AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT LP vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded data shows a decisive advantage for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 in the two shared benchmark tests. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the RTX 4070 scores 154,858 against the AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT LP's 88,183, a 43.1% lead for NVIDIA. The gap widens dramatically in the Geekbench Vulkan test, where the RTX 4070 posts 174,152 versus the AMD card's 39,476, translating to a 77.3% advantage. The AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT LP records zero wins in the head-to-head comparisons, while the RTX 4070 takes both.

The average benchmark score across all recorded tests further illustrates the separation. The AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT LP averages 63,830 points, placing it in the 89th percentile of all GPUs. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 averages 37,648 points, which places it in the 81st percentile. This apparent contradiction, where the higher percentile GPU has a lower average score, stems from the different test suites recorded for each card. The AMD card's average is drawn from two Geekbench tests, while the NVIDIA card's average includes a broader mix of PassMark and 3DMark tests alongside Geekbench. Within their respective nearest rival groups, both cards sit near the top. The RX 9060 XT LP's closest rival is the NVIDIA CMP 30HX with an average score of 63,842, a 0% delta, followed by the AMD Radeon RX 7600M at 63,775 (0.1% behind) and the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 at 63,693 (0.2% behind). The RTX 4070's nearest rival is the NVIDIA Tesla P4 at 37,628 (0.1% ahead), with the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 at 37,507 (0.4% ahead) and the AMD Radeon PRO W6400 at 37,157 (1.3% ahead).

Architecture Differences

The two cards employ fundamentally different architectures and process technologies. The AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT LP uses the Navi 44 chip built on RDNA 4.0 architecture, fabricated on a 4 nm process at TSMC. It contains 29,700 million transistors on a 199 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 149.2 million per square millimeter. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 uses the AD104 chip based on Ada Lovelace architecture, fabricated on a 5 nm process, also at TSMC. It packs 35,800 million transistors onto a 294 mm² die, resulting in a lower transistor density of 121.8 million per square millimeter.

The compute unit configurations differ substantially. The RX 9060 XT LP carries 2,048 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 64 raster operations pipelines. It features 32 ray tracing cores and no tensor cores. The RTX 4070 counters with 5,888 shading units, 184 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. It includes 46 ray tracing cores and 184 tensor cores, a significant addition for AI-accelerated workloads. The RTX 4070's shading unit count is nearly three times that of the RX 9060 XT LP, and its texture rate of 455.4 GTexel/s exceeds the AMD card's 390.4 GTexel/s. However, the RX 9060 XT LP achieves a higher pixel rate at 195.2 GPixel/s versus the RTX 4070's 158.4 GPixel/s.

Clock speeds reveal a different design philosophy. The RX 9060 XT LP has a base clock of 1380 MHz, a boost clock of 3050 MHz, and a game clock of 2450 MHz. The RTX 4070 runs a base clock of 1920 MHz and a boost clock of 2475 MHz, with no separate game clock recorded. Despite the lower base clock, the AMD card's higher boost clock does not compensate in raw FP32 throughput: the RTX 4070 delivers 29.15 TFLOPS versus 24.99 TFLOPS for the RX 9060 XT LP, with both cards offering FP16 at a 1:1 ratio with FP32.

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 wins across both recorded head-to-head benchmarks, making it the stronger choice for any workload captured in those tests. Its 43.1% lead in OpenCL and 77.3% lead in Vulkan indicate a substantial performance margin in general compute and graphics APIs. The RTX 4070's larger shading unit count and tensor core presence suggest advantages in parallel compute and AI-accelerated tasks, though the benchmark data does not directly measure those specific workloads.

The AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT LP, despite losing both head-to-head tests, shows strengths in other areas. Its higher pixel rate (195.2 GPixel/s versus 158.4 GPixel/s) indicates faster rasterization throughput, which can benefit certain rendering scenarios. The card also carries 16 GB of GDDR6 memory compared to the RTX 4070's 12 GB of GDDR6X, offering more capacity for large datasets or high-resolution textures. The RX 9060 XT LP's memory bandwidth of 322.3 GB/s falls short of the RTX 4070's 504.2 GB/s, but the capacity difference may matter for specific use cases.

