The ASRock Radeon RX 9070 XT Taichi unlocks the full potential of RDNA 4 with a generous out-of-the-box overclock and excellent thermal performance.
ASRock Radeon RX 9070 XT Taichi - RDNA 4 Unleashed
VIEW GALLERY - 72
Kosta Andreadis
Senior Editor
Manufactured by ASRock with an MSRP of $729.99
20 minutes 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 Rating: 90%
Our Verdict
RDNA 4 has arrived, and the ASRock Radeon RX 9070 XT Taichi showcases exactly how far Radeon technology has progressed in terms of ray-tracing and AI-powered upscaling. This is AMD's best GPU release in years, and ASRock's design runs cool and quiet, even in full OC mode.
Pros
Fantastic for 1440p and 4K gaming
RDNA 4 brings massive improvements to ray-tracing performance
It goes toe to toe with the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti
FSR 4 is a big step up from previous versions
ASRock's premium Taichi design runs cool even when overclocked
Cons
Costs notably more than the $599 MSRP set by AMD
FSR 4 support is limited compared to DLSS
Should you buy it?
AvoidConsiderShortlistBuy
Introduction
AMD's new flagship mid-range Radeon RX 9070 XT, powered by RDNA 4, is the company's most impressive GPU launch in a long time. Not only does it offer a decent performance uplift compared to the mid-range Radeon RX 7800 XT from the previous RDNA 3 generation, but it also actively aims to level the playing field with NVIDIA in terms of ray-tracing performance and leveraging AI to enhance image quality. RDNA 4 sees AMD coming to terms with Neural Rendering being a significant part of gaming in 2025 while also releasing the Radeon RX 9070 XT with a seemingly aggressive price point of $599.
A quick look around the ASRock Radeon RX 9070 XT Taichi
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The Radeon RX 9070 XT is AMD's answer to the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, to the point that it has renamed its Radeon RX 9000 Series GPUs to match NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5070 Series, ensuring there is no confusion as to what they're an alternative to. Setting aside supply and demand issues and inflated pricing, the RTX 5070 Ti's MSRP of $749 is 25% higher than the Radeon RX 9070 XT. So, even if it does have the edge when it comes to 4K gaming performance, the difference is nowhere near 25% - and this is a win for RDNA 4. The only problem is that once the first RDNA 4 GPUs were released, we found out that only a handful of designs were being sold for $599, with most OC and premium models being sold with a 20% markup.
Every Radeon RX 9070 XT we've reviewed so far falls into this category, including the impressive ASRock Radeon RX 9070 XT Taichi, which ships with an out-of-the-box boost clock speed of 3100 MHz - a +130 MHz increase over the reference spec. Its $729.99 price tag is noticeably higher than the $599 MSRP set by AMD. However, OC and premium GeForce RTX 50 Series cards are also being sold at inflated prices - often more extreme than the 20% we see here.
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VIEW GALLERY - 72 IMAGES
The ASRock Radeon RX 9070 XT Taichi is one of the few RDNA 4 GPUs to ship with the new 12V-2x6 pin power connector, as opposed to using three 8-pin connectors on the GPU side. This choice makes sense when considering that most new power supplies include 12V-2x6 power for GPUs. Much like we see with GeForce RTX GPUs, the ASRock Radeon RX 9070 XT Taichi comes with an adapter for those using traditional 8-pin power.
As seen with other Radeon RX 9070 XT GPUs we've reviewed, ASRock's premium design is a beast for 1440p and 4K gaming, with or without ray-tracing. Having a mid-range Radeon GPU deliver fantastic RT performance is a game-changer because even if it's a feature you rarely use, there's no denying that more and more high-profile PC games are launching with some form of ray-tracing. There are even titles, like the highly anticipated DOOM: The Dark Ages, that will require a GPU with hardware ray-tracing just to run. The Radeon RX 9070 XT's ray-tracing gains are so impressive that it's able to run games with Full Ray Tracing of Path Tracing. Okay, maybe in an entry-level way with some key AI tech missing, but ray tracing is no longer the area where AMD and Radeon feel like second-class citizens.
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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 XT delivers 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 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.
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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 2025, a lot of support is coming. However, 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. Regardless, FSR 4 is the real deal - and worth enabling in any game where it is an option.
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. Creators and streamers jumping over to Radeon now makes more sense than ever.
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 ->
The Radeon RX 9070 XT is AMD's RDNA 4 flagship, designed and renamed to compete with the GeForce 5070 Ti. Looking back at the RDNA 3-powered Radeon RX 7000 Series, it's the successor to the mid-range Radeon RX 7800 XT and not the flagship Radeon RX 7900 XTX. Even so, with a large 357mm die densely packed with 53.9 billion transistors and OC models like the ASRock Radeon RX 9070 XT Taichi reviewed here drawing up to 330W when gaming - in a lot of ways, it feels closer to the GeForce RTX 5080 than it does the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti. Either way, its raw rasterized performance outperforms the Radeon RX 7800 XT significantly, while its ray-tracing performance surpasses the Radeon RX 7900 XT and XTX in a meaningful way.
