SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 9070 XT NITRO+ PhantomLink Review - RDNA 4's Beast Mode

TweakTown Rating: 90%

Our Verdict

When it comes to 9070 XT cards, there's the new SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 9070 XT NITRO+ PhantomLink and everything else. From build quality and cooling to support for the new GC-HPWR standard, it's an impressive card backed by excellent overclocked 1440p and 4K gaming performance.

Pros

• Radeon's best 1440p and 4K gaming GPU
• RDNA 4 improvements to ray-tracing
• FSR 4 or FSR Upscaling (ML) delivers a real DLSS alternative
• SAPPHIRE's most premium and impressive design to date
• 12V-2x6 and GC-HPWR connector support

Cons

• Expensive, even for a premium Radeon RX 9070 XT
• GC-HPWR is still a niche and relatively new technology
• Radeon path tracing performance and image quality still need work

Should you buy it?

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Introduction

When AMD launched its flagship RDNA 4 gaming GPU last year, the Radeon RX 9070 XT, one of the more impressive and premium overclocked custom models that we had the chance to review was SAPPHIRE's Radeon RX 9070 XT NITRO+. In addition to its exceptional performance and stylish physical design, it was also one of the few RDNA 4 GPUs that ditched multiple traditional 8-pin PCIe power connectors in favor of the new 12V-2x6 connector. And it did so with an impressively hidden-cable look, placing the connector or adapter underneath the card's removable metal backplate. As it was also one of the best-looking custom Radeon RX 9070 XT models, thanks to its space-age sci-fi-meets-industrial look and RGB light strip, the hidden power cable only amplified the GPU's sleek aesthetics.

Cut to 2026, and SAPPHIRE is back with the new SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 9070 XT NITRO+ PhantomLink, reviewed here in the all-white Polar Edition. The big thing here is the PhantomLink revision, which expands the original NITRO+'s hidden-power design to support the new Graphics Card High-Power (GC-HPWR) connection standard. This is something we've only experienced on the ROG Matrix Platinum GeForce RTX 5090, which has a removable connector next to the PCIe connection. This essentially bypasses the need to connect any power cable to the Radeon RX 9070 XT, with the 16-pin power connector from the PSU instead connecting directly to a compatible motherboard, which then supplies power to the GPU via the GC-HPWR interface.

Now, what makes the SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 9070 XT NITRO+ PhantomLink an interesting release is that it retains the previous versions' hidden 12V-2x6 connector design (which has been improved), so GC-HPWR support is available as an alternative for those with a compatible board. Thankfully, for this review, we got to see how this worked when paired with SAPPHIRE's new NITRO+ X870EA PhantomLink Polar Edition motherboard that supports GC-HPWR graphics power.

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Aside from the innovative new power delivery solution, the two NITRO+ pieces of gear share the same design language, pair well, and create a pretty fantastic-looking gaming PC when combined. Of course, looks aren't everything, as the SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 9070 XT NITRO+ PhantomLink is also a nice reminder of just how much ground AMD has made in the RDNA 4 generation in terms of performance and features. In overclocked form, it's faster, on average, than the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti. And with the arrival of AMD FSR Upscaling (ML), aka FSR 4, you've now got a viable alternative to NVIDIA DLSS to push its impressive 1440p and 4K gaming performance even higher.

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RDNA 4 - AMD Levels the Playing Field

Below is a summary of AMD's new RDNA 4 architecture, applicable to all models.

AMD's new RDNA 4 architecture presents a massive improvement over the chiplet design that we saw with RDNA 3. Returning to the monolithic design of RDNA and RDNA 2 might sound like a regression, especially when AMD CPUs have gone in the other direction, but this isn't the case. In a nutshell, RDNA 4 is built for 2025. This GPU architecture embraces ray-tracing performance as a key pillar, lays the groundwork for neural rendering, and supercharges AI performance for the new FSR Upscaling (ML) and complex AI workloads. Throw in a revamped media engine for creators and streamers, and support for next-gen DisplayPort 2.1a displays, and RDNA 4 presents a new and revitalized direction for Radeon graphics.

