4. Dragon Age: The Veilguard and F1 24 with ray-tracing run 16% and 12% faster on the Radeon RX 9070. However, the GeForce RTX 5070 still has the edge in Cyberpunk 2077 with ray-tracing and titles with Path Tracing or Full Ray Tracing.
1440p is a resolution where FSR 4 delivers fantastic image quality, though only a handful of games in our benchmark suite include FSR support. While the overall performance of the overclocked Radeon RX 9070 sees it pull ahead of the GeForce RTX 5070, the widespread support of technologies like DLSS, Reflex, and Frame Generation does factor into the result. Features are becoming increasingly important as we move into the AI era of gaming, and AMD has a lot of ground to make up with FSR 4 and offering an alternative to something like DLSS Ray Reconstruction. Still, as far as gaming on the ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 9070 OC Edition it's a 1440p winner, where the massive improvement to ray-tracing performance sees it pull ahead of the previous gen's Radeon RX 7900 XT.
Average Gaming Performance - 4K Results
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The ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 9070 OC Edition is a capable 4K gaming GPU, and one that is able to handle every modern PC game thanks to it including 16GB of VRAM compared to the GeForce RTX 5070's 12GB. At this resolution, the beefier Radeon RX 9070 XT is, on average, 11.8% faster, a notable but not massive difference. When looking at non ray-tracing performance, the Radeon RX 9070 is roughly on par or slightly faster than the previous gen's Radeon RX 7900 XT, with ray-tracing performance seeing it pull ahead of the Radeon RX 7900 XTX in games with heavy RT workloads.
Compared to the TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 5070, the average 4K gaming performance is similar with the RDNA 4 GPU pulling ahead in titles like Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, F1 24, and Horizon Forbidden West. The 67 FPS average does mean that you will need to tweak settings in some games to reach a smoother frame-rate at this resolution or enable tech like FSR 4 where available. Call of Duty and Horizon Forbidden West are two games with FSR 4 support, so in the case of Call of Duty the 68 FPS becomes 95 FPS while the 76 FPS in Horizon becomes 92 FPS. This can be considered free performance thanks to the improvements to image quality when using the 'Quality' FSR 4 preset in 4K.
When it comes to 4K gaming, the ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 9070's performance is also roughly on par with the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER, a popular card that is widely considered as one of the more affordable enthusiast-class 4K gaming options out there. One area where cards like the new GeForce RTX 5070 Ti and Radeon RX 9070 XT pull ahead of the Radeon RX 9070 (and GeForce RTX 5070) is ray-tracing, as RT in 4K still requires a pretty powerful piece of hardware to pull off.
Benchmarks - 3DMark Synthetic Tests
3DMark offers a suite of synthetic benchmarks built to test GPUs in various scenarios. 3DMark Steel Nomad is a cutting-edge DirectX 12 benchmark with newer, modern rendering techniques designed to push GPUs to their limit. The 'Light' version tests at 1440p, while the main Steel Nomad benchmark tests pure native 4K rendering. Port Royal is a benchmark focusing exclusively on real-time ray tracing for lighting effects like reflections, shadows, and more.
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The Steel Nomad results are interesting because, depending on the benchmark, you're looking at very different results. For the 1440p-based Steel Nomad Light test, the TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 5070 delivers an 8.7% higher score than the TUF Gaming Radeon RX 9070's score. However, if you look at the 4K-based Steel Nomad results, the story flips with the TUF Gaming Radeon RX 9070 delivering a score that is 19.7% higher than the TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 5070. This back and forth between these cards is something that you can definitely see in some games; however, on average, both cards perform similarly in both resolutions.
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When it comes to the ray-tracing based Port Royal benchmark the TUF Gaming Radeon RX 9070 manages to deliver a score that is not only higher than the previous generation's flagship, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX, but also 8.7% higher than the TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 5070. RDNA 4 brings massive improvements to Radeon ray-tracing, and these results are indicative of that. The one area where GeForce RTX maintains the lead (at least when you're comparing the Radeon RX 9070 to the GeForce RTX 5070) is Path Tracing or Full Ray Tracing.
Benchmarks - 1080p Gaming
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Benchmarks - 1440p Gaming
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Benchmarks - 4K Gaming
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ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 9070 OC Edition Review - RDNA 4 Impresses, But the Price Doesn't 39
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ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 9070 OC Edition Review - RDNA 4 Impresses, But the Price Doesn't 45
ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 9070 OC Edition Review - RDNA 4 Impresses, But the Price Doesn't 48
FSR 4 and AMD Frame Generation
With the arrival of the Radeon RX 900 Series and the new Radeon RX 9070, AMD's new FSR 4 represents a massive improvement over FSR 3.1, FSR 3, and FSR 2. The shift to a custom and powerful AI model for upscaling shows that ML or AI is the definite way to maintain image quality that is on par or even superior to native rendering. As FSR 4 was explicitly designed for RDNA 4, and trained on powerful AMD hardware, it is exclusive to the Radeon RX 9000 Series due to the advanced AI hardware requirements. The good news is the games with FSR 3.1 are automatically upgraded to FSR 4 via AMD's Adrenalin Software, with a nice overlay showing a green FSR 4 tick when booting up a compatible game.
