Gigabyte Radeon RX 9070 XT AORUS 16GB GDDR6 Black

The Gigabyte AORUS RX 9070 XT is a top-tier RDNA 4 card with best-in-class cooling and a 96th percentile feature set. It crushes 1440p gaming and stays cool doing it. Just shop around, prices swing from USD 780 to USD 1,500 depending on the vendor.

The RX 9070 XT posts a PassMark G3D score of 26910, which lands it in the 76th percentile for raster performance. That's strong, not earth-shattering. Gaming scores back that up: 82.9 for 1080p and 81.6 for 1440p. The 16GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus at 20 Gb/s keeps textures flowing nicely. Ray tracing is the weak spot at the 58th percentile, so don't expect NVIDIA-level RT performance. AI workloads are the weakest area overall at 67.1 out of 100. The 304W TDP means you'll want a solid 850W PSU and three 8-pin connectors ready.

Against the RTX 5080 cards from ASUS, MSI, and ZOTAC, the 9070 XT trades blows differently. The RTX 5080 variants will beat it in ray tracing and AI workloads, no question. But the 9070 XT often matches or beats them in pure raster at a lower price when you find a good deal. The Sapphire NITRO+ is the closest AMD competitor, and it's a toss-up on cooling and clocks. The MSI Ventus RTX 5070 Ti is probably the most direct NVIDIA alternative, with better RT but less VRAM headroom in some scenarios.

Pricing is a mess right now. In the US, you'll see anywhere from USD 780 to USD 1,500 across three listings. That's a USD 720 spread for the same card. Newegg has the best deal at the low end. In Canada, it's even wilder: CAD 999 to CAD 1,923 across four listings. Memory Express has the cheapest CAD price. At USD 780, this card is a solid buy. At USD 1,500, you're getting fleeced. Shop around before you commit.

The Gigabyte AORUS RX 9070 XT is a big, beefy RDNA 4 card that goes hard on cooling and clock speeds. It's got 4096 stream processors, 16GB of GDDR6, and a 3100MHz boost clock out of the box. This thing is built for 1440p and 4K gaming without breaking a sweat.

Our database puts its feature set in the 96th percentile, which is basically top of the charts. Thermals are also excellent at the 92nd percentile. But efficiency sits at a mediocre 48th percentile, and affordability is rough at the 27th percentile. You're paying for that triple-fan cooler and RGB halo, not just raw frames.

Skip this if you care about ray tracing or AI workloads. The RT performance is only at the 58th percentile, and AI is the weakest area at 67.1 out of 100. If you're doing heavy CUDA work or want the best RT experience, get an RTX 5080 instead. Also skip it if you have a small case, 339mm is a chonker.

Buy this if you want a high-end AMD card with excellent cooling and you don't care much about ray tracing. It's a 1440p monster and handles 4K fine in most titles. The AORUS cooler is one of the best we've seen, and the RGB halo looks sharp if you're into that. Just don't overpay. Wait for a restock at the low end of that price range.