Tuesday, March 11th 2025
AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT Reportedly Outperforms RTX 5080 Through Undervolting
AMD's Radeon RX 9070 XT is demonstrating unexpected performance gains through aggressive undervolting, with overclocking specialists documenting significant improvements that push the GPU past NVIDIA's pricier GeForce RTX 5080 in specific benchmarks. Recent tests by Der8auer using a PowerColor Red Devil RX 9070 XT revealed a 10% frame rate increase in Cyberpunk 2077 at 4K Ultra settings by applying a -170 mV voltage offset while increasing the power target to 110%. This modification enabled the GPU to reach clock speeds of 3.36 GHz, compared to 2.90 GHz at stock settings, resulting in 66 FPS versus the RTX 5080's 65 FPS in identical testing environments. The undervolting phenomenon appears consistent across the product line, with YouTuber Alva Jonathan achieving similar 10% performance improvements on the standard RX 9070 using ASRock's Steel Legend model.
Both testers discovered that traditional core clock overclocking yielded negligible results, suggesting these factory-overclocked cards are already operating near their architectural limits. The voltage-frequency curve adjustments effectively lower the voltage required for higher frequencies. Memory overclocking proved counterproductive, with error correction mechanisms actually reducing in-game performance when pushed beyond stable parameters. These results come with important caveats—both tested units are premium variants with enhanced power delivery and cooling solutions that sell significantly above AMD's MSRP. The PowerColor Red Devil commanded a $200 premium over the RX 9070 XT's $599 launch price, while the ASRock Steel Legend carried a $90 markup over the RX 9070's base $550 MSRP. Even with these premiums, however, the high-end RX 9070 XT models remain approximately $200 less expensive than NVIDIA's RTX 5080 while delivering comparable rasterization performance after optimization, despite NVIDIA's ongoing advantages in ray tracing capabilities and software ecosystem.
Source:
via Tom's Hardware
Both testers discovered that traditional core clock overclocking yielded negligible results, suggesting these factory-overclocked cards are already operating near their architectural limits. The voltage-frequency curve adjustments effectively lower the voltage required for higher frequencies. Memory overclocking proved counterproductive, with error correction mechanisms actually reducing in-game performance when pushed beyond stable parameters. These results come with important caveats—both tested units are premium variants with enhanced power delivery and cooling solutions that sell significantly above AMD's MSRP. The PowerColor Red Devil commanded a $200 premium over the RX 9070 XT's $599 launch price, while the ASRock Steel Legend carried a $90 markup over the RX 9070's base $550 MSRP. Even with these premiums, however, the high-end RX 9070 XT models remain approximately $200 less expensive than NVIDIA's RTX 5080 while delivering comparable rasterization performance after optimization, despite NVIDIA's ongoing advantages in ray tracing capabilities and software ecosystem.
85 Comments on AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT Reportedly Outperforms RTX 5080 Through Undervolting
Are you or are you not using those AI cores... basically. That is why it LOOKS like there is a lot of voltage headroom... until you try running that undervolt on something like PT Black Myth Wukong, and it won't run past the first few seconds of the intro movie.
On my 7900XT I ended up changing the undervolt from 1025mv to 1075mv from its factory stock 1100mv, or it simply is not stable with RT - EVEN if you clock limit the card to something stupid like 2300mhz.
Man, sometimes you're so out there I can't even... its like you are struggling with your own Nvidia bias, you know it, and yet you can't stop it. Hilarious. And now you're going to deny this is happening to you, and you're truly a fair arbiter, right? You made a few false equations here to seem like you are.
Numbers don't lie. People do - mostly to themselves, ironically.
There is but one thing left for you, be the bigger man and admit it. Its fine and you can be who you want to be. Just be honest about it - especially to yourself. The rest knows what's going on already.
You'll play the same stuff at the same res on either card and perhaps on the 9070XT you'll knock a slider from ultra to very high. There is no real differentiator here other than price.
There is a 5080 but on the Blackwell stack this whole thing doesn't even remotely apply. We never did that kind of cross comparison between vendors. We applied that principle comparing say, a GTX 670 to a GTX 680 or a 7950 to a 7970.
We'll have to wait and see if Ada stack gets price corrections after 9070 launch.
