The AMD RX 9070 XT has been hailed as thebest graphic card to launch in 2025 — although that ’s a low legal profession to assemble . Still , it ’s expectant to have a powerful , somewhat - affordable new plug-in , especially since AMD ’s last - generation RX 7000 - series GPUs are get a piffling long in the tooth . But how does the newly - iconic 9070 XT compare against one of the best last - coevals cards ( and one of the only still uncommitted ) , the RX 7800 XT ?

Here ’s how they agree up .

Pricing and availability

TheRX 7800 XTlaunched in September 2023 , with a recommend price of $ 500 . It ’s sat around that ever since , with some mild wavering . It ’s one of the few cards to outlast the late price roar in GPUs , too , and you may still find a few 7800 XTs around for between $ 500 and $ 600 . That ’s not amazing value in 2025 when there are newer , faster calling card out there , but with ancestry and pricing problems across the circuit board , it’sarguably not defective .

The 9070 XT launched at the start of March 2025 with a price tatter of $ 600 , but it quickly go out of stock , just like everything else launched this year . Unfortunately , that means that the price is all over the place at the time of committal to writing , with the XT model going for anywhere between $ 700 when it ’s in stock , to over $ 1,000 when paying the scalper ’s price .

Specifications

The specifications of these two cards are challenging , because on the surface they do n’t appear that dissimilar . There have similar numbers of shader units and compute units , similarly sized dies , the same memory board and memory bus . But it ’s when you dig into the details that the deviation really stand out .

AMD has manage to mob near to duplicate the electronic transistor into the same size become flat . That ’s doubly impressive since AMD is n’t using a smaller process node this generation . All those transistors allow AMD to double over its phone number of AI accelerator and boost the capabilities of its RT atom smasher . It ’s also given a lot more power to the centre , allowing for much fast boost clocks .

That has result in an increase in board power , but only about 17 % .

Performance

We have n’t had a opportunity to test the 9070 XT ourselves yet , but take a look at the benchmark results of these cards in various reviews and tests cause it clear that the 9070 XT is much fast than the 7800 XT . Indeed , AMD ’s own graphs suggested it could be as much as 66 % quicker than the 7900 GRE ( though more like 42 % on median ) , which is a card that ’s already 10 % faster than the 7800 XT .

If we consider a wide gap of game , though , with more of an vehemence on oecumenical rasterization rather than raytracing , and do n’t factor FSR4 human body genesis , the 9070 XT is around 35 % quicker than the 7800 XT , which is a very good generational ascent .

However , it can go much further . With overclocking , we ’ve consider the 9070 XT eclipse even the RTX 5080 , which is over 65 % quicker than the 7800 XT , and much , much more expensive than even the 9070 XT ’s inflated price tag .

That is dependent on the model of 9070 XT you use , your own system of rules chill , and your power to overclock in the first topographic point , but the potential is certainly there for this bill of fare to be far faster than it is at store . While you could overclock the 7800 XT too , it does n’t have the same headroom as the new bill of fare and wo n’t deliver the same kind of uplift , even in idealistic scenarios .

The extra upscaling capacity of the 9070 XT should n’t be discounted , either . The additional AI accelerators and fresh - generation pattern make them much more capable than the 7800 XT in supercharge frame rates with FSR and frame generation in compatible games make a huge difference . The list of indorse games is n’t long at the minute , but it ’s growing all the time .

The 9070 XT is much better, if you can get it

buy graphics carte du jour in 2025 is not easy . Prices are crazy , lineage are low , and the FOMO is real . But if you’re able to wait out these turbulent multiplication , there ’s no dubiousness that the 9070 XT is the good card here . It ’s much quicker , overclocks like mad , has impressive ray of light tracing performance , and its new upscaling and frame genesis capableness are awesome . Nothing that AMD has ever made before can meet it in the veracious setting .

But do n’t ignore the 7800 XT just yet . Indeed , if you have one , do n’t rush to upgrade it unless you have a very real reason to . It ’s still a strong card , and until prices come down , it still extend strong value for money . I would n’t inevitably buy one new , but then if you have around $ 600 to spend , there ’s nothing out there that proffer that form of value right now . Prices should come down in the time to come , but if you need a new card mightily now , the 7800 XT is still a decent buy .