AMD Radeon RX 9070 series graphics cards global rollout set for March, confirms AMD exec

AMD New Enthusiast RDNA 3 GPUs Coming in Q3

(Image credit: AMD)

AMD has finally shared a release date for its upcoming RX 9070 series GPUs, after teasing them at CES 2025. AMD's David McAfee posted on X that the new GPUs will officially go on sale in March.

The VP and GM of AMD also stated that gamers could expect a "wide assortment of cards" to be available globally. AMD's software solution for the Radeon 9000 series is also purportedly "looking great," so we should expect launch day and review day drivers to be stable.

Radeon 9000 series hardware and software are looking great and we are planning to have a wide assortment of cards available globally. Can’t wait for gamers to get their hands on the cards when they go on sale in March!January 20, 2025

The RX 9000 series was officially announced during CES 2025, featuring the Radeon RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT. AMD purposefully kept most of the GPU specs hidden but confirmed that the new GPU lineup will run on AMD's next-generation RDNA 4 architecture, which is built on TSMC's 4nm process and features 2nd gen AI accelerators, 3rd gen ray tracing accelerators and a 2nd generation radiance display engine.

Despite not revealing the RX 9070 series during its CES 2025 presentation, AMD's board partners showed off a plethora of graphics card models based on the upcoming RX 9070 series, giving us a sneak peek at what these new GPUs will look like. All of the AIB-partner cards shown came with triple-fan cooling solutions, with most sporting a triple 8-pin power connector design, hinting that AMD will be ditching the new 16-pin 12V-2x6 power connector for another generation. Though there might be some exceptions, ASRock's RX 7900 XTX WS GPU takes advantage of the 12V-2x6 power connector, so we can't rule out the same behavior repeating itself with the RX 9000 series.

The new GPUs are officially focused on the mid-range GPU market. AMD confirmed in a slide interpreting the GPU's new numbering scheme that the RX 9070 series would be a direct successor to the RX 7900 XT/GRE and the RX 7800 XT, as well as direct competitors to the RTX 4070 series (in general). As a result, it is expected that Nvidia's new RTX 5070 and RTX 5070 Ti will be the primary competition of the RX 9070 series.

After CES, we saw new rumors suggesting that the RX 9070 XT has 4,096 cores, 64 CUs, and 16GB of VRAM. The RX 9070 likewise has 3,584 cores, 56 CUs, and 16GB, with both GPUs operating on a 256-bit interface and utilizing GDDR6 memory. Take these details with a grain of salt, but this close to launch it is likely that these specs could be close to the real deal. IGN has already confirmed that the RX 9070 has 16GB of VRAM.

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Aaron Klotz is a contributing writer for Tom’s Hardware, covering news related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.

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32 Comments Comment from the forums

usertests

Really bad launch tactics so far. What is the light at the end of the tunnel? Drivers and FSR4 working properly at launch?
Reply
Flayed

Hopefully, this delay will mean plenty of stock will be available at launch.
Reply
Gururu

I'd hate to be those offices right now. Some information out there pointing to pricing issues. Tough place to be in with Intel and nVidia's momentum.
Reply
PiersPlowman

Gururu said:
I'd hate to be those offices right now. Some information out there pointing to pricing issues. Tough place to be in with Intel and nVidia's momentum.
No-one to blame but themselves. All they had to do was make the best cards they could, for the most competitive prices they could, and release them into the wild.

Instead, and as always, AMD chooses to play games - and with it they have lost this generation's cards.
Reply
-Fran-

Well, Jensen truly played AMD here, so props to him. AMD dropping the ball and then kicking it down the aisle further.

They seriously need to reshuffle the marketing team into a division that:
1- Actually cares about Radeon as a brand.
2- Actually wants to be independent from nVidia and Intel.
3- Understands their own products so they can actually sell them on their strengths and not te gaps nVidia leaves for them (which, they still fail to exploit).

While it seems a bit harsh, I mean... Come on. They've been playing tag with nVidia for so long, they forgot how to be "independent grown ups". Stop chasing and start leading for once, AMD. Look at your own tech and go from there.

