ASRock AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT Taichi 16GB GDDR6 Graphics Card

This card performs significantly above expectations and can consistently trade blows with an RTX 4080 or even a 5080 depending on the title, and even when it can't match a 4080 in raw maximum FPS it still beats it in 1% lows and incredibly consistent frame times which are the part you actually feel, represented by hitches and microstuttering. This card is buttery smooth in everything you throw at it, I've never seen anything like it in over 20 years of gaming. However, it does have some very noteworthy flaws.

All of these cards run extremely hot - don't be fooled by a GPU package temperature of only 51 degrees under load, in reality your h...view more This card performs significantly above expectations and can consistently trade blows with an RTX 4080 or even a 5080 depending on the title, and even when it can't match a 4080 in raw maximum FPS it still beats it in 1% lows and incredibly consistent frame times which are the part you actually feel, represented by hitches and microstuttering. This card is buttery smooth in everything you throw at it, I've never seen anything like it in over 20 years of gaming. However, it does have some very noteworthy flaws.

All of these cards run extremely hot - don't be fooled by a GPU package temperature of only 51 degrees under load, in reality your hot spot temperatures are closer to 85 or 90 degrees with occasional spikes as high as 95. Granted this is a factory OC model pulling 340w maximum, over the 304 base spec (which you can switch to on the quiet vBIOS mode), but in reality from my testing these cards don't actually gain anything meaningful from that OC and the best thing you can do for them is play around with lowering the voltage and power limit. Sounds counter-productive, but without going into specifics here I advise a target of 282w power limit (-17% power limit on OC vBIOS or -5% on quiet mode) this keeps performance the same or 1-2% better than stock while dropping power consumption and lowering temperatures by 10 degrees on average, as these cards hit a sheer cliff of diminishing returns past the 280w mark from my testing. Your mileage may vary here, these are just my experiences and there is significant variance in these GPUs just as there are with all cards, AMD or NVidia. At the very least if you don't want to touch power settings yourself, set a custom fan curve that ramps the fans appropriately to control the temperatures as the stock fan curve is...not great, but be warned that the fans are VERY loud on this specific model as they develop a distinctive tone around 65% (1900 RPM) and start to push a huge amount of air above 70%. The fan stop option is also useless because it refuses to kick in sometimes while the card is sitting at over 60 degrees, so let it spin at the minimum speed until about 65 - it's dead silent and it'll help keep the rest of the system cool, too.

Setup was mildly annoying but otherwise fairly smooth. I understood that driver conflicts were an ever-present issue and the best thing to do was perform a fresh reinstall of Windows, which I did. I have had no driver issues, but I did have to toggle a BIOS option off and back on to enable SAM and get a 'new hardware detected' popup to stop appearing every boot. AMD Adrenalin software is also full of good ideas with questionable executions, with a great example being Re-Live which just ignores my keybinds half the time and records video without audio for...arbitrary reasons. If you're a Linux user, don't even try to get the card working in an LTS distro like Mint, it's theoretically possible but it requires updating to an unsupported kernel and is way more effort than it's worth, so just wait for official support unless you're a superuser or don't mind switching distros.

The card is absolutely massive. Don't underestimate how huge and heavy this thing is - check the physical specifications and measure your case if you're not sure it'll fit, don't just go purely by clearances stated by manufacturers.

Yes, it uses the 12v high failure connector. Plug it in snugly and securely at both ends, and don't worry about it. This card absolutely should not get anywhere close to pushing a high enough wattage to melt the cable, unless you're overclocking it in which case you've got other much more immediate problems with the card being at 374w, like a 100c hotspot.

There may be coil whine. Mine whined a lot at first install, even at idle, but eased off and is almost totally silent under 100% load even before I power limited it. Some people never get any whine, others get a permanent whine so bad they have to return the card. YMMV.

That's about it for my 'complaints' about the card, if you can even call them that. The card is absolutely insane value in this country, embarrassing NVidia cards that are $1000 more expensive. Every time I throw something new at it I underestimate how damned good this card is, and it has been nothing but rock-solid stable for the last couple of weeks I've owned it.

The fps I'm seeing is well above what I was expecting based on the reviews.
The card is quiet, looks great, and has integrated.flawlessly with my rig and games. The fps I'm seeing is well above what I was expecting based on the reviews.
The card is quiet, looks great, and has integrated.flawlessly with my rig and games.

Runs quiet, made from good components and fastest stock OC clock rate out there. Runs quiet, made from good components and fastest stock OC clock rate out there.

Amazing card, such good value compared to the competition. Build quality was good in this case.
Silent operation, power use reasonable.
Only con: slight coil whine if you leave game lobbies running at uncapped frames (1000fps) but no whine ingame.

With Nvidia leaving a bad smell in the room from ridiculous prices and availability, drivers becoming worse with every iteration, and increasing bugs in their software, now is a perfect time.
CP2077 at 135-147fps on ultra.
SM2 same.
HD2 same.

AMD software has gotten more solid over time, and now is a great time to never go back to team green. Amazing card, such good value compared to the competition. Build quality was good in this case.
Silent operation, power use reasonable.
Only con: slight coil whine if you leave game lobbies running at uncapped frames (1000fps) but no whine ingame.

