I. Introduction
The Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB is AMD’s new generation mainstream graphics card, while the GeForce RTX 4070 is NVIDIA’s previous-generation mid-range model, with the latter positioned and priced higher than the former.
However, the Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB is a new product after all and has certain asymmetric advantages. So, how big is the performance gap between the Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB and the GeForce RTX 4070? This article will reveal the answer through gaming tests.
II. Specification Comparison
The Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB was released on June 4, 2025. It uses the Navi 44 GPU, manufactured with TSMC’s 4nm process, based on the RDNA 4 architecture. It features 2,048 shaders, 128 texture units, 64 raster units, 32 compute units, and 32 ray tracing units.
It has 4MB of L2 cache and 32MB of L3 cache. Its base clock is 1700MHz, with a boost clock up to 3130MHz. It has a 128-bit memory interface and comes with either 8GB or 16GB of GDDR6 memory, running at 20.1Gbps. The memory bandwidth is 322.3GB/s, power consumption is 160W, and the suggested retail price is $349.
The GeForce RTX 4070 was released on April 13, 2023. It uses the AD104 GPU, manufactured with TSMC’s 5nm process, and features 5,888 CUDA cores, 184 texture units, 64 raster units, 46 ray tracing units, 46 streaming multiprocessors, and 184 tensor cores. It has 36MB of L2 cache.
Its base clock is 1920MHz, with a boost clock up to 2475MHz. It comes with 12GB of GDDR6X memory, a 192-bit memory interface, memory speed of 21Gbps, and a bandwidth of 504GB/s. FP32 performance reaches 29.15 TFLOPS. Power consumption is 200W, and the suggested retail price is $599.
III. Test Platform Configuration
Main configuration is as follows:
The processor is a Ryzen 7 9800X3D, the motherboard is an MSI MPG X670E CARBON, memory is 32GB DDR5 at 6000MHz, graphics cards are the GeForce RTX 4070 and Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB respectively, storage consists of two Samsung 970 EVO 1TB SSDs, and the operating system is Windows 11.
IV. Game Tests （RX 9060 XT vs RTX 4070）
The following tests cover seven games, all conducted in 1440P quality mode. In the series of comparison images, the left side represents the Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB platform, and the right side represents the GeForce RTX 4070 platform.
Game 1: God of War
On the Radeon RX 9060 XT platform: average FPS is 89, minimum FPS is 78, frame time is 10.7ms, CPU usage 11%, power draw 52W, temperature 49°C, memory usage 13.0GB, GPU utilization 98%, VRAM usage 7.1GB, GPU power draw 174W, temperature 51°C.
On the GeForce RTX 4070 platform: average FPS is 110, minimum FPS is 92, frame time is 8.3ms, CPU usage 17%, power draw 59W, temperature 58°C, memory usage 11.6GB, GPU utilization 99%, VRAM usage 6.5GB, GPU power draw 188W, temperature 65°C.
The RTX 4070’s CPU usage is 6% higher, memory usage 1.4GB lower, GPU usage about equal, VRAM usage 0.6GB lower, power draw 14W higher, and temperature 14°C higher.
In average FPS, the RTX 4070 leads by 21 FPS (approx. 24%), with a 14 FPS advantage in minimum FPS and 2ms lower frame time.
Game 2: Cyberpunk 2077
RX 9060 XT: average FPS 60, minimum FPS 52, frame time 17.8ms, CPU usage 37%, power 77W, temp 59°C, memory 13.2GB, GPU usage 99%, VRAM 8.1GB, GPU power 175W, temp 49°C.
RTX 4070: average FPS 62, minimum FPS 51, frame time 17.8ms, CPU usage 34%, power 73W, temp 57°C, memory 12.4GB, GPU usage 99%, VRAM 7.5GB, GPU power 195W, temp 67°C.
The RTX 4070’s CPU usage is 3% lower, memory 0.8GB lower, same GPU usage, VRAM usage 0.6GB lower, power 20W higher, and temp 18°C higher.
Performance is nearly identical; RTX 4070 has a 2 FPS average FPS lead, 1 FPS lower minimum FPS, identical frame time, but uses less CPU, memory, and VRAM.
Game 3: Red Dead Redemption 2
RX 9060 XT: average FPS 86, minimum 79, frame time 11.8ms, CPU usage 17%, power 58W, temp 50°C, memory 12.9GB, GPU usage 100%, VRAM 6.3GB, GPU power 170W, temp 50°C.
