In tests, it matches the more expensive RTX 5070. The Sapphire Radeon RX 9070 GRE costs 12,590 CZK

When AMD released the RX 9070 GRE model last year, it was initially a card only for the Chinese market. This year, it has also reached us and is aimed precisely at the most closely watched segment of the market – 1440p gaming for a reasonable price. The Sapphire version now costs 12,590 CZK on Alza, a thousand less than at launch. And even at the original 13,590 CZK, it was an interesting offer.

👍 Take it, if you play at 1440p, want the most frames per crown, and ray tracing is not a priority for you.
🤔 Hesitate, if you play Cyberpunk and similar titles with maximum ray tracing – there, the RTX 5070 has an advantage of 11 to 15%.
💰 Price: 12,590 CZK means virtually the same performance in rasterization as the more expensive competition from Nvidia.

Battle with RTX 5070: a draw, until you turn on ray tracing

A direct comparison of both cards at 1440p yields surprisingly balanced results. The FPS Review measured a difference of one percent in favor of Radeon in Alan Wake 2, while in Total War: Warhammer III, according to Club386, AMD leads by 4 to 9%. Aggregate data across more than a hundred games show that the RTX 5070 is on average about two percent faster – a difference you won’t notice in practice. In Battlefield 6, however, Nvidia led by 14%, so it largely depends on the specific game and engine.

Where the cards diverge is ray tracing. In Cyberpunk 2077 at RT Ultra preset, the RTX 5070 had an advantage of 11 to 15%, and in the synthetic 3DMark Speed Way test, the GRE, according to Neowin, only reached the level of last year’s RTX 4070. So, if you play with ray tracing fully enabled, Nvidia is still the better choice. An interesting detail about upscaling: enabling FSR 4 in Quality mode added up to 82% more frames for Radeon at 1440p, according to Club386, while DLSS for Nvidia added 67% – AMD can effectively capitalize on its lead in raw performance here.

Why Sapphire PULSE specifically

Sapphire is to Radeons what Asus ROG is to Nvidia – a brand long trusted in the community. The PULSE series is their sensible mid-range, and this version features a Dual-X cooler with two fans in a triple-slot design, intended to keep the card at low temperatures and, most importantly, quiet. The length of 280 mm is accommodating even for smaller cases, although the triple-slot height will demand its space. Inside, the Navi 48 chip runs on a 4nm process with 3,072 stream processors and a boost up to 2,920 MHz, plus 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus.

Practical parameters are pleasing: TDP of 240 W is thirty watts less than the competing Nvidia card, a 650W power supply is sufficient, and power is handled by classic two 8-pin connectors instead of the problematic 12VHPWR. Outputs consist of DisplayPort 2.1a and HDMI 2.1b, for a total of four monitors, and Alza provides a 36-month warranty. The only significant note: 12 GB of memory is just enough for 1440p today; for 4K, you will encounter limitations in modern games.

For a gamer building a PC for 1440p and not wanting to spend twenty thousand on a graphics card, the GRE for 12,590 CZK is a reasonable choice.

Do you play with ray tracing enabled, or do you turn it off for more frames?