I'm considering replacing my RTX 4060 Ti 16GB with an AMD RX 9070 XT, but I'm worried about the driver problems I often hear about—gray screens, game crashes, visual artifacts, and shader-compilation stutter in older DX9 and DX11 games. I previously owned an RX 480 4GB and an RX 6800 XT; I returned the 6800 XT because of driver-related stuttering. For anyone who owns an RX 9070 XT, has it been stable in Windows? I'd mainly like to know whether buying one is likely to be a smooth experience or a constant troubleshooting project.
4 Answers
You’ll probably be fine, though no graphics card is completely free of occasional driver or game-specific issues. Compared with a similarly performing Nvidia card, the 9070 XT can offer enough savings that a small chance of troubleshooting may be worth it. Keep the card at stock settings initially, update drivers normally, and only experiment with overclocking or undervolting once everything is stable.
AMD’s driver reputation is worse than the current reality. These days, AMD and Nvidia are generally comparable for stability, and problems can happen with either brand. AMD’s software may simply make a driver reset more obvious instead of silently closing the game.
My RX 9070 XT has been stable even while gaming at 4K. The only crashes I’ve seen were from one particular game, which appeared to be a game issue rather than a GPU problem. I also caused a crash myself by pushing an undervolt too far; a mild undervolt worked fine afterward. If you switch, remove the old Nvidia drivers with a proper cleanup tool before installing the AMD package.
I’ve used an RX 7900 XTX and an RX 7600 in different systems without driver problems. I actually had more trouble with a recent Nvidia card. The RX 9070 XT should be a reasonable choice if its price and performance suit you.
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