Conclusion
The AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE has been launched into new regions as of early June 2026. Previously, it was a China-exclusive video card, debuting in 2025, but now it is available for purchase in the US and other world regions. The MSRP is $549. We have reviewed two video cards at launch: the XFX Swift Radeon RX 9070 GRE Triple Fan Gaming Edition and the SAPPHIRE PULSE Radeon RX 9070 GRE GAMING OC. The XFX Radeon RX 9070 GRE was an AMD reference clocked video card, with custom cooling. The SAPPHIRE PULSE Radeon RX 9070 GRE was a custom video card with a higher Total Board Power and Factory Overclock, but also at the $549 MSRP.
In our review today, we wanted to directly compare performance between the Radeon RX 9070 GRE and GeForce RTX 5070. This was important because, despite both video cards having a launch MSRP of $549, the actual online pricing is much different today, with availability. Typically, the GeForce RTX 5070 is currently above $600.
Both video cards share the same 12GB VRAM capacity, so they are equal in that way, and both share the goal of providing a good 1440p gaming experience. The GeForce RTX 5070 has the hardware spec advantage of utilizing GDDR7 at 28Gbps on the same 192-bit memory bus, giving it 672GB/s of memory bandwidth. That means the GeForce RTX 5070 has 56% more bandwidth compared to the Radeon RX 9070 GRE, so memory-intensive gaming workloads would potentially benefit. The Radeon RX 9070 GRE, however, has a slightly lower Total Board Power at 220W compared to the GeForce RTX 5070.
In our Board Power testing, our XFX Swift Radeon RX 9070 GRE Triple Fan Gaming Edition hit a maximum of 228W, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 FE hit 253W. Therefore, the GeForce RTX 5070 uses up to 11% more power. Now, considering that in some games we saw upwards of 20% greater performance out of the GeForce RTX 5070 in select situations, then this means the GeForce RTX 5070 is actually more efficient in terms of performance for power.
Final Points
In our performance testing, it was clear that from a zoomed-out perspective, the GeForce RTX 5070 offers greater opportunity for performance advancement over the Radeon RX 9070 GRE in gaming. There were more scenarios than not where the GeForce RTX 5070 was faster than the Radeon RX 9070 GRE. The degree of separation depended on the game, or game settings, and varied from small differences to much larger 20%+ FPS differences, with the advantage going toward the GeForce RTX 5070. We did encounter games where the gameplay experience was the same between both video cards, even at native resolution. However, those were in the minority, whereas the majority of the performance advantage was toward the GeForce RTX 5070, even if under 10%.
Where the GeForce RTX 5070 shines is in the Ray Tracing performance, but this result was not surprising. There were some well-optimized games that performed well on the Radeon RX 9070 GRE with Ray Tracing. Newer games seem to do better in regard to Ray Tracing and the Radeon RX 9070 GRE. Otherwise, in some games that benefit from baked-in Ray Tracing, the GeForce RTX 5070 had the advantage.
We also saw that DLSS or FSR Upscaling provided a playable gameplay experience at high game settings at 1440p on both video cards. In terms of performance, both offered a good advantage over their base framerates. The GeForce RTX 5070 has the advantage of better image quality with DLSS 4.5. There were still some games, even with FSR 4.1, that looked a bit worse than DLSS, such as Crimson Desert with FSR 4.1, which was noticeably worse than DLSS 4.5.
In a nutshell, if you take price out of the equation, the GeForce RTX 5070 is faster than the Radeon RX 9070 GRE and allows a better gameplay experience with better features. Both video cards have 12GB of VRAM, so they are equalized in that measure, but the RTX 5070 has a lot more bandwidth.
Now, if you take price into the equation, the choice looks a bit more complex. If you can purchase a GeForce RTX 5070 near the MSRP of $549, it’s a no-brainer. However, when it is $630-$640, and you can purchase a Radeon RX 9070 GRE for $549, then it really just boils down to your budget. The AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE is a good value at $549, and those savings over a GeForce RTX 5070 might be worth it for you. It delivers a very good 1440p gaming experience, and those savings would pay for a game. Hopefully, this performance review will help you make an informed buying decision as you scope out graphics cards in this price range.