The RX 9060 XT LP also consumes less power, with a TDP of 140 W versus 200 W for the RTX 4070. It requires a 300 W suggested power supply versus 550 W for the NVIDIA card. The AMD card uses a single 8-pin power connector, while the RTX 4070 uses a 16-pin connector.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ across nearly every specification category. The RX 9060 XT LP uses 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, while the RTX 4070 uses 12 GB of GDDR6X on a 192-bit bus. Memory bandwidth favors the RTX 4070 at 504.2 GB/s versus 322.3 GB/s. The AMD card's memory clock is listed at 2518 MHz (20.1 Gbps effective), while the RTX 4070 runs at 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective).

Compute resources differ significantly: the RX 9060 XT LP has 2,048 shading units, 128 TMUs, 64 ROPs, and 32 RT cores. The RTX 4070 has 5,888 shading units, 184 TMUs, 64 ROPs, 46 RT cores, and 184 tensor cores. FP32 performance is 24.99 TFLOPS for AMD versus 29.15 TFLOPS for NVIDIA.

Power requirements differ as well. The RX 9060 XT LP has a TDP of 140 W with a suggested 300 W PSU and one 8-pin connector. The RTX 4070 has a 200 W TDP, a suggested 550 W PSU, and one 16-pin connector.

Bus interface and display outputs also differ. The RX 9060 XT LP uses PCIe 5.0 x16 and offers 1x HDMI 2.1b plus 2x DisplayPort 2.1a. The RTX 4070 uses PCIe 4.0 x16 and provides 1x HDMI 2.1 plus 3x DisplayPort 1.4a. Both cards support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

Physical dimensions are recorded only for the RTX 4070: 240 mm length, 110 mm height, and 40 mm width. Both are dual-slot cards. The RX 9060 XT LP has no recorded dimensions.

Production status differs: the RX 9060 XT LP is active, while the RTX 4070 is end-of-life. The RTX 4070's predecessor is GeForce 30, and its successor is GeForce 50. The RX 9060 XT LP's predecessor is Navi III. The RX 9060 XT LP was released on 2025-12-16, while the RTX 4070 was released on 2023-04-11. The RTX 4070 has a recorded launch MSRP of 599 USD.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has a higher Geekbench OpenCL score?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 scores 154,858, which is 43.1% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT LP's 88,183.

Q: How much faster is the RTX 4070 in Vulkan?

A: The RTX 4070 scores 174,152 in Geekbench Vulkan, 77.3% higher than the RX 9060 XT LP's 39,476.

Q: Which card has more memory?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT LP has 16 GB of GDDR6, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 has 12 GB of GDDR6X.

Q: What is the memory bandwidth difference?

A: The RTX 4070 has a memory bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s, compared to 322.3 GB/s for the RX 9060 XT LP.

Q: Which GPU has more shading units?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 has 5,888 shading units, while the AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT LP has 2,048.

Q: Do both cards support the same APIs?

A: Yes, both support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

The Verdict

The benchmark data clearly favors the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 in raw performance. It wins both head-to-head tests by margins of 43.1% and 77.3%, and its FP32 throughput of 29.15 TFLOPS exceeds the AMD card's 24.99 TFLOPS. The RTX 4070 also offers higher memory bandwidth (504.2 GB/s versus 322.3 GB/s), more shading units (5,888 versus 2,048), and additional tensor cores (184 versus none). For users prioritizing maximum compute and graphics performance, the RTX 4070 is the superior choice based on the recorded measurements.

The AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT LP does hold advantages in specific areas. It provides 16 GB of memory versus 12 GB, which can be beneficial for memory-heavy workloads. It has a higher pixel rate (195.2 GPixel/s versus 158.4 GPixel/s), suggesting strong rasterization performance. It also consumes less power (140 W TDP versus 200 W) and requires a smaller power supply (300 W versus 550 W). The RX 9060 XT LP uses a newer PCIe 5.0 x16 interface and supports DisplayPort 2.1a, while the RTX 4070 uses PCIe 4.0 x16 and DisplayPort 1.4a.

The RX 9060 XT LP's percentile ranking of 89 versus the RTX 4070's 81 reflects its higher average benchmark score, but this is due to different test suites. The direct head-to-head comparisons show a clear NVIDIA victory. The RTX 4070's end-of-life status and the RX 9060 XT LP's active production status indicate different market positions, but the performance gap in the recorded data is substantial. For users who need maximum performance in OpenCL and Vulkan workloads, the RTX 4070 wins decisively. For users who prioritize memory capacity, lower power draw, and newer display outputs, the RX 9060 XT LP offers distinct advantages despite its lower benchmark scores.