AMD Ryzen RX 9070 XT Ideal 1440p Gaming GPU in 2025? FSR 4 Benchmarks & Review

Ryzen RX 9070 XT: The Ideal 1440p Gaming GPU in 2025?

Is the Ryzen RX 9070 XT the ideal 1440p gaming GPU in 2025? We benchmarked the Gigabyte Gaming OC version of the RX 9070 XT, paired with the Ryzen 9 79800X3D processor, in several demanding games. Our goal was to determine what it can do with FSR 4 upscaling, ray tracing, and raw rasterization performance. We tested these games on the MSI MPG 271QRX QD-OLED monitor, a high-end 360Hz 1440p monitor, so we could properly assess the GPU's performance.

Delving into FSR 4: AMD's Machine Learning Upscaling

While native FSR 4 support is still not common in games, enabling it in games that already support FSR 3.1 is easy. With the AMD software override, we were easily able to enable FSR 4. It must be noted that compatibility is not across the board. Some games, like Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 in our testing, lacked the FSR 4 override option. Hopefully, AMD will address these compatibility issues in future driver updates.

Cyberpunk 2077: FSR 4 Quality & Native 1440p Benchmarks

We began testing with Cyberpunk 2077, a graphically demanding game where any artifacts from the upscaling would be easily noticeable. This provided us with a good chance to take a close look at AMD's first attempt at machine learning-based resolution upscaling with FSR 4, the direct counterpart to NVIDIA's DLSS.

FSR 4 Quality Mode

At 1440p resolution and AMD FSR 4 Quality mode (labeled as FSR 3 in-game due to the override method), and with maxed graphics settings and maxed field of view, the RX 9070 XT performed incredibly well.

• Frame rates were always above 130 FPS, often reaching 150 FPS in less intensive scenes.
• Despite frame rate spikes, gameplay felt very smooth and enjoyable on the 360Hz monitor.
• Image quality with FSR 4 Quality mode was excellent, with a visually pleasing experience that was artifact-free from immersion-breaking artifacts that used to follow older upscaling techniques like FSR 3.1, 2.2, etc. FSR 4 is a massive improvement, matching DLSS in usability and image fidelity.

Native 1440p with FSR 4 AA

Switching to native 1440p resolution and applying FSR 4 for anti-aliasing (FSR 4 AA), the RX 9070 XT did not disappoint.

• Frame rates were always above 100 FPS, usually above 120 FPS.
• FSR 4 AA provided a superior anti-aliasing solution to TAA and traditional methods, and it equaled NVIDIA's DLAA in image quality.
• Power consumption was at about 330W, but limiting the frame rate to 60 FPS reduced power consumption by a lot to 108-117W, indicating excellent efficiency when frame rates are capped.

Monster Hunter Wilds: Ray Tracing and FSR 4 Performance

Next, we tested the RX 9070 XT in the demanding Monster Hunter Wilds at 1440p with frame rates uncapped. Our preferred settings included AMD FSR Quality mode, ray tracing enabled at "High" (maximum), and maximum graphics settings. We bypassed the high-resolution texture pack due to extreme performance degradation.

Performance in Monster Hunter Wilds was generally good.

• Frame rates were above 80 FPS in the resource-hungry camp area.
• There is a large FPS drop when panning the camera due to a known bug in the game, indicating some optimization issues within the game itself. Static FPS would be 90+, but panning would reduce it to the 70s and occasionally into the 60s.
• Native 1440p performance (no upscaling) was lower, at 60-70 FPS average while still and 50+ FPS on camera movement, which was less ideal for smooth gameplay, especially in intense boss fights.
• While dropping graphics settings to "Medium" yielded a frame rate boost to over 100 FPS, the visuals suffered greatly. FSR 4 Quality mode was a nice balance, providing acceptable visual fidelity while improving frame rates over native resolution, even if the camera panning issue was still a limiting factor.

Spider-Man 2: Ray Tracing Performance Test

For Spider-Man 2, we tested the ray tracing performance of the RX 9070 XT at 1440p with FSR 4 Quality mode, Very High graphics preset, Very High ray tracing settings, and Depth of Field disabled.

Although there are known performance measurement problems in Spider-Man 2, our testing revealed:

• Performance wasn't entirely stable, suggesting ongoing game optimization needs.
• Frame rates at high ray tracing settings were around 50-55 FPS, with noticeable frame rate spikes, resulting in a rather choppy gaming experience, less than ideal for a fast-paced action game.
• Disabling ray tracing completely benefited frame rates significantly, at times in excess of 160 FPS, but still demonstrated frame rate dips to around 90 FPS, which suggests more general game smoothness issues beyond ray tracing load.

