AMD 9070XT

[cooky560 Veteran]

It's nearly time to replace my aging Founders Edition 3080, it doesn't OC as nicely as it used to and it's running around 10c warmer than it did when I first bought it. 

I don't have budget for much more than what I spent on the 3080 and locally, that means the best GPU I can manage is a 9070XT.

On this basis I have a few questions:

1. At present I don't use ray tracing, if this was to change, would this GPU be an issue?

2. How does it compare on a performance basis?

3. Are the drivers worse or better than those for nVidia?

4. Linux support, is it there?

5. Anything else I should be aware of if I were to make this change?

6. Is it a good idea or shall I try and keep the 3080 a little longer.

[Ixion]

It won't perform hugely better than the 3080 unless you're VRAM limited in games. Have you tried putting new thermal pads on them 3080 and giving it a good clean to see if you can regain your temps and overclock?

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

I can answer about the Linux bit. I only used AMD GPUs. I currently have a 9060XT (8GB) that fits my needs, I'm not a gamer, so I don't need that much GDDR.

But lately, NVIDIA has grown a lot in the recent years. Oh, the horrors of NVIDIA drivers not working. But they have been getting better. I know a lot of members onm here that are running cachyOS and other distros, and are fine with a 4090/5090 variants.

Really, though, I would stick with AMD variants.

[Arceles]

AMD is supported out of the box in linux because of their open source driver. Nvidia does not. All my systems are amd and all of them work nicely on linux arch without doing anything.

[Steven P. Administrators]

On 07/06/2026 at 12:57, cooky560 said:

1. At present I don't use ray tracing, if this was to change, would this GPU be an issue?

2. How does it compare on a performance basis?

3. Are the drivers worse or better than those for nVidia?

4. Linux support, is it there?

5. Anything else I should be aware of if I were to make this change?

6. Is it a good idea or shall I try and keep the 3080 a little longer.

I reviewed it back in March, but I didn't have a 5070 at the time

https://www.neowin.net/reviews/amd-rx-9070-review-vs-rtx-5070-4070-and-rx-9070-xt-7800-xt--just-good-enough/

When I reviewed the 9070 I did have a 5070 to compare it against, so the scores are there for the 9070 XT. it outperforms the 5070 in raster, and is barely neck and neck in Ray Tracing.

So it's better than a 5070 in everything but Ray Tracing where it is neck and neck, or just under.

To be honest, the uplift from 3080 when it was new to the 9070 XT is not as great a step up. If you can find a used 4080 Super for around the same money, you would probably be better off, but if you only want to buy new then the 16GB 9070 XT is the best value for money in its category.

[Circaflex]

On 07/06/2026 at 03:57, cooky560 said:

It's nearly time to replace my aging Founders Edition 3080, it doesn't OC as nicely as it used to and it's running around 10c warmer than it did when I first bought it. 

I don't have budget for much more than what I spent on the 3080 and locally, that means the best GPU I can manage is a 9070XT.

On this basis I have a few questions:

1. At present I don't use ray tracing, if this was to change, would this GPU be an issue?

2. How does it compare on a performance basis?

3. Are the drivers worse or better than those for nVidia?

4. Linux support, is it there?

5. Anything else I should be aware of if I were to make this change?

6. Is it a good idea or shall I try and keep the 3080 a little longer.

One reason it might be running hotter is dust build up within the cooling or perhaps the paste has dried out. You could always try repasting your old GPU and cleaning the cooler.

Your experience in Linux will be much better with an AMD GPU; the performance in gaming is much closer to Windows than nVidia would be. I personally think on Windows, AMD drivers are junk.

[Steven P. Administrators]

On 07/06/2026 at 16:12, Circaflex said:

One reason it might be running hotter is dust build up within the cooling or perhaps the paste has dried out. You could always try repasting your old GPU and cleaning the cooler.

Your experience in Linux will be much better with an AMD GPU; the performance in gaming is much closer to Windows than nVidia would be. I personally think on Windows, AMD drivers are junk.

Yes, I actually glossed over the Linux part from the OP. You could always go for a 9070 XT and if you really want to play Ray Traced games in the future, GeForce Now is pretty damn good on Linux https://www.neowin.net/news/nvidias-native-geforce-now-app-for-linux-bridges-the-gaming-gap-hands-on/

[cooky560 Veteran]

TO be clear I am not running linux today, however I keep thinking about it. And I want to make sure there are minimal obstacles if I decide to make that switch in the coming months.

[Steven P. Administrators]

On 07/06/2026 at 16:25, cooky560 said:

TO be clear I am not running linux today, however I keep thinking about it. And I want to make sure there are minimal obstacles if I decide to make that switch in the coming months.

NVIDIA officially supports Ubuntu, as linked above with the GeForce NOW Hands on I did in collaboration with Paul Hill.

[hellowalkman Reporter]

You can check out our latest 9070 GRE review with scores for the XT too, but these are on Windows:

• Gaming performance
• Productivity performance

[cooky560 Veteran]

Thanks for the advice guys, I'll give my current GPU a clean and then run the benchmarks to see how similar it is.

Hopefully a bit of a clean-out will help it last a bit longer.