Gigabyte Radeon RX 9070 GAMING OC 16G: Power, Performance, and Precision for Gamers

The Gigabyte Radeon RX 9070 GAMING OC 16G is AMD’s second-highest-tier flagship graphics card, offering an excellent balance between performance, efficiency, and affordability compared to the top-tier RX 9070XT. Built on AMD’s latest RDNA 4 architecture, it brings improved ray tracing, AI acceleration, and power efficiency. With Gigabyte’s custom design, including enhanced cooling and factory overclocking, this card promises great performance for gamers and content creators alike.

Gigabyte’s RX 9070 GAMING OC follows a familiar design, featuring a triple-fan WINDFORCE – Hawk fan cooling system with an extended heatsink for better thermal management. The card is robust, with a reinforced backplate and a subtle yet stylish RGB-lit Gigabyte logo on the side. Despite its powerful hardware, the card maintains a sleek 2.5-slot profile, making it easier to fit into most mid-tower cases compared to bulkier flagship models.

AMD RDNA 4 Architecture

The new Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 GPUs are powered by the 4 nm Navi 48 silicon, which differs from its predecessors, Navi 31 and Navi 32, by adopting a traditional monolithic die. Built entirely on TSMC’s N4P (4 nm EUV) process, the Navi 48 measures 356.5 mm² and boasts an impressive 53.9 billion transistors. For comparison, the previous flagship Navi 31, which powers the RX 7900 XTX, has 57.8 billion transistors—just 8% more—despite featuring 96 compute units (CU), a larger Infinity Cache, and a wider 384-bit memory bus. Navi 31’s total die area is 529 mm² (comprising a 304 mm² 5 nm graphics compute die and 6 nm memory cache dies), highlighting AMD’s advancements in die-area efficiency.

At the architectural level, the Navi 48 supports a PCI-Express 5.0 x16 interface and features a 256-bit wide GDDR6 memory bus. The RX 9070 XT utilizes 20 Gbps GDDR6 memory, delivering 640 GB/s of bandwidth, complemented by a faster 64 MB Infinity Cache and AMD’s new Out-of-Order Memory Queuing technology, which enhances memory management.

Physically, the Navi 48 silicon consists of 64 CU spread across four shader engines. Each CU houses 64 stream processors, resulting in a total of 4,096 stream processors. The RX 9070 XT has all 64 CU enabled, whereas the RX 9070 has 56 active CU out of 64. The fully unlocked Navi 48 features 4,096 stream processors, 128 AI accelerators, 64 ray tracing accelerators, 256 texture mapping units (TMUs), and 128 render output units (ROPs). It also includes 64 MB of third-generation Infinity Cache and a 256-bit GDDR6 memory interface, driving 16 GB of 20 Gbps memory on both the RX 9070 XT and RX 9070. With 56 CU enabled, the RX 9070 has 3,584 stream processors, 112 AI accelerators, 56 RT accelerators, 224 TMUs, and retains the full 128 ROP count, along with the same memory configuration as the RX 9070 XT.

At the core of the RDNA 4 graphics architecture is the newly designed dual compute unit (CU), featuring significant advancements in memory management, scalar unit efficiency, and engine clock optimizations. Key innovations include a vastly improved memory sub-system, dynamic register allocation, and enhancements to CU efficiency.

Each CU consists of two scheduler blocks controlling a 192 KB general-purpose register (GPR), an 8 KB scalar GPR, 32 fused multiply-add (FMA) ALUs, and 32 FMA+INT ALUs, along with 8 transcendental logic units. RDNA 4 introduces dual SIMD32 vector units, enabling greater parallelism. The scalar unit now supports newer Float32 operations, while schedulers benefit from accelerated spill/fill operations and improved instruction prefetching.

The new generation AI Accelerator integrates two 16-bit and four 8-bit/4-bit dense matrix compute rates, supports 4:2 structured sparsity to double throughput, and enables matrix loads with transpose. AMD has incorporated multiple technologies from its CDNA 3 Radeon Instinct AI ML accelerators, including enhanced and power-optimized WMMA, increased operations per CU, and support for FP8, E4M3, and E5M2 formats, alongside 4:2 structured sparsity improvements.

The next-generation AI Accelerator in RDNA 4 features two 16-bit and four 8-bit/4-bit dense matrix compute rates, along with support for 4:2 structured sparsity, effectively doubling throughput. It also introduces matrix loads with transpose for enhanced efficiency. AMD has integrated several advanced technologies from its CDNA 3 Radeon Instinct AI ML accelerators into RDNA 4’s AI engines, including optimized and power-efficient WMMA, increased operations per CU, and expanded support for FP8, E4M3, and E5M2 formats, alongside 4:2 structured sparsity enhancements.

The Navi 48 features a dual media engine, with each engine capable of performing concurrent encoding and decoding. This implementation is similar to NVIDIA GPUs, which have dual NVENC and NVDEC units. The new-generation media engine delivers a 25% improvement in H.264 low-latency encode quality and an 11% boost in HEVC encode quality. Additionally, AV1 encode and decode now support B-frames, significantly enhancing bitrate efficiency. Overall, the media engine offers a 50% generational performance uplift in encoder/decoder frame rates, while also reducing memory overhead.

Specification

The card is equipped with two 8-pin power connectors, enabling a total power consumption of 300 W, in addition to the 75 W provided by the PCIe slot.

The card offers display connectivity with two DisplayPort 2.1b ports and two HDMI 2.1b ports.

The WINDFORCE cooling system ensures exceptional thermal performance by incorporating several advanced technologies. It includes server-grade thermal conductive gel, innovative Hawk fans with alternate spinning for improved airflow, composite copper heat pipes for efficient heat transfer, a large copper plate for heat dissipation, 3D active fans for dynamic cooling, and screen cooling to enhance overall heat management.