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RDNA 4's overhauled Compute Unit, which houses all raster, ray-tracing, and AI hardware, has seen several enhancements over RDNA 3 and is one of the reasons the Radeon RX 9000 Series GPUs deliver impressive performance gains. The RDNA 4 Compute Unit, or CU, features an enhanced memory subsystem, improved scalar units (for raw raster), dynamic register allocation to reduce latency and bottlenecks, and increased efficiency. The improvements also mean that Radeon RX 9000 Series GPUs can ship with much higher clock speeds than their RDNA 3 counterparts, hitting close to 3 GHz in several 9070 XT models, with 9060 XT models pushing up to 3.3 GHz.

The show's star, at least in terms of the massive improvement over what came before, has to be the arrival of RDNA 4's 3rd-Generation Ray-Tracing Accelerators. AMD is aware that game developers across PC and console platforms are embracing ray tracing, which provides a realistic depiction of lighting and related effects such as shadows and reflections. The only problem is that real-time ray-tracing is complex, requiring the right blend of raw performance and innovative technologies to enhance efficiency and deliver a playable experience.

One area RDNA 4's RT Accelerator delivers where RDNA 3's don't is the arrival of "Oriented Bounding Boxes," an innovative method of handling ray-tracing Bounding Volume Hierarchy (BVH) data. Think of it as efficiently tracing rays through an environment and geometry with a lower memory cost and less hardware. RDNA 4's RT Accelerator also adds a second intersection engine to double the performance of specific raytracing workloads and calculations. The results can be seen in titles with heavy ray-tracing like Cyberpunk 2077, where the Radeon RX 9070 XT delivers a significant 30+% performance improvement over the previous gen flagship - the Radeon RX 7900 XTX. A card with 50% more RT Accelerators than the Radeon RX 9070 XT. The mainstream Radeon RX 9060 XT also delivers substantially faster ray-tracing performance than the Radeon RX 7600, to the point where mainstream RDNA 4 is now what you'd call RT-ready.

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RDNA 4 also fully embraces AI, with new AI accelerators that support FP8 while delivering double the FP16 and four times the INT8 performance compared to RDNA 3's AI accelerators. For gamers, this means the new AI-powered FSR Upscaling (ML) delivers a massive improvement in image quality over FSR 3, now called FSR Upscaling (Analytical). However, AMD's custom AI model, which was trained on powerful AMD Instinct hardware, is FP8-based, so it is exclusive to RDNA 4 hardware.

AMD has also introduced its answer to NVIDIA's DLSS Ray Reconstruction and AI Frame Generation for Path Tracing with FSR Redstone's new AI-based Ray Regeneration and Frame Generation, alongside support for Neural Radiance Caching. FSR Redstone officially launched in December 2025, with support in over 200 games; however, this is mainly limited to FSR Upscaling (ML).

With improved raw performance and a massive boost to ray tracing and AI performance, RDNA 4 represents an enormous leap forward over RDNA 3. However, catching up to GeForce RTX in these areas and offering a viable DLSS alternative means early adopters will need to wait for AMD to deliver its Path Tracing solution, which might not arrive until RDNA 5.

This brings us to RDNA 4's enhanced Media Engine, which offers creators and streamers significant improvements in H.264, HEVC, and AV1 encoding and decoding. NVIDIA's lead in this area has meant that few creators use Radeon hardware. With RDNA 4, AMD aims to close the gap and offer a viable alternative, especially in image quality when using popular settings in apps like OBS.

Specs and Test System

Specifications

Here's a comparison of the Radeon RX 9070 XT specs with those of the previous-generation Radeon RX 7000 and the Radeon RX 9070 Series.

Now that a year has passed, we've come to view the flagship Radeon RX 9070 XT as the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti competitor that it is, versus something that's meant to go toe-to-toe with the GeForce RTX 5080 or GeForce RTX 5090. This isn't to say that it's not a high-end, enthusiast-class graphics card; it is. Albeit one that is more affordable (at least in terms of MSRP), with the top RDNA 4 GPU delivering fantastic 1440p and even 4K gaming performance. On paper, or when you look at the specs, it's more of a successor to the RDNA 3 generation's mid-range Radeon RX 7800 XT versus the higher-tier Radeon RX 7900 XT.

