AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE Evaluate: A Cheaper GPU For A Wildly Costly Period

If you have not observed but, it is a fairly unhealthy time to purchase {hardware}, PCs and something that wants RAM. You may thank the AI firms for that. AMD has one potential repair for players, although: provide older gear. At Computex this 12 months, the corporate revealed that it will deliver again its in style Ryzen 7 5800X3D chip, and likewise make the Radeon RX 9070 GRE card accessible globally after launching in China final 12 months. With a urged retail value of $549, it is at present extra inexpensive than final 12 months’s RX 9070, which launched on the similar value however now sells for upwards of $600.

After testing the Radeon RX 9070 GRE — which stands for “Golden Rabbit Version” — I can affirm it performs intently to the RX 9070. These GRE variations are usually lower-specced GPUs that AMD sells in China. If retailers can really maintain its value near $549, it is one of many few semi-affordable choices for first rate 1440p gaming (with a splash of ray tracing). But when that value nonetheless sounds too steep to you, it might be price ready till subsequent 12 months to see how the {hardware} market fares.

There was nothing particular concerning the ASRock RX 9070 GRE I examined — it is only a easy GPU cooled by three massive followers — so I will simply get straight to the specs. It options 12GB of VRAM that is slower than the 16GB of reminiscence within the 9070, and it additionally has eight fewer compute models and ray tracing accelerators. That is a significant purpose why AMD can provide it for lower than the 9070. The corporate tries to make up for the diminished {hardware} by bumping up the 9070 GRE’s increase velocity, which might hit as much as 2.79GHz, in comparison with the 9070’s 2.52GHz.

In 3DMark’s Speedway take a look at, which is at present the corporate’s most demanding benchmark, the GRE card scored 4,334, considerably lower than the usual RX 9070’s 5,799. The GRE GPU was extra aggressive in older 3DMark exams, scoring round 700 factors decrease than the 9070 in Metal Nomad and simply 200 factors much less in Timespy Excessive. That is an indication that older video games will carry out much better on the 9070 GRE, in comparison with newer titles.

That being stated, the 9070 GRE additionally ran properly in Forza Horizon 6, averaging 180 fps in 1440p with the “RT Excessive” setting and AMD’s FSR4 body era turned on. With out body era, it reached round 90 fps. I used to be additionally shocked that the 9070 GRE may deal with a little bit of 4K gaming: It averaged 80 fps in Forza with the identical “RT Excessive” preset. The sport seemed nice in each resolutions, with sufficient ray traced reflections and HDR highlights to make my QD-OLED monitor shine, and I did not discover any efficiency stuttering. (Forza did warn that my video reminiscence was working low, however I did not encounter any points.)

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Oddly sufficient, the Radeon 9070 GRE carried out higher within the Geekbench 6 compute take a look at, in comparison with the 9070. That might be on account of driver refinements, or some benefits from working at the next clock velocity. For probably the most half, although, you may simply consider it as a lesser 9070. That will make the GRE version better-suited for small circumstances: Beneath load, its core temperature reached simply 58C, and I may barely hear the followers spinning. The cardboard additionally cooled down shortly to 30C after stopping an intensive sport or benchmark.

Given the occasions we’re in, I can not simply advocate that you simply run out and purchase the Radeon RX 9070 GRE. However if you happen to’re in determined want of an improve, and you may’t wait till subsequent 12 months, it is a stable selection for midrange 1440p gaming.