Hardware-wise, it does more with less, featuring 24% fewer Compute Units and Ray Accelerators than the Radeon RX 7900 XT while delivering an average 19% faster 4K gaming performance. The most significant gains are seen in titles with ray tracing, where the ASRock Radeon RX 9070 XT Taichi's RT performance remains close to that of the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti. Throw in FSR 4, which offers a night-and-day difference to FSR 3.1, to the point where it can be placed in the same league as NVIDIA's DLSS, and RDNA 4 feels like a Radeon reboot.
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Enhanced AI hardware is another area where RDNA 4's architecture offers a significant improvement over RDNA 3 - which is the reason why the fantastic FSR 4 is currently exclusive to the Radeon RX 9070 and Radeon RX 9070 XT. With 1557 TOPs of INT4 and 779 TOPs of INT8 performance, the Radeon RX 9070 XT is also a capable AI GPU for enthusiasts and professionals - which is to be expected for a GPU released in 2025. For gamers, this AI hardware will enable AMD to adopt features like neural shaders and utilize AI for texture compression. In fact, for those with a Radeon RX 9070 XT, AMD's Adrenalin Software suite includes a fully featured and powerful AI chatbot that runs locally on RDNA 4 hardware.
However, with boost clock speeds exceeding 3 GHz and an increased power draw that sees OC models reach 330W during gaming, it's clear that AMD has optimized its flagship RDNA 4 GPU for competitive performance rather than efficiency. Comparatively, the Radeon RX 9070 non-XT, which features a slightly cutdown GPU, gets within 15% of the Radeon RX 9070 XT's performance while drawing significantly less power.
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Item Details
GPU Radeon RX 9070 XT
Architecture RDNA 4
Model ASRock Radeon RX 9070 XT Taichi 16GB OC
Interface PCI Express Gen 5
Stream Processors 4096
Compute Units 64
Ray Accelerators 64 (3rd Gen)
AI Accelerators 128 (2nd Gen)
Boost Clock Speed 3100 MHz
Memory 16GB GDDR6
Memory Interface 256-bit
Memory Bandwidth 640 GB/sec
AMD Infinity Cache 64 MB
Total Board Power 330W
Display 3 x DisplayPort 2.1a, 1 x HDMI 2.1b
Power Input 12V-2x6 power connector (3 x 8-pin adapter included)
Dimensions 330 x 140 x 61mm
Weight 1554 grams
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
ASRock has updated its Taichi Graphics Card design for the RDNA 4 generation, and the shift to black and gold/bronze accents is a definite winner. Like the Taichi RDNA 3 variants, the middle fan on the ASRock Radeon RX 9070 XT Taichi is transparent and fully lights up with LED action. In a smart move, ASRock includes a dedicated LED switch on the GPU, allowing you to instantly transition from a vibrant display to a more subdued black and gold or bronze look with the flick of a switch.
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The new look is also evident on the metal backplate, which features the AMD Radeon logo, images of gears, and generous vents that run across the entire length of the GPU. The backplate is supported by a reinforced metal frame, which helps reduce sag and makes this one of the most stylish and robust Radeon RX 9070 XT options on the market. This isn't a criticism per se (as it only took us a minute to change), but strangely, ASRock's default RGB mode is rainbow, as opposed to a more subtle orange or gold that would better suit the ASRock Radeon RX 9070 XT Taichi's look.
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The Taichi 3X Cooling System deployed here is fantastic, with GPU temperatures barely rising above 55 degrees Celsius and fan speeds being kept low, resulting in a relatively noise-free operation. During our testing, we initially noticed some coil whine with the ASRock Radeon RX 9070 XT Taichi; however, after a week of continuous use, the issue disappeared. With its nickel-plated copper base, dense fin stack, premium thermal pads, and 16 power phases featuring SPS components, this is an RDNA 4 GPU custom-made for those who want to overclock or tinker with settings to maximize performance without worrying about encountering bottlenecks.
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 XT, 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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The ASRock Radeon RX 9070 XT Taichi is primarily designed for 4K and 1440p gaming, so it may encounter system or other bottlenecks when gaming at 1080p. Still, it's an absolute beast at this resolution, with the 173 FPS average being roughly on par with the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti. Here, it's 9.5% faster than the baseline Radeon RX 9070 and 13.8% faster than the GeForce RTX 5070, which is noticeable. However, it's at 1440p that the Radeon RX 9070 XT starts to truly shine.
