Upon release, Radeon RX 9070 XT thoroughly impressed me with its performance and remains my go to recommendation for most people in search of a graphics card. In the months since launch, AMD has released numerous drivers for the pixel pusher which have seemingly improved upon what were already impressive frame rates. According to recent analysis, the GPU is 4-9% faster on average now with some games enjoying double-digit percentile upgrades.
After noticing Radeon RX 9070 XT appeared to be performing better than their day-one review data, YouTube channel Hardware Unboxed decided to thoroughly retest the graphics card using the latest display drivers (Adrenalin 25.6.3). The outlet also put GeForce RTX 5070 Ti back on the bench to provide a point of comparison and to highlight any improvements Nvidia has made through its updates too.
Across the 16 games tested, Radeon RX 9070 XT emerged 9% faster on average at QHD and 4% faster at UHD. By contrast, GeForce RTX 5070 Ti was just 2.5% and 3% better at the same respective resolutions. Diving deeper into the data, though, the degree these uplifts manifest varies wildly, from double-digit highs to zero movement on the performance needle.
The greatest beneficiaries include Counter-Strike 2, which is now 23% faster on Radeon RX 9070 XT over launch at QHD and a welcome 14% better at UHD too. Gains were more pronounced at the lower resolution, as examples such as Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered jumped 27% on the graphics card which now outpaces GeForce RTX 5070 Ti.
Exciting as these results are several games saw no change in frame rates at either resolution. The likes of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, The Last of Us Part I, and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor all perform exactly as they did at launch on Radeon RX 9070 XT. Such is the nature of driver updates, where performance improvements are possible but not always guaranteed.
It’s important to note that this only concerns native rendering performance, sans any assistance from FSR or DLSS. That said, a higher base frame rate will keep latency down for frame generation and invites higher quality upscaling presets.
I’m curious to see if Radeon RX 9070 similarly benefits from these under-the-hood improvements. Given the graphics card is essentially a cutdown version of its XT sibling, I’d expect to see improvements using these newer drivers. If so, perhaps it can incentivise Nvidia to give its prospective RTX 5070 Super a larger spec boost.
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