These tests confirm the RX 9070 XT's viability for ray tracing in games, although optimization problems in games like Spider-Man 2 can influence overall smoothness.

Alan Wake 2: AMD Ray Tracing Limitations & FSR 2 Drawbacks

Alan Wake 2 is a tough example for AMD GPUs considering its heavy implementation of NVIDIA-centric features. We tested at native 1440p with high graphics preset and ray tracing turned off first.

Performance was otherwise excellent without ray tracing, with an average of above 60 FPS and often above 100 FPS in less demanding areas. FSR 2, the upscaling feature available in Alan Wake 2, was found to be visually unacceptable, mirroring the issues with FSR 3.1 and earlier versions. This lack of a quality upscaling solution like FSR 4 in older titles is a significant weakness of AMD GPUs compared to NVIDIA's DLSS ecosystem.

Ray Tracing Limitations

Enabling ray tracing in Alan Wake 2 unearthed more limitations.

• Low ray tracing preset was visually horrendous and not recommended.
• Medium ray tracing, the lowest acceptable preset, resulted in frame rates just above 40 FPS even in less taxing scenes.
• AMD GPUs lack custom ray reconstruction technologies like NVIDIA's. Consequently, there is intense ray tracing noise and visual artifacts (flickering, grainy reflections) that render the ray tracing experience on the RX 9070 XT in Alan Wake 2 visually disagreeable and arguably unusable.
• In more stressful forest areas with ray tracing enabled, frame rates fell to 20+ FPS, which was an unpleasant experience.

Alan Wake 2 is a "worst-case scenario" for the RX 9070 XT, requiring visual or performance compromises in order to achieve playable frame rates with ray tracing, courtesy in big part of the game's NVIDIA-optimized effects and a lack of practical FSR upscaling options.

Kingdom Come Deliverance 2: Native Performance & FSR 4 Wish

Finally, we benchmarked Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 at 1440p, starting with the "Experimental" highest graphics preset and native resolution. Despite FSR 4 incompatibility issues in our test suite, we examined native performance.

• The "Experimental" preset was too demanding, with frame rates falling below 50 FPS even in relatively less demanding scenes, and was therefore not viable for smooth playback.
• Reducing the graphics preset to "Ultra" had a massive impact on performance, with a much smoother and more fluid experience and frame rates consistently over 60 FPS and visually appealing image quality.
• Native 1440p "Ultra" settings were a pleasant experience, although the absence of working FSR 4 in our testing was a major letdown. The prior FSR 3 anti-aliasing and upscaling were deemed visually inferior, reinforcing the case for widespread FSR 4 adoption to enhance both performance and visual fidelity for future gaming.

Conclusion: RX 9070 XT - A Solid 1440p Performer with Caveats

The AMD RX 9070 XT is a good 1440p gaming GPU in 2025. Raster performance is fine, and the introduction of FSR 4 is a significant jump, finally providing us with an answer to NVIDIA's DLSS in the form of a resolution upscaling and anti-aliasing solution. FSR 4 significantly improves performance with no unacceptable visual concessions in supported titles.

However, the RX 9070 XT is not without its limitations.

• FSR 4 adoption is not yet as widespread as DLSS 4, and the scope to override older games with FSR 4 is not as significant at this point, in contrast to NVIDIA's more versatile DLSS overriding capability. That means in less optimized or older games, AMD users will not be able to leverage efficient upscaling capabilities.
• Ray tracing performance, while present, isn't quite as refined as on NVIDIA GPUs, particularly in titles that are heavily optimized for NVIDIA ray tracing features. Absence of ray reconstruction technologies on AMD cards leads to noticeable noise and visual artifacts in ray-traced reflections and lighting.

The primary driver of the RX 9070 XT's value proposition is pricing. To be a truly compelling alternative to NVIDIA's offerings, it should be competitively priced, ideally at $600 or lower. The 16GB of VRAM is an enormous advantage, future-proofing it from increasingly VRAM-intensive games, even at 1440p with high texture fidelity. For those gamers who value rasterization performance and affordability, and are excited about the prospects of FSR 4, the RX 9070 XT is certainly a viable option, if AMD is able to keep the pricing aggressive.

Ultimately, the RX 9070 XT is a good 1440p gaming graphics card in 2025, partly due to the introduction of FSR 4. Buyers need to be aware of the ray tracing quality compromises and lack of game support for FSR 4 currently compared to NVIDIA's ecosystem, however. Providing it's competitively priced, the RX 9070 XT offers great value for 1440p gamers.