Average Gaming Performance - 1440p Results
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Looking at 1440p performance across all titles in our benchmark suite, the ASRock Radeon RX 9070 XT Taichi's impressive 134 FPS average sits just above the previous generation flagship - the Radeon RX 7900 XTX. This is an impressive result, as the Radeon RX 7900 XTX launched with a $999 price tag and was designed to compete directly with the GeForce RTX 4080 and RTX 4090. However, when it comes to raw rasterized or non-ray-tracing performance, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX does have the edge in most titles. It's the massive improvement to ray-tracing performance with RDNA 4 that enables the Radeon RX 9070 XT to match the premium RDNA 3 offering overall.
Cyberpunk 2077's demanding RT Ultra mode runs 28.6% faster on the ASRock Radeon RX 9070 XT Taichi than it does on the Radeon RX 7900 XTX. Other notable ray-tracing titles like F1 24 and Dragon Age: The Veilguard run 17.3% and 13.8% faster, which is enough to see the Radeon RX 9070 XT surpass the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti in games that would traditionally always favor GeForce RTX hardware. However, it is worth noting that titles with DLSS 4 Super Resolution and Ray Reconstruction do look better on NVIDIA GPUs. As great as FSR 4 is, it's relatively new, with only a handful of games officially supported, and features like AI-based denoisers are listed as 'coming soon.'
With the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti being 4.5% faster, on average, than the ASRock Radeon RX 9070 XT Taichi for 1440p gaming, the two GPUs do stay close to each other and trade blows in a wide range of titles. However, there are a couple of glaring exceptions - Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Counter-Strike 2. Call of Duty is seemingly built for Radeon, as the ASRock Radeon RX 9070 XT Taichi delivers 1440p performance that is 12.5% faster than the GeForce RTX 5080 and 18.4% faster than the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti. Counter-Strike 2, on the other hand, appears to be optimized for GeForce, with the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti running the game 24.2% faster than the Radeon RX 9070 XT. If you're a fan or regular player of either of these competitive shooters, the performance discrepancy is significant enough to sway the needle in one direction or the other.
Average Gaming Performance - 4K Results
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The ASRock Radeon RX 9070 XT Taichi is a fantastic GPU for 4K gaming, and its 4K capabilities will only improve as more titles add support for FSR 4. At 4K, FSR 4's 'Quality' preset delivers image quality that is on par or better than native rendering with TAA. The general rule of thumb is that if you're gaming in 4K with the ASRock Radeon RX 9070 XT Taichi and FSR 4 is available, enable it for a free performance boost. Here, the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti is 6.6% faster, on average; however, performance varies from title to title. Widespread DLSS support also gives the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti the edge; however, it's hard to ignore a more wallet-friendly price point.
If you're looking for a GPU for 4K or ultrawide gaming, the Radeon RX 9070 XT is the best Radeon option out there, even when compared to the Radeon RX 7900 XTX. Thanks to ray-tracing and FSR 4, it's more versatile and better equipped for PC gaming's future, even though the RDNA 3 flagship sports 50% more VRAM. Here, the ASRock Radeon RX 9070 XT Taichi's lead over the Radeon RX 9070 non-XT increases to 13.4% (with more significant gains in ray-tracing titles), and it is also 20.6% faster than the GeForce RTX 5070.
Similar to the 1440p benchmark results, there are games where the ASRock Radeon RX 9070 XT Taichi crushes it in 4K. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is faster here than it is on the GeForce RTX 5080, while Horizon Forbidden West's performance sits in between the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti and GeForce RTX 5080. Context is, of course, key, as the Radeon RX 9070 XT's lower price point, alongside its capabilities, makes it an attractive alternative.
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 flagship RDNA 4 GPU's 3DMark performance is a bit unusual, as the 4K-based Steel Nomad result sees the Radeon RX 9070 XT deliver a score that is 9.8% higher than the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti. In contrast, the 1440p-based Steel Nomad Light synthetic benchmark sees the RTX 5070 Ti deliver a score that is 14.3% higher than the Radeon RX 9070 XT. This is not indicative of the in-game performance we've seen; however, when you compare the scores to the Radeon RX 9070 non-XT and the GeForce RTX 5070, the results more closely match what you'll find in-game.
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Yes, the ray-tracing improvements are very real, as evidenced by the ASRock Radeon RX 9070 XT Taichi's 3DMark Port Royal score, which not only surpasses the Radeon RX 7900 XTX but also matches the GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER. This is a result that you can replicate in games featuring ray-tracing effects. However, when looking at games with heavy ray-tracing, such as Cyberpunk 2077 or Alan Wake 2, GeForce RTX GPUs begin to pull ahead. Ultimately, this is a big win for Radeon as ray-tracing is something you can and should enable when playing games on the Radeon RX 9070 XT.