That said, you're still looking at a beast of a GPU, with the large 357mm-squared Navi 48 die featuring no less than 53.9 billion transistors. And although the power draw creeps into the 300 Watt range, the custom-overclocked SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 9070 XT NITRO+ PhantomLink sees this increase to 330W, which appears to be driven by a push for competitive performance and the ability to hit 3+ GHz clock speeds. SAPPHIRE's NITRO+ ships with an impressive 3060 MHz Boost Clock and lives up to the company's focus on getting the most out of Radeon silicon. Comparing the stats between the Radeon RX 9070 XT and RDNA 3 generation cards shows that the number of Stream Processors and Compute Units is slightly higher than on the Radeon RX 7800 XT. However, as the RDNA 4 Compute Unit represents a complete overhaul and optimization over what's come before, the Radeon RX 9070 XT easily outperforms the Radeon RX 7900 XT, especially when it comes to the support of AI or Neural Rendering technologies like FSR Upscaling (ML).

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As for the hardware itself, RDNA 4 makes use of a more advanced TSMC 4nm process than the RDNA 3 generation, which means you're looking at a more efficient and capable GPU lineup. However, when you look at the big gains in Boost Clock speeds between the two generations, you do get the sense that AMD opted to put those power savings into performance, which is why the SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 9070 XT NITRO+ PhantomLink model's 16-pin power adapter requires three traditional 8-pin PCIe sources to fire up. Two key areas where RDNA 4 and the Radeon RX 9070 XT represent a giant leap forward are ray tracing and AI, with the latter delivering 1557 TOPs of INT4 and 779 TOPs of INT8 performance, along with native support for FP8. It's the latter that powers the new AI version of FSR Upscaling, and the result is a game-changer for image quality and what it means for ray tracing. When paired with the massive improvement to raw ray tracing performance, it finally feels like AMD is RT-ready with the Radeon RX 9000 Series.

Kosta's Test System

Physical Design and Cooling

When it comes to aesthetics and build quality, the SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 9070 XT NITRO+ PhantomLink is right up there with the most impressive GPUs of the current generation. The PhantomLink connectivity definitely makes this a card you'd pair with a GC-HPWR-equipped motherboard or system, but the option to use the standard PCIe 12V 2x6 connector with a hidden-cable look makes it versatile. And for those wondering about overheating and safety, the good news is that both connector options include dedicated temperature and current sensors. This enables real-time monitoring via SAPPHIRE's TriXX software and safeguards such as dynamic throttling and safe shutdowns, providing complete peace of mind. This is a fantastic addition and reinforces SAPPHIRE's premium NITRO series as exactly that.

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The box or cold-rolled steel frame of the card not only looks fantastic in all-white but also reinforces and protects components, ensuring long-term durability. Even the removable metal backplate is sturdy, providing additional protection to components like the premium high-TG copper PCB. The cooling system here is custom-designed for SAPPHIRE's premium, removable axial fans, with air pushed and pulled through all vents and openings to ensure consistency. Throw in elements like thin graphene thermal pads, fuse protection, digital power delivery, optimized heat pipes, and it's hard not to be impressed (all over again) with the physical design. In our testing, we found that temperatures and noise levels across the GPU, memory, and power connector were all impressive for an overclocked Radeon RX 9070 XT.

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That said, it is a rather large 3+-slot GPU that ships with an L-shaped graphics card bracket to accommodate its size and weight. Rounding out the physical design is the integrated ARGB light bar that runs along the side of the GPU, enhancing the overall look and directly integrating with your system's main lighting controls via the ARGB header next to the 'hidden' 12V 2x6 power connector. There are some minor differences in the cooling compared to the original NITRO+ we saw last year, as well as a small metal pin that sits next to the 12V 2x6 power connector to allow for a neater, more controlled right-angle bend.