HAWK FAN

The Hawk Fan features a unique blade design inspired by the aerodynamics of an eagle’s wing. This design reduces air resistance and noise levels, resulting in up to a 53.6% increase in air pressure and a 12.5% increase in air volume without compromising acoustics.

GIGABYTE Radeon RX 9070 GAMING OC utilize server-grade thermal conductive gel instead of traditional thermal pads on the VRAM and MOSFETs. This improvement ensures better contact, contributing to the cooler operation of the GPU. Additionally, the design features a large copper plate that directly contacts the GPU, coupled with composite copper heat pipes for efficient heat transfer to the heatsink, further enhancing the cooling performance.

Power Phase Design & Component

The power supply unit is a 10+3  phase configuration with teaming configuration and integrated MOSFETs. On this board, Gigabyte used Monolithic Power Systems integrated MOSFETs, which have a maximum continuous current of 90 A, which means that the GPU can receive a maximum of 900 amps of current. The VRM controller is a Monolithic Power Systems MP2868A design, and it is located on the right side of the board.

The GPU power supply circuit is designed according to the 10+3 scheme (a total of 13 phases: 10 on GPU (Graphics core) and 3 on Vram (Video Memory)

• Ten GPU Core phase channel has a superferrite choke and MPS MP87993  (90 A) from Monolithic
• Three VRam [Video Memory] phase channel has a superferrite choke and MPS MP87993 (60 A) from Monolithic

Each GPU and VRAM power phase is driven by two Monolithic Power Systems MP2868A PWM controllers.

The HOLTEK HT32F52352 is a microcontroller (MCU) based on the ARM Cortex-M4 architecture. This processor is design for controlling RGB lighting from Gigabyte Control Center.

• 32-bit Arm^® Cortex^®-M0+ processor core
• Up to 48 MHz operating frequency
• Single-cycle multiplication
• Integrated Nested Vectored Interrupt Controller (NVIC)
• 24-bit SysTick timer

The AMD Navi 48 GPU at the core of the Radeon RX 9070 is a monolithic die, manufactured using TSMC’s 4-nanometer N4P process in Taiwan. The die has an area of 357 mm² and houses a total of 53.9 billion transistors.

The Gigabyte WindForce cooling system utilizes 3 PISTEK 87mm Fluid Bearing fans to efficiently cool the heatsink, ensuring optimal thermal performance and quieter operation.

How We Test Gigabyte Radeon RX 9070 Gaming OC 16G?

As such, our workstation, based on an ASRock B860M-X WIFI motherboard and Intel Ultra 9 285K  24 cores 24 threads processor.  The ram we will be using KLEVV DDR5 7200Mhz memory kit and Lexar 790 PCIe 4.0 2TB SSD is used as well to run with benchmark. On the Comparison, we will be using same setup with RX 9070XT and ROG RTX4080OC to run side by side to see perform better.

3Dmark Advanced Edition

3DMark includes everything you need to benchmark your PC and mobile devices in one app. Whether you’re gaming on a smartphone, tablet, notebook, or a desktop gaming PC, 3DMark includes a benchmark designed specifically for your hardware.

“Black Myth: Wukong”. It evaluates your hardware performance and system compatibility through the real-time rendering of an in-game sequence

FarCry 6

Far Cry 6 supports ray tracing at launch, with the ability to enable DXR reflections and DXR shadows. But because DXR shadows are kind of pointless and not worth the performance hit, we haven’t tested with them enabled, but I have taken a look at DXR reflections, so we’ll look at that shortly using supported hardware.

Ghost Recon Breakpoint

Ghost Recon Breakpoint is a military shooter set in a diverse, hostile, and mysterious open world that you can play entirely solo or in four-player co-op.

Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077 is an open-world, action-adventure RPG set in the megalopolis of Night City, where you play as a cyberpunk mercenary wrapped up in a do-or-die fight for survival. Improved and featuring all-new free additional content, customize your character and playstyle as you take on jobs, build a reputation, and unlock upgrades. The relationships you forge and the choices you make will shape the story and the world around you. Legends are made here. What will yours be?

SuperPosition 2017

Extreme performance and stability test for PC hardware: video card, power supply, cooling system. Check your rig in stock and overclocking modes with real-life load! Also includes interactive experience in a beautiful, detailed environment.

BaseMark GPU

Basemark GPU is a professional assessment tool, enabling the evaluation and comparison of graphics performance on both mobile and desktop platforms, while supporting all major graphics APIs and operating systems. Consumers can evaluate their device performance for free with Basemark GPU and review and compare results online in the integrated PowerBoard

FurMark Stress Test

WWe conduct a 5-minute stress test to evaluate the graphics card temperature.

Should you buy Gigabyte RX 9070 Gaming 16G? Purchase Click Here

The Gigabyte Radeon RX 9070 GAMING OC 16G is an impressive second high-end GPU that offers strong rasterization performance, efficient cooling, and future-proof VRAM at a more attractive price point than its NVIDIA counterparts. While its ray tracing performance isn’t quite at the level of the RTX 4080 SUPER, AMD’s software improvements help mitigate the difference. If you’re looking for a powerful 1440p and 4K gaming card with great efficiency and strong overall performance, the RX 9070 is a solid choice. However, the price is only a little under $200 more than the RX 9070, so for just a small top-up, you can get the RX 9070XT instead.

Gigabyte RX9070 Gaming OC 16G

1049

9

Quality

9.0/10

Value

9.0/10

Design

9.0/10

Performance

9.0/10

Pros

• Afforable for 1440P Gaming
• Good Performance with FSR 4
• 16Gb DDR6 Vram
• PCI-Express 5.0
• 8-pin Power Connectors PSU

Cons

• Price Tag too close 9070XT