AMD RX 9070 GPU spec and benchmark rumors cast fresh doubt on power usage and performance – but I wouldn’t worry about the latter

• AMD’s RX 9070 GPUs have witnessed spillage around their specs and possible performance levels
• Power-wise the RX 9070 XT looks a bit hungrier than expected, but the vanilla 9070 is pitched at a more comfortable level
• The benchmarks paint a shakier picture of performance than previous leaks – but there are good reasons not to worry here, thankfully

AMD’s RX 9070 GPUs will soon be officially revealed – in a week there’s a big press event dedicated to these cards – but ahead of that, we’ve just been treated to some purported leaked specs and benchmarks.

In terms of the specs, VideoCardz comes with news that Hoang Anh Phu, a regular leaker on X, posted some details of the RX 9070 models (although that post has since been deleted).

Salt firmly clutched in hand, then, we can consider the revelations apparently made in a recent AMD press briefing.

We’re told the RX 9070 XT will run with 64 Compute Units (4,096 Stream Processors) and a boost clock of 2970MHz, all as previously rumored, with a power usage (TBP or Total Board Power) of 304W.

As for the vanilla RX 9070, that supposedly has 56 Compute Units (3,584 Stream Processors) and a boost clock of 2520MHz, with a 220W power consumption.

Meanwhile, both of these inbound RDNA 4 graphics cards from AMD have had benchmarks leaked, giving us a rough idea of where their performance may lie (scoop up even more salt here, though).

Wccftech noticed the benchmarks highlighted by Benchleaks (on X) which show that the RX 9070 XT scored 179,178 in the OpenCL test from Geekbench, and 177,395 points in Vulkan (both of these are graphics tests).

In those same tests, the vanilla RX 9070 GPU managed to attain 140,842 points in OpenCL, while it hit 158,520 in Vulkan.

Those are just numbers, obviously, and only useful if we compare them to existing results for other GPUs, as Wccftech does. The tech site found that the RX 9070 XT is about 6% faster than the RX 7900 XT in OpenCL, and a touch slower (4% off the pace) in Vulkan compared to that same current-gen graphics card.

The RX 9070 (non-XT) on the other hand is about even with the 7800 XT in OpenCL and about 6% slower than this GPU in the Vulkan test (where it’s only a smidge faster than the 7700 XT, in fact).

Analysis: Reasons to be doubtful (and cheerful)

At this point you might be thinking: huh, weren’t these RDNA 4 GPUs supposed to be faster than this based on previous rumors? Well, yes, they were. In fact past chatter has suggested that AMD was aiming to get the RX 9070 XT to be slightly faster than the RTX 4080 (Founders Edition model from Nvidia).

Now, if the RX 9070 XT is not much faster than the RX 7900 XT as is indicated here, that current-gen AMD GPU is considerably off the pace of a vanilla RTX 4080, so this latest leak is disappointingly slow compared to what we’ve been primed to expect.

However, this is just a few Geekbench runs, and as I always say when it comes to gauging gaming graphics cards, this is not nearly the best way to judge performance. Synthetic benchmarks aren’t ideal full-stop, and Geekbench is low on the ladder of these metrics to boot.

Other leaked performance estimations (including 3DMark results, and a glimpse of the vanilla 9070 flexing its muscles in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6) suggest a beefier GPU than what we’re seeing here, that’s for sure. And AMD is certainly putting expectations firmly on the table with its new naming scheme – the RTX 9070 models are clearly intended to square up to Nvidia’s RTX 5070 offerings.

So in short, I really wouldn’t worry about these fresh benchmarks, and I’d be surprised if they weren’t proven to be out of line eventually.

The indicated power usage figures are interesting, certainly. Previously we’ve seen suggestions that the RX 9070 XT could demand up to 330W of power, although that’s for top-end boards, with the entry-level (and reference) graphics cards expected to pitch in at 260W. This leak claiming 304W for the reference board is a bit higher than expected, then (while top-end GPUs going very heavy with the power is something that's already been rumored, and not really a surprise, of course).

The RX 9070, on the other hand, sounds like it’s in a theoretically much more comfortable spot for a lot of gaming PCs out there, being rated at 220W.

All these rumors will be cleared up soon enough, because as noted, AMD’s official launch event is now imminent, where we’ll find out the hefty-sized missing piece from the next-gen Radeon puzzle – those MSRPs.

Because after all, whatever performance comes out at relative to Nvidia’s new mid-range graphics cards, the right price tag can still make RDNA 4 a potent rival, or perhaps even a force to blow away Blackwell. (Okay, so the latter is doubtless wishful thinking, but come on AMD – let’s have a pricing surprise of a good nature in the GPU world for once, eh?).

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