After a botched presentation at CES 2025 that no one really understood, we finally get to see the official information from AMD regarding its new graphics cards… and if what we hear and read is correct, then NVIDIA is about to have a bad 2025… and many people do believe they deserve it. AMD just announced what the company says is the world’s best graphics card under $600, and the even dare to compare it to the NVIDIA RTX 5070 Ti, which costs a lot more than the MSRP price of $749, as we previously revealed, is not available, and appears to have some problems regarding performance…
AMD introduced the 9070 series, with prices that sound fantastic and with the promise that there will be enough cards to buy at acceptable prices starting March 6. If AMD makes it happen – the company is known for missing opportunities, unfortunately – then we may be in for a good 2025 for gamers and creators, and at the same time NVIDIA will learn a lesson they really deserve…
As everybody else, we are waiting for AMD to deliver, as we need to upgrade an NVIDIA RTX 2070 graphics card used on an old machine still running VR apps, and don’t want to buy NVIDIA… if AMD can come with a solution that works and is affordable. AMD’s performance in VR, though, is problematic, sometimes, and updated drivers seem to not make things better, so it’s a bit worrisome to change. But it’s tempting, looking at AMD just announced, and their goal of “accelerating their performance per dollar leadership”. Now they just need to not fail…
Here is what the company just announced: the new AMD Radeon RX 9000 Series graphics cards that deliver “enthusiast-level gaming experiences supercharged by AI” but are also developed for content creators in other areas to achieve a new level of performance. As AMD states, “beyond gaming, the RX 9000 Series GPUs leverage new second-generation AI accelerators with up to 8x INT8 throughput per AI accelerator (for sparse matrices) to enhance creative applications and effectively run generative AI applications (vs. RDNA 3). The RX 9000 Series GPUs also implement the newly redesigned AMD Radiance Display Engine & Enhanced Media Engine for broad display support and elevated quality in both recording and streaming.”
The whole AMD presentation was centered on gaming, though, because those are the customers that feel NVIDIA left them orphan, so AMD wants to attract them with new graphics cards that “feature 16GB of memory and extensive improvements designed for high-quality gaming graphics, including re-vamped raytracing accelerators and powerful AI accelerators for ultra-fast, cutting-edge performance, and breakthrough gaming experiences.”
In a YouTube livestream, David McAfee, CVP and GM, Ryzen CPU and Radeon Graphics, AMD, was joined by Andrej Zdravkovic, SVP of GPU Technologies and Engineering, AMD and Chief Software Officer, as well as Andy Pomianowski, CVP of Silicon Design Engineering, AMD, to discuss the outstanding performance and value proposition of the Radeon RX 9000 Series.
In a related event in Zhuhai, China, Jack Huynh, SVP of the Client and Graphics Group, AMD, led a regional event for the new products. Huynh was joined by David Wang, SVP of GPU Technology and Engineering, AMD, and Lanzhi Wang, Senior Director of Product Management, AMD. The celebration was also marked by a customer celebration with Darren Grasby, EVP and AMD Chief Sales Officer, AMD; Spencer Pan, President of AMD China, and partners including Asrock, ASUS, Gigabyte, Sapphire, Tul, Vastamore, Veston, and XFX.
“Today, we’re thrilled to unveil the AMD Radeon RX 9000 Series, a significant leap forward in graphics performance powered by our next-generation AMD RDNA 4 architecture,” said McAfee. “These GPUs are designed to meet the demands of today’s games, delivering enthusiast-class gaming experiences to gamers everywhere, while ready to support tomorrow’s innovations. Through the power of advanced AI and Raytracing accelerators, we’re not just improving frame rates – we’re fundamentally enhancing the gaming experience. Offering incredible performance, AI-powered features, and next-gen display support at competitive price points, the Radeon RX 9000 Series delivers exceptional value for gamers looking to upgrade their systems.”
The RX 9000 Series, powered by the new AMD RDNA 4 architecture, offers gamers and creators a powerful blend of performance, visuals, and value. These advanced graphics cards redefine incredibly fast, high-resolution gaming with third-generation raytracing technology enabling realistic lighting, shadows, and reflections to deliver immersive gaming experiences while integrating a suite of AMD features to maximize hardware utilization. AMD says that compared to the previous generation RX 7900 GRE, the latest AMD Radeon RX 9070 is able to deliver over 20% more performance on average when gaming at 1440, with the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT extending that lead to over 40% on average. One important note. The key figures shown during the presentation refer to pure performance of the cards without using AI… what sounds wise after what we saw with NVIDIA and its claims around “fake frames”…
According to AMD, both graphics cards make smart upgrades for gamers looking to future-proof their systems with a suite of next-gen features that will keep their experiences feeling fresh for years to come. Key features include:
- Unified AMD RDNA 4 Compute Units – Features up to 64 advanced AMD RDNA 4 compute units delivering up to 40% higher gaming performance than the previous-generation AMD RDNA™ 3 architecture. 3
- High-Performance Raytracing – With 3rd generation Raytracing Accelerators, AMD RDNA 4 is able to deliver over 2x the Raytracing throughput per compute unit when compared to our previous generation. 1 Gamers with the latest AMD Radeon RX 9000 Series are ready for immersive gaming experiences with high-quality graphics, including realistic lighting, shadows, and reflections.
