AMD Radeon RX 9070 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The benchmark database pits the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile against the AMD Radeon RX 9070 in nine separate tests, and the results are decisively split by workload type. The AMD Radeon RX 9070 takes seven of the nine tests, but the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile secures two critical victories that highlight its architectural strengths.

The most striking win for NVIDIA comes in the Geekbench Vulkan test, where the RTX 4070 Mobile scores 108,367 against the RX 9070's 58,705. That translates to an 84.6% lead for the NVIDIA part, a massive gap that suggests its Vulkan driver overhead and compute scheduling are far more efficient in that API. This is not a marginal edge; it is a category-level difference.

In DirectX 12, the RTX 4070 Mobile also comes out ahead, scoring 85 versus the RX 9070's 74, a 14.9% advantage. This is a smaller but still meaningful win, particularly for a modern API that is heavily used in current AAA titles.

The AMD RX 9070 dominates the rest of the suite. In Geekbench OpenCL, it posts 131,539 versus 109,197, a 17% lead. The Passmark DirectX 11 test shows an even larger gap: 281 for AMD against 179 for NVIDIA, a 36.3% delta. The DirectX 9 test follows a similar pattern, with AMD scoring 343 versus 223, a 35% advantage. Even the older DirectX 10 test shows AMD ahead at 141 versus 116, a 17.7% difference.

The 2D performance test is a blowout: AMD scores 1,280 against NVIDIA's 763, a 40.4% lead. This suggests the RX 9070 has significantly faster pixel fill and 2D acceleration capabilities. In the overall Passmark G3D test, AMD takes 25,381 versus 19,587, a 22.8% advantage. The compute-heavy Passmark GPU Compute test shows AMD at 14,737 versus 8,399, a 43% lead that underscores its raw FP32 throughput advantage.

When looking at average benchmark scores, the picture is more nuanced. The RTX 4070 Mobile has an average score of 27,435, while the RX 9070 averages 23,877. However, this aggregate is skewed by the Vulkan outlier. The RX 9070's nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile at 23,628 (1.1% behind) and the AMD Radeon RX 6800S at 24,063 (0.8% ahead), which places it in the same performance tier. The RTX 4070 Mobile, by contrast, sits alongside the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 at 27,565 (0.5% ahead) and the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT at 27,425 (essentially tied).

The percentile rankings reinforce this split. The RTX 4070 Mobile sits at the 73rd percentile of all GPUs, while the RX 9070 is at the 69th percentile. Despite losing the head-to-head count, the NVIDIA part's average score is higher because its Vulkan victory is so lopsided.

Where Each One Wins

The use-case split is clear from the data. The AMD Radeon RX 9070 is the choice for raw compute and legacy API workloads. Its 43% lead in Passmark GPU Compute and 17% lead in OpenCL make it the better option for GPU compute tasks, scientific workloads, and any application that can leverage OpenCL. The DirectX 11 and DirectX 9 wins, at 36.3% and 35% respectively, indicate it is also strong for older game engines and titles that have not migrated to newer APIs.

The RX 9070's 40.4% lead in Passmark G2D suggests it has superior 2D acceleration, which could benefit desktop compositing, video playback, and UI rendering in professional applications. Its 22.8% advantage in Passmark G3D, while significant, is actually smaller than its compute lead, indicating that the card's rasterization performance is strong but not as dominant as its compute capabilities.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile wins in Vulkan and DirectX 12, the two APIs that matter most for modern gaming. The 84.6% Vulkan lead is exceptional and suggests that NVIDIA's driver stack for Vulkan is far more mature or that the Ada Lovelace architecture handles Vulkan's command buffer model more efficiently. The 14.9% DirectX 12 win is smaller but still important, as DirectX 12 is the default API for most current AAA releases.

For a laptop user, the RTX 4070 Mobile's wins carry extra weight because modern games increasingly use Vulkan or DirectX 12. The RX 9070's wins in older APIs are less relevant for future titles, though they matter for backward compatibility and compute tasks.

The Verdict

The data supports a split verdict based on platform and workload. For a mobile gaming laptop, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile is the stronger choice. Its Vulkan and DirectX 12 wins directly address the APIs used by current and upcoming games, and its average benchmark score of 27,435 places it in a higher tier than the RX 9070's 23,877. The 73rd percentile ranking versus 69th further supports this.