With Nvidia leaving a bad smell in the room from ridiculous prices and availability, drivers becoming worse with every iteration, and increasing bugs in their software, now is a perfect time.
CP2077 at 135-147fps on ultra.
SM2 same.
HD2 same.

AMD software has gotten more solid over time, and now is a great time to never go back to team green.

To start off, if you are into overclocking and want the best 9070XT, this is it, no other PCBs come close (Except the Aorus Elite but that leaks thermal putty and should be avoided), both the Nitro+ and Red Devil PCBs have nothing on the backside and just less power delivery in general, not to mention the Nitro+ doesn't even have dual bios.

What's not so good, the VRAM runs HOT, as in ~90 degrees with 20-25C ambient with fans at 60%, but this shouldn't cause any issues since this is still well below the maximum temp that GDDR6 can run at. The 12V power connector is somewhat concerning but also shouldn't be a problem since 9070s don't pull en...view more To start off, if you are into overclocking and want the best 9070XT, this is it, no other PCBs come close (Except the Aorus Elite but that leaks thermal putty and should be avoided), both the Nitro+ and Red Devil PCBs have nothing on the backside and just less power delivery in general, not to mention the Nitro+ doesn't even have dual bios.

What's not so good, the VRAM runs HOT, as in ~90 degrees with 20-25C ambient with fans at 60%, but this shouldn't cause any issues since this is still well below the maximum temp that GDDR6 can run at. The 12V power connector is somewhat concerning but also shouldn't be a problem since 9070s don't pull enough power, just make sure you have connected the cable correctly. If you are building an ITX system, this power connector might actually be an advantage since you only have to run 1 cable instead or 2 or 3.

The design is pretty clean, but the card is quite big, though not as big as the Red Devil or Nitro+.
So far, I have not heard any coil whine from this card at any load.

While these cards are expensive, the upgrade has been worth it. Running triple 32" 1440p easily now. While these cards are expensive, the upgrade has been worth it. Running triple 32" 1440p easily now.

The gpu is doing great and thanks to Pb tech and bery help-full and nice boys The gpu is doing great and thanks to Pb tech and bery help-full and nice boys

This card is amazing for 4k gaming, can set any game to 4k and reach around 40 to 100fps depending on the game but as for what people will usually opt for which is 1440p gaming this card is a beast runs any game around 140fps to 300fps its absolutely insane, not to mention the price of this card oml nvidia really lost the gamers this year haha, amd for the win ggs This card is amazing for 4k gaming, can set any game to 4k and reach around 40 to 100fps depending on the game but as for what people will usually opt for which is 1440p gaming this card is a beast runs any game around 140fps to 300fps its absolutely insane, not to mention the price of this card oml nvidia really lost the gamers this year haha, amd for the win ggs

This from my 3060 12G is definitely the best upgrade I've made from upgrading my pc overall, runs really cool on idle and whilst under load, little bit of coil whine while running games at over 500 fps but with glass panel I can barely hear it and a good pair of headphones helps, fully recommend buying. Love Amd gpus putting nvidia to shame this generation! This from my 3060 12G is definitely the best upgrade I've made from upgrading my pc overall, runs really cool on idle and whilst under load, little bit of coil whine while running games at over 500 fps but with glass panel I can barely hear it and a good pair of headphones helps, fully recommend buying. Love Amd gpus putting nvidia to shame this generation!

runs like a champ. 1440p runs like dream with no upscaler, 4k is playable but upscaling definitely helps. FSR 4 support isnt particularly widespread at the moment so it might be worth checking support before buying if you want to play at 4k. I had problems with powering it off the 16pin plug with my power supply (be quiet 1200W), ended up having to use the included 3x8pin connector. The ASRock RGB software is terrible but it works. Ray tracing performance is not nearly as good as the RTX 5070 Ti, but its serviceable and given this card is ~25% cheaper than a 5070 Ti, im okay with it. I havent had any driver related issues. runs like a champ. 1440p runs like dream with no upscaler, 4k is playable but upscaling definitely helps. FSR 4 support isnt particularly widespread at the moment so it might be worth checking support before buying if you want to play at 4k. I had problems with powering it off the 16pin plug with my power supply (be quiet 1200W), ended up having to use the included 3x8pin connector. The ASRock RGB software is terrible but it works. Ray tracing performance is not nearly as good as the RTX 5070 Ti, but its serviceable and given this card is ~25% cheaper than a 5070 Ti, im okay with it. I havent had any driver related issues.

The card Is big, you need to check if it fits before buying it. The trade off is the most silent and efficient cooling for a 9070XT.
RGB is discrete and can be turned off.
OC and Silent mode actually work, changing the power usage.
If overclocking or undervolting it gives the biggest range of the 9070XTs.
For sure a recommended purchase. The card Is big, you need to check if it fits before buying it. The trade off is the most silent and efficient cooling for a 9070XT.
RGB is discrete and can be turned off.
OC and Silent mode actually work, changing the power usage.
If overclocking or undervolting it gives the biggest range of the 9070XTs.
For sure a recommended purchase.

Seems to work well so far runs nice and cool. Seems to work well so far runs nice and cool.