- Supercharged AI Acceleration – 2nd Generation AI Accelerators received several enhancements, allowing AMD RDNA 4 to efficiently process advanced AI models much faster than what was possible with RDNA 3, through a combination of additional math pipelines for AI calculations, expanding the capabilities of the AI Accelerator to support new emerging data types such as FP8, and support for inference optimization techniques such as structured sparsity. These changes deliver up to 8x INT8 throughput per AI accelerator (for sparse matrices) per compute unit vs the previous generation.
- AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution Technology 4 (FSR 4) – AMD’s new cutting-edge ML-powered upscaling technology delivers high-quality boosted frames under even the most demanding workloads, such as 4K gaming with maximum raytracing settings and will be supported in over 30 games at launch.
- Innovative suite of features through HYPR-RX – Gamers can instantly improve their experience by activating AMD HYPR-RX and the suite of features within AMD Software, including AMD Radeon Super Resolution, AMD Fluid Motion Frames 2.1, AMD Radeon Anti-Lag, and AMD Radeon™ Boost. These features can all be tailored to gamers’ hardware and preferences within AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition to drive increased FPS, responsiveness and efficiency.
- AI-Enhanced AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition Application – A new suite of software and resources designed to deliver an industry-leading AI user experience with AMD Radeon RX 9070 Series graphics cards. Keep your drivers and AI software up to date with the new Software Manager. Find the answers to your questions about all things AMD or create free and private text and images with AMD Chat. Discover, download and install new and exciting AMD-partnered AI applications with the App Portal, and leverage AI to improve software quality with the AMD Image Inspector.
- Ready for Next-Generation Displays – AMD Radiance Display Engine supports the latest DisplayPort 2.1a and HDMI 2.1b connections, enabling ultra-high resolutions and refresh rates up to 8K 144Hz, with 12-bit HDR and full REC2020 Color Space for incredible color accuracy. Paired with AMD FreeSync technology, gamers can enjoy tear-free, stutter-free gaming experiences on over 4000 compatible displays, including upcoming 4K 240Hz and 8K 144Hz DisplayPort 2.1 monitors.
ML-Powered AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 4 (AMD FSR 4) Upgrade
- Available exclusively on AMD Radeon RX 9000 Series graphics cards, AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition adds a new easy-to-use AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 4 (AMD FSR 4) Upgrade feature that helps maximize performance at maximum quality in over 30 games at launch, with 75 coming later this year. AMD FSR 4 delivers a substantial image quality improvement over AMD FSR 3.1 upscaling, with the new ML-based algorithm helping to improve temporal stability, better preserve detail, and reduce ghosting.
- Utilizing features already built into the AMD FidelityFX API added when game developers integrate AMD FSR 3.1 into their games, AMD FSR 4 enables an easy upgrade for supported FSR 3.1 games and can be combined with existing in-game AMD FSR 3.1 advanced frame-generation and AMD Radeon Anti-Lag 2 for ultra-smooth, ultra-responsive gaming at incredible frame rates on AMD Radeon RX 9070 Series graphics cards.
- The new ML-accelerated AMD FSR 4 upscaling algorithm is trained using high-quality ground truth game data on AMD Instinct Accelerators and uses the hardware-accelerated FP8 Wave Matrix Multiply Accumulate (WMMA) feature of the AMD RDNA 4 architecture to ensure maximum upscaling quality while still providing a substantial game performance boost.
The new AMD Radeon RX 9000 Series graphics cards are expected to be available from leading board partners including Acer, ASRock, ASUS, Gigabyte, PowerColor, Sapphire, Vastarmor, XFX, and Yeston beginning March 6th, 2025. The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT has an SEP of $599 USD, while the AMD Radeon RX 9070 has an SEP of $549 USD.
AMD introduced the cards claiming that the Radeon RX 9070 XT is the world’s best graphics card under $600, which is a bold claim. Now we just need to wait and see if AMD does not miss the opportunity given to them by NVIDIA’s disastrous launch of the RTX 50 series.