The Games and Tests

PC gaming spans a wide range of genres and styles, from indie games with simple 2D graphics to massive 3D worlds lit by cutting-edge real-time ray tracing. With that, each gamer's needs and requirements vary. High refresh rates and reduced latency are more important than flashy visuals or playing at the highest resolution possible for those who live and breathe fast-paced competitive games. For those who want to live in a cinematic world and become a key player in an expansive narrative, ray tracing and high-fidelity visuals are a stepping stone toward greater immersion.

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Our chosen benchmarks cover various games, engines, APIs, and technologies. For the SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 9070 XT NITRO+ PhantomLink, all tests are run at 4K, 1440p, and 1080p, and include results for performance-boosting Super Resolution technologies such as FSR Upscaling (ML) (formerly called FSR 4), as well as the new AI-powered FSR Frame Generation. In many ways, FSR 4 numbers are more important than native rendering; however, our benchmark results are still sorted using 'raw performance' or native rendering.

Here's the breakdown of games, settings, and what's being tested.

Games and Settings Benchmarked

Path Tracing Games and Settings Benchmarked

GPUs Included in Our Testing

Offering a wide range of GPUs for comparison adds much-needed context when evaluating overall performance, efficiency, and value. Here's the full list of GPU models included in the results: INNO3D GeForce RTX 5060 8GB TWIN X2 OC, SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB PULSE OC, MSI GeForce RTX 5060 Ti Ventus 2X 16GB, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Founders Edition, MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Ti GAMING X TRIO, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Founders Edition, GIGABYTE Radeon RX 9070 GAMING OC, ASRock Radeon RX 9070 XT Steel Legend, MSI GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Ventus 3X, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Founders Edition.

Gaming Performance Analysis

Average Gaming Performance - 1080p Results

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The performance tier of the Radeon RX 9070 XT means that it's not the sort of card you'd want to pair with a 1080p display, as at this resolution, you do run into some bottlenecks. That said, the SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 9070 XT NITRO+ PhantomLink's average FPS of 184 is impressive. At this resolution, it is the third-fastest card in the current generation, behind the GeForce RTX 5080 and the GeForce RTX 5090. When looking at the average results, it's 2.8% faster than its direct competitor, the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, and 5.7% faster than the reference-spec'd Radeon RX 9070 XT. Here it's also 12.9% faster than the baseline Radeon RX 9070 and 16.5% faster than the GeForce RTX 5070. Naturally, the differences vary by title, with the Radeon RX 9070 XT pulling ahead in Call of Duty but falling behind a bit in titles with heavy ray tracing, like Cyberpunk 2077 and F1 25.

Average Gaming Performance - 1440p Results

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1440p is definitely a resolution where the Radeon RX 9070 XT shines, as the improvements in image fidelity are immediately noticeable on a standard 27-inch display, with AMD's new AI-powered FSR 4 also delivering fantastic image quality when using the 'Quality' preset. It's not as good as NVIDIA's new DLSS 4.5, but it's close enough that FSR 4 finally offers a real alternative. Case in point, the demanding Cyberpunk 2077 with the Ultra ray-tracing preset runs natively at 54 FPS on SAPPHIRE's overclocked Radeon RX 9070 XT. However, enabling FSR 4 raises the frame rate to 92 FPS, delivering a far more playable, smoother, more responsive, and more immersive gaming experience without a massive hit to image fidelity.

As for the average, raw performance at this resolution, the SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 9070 XT NITRO+ PhantomLink increases its performance lead over the reference Radeon RX 9070 XT to 6.8% and the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti to 3.6%. Here, it's also, on average, 15.4% faster than the baseline Radeon RX 9070 and 23.5% faster than the GeForce RTX 5070. To add even more context to how impressive the 142 FPS average is, it makes the SAPPHIRE GPU 71.1% faster than the mainstream Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB when gaming at 1440p.

Taking a closer look at how performance stacks up against its main competitor, the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, reveals a story that's much more nuanced than the "it's 3.6% faster" statement above. In titles like Assassin's Creed Shadows and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, performance is on par with, or even eclipses, that of the GeForce RTX 5080, while in games like Counter-Strike 2, F1 25, and Cyberpunk 2077 with ray-tracing, the RTX 5070 Ti pulls ahead. And although the Radeon RX 9070 XT's ray-tracing performance is surprisingly competitive compared to previous generations, NVIDIA's GeForce hardware still has the advantage in titles with multiple RT effects or path-tracing modes.