Regards.
Reply
Jabberwocky79

I have zero facts to base these assumptions on, but what I imagine happened is that AMD may have been expecting Nvidia's 5070 series to be priced the same as the 4070 series - which is to say in the $700 range. AMD may have been banking on the possibility of charging around that amount for their own 70 series cards. But Nvidia may have pulled the rug out from under AMD (possibly deliberately) when they undercut the pricing of the 5070 series to $500. Now AMD may be in the rare situation of needing to charge more than Nvidia to make a profit, and they are scrambling to figure out how to do that.

AMD can only discount their cards so much, and they can only raise the performance so much... so if they show up with $700 cards, they had better show up with an additional $200 worth of performance. If they don't, they're cooked, and they probably know it.
Reply
-Fran- said:
Stop chasing and start leading for once, AMD. Look at your own tech and go from there.

Unfortunately for all of us, by abandoning flagships, AMD have pretty much forfeited any ambition they had of leading in the consumer GPU race.
Reply
usertests

Gururu said:
I'd hate to be those offices right now. Some information out there pointing to pricing issues. Tough place to be in with Intel and nVidia's momentum.
Intel has no momentum, its cards have no volume. The momentum is with leather jacket man.

-Fran- said:
They seriously need to reshuffle the marketing team into a division that:
1- Actually cares about Radeon as a brand.
2- Actually wants to be independent from nVidia and Intel.
3- Understands their own products so they can actually sell them on their strengths and not te gaps nVidia leaves for them (which, they still fail to exploit).
Maybe they should fire David McAfee:
https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/amd-explains-the-missing-rdna-4-gpus-in-its-ces-2025-livestream
Reply
-Fran-

valthuer said:
Unfortunately for all of us, by abandoning flagships, AMD have pretty much forfeited any ambition they had of leading in the consumer GPU race.
They do not need to compete in the high end, but you're not entirely wrong either. Because they were "so open" about their intentions, Jensen was able to predict their entire play well in advance and act on it.

I don't think they need a "flagship" card, only because they can still be competitive as long as they're smart with the accounting and how to fund the division. The way nVidia dried up Radeon was by pushing them further down the slim margins, so their division is the smallest out of, possible, everyone making video cards right now? Maybe? At least, the size difference between nVidia and Radeon is orders of magnitude (budget), much like Intel was with AMD (and probably still is).

They now have to choose to eiher make do with slim margins and stagnate a bit or try to push into the higher end as much as they can, but that will require internal reshuffling of funding.

usertests said:
Maybe they should fire David McAfee:
https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/amd-explains-the-missing-rdna-4-gpus-in-its-ces-2025-livestream
I wouldn't say "fire", but at least learn from it as a division and create the appropriate process to avoid this from happening in the future.

If they're really a team, then one's loss is the whole division's loss; one's victory is the whole division's victory. That's how we do it over here at least. We make mistakes, learn and improve. I hope AMD can do that as well.

As they say: the first step to fixing a problem is acknowledging* you have a problem.

Regards.
Reply
-Fran- said:
I don't think they need a "flagship" card, only because they can still be competitive as long as they're smart with the accounting and how to fund the division.

God, i hope you 're right.

Because, during the last 3 years or so, AMD have been looking like a company that has thrown in the white towel, in discreet GPUs.

Compared to Nvidia, they 've almost never had the better flagship.

However, that didn't stop them, and i can certainly recall times that they were at least trying to contend for the top.

Hate to say it, but, right now, a great number of consumers buy Nvidia, based on the perception that Jensen's company is the best, no matter what.

Sounds foolish, i know, but, unfortunately, they 're not entirely wrong to think this way.

In order for that perception to change, AMD have to try and do the only thing they persistently avoid doing: create a better flagship card.

Sales wise, it wouldn't make a significant impact. But it would send a message that AMD can still be competitive.

The last time ATi/AMD had a clear technology leading design, was probably with the Radeon 9800 Pro. But that was like 22 years ago.

AMD made the wrong choice, by not introducing Tensor and RT cores and ignoring them for 1-2 generations. That decision, will be coming back to haunt them.

Their CPUs, are nothing sort of magnificent. GPU-wise, though, if they don't do something soon, they'll be reduced into a non-factor.
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