Should you buy the Radeon RX 9070 or the RX 9070 XT? It is a question we get asked surprisingly often, so for anyone unsure which model is the better choice, we are going to cover everything, including the basics for readers who do not live and breathe this stuff.
The truth is that the RX 9070 and 9070 XT are very similar. When the cards launched, the non-XT version did not make much sense, because it cost just 8% less while packing 13% fewer cores. But it's now been over a year since these models first appeared, and pricing has fluctuated considerably. At times, the non-XT model has been significantly cheaper, which explains why so many of you have been asking about it.
In terms of specifications, both offer 16GB of 20Gbps GDDR6 memory on the same 256-bit-wide memory bus, providing 640 GB/s of bandwidth. Both also feature 64MB of Infinity Cache and support the PCI Express 5.0 x16 interface.
Where they differ is in their core configurations. The RX 9070 features 3,584 cores, whereas the XT version gets 4,096, a 14% increase. According to AMD's specifications, the RX 9070 XT also boosts to 2,970 MHz, compared with just 2,520 MHz for the non-XT model, giving it an 18% clock-speed advantage.