Benchmarks - 1080p Gaming
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Benchmarks - 1440p Gaming
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Benchmarks - 4K Gaming
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FSR 4 and AMD Frame Generation
With the arrival of the Radeon RX 900 Series and the new flagship Radeon RX 9070 XT, 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.
Seeing FSR 4 in action in Horizon Forbidden West is one of those moments where you immediately notice the difference in image quality it delivers compared to FSR 3.1. The difference is night and day, and outside of NVIDIA's new DLSS 4 updates, it's one of the best upscaling solutions for PC gaming. However, the switch to a complex AI-based approach has resulted in a less significant performance improvement - which is to be expected. The image quality more than makes up for it, and when paired with AMD's Frame Generation, the additional smoothness of triple-digit 100+ FPS performance is also immediately noticeable in 4K.
Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 is going from 60 FPS without FSR 4 to 148 FPS with FSR 4, and Frame Generation is one of those things that you have to experience to get fully. Sure, generated frames aren't the same thing as natively rendered frames, but the improved image quality you get with FSR 4's new AI-based Super Resolution makes it one of the better examples of AMD competing with NVIDIA's RTX features.
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 the future for game developers creating stunning interactive cinematic worlds to explore. And it's not about the difference you can see in a single screenshot, but how the realistic lighting - as a whole - creates a seamless experience as you move from indoor to outdoor and from day to night. It's also one of the most hardware-intensive forms of rendering and is entirely reliant on AI-based upscaling, frame generation, and denoising. As seen in Alan Wake 2, this also extends to AI-powered geometry rendering, which boosts performance. As NVIDIA has been at the forefront of Path Tracing in games for a few years now, Path Tracing on RDNA 4 serves as more of a proof of concept, as it lacks the full suite of DLSS features and support.
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Still, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle looks and runs decently on the ASRock Radeon RX 9070 XT Taichi with Full Ray Tracing enabled. Sure, performance and image quality suffer when placed next to the game running on the GeForce RTX 5070 or RTX 5070 Ti, but it's still a big step forward for Radeon. FSR 4 is still brand new, so we're hoping that AMD is already working with game developers and its engineers to provide full Path Tracing support with comparable features to DLSS 4.
Temperature and Power Efficiency
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There's nothing quite like a quiet GPU that runs cool while delivering excellent overclocked performance - and that's precisely what you get with the ASRock Radeon RX 9070 XT Taichi. With the GPU temperature topping out at 56 degrees Celsius in our stress test, there's more than enough thermal headroom to push things even further - with some additional tweaking. As an OC model, the ASRock Radeon RX 9070 XT Taichi increases the power limit or draw from 304W to 330W, making it a faster option than an MSRP model.
Final Thoughts
The Radeon RX 9070 XT is AMD's most competitive and feature-packed GPU release in a long time, and in overclocked premium, ASRock Radeon RX 9070 XT Taichi form, it offers excellent 1440- and 4K gaming. With the improvements to ray-tracing performance and the arrival of the RDNA 4-exclusive FSR 4 upscaling, you've got a more impressive GPU than even the RDNA 3 flagship - the Radeon RX 7900 XTX. And with pricing starting from $599 (as a premium OC model, ASRock's flagship Taichi variant carries a 20% price premium), it offers a competitive alternative to NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5070 and GeForce RTX 5070 Ti. With MSRP pricing seemingly a rarity, across the board, weighing up the Radeon RX 9070 XT against the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti becomes increasingly difficult; however, the RDNA 4 flagship makes the most sense when it is at least 15-20% cheaper than the GeForce RTX alternative.
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Part of the reason is that FSR 4 is relatively new and is only officially supported by a handful of titles. DLSS, which includes the new DLSS 4, has widespread adoption - so even though AMD has closed the gap in image quality, it still has a way to go for game support to reach a point where it becomes a valid selling point. Additionally, DLSS 4 retains an advantage in features such as Ray Tracing and Multi Frame Generation. Still, even when viewed as a step in the right direction, RDNA 4 represents a giant leap forward for AMD, thanks to all the new features and improvements it brings to the Radeon fold.
ASRock's Taichi boasts impressive build quality, thermal performance, and overall aesthetics, making it one of the most influential and impressive Radeon RX 9070 XT options available. This is the sort of GPU that is tailor-made for powering the latest and greatest games without breaking a sweat and is worth snapping up for the right price.
Performance 96%
Quality 94%
Features 90%
Value 81%
Overall 90%
Our Verdict
RDNA 4 has arrived, and the ASRock Radeon RX 9070 XT Taichi showcases exactly how far Radeon technology has progressed in terms of ray-tracing and AI-powered upscaling. This is AMD's best GPU release in years, and ASRock's design runs cool and quiet, even in full OC mode.
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