Average Gaming Performance - 4K Results

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Thanks to its 16GB of VRAM and RDNA 4 architecture, the SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 9070 XT NITRO+ PhantomLink is definitely a capable 4K gaming GPU. The 83 FPS average across all ten titles in our benchmark suite puts overall performance in line with the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, albeit with better 1% lows. Although FSR 4 or FSR Upscaling (ML) adoption still has a long way to go to catch up to DLSS 4 and DLSS 4.5, it was available in most of the games we tested, which is great to see. And really, at 4K, you're looking at the best results when it comes to AMD's AI-powered upscaling, where image quality is so close to native rendering that it can be considered a free performance boost.

When it comes to 4K gaming on SAPPHIRE's custom Radeon RX 9070 XT, average performance is 5.1% higher than the reference model and 15.3% higher than the baseline Radeon RX 9070, in both ray-traced and non-ray-traced games. Here, it's also 25.7% faster than the GeForce RTX 5070, with only the GeForce RTX 5080 being double digits faster. As with the 1440p results, performance varies from game to game in a head-to-head matchup with the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti. Call of Duty once again favors AMD while Counter-Strike 2 favors NVIDIA. And when it comes to RT, the GeForce RTX 50 Series still has the edge, but there's no doubt that the SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 9070 XT NITRO+ PhantomLink is one of the most powerful and capable ray-tracing cards in the entire Radeon line-up.

Benchmarks - 3DMark Synthetic Tests

3DMark offers a suite of synthetic benchmarks built to test GPUs in various scenarios. 3DMark Steel Nomad is a cutting-edge DirectX 12 benchmark that uses modern rendering techniques to push GPUs to their limits. The 'Light' version tests at 1440p, while the main Steel Nomad benchmark tests pure native 4K rendering. Port Royal is a benchmark focused exclusively on real-time ray tracing for lighting effects, including reflections, shadows, and more.

Looking at the two different Steel Nomad synthetic benchmark results for the SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 9070 XT NITRO+ PhantomLink, in comparison to the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, and you get a similar story to real-world gaming performance, where these two cards trade blows, so to speak. For the 1440p-based Steel Nomad Light benchmark, NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5070 Ti scores 10% higher than SAPPHIRE's Radeon RX 9070 XT, while the Radeon GPU scores 8.8% higher when looking at the 4K Steel Nomad benchmark results. Here we see SAPPHIRE's overclocked GPU deliver higher scores than the reference design, which is to be expected, as well as the baseline Radeon RX 9070 and GeForce RTX 5070.

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The 3DMArk Port Royal results for the Radeon RX 9070 XT and SAPPHIRE's custom card showcase the massive gains and improvements that RDNA 4 brings to raw ray-tracing performance. Here, the custom GPU's score is within 6.3% of the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, which is an impressive result. The score is also 23% higher than the GeForce RTX 5070. However, as seen in titles with heavy ray-tracing or path-tracing, the RDNA 4 does begin to struggle a bit, especially with the latter, where that big lead over the RTX 5070 evaporates.

Benchmarks - 1080p Gaming

Benchmarks - 1440p Gaming

Benchmarks - 4K Gaming

FSR Redstone - Upscaling, Frame Generation, Ray Regeneration

Exclusive to RDNA 4 and the Radeon RX 9000 Series of desktop graphics cards, AMD's latest version of FSR - dubbed FSR Redstone - now encompasses a full suite of AI-powered rendering technologies that finally closes the gap between FSR and NVIDIA DLSS. AMD FSR Upscaling (ML), also called FSR 4, is powered by a new ML-based algorithm that delivers a dramatic improvement in image quality when upscaling from lower resolutions to 1080p, 1440p, or 4K.

