Will Undervolting Make the Radeon RX 9070 XT an Unlikely Performer?
Overclocking GPUs for greater performance is common practice. However, der8auer, a renowned overclocker, explored the opposite approach with the PowerColor Radeon RX 9070 XT Red Devil: undervolting. This technique, often unjustly underappreciated, yielded extremely surprising results, particularly when compared to NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5080.
Stock vs. Overclock: Minimal Performance Gain
Initial tests of the RX 9070 XT Red Devil in reference mode revealed dual vBIOS settings: "quiet" and "performance." The practical difference between these settings was minimal in both performance and temperature. The GPU temperature hovered around 62-63 degrees Celsius, with the hotspot reaching approximately 85 degrees.
Overclocking attempts, increasing the power limit to 110% and consuming around 360W as reported by GPU-Z, pushed the card to over 3.1 GHz. Despite this, traditional overclocking offered only modest performance improvements.
The Undervolting Revelation: Surprising Results
Undervolting became the focal point. Der8auer gradually reduced the GPU voltage, starting with a significant 200mV reduction. This aggressive undervolt allowed the card to reach an astonishing 3.4 GHz in 3DMark Time Spy, a 300 MHz increase over factory spec. However, this setting proved unstable for prolonged workloads.
Through testing and refinement, a 170mV undervolt emerged as the optimal setting. The PowerColor Radeon RX 9070 XT Red Devil underwent rigorous testing with this undervolt applied.
Outperforming the RTX 5080 in Benchmarks
Benchmark scores were remarkable. In 3DMark Time Spy Xtreme, the undervolted RX 9070 XT surpassed a stock NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080. Real-world gaming in Cyberpunk 2077 also demonstrated the undervolted RX 9070 XT outperforming the RTX 5080. In some tests, it even matched the more powerful Radeon RX 7900 XTX.
Value Proposition: High Performance for Less
Price is a crucial factor. The Radeon RX 9070 XT typically ranges from $700-800. The GeForce RTX 5080 is a more premium card, priced around $1000-1200. While the RTX 5080 has overclocking headroom for potentially another 10% performance increase, the undervolted RX 9070 XT's ability to closely challenge, and sometimes exceed, the RTX 5080 is noteworthy.
These tests indicate that the Radeon RX 9070 XT, when optimized through undervolting, presents an exceptionally powerful and cost-effective option for gamers seeking high performance without excessive spending. It illustrates that reduced power consumption can lead to enhanced performance efficiency.
