Gigabyte AMD Radeon RX 9070 GAMING OC 16G and AORUS Radeon RX 9070 XT ELITE 16G Review – A new RDNA GPU Performer

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 did not headlined on any large events but it has it’s own independent announcement. This is one of AMD’s strategy in addressing gamer needs in improving and addressing improvements as well as putting more effort in AI related hardware and generation towards this year’s and beyond lineups. Of course this is also a way of AMD on keeping the new RDNA 4 graphics architecture and FSR 4 available across all levels, closing in the competition gaps and it’s surrounding category.

We will have a look at the Gigabyte AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070, one of the AMD’s AIB vendor variant of the AMD Radeon RX 9000 series card. All review, opinions and results should reflects similarly with other AIB cards or it’s cross reference results over AMD’s Reference card if any that is indicated in the charts.

Technical Specifications

Design

This time around, we receive two Gigabyte graphics card, the RX 9070 Gaming OC 16GB and AORUS Gaming RX 9070 XT. Both of the card are pre-overclocked and tuned for optimal gaming purposes. Looks wise, both of the card retains the all black design with RGB lighting that is minimalistic but yet still configurable to suit your overall PC setup aesthetics. Both card comes with a physical toggle that allows you to switch between performance mode and silent mode along with 3 silent bearing fans that stops when in idle mode.

Gigabyte AMD Radeon RX 9070 Gaming OC 16GB

• WINDFORCE COOLING SYSTEM – It has a huge copper plate, composite copper heat pipes, screen cooling, 3D active fans, server-grade thermal conductive gel, and creative Hawk fans with alternating spinning.
• RGB LIGHTING – You can select any lighting effect or synchronize with other devices via GIGABYTE CONTROL CENTER, which offers 16.7M color possibilities that can be customized and a variety of lighting effects.
• SLIDING SIDE PLATE – With its sliding side plate and power armor design, users can personalize their build to fit their own aesthetic.
• DUAL BIOS – Performance mode is the factory default option that offers the best performance to users. A quieter experience will be had by switching to Silent mode, nevertheless.
• POWER INDICATOR – The indicator will notify players by flashing a light if there is any irregularity with the power supply.

AORUS Gaming RX 9070 XT Features

• WINDFORCE COOLING SYSTEM – It has a huge copper plate, composite copper heat pipes, screen cooling, 3D active fans, server-grade thermal conductive gel, and creative Hawk fans with alternating spinning.
• HAWK FAN – Features a unique blade design inspired by the aerodynamics of an eagle’s wing. This design reduces air resistance and noise levels, resulting in up to a 53.6% increase in air pressure and a 12.5% increase in air volume without compromising acoustics.
• LARGE VAPOR CHAMBER – The large vapor chamber directly contacts the GPU, coupled with the composite copper heat pipes, which quickly transfers the heat of the GPU and VRAM to the heatsink.
• OVERLAY DESIGN – The AORUS logo on the side utilizes an overlay design to create a gradient effect, enriching the visual layers while also presenting a dynamic and vibrant aesthetic.
• DUAL BIOS – Performance mode is the factory default option that offers the best performance to users. A quieter experience will be had by switching to Silent mode, nevertheless.

AMD Radeon RX 9070 and 9070 XT Features

• AMD FidelityFX™ Super Resolution Technology 4 (FSR 4) – More than 30 games will feature AMD’s innovative, state-of-the-art ML-powered upscaling technology at launch, which produces high-quality boosted frames even under the most taxing workloads, such 4K gaming with maximum raytracing settings.
• AI-Enhanced AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition™ Application – A new collection of tools and software made to work with AMD Radeon RX 9070 Series graphics cards to provide an AI user experience that leads the industry. Use the updated Software Manager to keep your drivers and AI software current. Ask questions about everything AMD, or use AMD Chat to generate free, private text and images. Utilize the AMD Image Inspector to enhance program quality and use the App Portal to find, download, and install innovative AMD-partnered AI applications.
• High-Performance Raytracing – With 3^rd generation Raytracing Accelerators, AMD RDNA 4 is able to deliver over 2x the Raytracing throughput per compute unit when compared to our previous generation. Gamers with the latest AMD Radeon RX 9000 Series are ready for immersive gaming experiences with high-quality graphics, including realistic lighting, shadows, and reflections.
• Innovative suite of features through HYPR-RX – Gamers can instantly improve their experience by activating AMD HYPR-RX and the suite of features within AMD Software, including AMD Radeon™ Super Resolution, AMD Fluid Motion Frames 2.1, AMD Radeon™ Anti-Lag, and AMD Radeon™ Boost. These features can all be tailored to gamers’ hardware and preferences within AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition™ to drive increased FPS, responsiveness and efficiency.
• AMD Smart Access Memory – Combine an AMD Ryzen 7000/9000 Series processor with an AMD Radeon RX 6000/7000/9000 Series graphics card to boost system’s performance. Enjoy increased performance with all-AMD system for the better gaming advantage.

