It’s finally happened — AMD has taken the fight to Nvidia with their latest GPUs, and from the looks of it, Team Red has the upper hand for the first time in what feels like a million years. The Radeon RX 9070 and 9070 XT are here, and they’re in direct competition with the newly-released Nvidia RTX 5070 and 5070 Ti.

Of course, there’s also the fact that these new AMD cards are significantly cheaper, and they beat the 5070 cards quite considerably in many aspects. So, is it finally time to seriously consider upgrading your GPU and going with Team Red if you want a new gaming PC? Here’s everything you should know about the new AMD RX 9000 graphics cards before you put them on your radar.

6 FSR has finally caught up with DLSS

RDNA 4 is here to fight

AMD has finally dove into machine-learned graphics with their new RDNA 4 graphics cards, which brings the company’s upscaling tech several notches up in quality. The old pain points of ghosting, shimmering, and haziness? Gone. FSR4 is now neck-and-neck with DLSS 4 in terms of quality and clarity, even if it might be a bit heavier on the RX 9000 cards than its predecessor FSR3 — but it’s a fair trade, considering the huge jump in visual quality.

Choosing FSR for upscaling in any game used to be a matter of knowing you’re settling for inferior visual quality. Well, no longer, thanks to FSR4 truly delivering fantastic upscaled visuals, even without comparison to FSR3. Of course, the elephant in the room is that this remarkable jump in quality, where FSR4’s Performance mode on 4K delivers, is just about 5% short of the RTX 5070 Ti’s DLSS 4’s transformer model in games like Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart while being significantly cheaper, and also offering more VRAM.

5 The RX 9000 cards could teach Nvidia about VRAM

Your move, Nvidia

Even in 2025, after about three years of consumers across the world complaining about how miserly Nvidia has been with the VRAM on their graphics cards, Team Green hasn’t changed. The RTX 5070 Ti might have 16 GB of VRAM, but the base RTX 5070 still comes with just 12 GB. On the other hand, AMD has come out swinging with 16GB VRAM on both the RX 9070 and the 9070 XT.

Sure, one might argue that the Nvidia cards boast GDDR7 memory, while the AMD cards run on GDDR6 memory. I hear you, but what’s the point of higher speeds if your card is simply running out of VRAM to be able to use it? Now, AMD’s own RX 7900 XT boasts 20GB VRAM on a 320-bit bus, while the new RX 9070 also has a 256-bit bus. A downgrade? Yes, but still enough to run most games on 4K Ultra.

12GB VRAM on a high-end GPU is laughable today, and considering AMD’s new cards don’t just offer more VRAM but actually offer similar or better performance than their Nvidia counterparts, it’s time to seriously begin considering AMD builds for gaming in the long term.

4 Ray tracing is no longer just an Nvidia thing

AMD nailing ray tracing wasn’t on my 2025 bingo card

It’s happened — AMD’s newest GPUs can now handle the best ray-traced game at 4K ultra without breaking a sweat. Up until the very last generation, ray tracing has always been Team Green’s trump card, but AMD has entered the ring with maxed-out stats because the new RX 9070 XT can run ray-traced AAA titles like Metro Exodus and Black Myth: Wukong at 4K ultra while delivering upwards of 70 fps.

At its (launch) price of $599, the 9070 XT is making the RTX 5070 Ti look nothing but greedy, all while swatting away every previous doubt cast on AMD cards about ray-tracing and upscaling shortcomings. That being said, even the RX 9070 XT is behind the RTX 5070 when it comes to ray-traced performance, but the gap is smaller than ever before, and we’re watching with bated breath.

3 True 4K native ultra gaming is still not here

Another generation away, at least

With all the talk about FSR4 and the remarkable improvements it has made, there’s still the fact that it’s needed. Yes, we’ve got great results from these AMD RX 9000 cards at 4K Ultra settings, but playable experiences that come with upwards of 70-80 fps still come with FSR turned on. Of course, it’s the same story with the 5070 Ti cards, where you need DLSS 4 working on all cylinders to deliver 100 fps experiences with FG on.

That said, we’re about another generation away from cards like the 70-series on both Nvidia and AMD sides to deliver true 4K ultra-native performance. However, for gamers, FSR4 and DLSS4 pick up the slack beautifully well, delivering experiences upwards of 100-120 fps on 4K Ultra gaming. It’s truly a great time to buy a graphics card, with both Nvidia and AMD options delivering great results. Of course, it’s the AMD cards this time around that make more sense to purchase — what a time to be alive.

2 AMD promises wide availability for the new cards

Scalpers be damned

As soon as Nvidia’s new RTX 5070 and RTX 5070 Ti cards hit the market, they sold out. Unsurprisingly, Nvidia’s new 5070 family cards are simply not available anywhere at their launch prices of $549 and $749. Instead, AIB partners like MSI have silently marked up the prices to upwards of $850, while availability issues have scalpers running rampant online, selling 5070 Ti cards at egregious prices almost double the MSRP.

AMD, on the other hand, seems to have addressed this issue before the launch itself, promising “wide availability” for their RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT cards on launch. That's another box that Team Red seems to have checked, ensuring that the wide availability of their new flagship RX 9000 cards ensures that their prices remain "normal", making them a more compelling buy than the Nvidia RTX 5070 or the 5070 Ti. Well, we hope it will, anyway.

1 The RX 9070 wants you to buy its XT variant

RTX 5070 all over again

Look, I might not need a massive 3-topping large pizza for $10, but I’m not paying $8 for a medium 2-topping one. That’s pretty much what AMD has done with the RX 9070 and the RX 9070 XT, pricing the two cards at $549 and $599, respectively. So yes, you could buy the $549 RX 9070, but for an extra $50, you get higher clock speeds across the board, 14% more RT cores, and a better card overall.

This isn’t all that surprising a ploy from AMD, but I sure wish the base RX 9070 made more of a compelling argument to recommend it. Regardless, $50 can be a significant difference for budget-conscious gamers, and the RX 9070 is a fantastic card for its price — provided you get it for MSRP.

The game has changed

For the first time in a long while, AMD isn’t just catching up — it’s forcing the entire industry to take notice. The RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT aren’t just solid releases; they’re power moves, proving that AMD is done being the “value” option and is now a genuine competitor in the mid-range segment. These cards don’t just make AMD builds viable — they make them compelling. With exceptional performance, ample VRAM, and competitive pricing, AMD has checked every box that gamers have been begging Nvidia to acknowledge for years.

This shift matters. The GPU market has been an Nvidia-dominated monopoly for too long, and competition is the only thing that keeps innovation and fair pricing alive. The RX 9070 series is exactly what was needed to shake things up, and if gamers want a future where they aren’t stuck with whatever Nvidia dictates, it’s time to give AMD the flowers they’ve earned.