RTX 4070: average FPS 90, minimum 81, frame time 10.9ms, CPU usage 16%, power 52W, temp 50°C, memory 12.7GB, GPU usage 94%, VRAM 5.3GB, GPU power 195W, temp 65°C.
The RTX 4070 uses 1% less CPU, 0.2GB less memory, 6% lower GPU usage, 1.0GB less VRAM, draws 25W more power, and is 15°C hotter.
Performance-wise, the RTX 4070 leads by 4 FPS average, 2 FPS minimum, with nearly identical frame time. Slight advantage overall.
Game 4: Horizon Forbidden West
RX 9060 XT: average FPS 66, minimum 64, frame time 14.9ms, CPU usage 33%, power 80W, temp 64°C, memory 15.3GB, GPU usage 99%, VRAM 8.8GB, GPU power 174W, temp 49°C.
RTX 4070: average FPS 69, minimum 67, frame time 14.4ms, CPU usage 47%, power 96W, temp 73°C, memory 11.5GB, GPU usage 99%, VRAM 8.4GB, GPU power 182W, temp 65°C.
RTX 4070’s CPU usage is 14% higher, memory usage 3.8GB lower, same GPU usage, VRAM 0.4GB lower, power 8W higher, and 16°C hotter.
In average and minimum FPS, RTX 4070 leads by 3 FPS; frame time is nearly equal. Overall, a draw.
Game 5: Silent Hill 2
RX 9060 XT: average FPS 64, minimum 52, frame time 16.3ms, CPU usage 13%, power 61W, temp 54°C, memory 12.3GB, GPU usage 99%, VRAM 9.4GB, GPU power 180W, temp 50°C.
RTX 4070: average FPS 82, minimum 63, frame time 12.0ms, CPU usage 16%, power 59W, temp 54°C, memory 11.4GB, GPU usage 98%, VRAM 7.3GB, GPU power 186W, temp 64°C.
RTX 4070’s CPU usage is 3% higher, memory 0.9GB lower, GPU usage nearly equal, VRAM 2.1GB lower, power 6W higher, and 14°C hotter.
In average FPS, RTX 4070 leads by 18 FPS (approx. 28%), 11 FPS higher minimum FPS, and 4ms lower frame time.
Game 6: Black Myth: Wukong
RX 9060 XT: average FPS 30, minimum 25, frame time 33.1ms, CPU usage 9%, power 47W, temp 51°C, memory 12.3GB, GPU usage 97%, VRAM 7.1GB, GPU power 171W, temp 51°C.
RTX 4070: average FPS 40, minimum 32, frame time 25.1ms, CPU usage 9%, power 43W, temp 50°C, memory 11.6GB, GPU usage 99%, VRAM 6.8GB, GPU power 197W, temp 65°C.
CPU usage is the same. RTX 4070 uses 0.7GB less memory, 2% more GPU, 0.3GB less VRAM, 26W more power, and is 14°C hotter.
In FPS, RTX 4070 leads by 10 FPS (approx. 33%), 7 FPS in minimum FPS, and has 8ms lower frame time. Both platforms suffer from high latency and poor smoothness.
Game 7: The Last of Us Part II
RX 9060 XT: average FPS 49, minimum 46, frame time 19.9ms, CPU usage 20%, power 58W, temp 52°C, memory 15.1GB, GPU usage 99%, VRAM 9.8GB, GPU power 153W, temp 48°C.
RTX 4070: average FPS 56, minimum 54, frame time 17.2ms, CPU usage 44%, power 64W, temp 51°C, memory 12.3GB, GPU usage 98%, VRAM 8.7GB, GPU power 192W, temp 46°C.
RTX 4070’s CPU usage is 22% higher, memory 2.8GB lower, GPU usage similar, VRAM 1.1GB lower, power 39W higher, and 2°C cooler.
In average FPS, RTX 4070 leads by 7 FPS (approx. 14%), 8 FPS in minimum FPS, and 2.7ms lower frame time.
V. Comparative Conclusion
Among the seven games tested, three ended in a draw. However, even in those, the GeForce RTX 4070 platform demonstrated lower overall hardware resource usage, giving it a slight edge.
Based on the combined results from the remaining four games, the overall gaming performance of the GeForce RTX 4070 is approximately 25% higher than that of the Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB. Given the limited number of test samples, a conservative estimate would suggest a performance advantage of at least 20%. This is the conclusion of this article, for reference only.
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