AMD's FSR upscaler has gone through a few different revisions over the years, and it's safe to say that FSR 4 is the most technically proficient and impressive version to date. The shift to a new AI model means that FSR 4 Super Resolution is no longer platform agnostic or even backward compatible, as the AI requirement is exclusive to the Radeon RX 9000 Series and RDNA 4 architecture. However, as we found when looking closer at 1440p and 4K image quality in Horizon Forbidden West and Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2, the results are right up there with DLSS, only falling behind DLSS 4's new transformer model regarding things like motion clarity and finer detail being preserved.
FSR 4 is a massive leap forward for Radeon. With enough time and more games being supported, it will undoubtedly become a selling point for picking up an RDNA 4 GPU over anything from the RDNA 3 generation - Radeon RX 7900 XTX included. And when paired with AMD Frame Generation, performance on the TUF Gaming Radeon RX 9070 hits triple digits in both games - whether you're gaming in 1440p or 4K.
Path Tracing Performance - 1440p
Path Tracing takes real-time ray-tracing and applies the concept of ray-traced effects to anything and everything - global illumination, shadows, reflections, indirect lighting, and more. With multiple bounces, it's a hardware-intensive and cutting-edge look at the future of PC gaming that is only possible thanks to AI tools and technologies. With RDNA 4 dramatically improving ray-tracing performance compared to RDNA 3, GPUs like the Radeon RX 9070 and Radeon RX 9070 XT are capable of rendering stunning Path Traced visuals, however, it's more proof of concept than something practical.
Path Tracing is certainly possible on the ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 9070 OC Edition, however it's more theoretical or proof of concept at this stage. Part of this comes down to most, if not all, Path Tracing capable titles being built to run on GeForce RTX hardware with RTX technologies. So, although RDNA 4 ray-tracing is a game changer compared to RDNA 3, Path Tracing still requires things like DLSS, Ray Reconstruction, and Frame Generation to deliver that 'wow' moment when you experience the visuals in person. FSR 4 support is yet to be included in the games we use to test Path Tracing performance. Still, more importantly, without a Ray Reconstruction alternative (an AI denoiser that dramatically improves ray-tracing image quality), these games run faster on GeForce RTX hardware and look better too.
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The good news is that AMD is investing in Path Tracing and AI technologies to handle denoising, so as time goes on we'll probably start seeing a more impressive showing from RDNA 4 here. Still, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle with Path Tracing is very impressive on the TUF Gaming Radeon RX 9070 as you can achieve 75 FPS with FSR upscaling using the 'Balanced' preset at 1440p and 110 FPS when you add in some AMD Frame Generation. This would be impossible to achieve on a mid-range RDNA 3 GPU.
Temperature and Power Efficiency
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RDAN and Radeon GPUs traditionally draw more power than their GeForce RTX counterparts. However, take a closer look at the ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 9070 OC Edition and you'll find a very efficient GPU that delivers its performance without cranking up the power draw. Compared to the flagship Radeon RX 9070 XT, the non-XT variant is roughly 30% more efficient, and in TUF Gaming form, ASUS's thermal design doesn't even sweat. This is one of the quietest and coolest GPUs we've tested this year, making it an excellent choice for the power, temperature, and noise conscious PC gamers.
Final Thoughts
The ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 9070 OC Edition versus the ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 5070 OC Edition. It's an interesting head-to-head because both cards deliver a notable boost to clock speeds and performance when compared to reference-spec cards, are currently priced within $10 of each other, and on average deliver similar 1440p and 4K gaming performance - with the Radeon RX 9070 pulling ahead more often than not. There are games, like Call of Duty, where RDNA 4 is the clear winner, and others, like Counter-Strike 2, where RTX Blackwell takes the lead.
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Ultimately, it's AMD stepping up its ray-tracing game and finally delivering a viable alternative with DLSS with FSR 4 that sees Radeon deliver its most compelling competitive alternative to GeForce RTX in years. Technologies like DLSS 4 and the new FSR 4 have now reached a point where if they're available in games they're worth enabling in 1440p and 4K as you're getting fantastic image quality alongside a 'free' boost to performance driven primarily by software and AI. The AI era is well and truly here, and Radeon is back where it needs to be.
However, NVIDIA still has the software advantage - with widespread support for DLSS, but DLSS 4's image quality, general AI performance in non-gaming workloads, content creation, and CUDA-based tasks. So, in the end, with the ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 9070 OC Edition priced similarly to its GeForce RTX 5070 counterpart you do get the feeling that the price should be discounted to draw more gamers into the RDNA 4 camp - especially as AMD is currently in the process of adding FSR 4 to more titles and still working on its DLSS Ray reconstruction alternative for ray-tracing image quality. You're still looking at a great GPU, especially in robust TUF Gaming form, but with stiff competition (which includes the Radeon RX 9070 XT) there are multiple options to consider before taking the plunge.
Performance 90%
Quality 92%
Features 90%
Value 65%
Overall 84%
The Bottom Line
With RDNA 4's ray-tracing and FSR 4, the ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 9070 OC Edition delivers impressive performance when compared to the RTX 5070. However, NVIDIA's DLSS still has the edge. Ultimately, there's the Radeon RX 9070 XT - which feels like the better option.
Best Deals: ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 9070 OC Edition
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|* Prices last scanned on 3/21/2025 at 1:25 am CDT - prices may not be accurate, click links above for the latest price. We may earn an affiliate commission from any sales.|