Hardware Unboxed Explains That New RX 9070 XT Testing Focuses on Review Standards Over Recent “Data” Contrast With “Drivers”

The recent independent analyses of the RX 9070 XT have revealed that the latest AMD Adrenalin drivers may not offer substantial enhancements compared to their initial counterparts. This revelation has raised questions about the impact of driver updates on graphics performance.

HW Provides Insights Following Performance Testing of New AMD GPU Drivers

The newest Adrenalin 25.6.3 driver was expected to position the RX 9070 XT favorably against the NVIDIA RTX 5070 Ti, purportedly delivering significant performance gains. However, recent evaluations from Tech Yes City and Testing Games, alongside a detailed analysis by Hardware Unboxed, indicate that while there was an approximate 9% performance uplift in some scenarios, the drivers themselves might not be the sole contributors to these improvements.

Tech Yes City Spider-Man Remastered RX 9070 XT old vs new drivers — Credit: Tech Yes City

Testing Games RX 9070 XT New vs Old Drivers — Credit: Testing Games

In a closer examination, both Tech Yes City and Testing Games conducted side-by-side comparisons of the Adrenalin 25.3.1 launch driver and the latest 25.6.3 driver across various popular titles, including Spider-Man and Counter-Strike 2. Findings indicated minimal differences in performance for the majority of games tested, despite few select titles showing noticeable performance enhancements.

This situation has led Hardware Unboxed to clarify discrepancies revealed through their review process. They emphasized the complexity surrounding performance assessment due to various external factors, such as Windows updates, Smart Access Memory configurations, and game patches, which can all skew benchmarking results. Additionally, they expressed that their findings were more about evaluating “Review Data vs. Latest Data”rather than a direct comparison of driver versions.

I don’t want to directly or individually address the videos discussing the 9070 XT testing I did recently. Those videos did misunderstand the test, but unfortunately I didn’t explain the video as well as I should have, and did suggest that the bulk of the gains in at least one…

— Hardware Unboxed (@HardwareUnboxed) July 7, 2025

The multitude of variables influencing performance outcomes necessitates a cautious approach when interpreting results. As performance discrepancies emerge, cross-testing remains a vital strategy for verifying and understanding the effects of new drivers on graphics hardware. While some games may exhibit meaningful gains, the average reported increase of 9% warrants skepticism. In the competitive landscape of GPU performance, it is essential to maintain a critical mindset toward driver updates and the metrics they produce.

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