FSR Frame Generation (ML) upgrades AMD's Frame Generation technology for the RDNA 4 generation with a new AI approach powered by a neural network that improves image fidelity and reduces image artifacts, such as ghosting. FSR Ray Regeneration (ML) is an AI-powered denoiser, similar to DLSS Ray Reconstruction, built for ray tracing. FSR Radiance Caching is best described as FSR Upscaling for ray tracing calculations. It accelerates ray tracing by leveraging AI and a Neural Radiance Cache to infer complex lighting calculations in real time, reducing GPU load.

With FSR Redstone's release in December 2025, there aren't many titles that take full advantage of the full suite of the new AI-powered technologies, with the first game to support FSR Radiance Caching still on track for 2026. And when it comes to FSR Ray Regeneration (ML), it's currently supported in only a handful of titles, such as Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. The game not only runs faster with FSR Upscaling (ML) and FSR Ray Regeneration (ML) when ray tracing is enabled, but the ray-traced reflections also look noticeably better. With the new FSR Frame Generation (ML), we noticed improved image quality and overall stability. However, it still doesn't quite match NVIDIA's DLSS 4 Frame Generation and Multi Frame Generation in these areas.

Path Tracing Performance

Path Tracing builds on real-time ray tracing by applying the concept of ray-traced effects to everything - global illumination, shadows, reflections, indirect lighting, and more. With multiple bounces, it's a hardware-intensive, cutting-edge look at the future of PC gaming, made possible only by AI tools and technologies. With RDNA 4 dramatically improving ray-tracing performance over RDNA 3, GPUs like the Radeon RX 9070 XT 16GB are capable of rendering stunning Path Traced visuals; however, it's more proof of concept than practical.

When it comes to path tracing on the Radeon RX 9070 XT at 1440p, performance doesn't quite match what you get on the baseline GeForce RTX 5070, with the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti being anywhere between 40 to 60% faster. Also, without a Multi Frame Generation solution, FSR's AI-powered Frame Generation and Ray Reconstruction are still not quite at the level where they should be from a game-support perspective, a year on from RDNA 4's debut, and path-tracing still feels like a GeForce RTX-exclusive feature, which is a shame. This isn't to say that you can't enable path-tracing on a Radeon RX 9070 XT and benefit from the improved cinematic lighting, but to highlight the DLSS and GeForce advantage in this still relatively niche but cutting-edge corner of PC gaming.

Temperature and Power Efficiency

From its premium build quality to its stunning looks and a hidden-cable design with added GC-HPWR support, the SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 9070 XT NITRO+ PhantomLink runs cool and quiet even with its generous out-of-the-box overclock and increased power limit. With GPU temperatures staying below 60 degrees under load, the only real drawback when compared to the RTX 5070 Ti is the higher power usage. That said, SAPPHIRE's custom model is one of the most impressive graphics cards on the market for thermal performance and safety, as it features integrated monitoring for both the 12V-2x6 and GC-HPWR connectors.

Final Thoughts

SAPPHIRE has certainly leveled up its flagship Radeon RX 9070 XT with its new Radeon RX 9070 XT NITRO+ PhantomLink edition. A custom RDNA 4 flagship that delivers exceptional cooling with a hidden-cable design that also adopts the new GC-HPWR connector available in select boards (including SAPPHIRE's NITRO+ model you see here). And for those weary of picking up a Radeon card that adopts the new 12V-2x6 power connector standard, the addition of integrated sensors and monitoring not only adds peace of mind but also makes the NITRO+ one of the most safety-conscious GPUs currently available.

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As for the SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 9070 XT NITRO+ PhantomLink's performance, it reinforces several things we've learned over the past year since RDNA 4's debut. In overclocked form, as we see here, you've got performance that is faster than the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, which makes a difference when gaming at 1440p or 4K. And with the slow but steady adoption of FSR Upscaling (ML) and the new FSR Redstone technology suite, pushing this performance even higher while maintaining fantastic image quality, finally delivers that proper DLSS-like experience on a Radeon GPU. The only major issue here, at least from a competition perspective, is that the $999 USD price point for this custom model feels like a big chunk of the RDNA 4 flagship's value is lost. Given the current climate driving the price of all PC gaming hardware skyward, it's somewhat expected, but still disappointing when the original NITRO+ from SAPPHIRE cost $779.99 USD.