Advanced Micro Devices is unveiling its Radeon RX 9000 Series graphics chips.
The graphics cards will be available on March 6, 2025. They will go up against some tough competition in the form of Nvidia’s imminently shipping GeForce RTX 50 Series graphics cards, which CEO Jensen Huang unveiled with great fanfare at CES 2025. AMD intends to compete in lower price bands against Nvidia.
I spoke with Frank Azor, at AMD, about the competition during CES. In our interview, I asked who buys $2,800 graphics cards. Azor said, “Power to the people that are. In my opinion, if you’re going to spend that much money on a card, it’s been proven that you will buy it from Nvidia. That’s okay. If you value the stuff they put into that card, go for it.”
Azor added, “If we were to build a card like that, then they would build a $4,500 card. At some point you have to say, ‘What’s the game we’re playing here now?’ If 90% of gamers are buying a $1,000 or below graphics card, let’s focus on the actual gaming market and not distract ourselves with trying to be king of the hill.”
The new graphics cards include the AMD Radeon RX 9070 Series, which 56 RDNA 4 compute units and 53.9 billion transistors. It can do 4K gaming at 1440p price, AMD said, with pricing set for in between the $899 RX 7900 XT and the $549 RX 7900 GRE.
The 9070 promises 38% faster gaming versus the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT ($649) at 4K max settings and 26% faster than the Nvidia RTX 3080 ($699) at 4K max settings.
AMD will also have an AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT graphics card with more compute units and accelerators. The RX 9070 XT has 64 compute units, 64 HW RT accelerators and 128 HW AI accelerators. It can run at a boost clock of 2.97 GHz and has 16GB of video memory. The wattage is 304 watts.
The RX 9070 XT will be 51% faster at gaming versus the older RX 6900 XT ($999) and 26% faster than the RTX 3090 ($1,499) at 4K max settings.
It is the first series of chips that use the AMD RDNA 4 architecture for its Radeon graphics. The architecture has an enhanced memory subsystem compared to the RDNA 3, as well as improved scalar units, dynamic register allocation and increased efficiency and clock speeds.
Its third-generation raytracing accelerators can generate twice as much raytracing per compute unit. The second generation AI accelerators can generate eight times more Int8 with Sparsity.
It has an enhanced media engine for 20% higher media quality vs RDNA 3, and it has future-ready tech with support for PCIe Gen5, HDMI 2.1b and DisplayPort 2.1a.
AMD noted its chips drive the most iconic gaming devices, including the PC, consoles like the Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5, and Valve’s Steam Deck.
The company says its focuses on what gamers want, which is more accessible GPUs. AMD’s data shows that 85% of gamers buy GPUs that cost less than $700. It offers higher resolutions for gaming at 1440p and 4K displays, more performance on raytracing, and easy upgrades.
Azor said, “We really designed the AI compute in RDNA 4 to enable FSR4. With FSR3 – and 2 and 1, but really with 3 – the fidelity you see for a non-ML-based upscaling resolution and frame generation solution–it’s unlike anything else in the industry. Nvidia wasn’t able to do it. They’ve been using machine learning the entire time. We were able to get this far with an incredible quality and fidelity and performance improvement without any machine learning. The benefit of that is it works ubiquitously on so many different cards, and it will continue to be adopted by tons of games. “
Computer makers adopting the cards include Acer, ASRock, Asus, Gigabyte, PowerColor, Sapphire, XFX, Yeston and Vast Armor.
“We’re announcing officially that we’re focusing on where 90% of gamers buy their graphics cards, which is below $1,000. That’s our focus with RDNA 4,” Azor said. “The market should not expect us to build a card above $1,000. We wanted to build a gamer’s card, focusing on value and delivering great performance per dollar. RDNA 3, when we deviated from that, the market struggled with our value proposition. When we nailed that stuff with the 7800XT and 7900GRE, the market rewarded us. They valued what we were doing there. We want more of those hits and less of those misses.”
He added, “Our strategy with RDNA 4, we’ve focused on optimizing the portfolio, the architecture, the technology, where we’re making our investments. You’re going to get an architecture and a card that cater to the games you love to play and that matter to you, not a bunch of fancy technology demos.”
Regardless of what you pick, Azor said it’s going to be an amazing year for PC graphics.
“It’s a very exciting year for PC gaming. One, we have a graphics transition for all three companies. That’s super exciting,” he said. “That only happens every couple years. For all three companies to do it at the same time, that happens every two to three years, but it’s cool that Intel is there too. They’re on the same schedule for a refresh. They’ve found a good place in their market. They’re about the entry. We’re going to be in the middle of the stack. Then you have Nvidia at the high end of the stack. It’s a good value prop for the entire industry.”
As far as games that can take advantage of these cards, Azor said there is a lot coming. The titles that have already shipped include Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Civilization VII and more. In 2025, there might be a chance we will see a PC version of Grand Theft Auto VI. We also have Avowed, South of Midnight, Assassin’s Creed: Shadows and more.
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