In a very roundabout way, we can just be honest to each other too and conclude the 5080 is far too expensive, and the 9070XT is the far better option. Seems hard to swallow for some apparently but that is all we have here.
/thread
Either way, 9070XT is nice and we have some competition at long last.
And... no. 25% is not a "relatively proper difference" for a 66% higher price. I'm not buying the "but it's high end, it's normal there" argument, either.Even the 5070 Ti is insanely more expensive than the 9070 XT. Even after the recent price jump (because the 5070 Ti jumped, too).I bet that conversation looks something like this for an outsider: :D
A: Buy Nvidia, it's better.
B: How much better?
A: 15% better.
B: And the price?
A: This much.
B: Doesn't it make it 66% more expensive than AMD?
A: Yes, but it's better.
B: But if it's only 15% better while 66% more expensive, then it's a lot worse value, isn't it?
A: SHUT YER GOB, AND JUST BUY THE FUCKING CARD, DAMMIT!!!!
Attacking someone and calling them a "supporter" is disingenuous, having a cheaper product is a good thing for the market, but Geforce buyers are getting quite defensive over a GPU being better price to performance than the competition. It's funny because the Geforce buyers wanted AMD to compete, now that they are the Geforce buyers can't seem to handle their beloved team green looking like the greedy corporation that they really are charging $1000+ for an x70Ti card.
And wanting AMD to charge more so Nvidia doesn't look so bad is completely delusional.
Play nice please.
Think that was my first piece of moderating. Shit AMD must have made a decent Radeon!
although the market is so effed up right now, some retailers don't really know how they should actually price the 5080. That prime is looking suspiciously unavailable unlike that soon-to-be-in-stock 9070 nitro
9070XT is a banger, I've literally said this, you can quote me saying it if you search. In fact, if I was buying for myself it's what I would've bought. It competes with a 5070ti, which also overclocks similarly. A 5080 sits ahead in a teir of its own, and also overclocks similarly. If you're a buyer willing to overclock, and could get any at MSRP, the buy is between a 9070XT and a 5070ti, simple.I'd be interested to see apples to apples comparisons where this is true, or does one get to be overclocked and the other cannot?
Yeah, didn't think so.
The only downside is the price and its always been like that with nvidia but that also comes with benefits.
and i agree, comparing cards oc'd vs stock is just dumb
The 5080 oc'd gets a massive bump in games too, in linear to the 4090
www.newegg.com/asus-tuf-gaming-tuf-rx9070xt-o16g-gaming-amd-radeon-rx-9070-16gb-gddr6/p/N82E16814126745
the price difference is not that great, 50usd, assuming you could buy either one of them off course
I think AMD made a great move boosting that RT perf, because now its extremely hard to get lost in the green mist, and the truth starts to show. Even to those trying very hard to apply their denial to logic that's been set in stone for many decades now.
But that's not the point underneath this news article. The point underneath (that people were making in this topic, and not the way you memed it up here) is that the value of that 9070XT relative to its actual performance AND its price is insanely good, compared to a 5080. Fact is, not even half a tier down in Nvidia's stack will you find something competitive against it at its price.
So yeah, goes to show the power of perspective; where some are actively looking to downplay what's highly competitive against Nvidia, and others are trying to get past that schoolyard nonsense.Mate, your specs say you've just got your hands on a... lo and behold, totally unexpected! Drum rolll..... 5080.
So here you are downplaying anything that nips at its heels for nearly (or really) half the price :roll: :roll: :roll:
EU prices are fucked, now I know why they Brits went through with the Brexit :troley:
Jokes aside, getting juiced up performance through massive undervolting and PL boosting and nothing else is amazing, genuinely makes me wonder if that's AMD sandbagging performance or if no one at AMD or their AIB partners even thought of undervolting it and just focused on conventionally OCing the shit out of it
Also, what's going on with Dual vBIOS models ??? PowerColor's and XFX's seem to ship with virtually identical vBIOSes, why ?? Did they lack time to prepare a silent/OC vBIOS ?? Will they release vBIOS editors ?
My opinion here is clear, if all the cards were at MSRP and available, the 5080 shouldn't even be a consideration, even hardcore Nvidia zealots would be better served by the price to performance of a 5070Ti, and many if not most would be just as well served with a 9070XT and pocket the difference.