AMD Chat

The AMD Chat is part of AMD’s Adrenalin Software that allows user to ask any questions related to your system hardware and devices, tips, information, or even generate images, all by using the power from the GPU and all information is stored, generated locally. This is like your own personal AI assistant and query as long you are using any of the RX 9070 and RX9070 XT GPU for now.

What is Hypr-RX

In layman terms, it’s a one click solution from the AMD Software home tab. This will increase FPS performance and minimized input lag, or use HYPR-RX Eco for power savings across your AMD-powered platform. This will also enable AMD Fluid Motion Frames which is also a part of HYPR-RX now. The HYPR-RX is not just limited to AMD Desktop GPU, but also covers AMD Radeon RX Mobile GPU including some AMD APU.

Test Setup

We will be using the below as a test setup for the Gigabyte RX 9070 Gaming OC 16GB and AORUS Gaming RX 9070 XT for the purpose of the benchmark, with comparison used on other cards, SAM/BAR is enabled. We do recommend at least a 750W PSU should you are planning to build a PC with the GPU. We also would like to remind that our results is based on the cards that we tested, certain brands may have slightly tweaked their power and overclocked slightly higher, which is the two cards above.

Note : The GPU tested are based on embargoed Drivers from AMD, all benchmarks and results may change from time to time.

Cards in reference

Benchmark Scores (With BAR Enabled). Ambient Room Temp : 23 Celsius

* Benchmarks charts and numbers may be updated from time to time due to driver updates, enhancements and changes/fixes.

Verdict & thoughts

The Gigabyte AMD Radeon RX 9070 GAMING OC 16G and AORUS Radeon RX 9070 XT ELITE 16G is appealing for those who wanted an AIB card with pre-overclocked factory level GPU that is pushing all the performance and also comes with a physical Silent/Performance switch and RGB lighting. Now towards my verdict, both the AMD Radeon RX 9070 and 9070 XT poses a positive yet serious commitment towards gaming and AI, and they show clearly from it’s modest starting price of USD549 that brings purchasing a new graphics card more compelling yet something especially gamers and content creators will appreciate over what AMD is putting in to the card, you get modern features and a mature, longer driver support that one would enjoy joined along with the existing AMD Radeon RX cards.

Should you need to pair this graphic card with your system, I suggest any mid tier processor such as the Intel 14th Gen Core i7 or Ryzen 7 7000 series will work well and balance on such system. From pricing wise, I think it is quite on par and fair and the major advantage is on the amount of VRAM that you can take on, especially keeping up the games that seemingly needs more VRAM. To add, this is generally something to take a look at, especially if you are migrating from an older RTX20 Series or RX5000 series GPU, which should take advantage of the latest GPU features such as DirectX 12 Ultimate, Ray Tracing, FSR 4 and Vulkan support. Now another compelling reason to probably get one it is also because majority of the titles today does support FSR at least, so getting one might just benefit gamers.

Pricing and Availability

It is announced that the AMD Radeon RX 9070 Series will start from 549USD, however branded AIB cards price may varied such as Gigabyte, ASUS, Acer, ASRock models, it should be hovering around the price bracket as well.

For More information on the Product, Visit Below for more info.
AMD Radeon RX 9070 Series | AIB : Gigabyte AMD Radeon RX 9070 GAMING OC 16G | AIB : AORUS Radeon RX 9070 XT ELITE 16G

Special thanks to AMD, ASUS, Gigabyte, Kingston, ID COOLING, Thermaltake on providing/loaning us the needed hardware for this review and games provided by AMD, Bethesda, Sony Computer Entertainment, Ubisoft, CAPCOM, SquareEnix