RX 9070 and RTX 5070 on a collision course as RDNA 4 review embargo date leaks

The next generation of mid-range desktop GPUs is almost upon us. The RTX 5070 Ti is the first entrant to this segment and is scheduled to go on sale from February 20th at a starting price of $749. Nvidia will follow the RTX 5070 Ti with the RTX 5070 in early March.

Following Nvidia’s launches, AMD is set to fully reveal the RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT on February 28. These RDNA 4 cards will reportedly go on sale starting March 6. According to the information obtained by VideoCardz, the RX 9070 review embargo date set by AMD puts the GPU directly against the RTX 5070.

VideoCardz claims that the RX 9070 reviews will go live on March 5th, coinciding with the official launch of the RTX 5070. AMD deciding to drop reviews of the RX 9070 on the same day as the RTX 5070 might be a pure coincidence, but it will undoubtedly affect the RTX 5070 launch.

For starters, the RX 9070 reportedly outperforms the RTX 5070 by a considerable margin. Moreover, the card packs 4 GB more VRAM than the RTX 5070. In an age where the VRAM requirements of AAA titles are ballooning, a 12 GB card can be the limiting factor for folks who choose to play games at QHD resolution or above. This will give a decisive advantage to the RX 9070.

Additionally, leaks also suggest that AMD has made serious gains in ray tracing performance, an area that was the company’s Achilles heel in the past. Combined with a possibly competitive price for the RX 9070, the RTX 5070 seems to have a hard battle in front of it.

Whatever the case ends up, the mid-range GPU segment is finally getting excited again after an, arguably, middling last generation that saw GPU launches like the RTX 4070 and the RX 7700 XT (Available on Amazon).