For a desktop system where compute performance and legacy API support are priorities, the AMD Radeon RX 9070 has a clear edge. Its 43% compute lead and 36.3% DirectX 11 lead make it the better option for productivity tasks, GPU compute, and older game libraries. The RX 9070 also offers double the memory capacity at 16 GB versus 8 GB, which is significant for texture-heavy workloads and larger datasets.

The launch MSRP for the RX 9070 is 549 USD, which the database records without further pricing context. The RTX 4070 Mobile has no recorded launch MSRP.

Users who play modern titles with Vulkan or DirectX 12 should favor the RTX 4070 Mobile. Users who run compute workloads, play older DirectX 9 through 11 games, or need the larger memory pool should choose the RX 9070.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU wins in Vulkan performance?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile wins decisively, scoring 108,367 versus the AMD Radeon RX 9070's 58,705, an 84.6% advantage.

Q: Which GPU has better compute performance?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 9070 leads in Passmark GPU Compute with 14,737 versus the RTX 4070 Mobile's 8,399, a 43% margin. It also wins Geekbench OpenCL at 131,539 versus 109,197.

Q: How do the two compare in DirectX 12?

A: The RTX 4070 Mobile wins DirectX 12 with a score of 85 versus 74 for the RX 9070, a 14.9% lead.

Q: What is the memory configuration difference?

A: The RX 9070 has 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus with 644.6 GB/s bandwidth. The RTX 4070 Mobile has 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus with 256.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The RTX 4070 Mobile averages 27,435, while the RX 9070 averages 23,877. The RTX 4070 Mobile also ranks at the 73rd percentile versus the RX 9070's 69th.

Q: How does the RX 9070 compare to the RTX 3080 Mobile?

A: The RX 9070's average score of 23,877 is 1.1% ahead of the RTX 3080 Mobile's 23,628.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from fundamentally different design philosophies. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile uses the AD106 chip based on the Ada Lovelace architecture, fabricated on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It packs 22,900 million transistors into a 188 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 121.8 million per mm². The chip has 4,608 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, 48 ROPs, 36 ray tracing cores, and 144 tensor cores.

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 uses the Navi 48 chip based on RDNA 4.0, fabricated on a 4 nm process at TSMC. It contains 53,900 million transistors on a 357 mm² die, with a density of 151.0 million per mm². The chip has 3,584 shading units, 224 TMUs, 128 ROPs, and 56 ray tracing cores. Notably, the RX 9070 has no tensor cores listed in the database.

The clock speeds differ significantly. The RTX 4070 Mobile runs at a base of 1395 MHz and boosts to 1695 MHz. The RX 9070 has a base clock of 1330 MHz, a game clock of 2070 MHz, and a boost clock of 2520 MHz. The RX 9070's higher boost clock contributes to its substantial FP32 throughput of 36.13 TFLOPS versus 15.62 TFLOPS for the RTX 4070 Mobile, a 2.31x difference.

The memory subsystem is also divergent. The RX 9070 offers 16 GB of GDDR6 at 20.1 Gbps effective, with a 256-bit bus and 644.6 GB/s bandwidth. The RTX 4070 Mobile offers 8 GB of GDDR6 at 16 Gbps effective, with a 128-bit bus and 256.0 GB/s bandwidth. The RX 9070 has 2.5x the bandwidth and double the capacity.

Power and form factor differ as well. The RTX 4070 Mobile has a 115 W TDP and is an IGP (integrated graphics package) with no power connectors, designed for laptops. The RX 9070 has a 220 W TDP, is a dual-slot card, requires two 8-pin power connectors, and suggests a 550 W power supply. The RX 9070 uses a PCIe 5.0 x16 interface, while the RTX 4070 Mobile uses PCIe 4.0 x8.

Both support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The RX 9070 has fixed display outputs (1x HDMI 2.1b and 3x DisplayPort 2.1a), while the RTX 4070 Mobile's outputs are portable device dependent. The RX 9070's pixel rate of 322.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 564.5 GTexel/s far exceed the RTX 4070 Mobile's 81.36 GPixel/s and 244.1 GTexel/s, explaining the 2D and rasterization wins. The RTX 4070 Mobile launched in January 2023, while the RX 9070 arrived in March 2025.