AMD introduced its newest RDNA 4 graphics playing cards at CES 2025 this week, the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT and AMD Radeon RX 9070, each focusing on the midrange graphics card phase, as was extensively anticipated.
There isn’t a lot that we all know concerning the two new playing cards but, aside from the brand new numbering scheme is meant to make it simpler to check AMD’s Radeon playing cards towards the competitors, specifically Nvidia.
Beneath this new numbering scheme, the Radeon RX XX70 playing cards at the moment are meant to compete towards Nvidia’s XX70 playing cards, with the Radeon RX 9070 XT going up towards the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti and the RX 9070 going up towards the RTX 5070. AMD has additionally teased a later launch for Radeon RX 9060 playing cards, which might then go up towards the Nvidia RTX 5060 Ti and RTX 5060.
Issues get a bit extra difficult when evaluating these new playing cards towards their predecessors, with AMD indicating that the RX 9070 collection is changing every thing from the AMD RX 7900 XT to the RX 7800 XT, whereas the RX 9060 collection is roughly changing the RX 7700 XT and RX 7600 XT (the RX 7600 would presumably get replaced by a decrease tier than these two).
It hasn’t stated whether or not or not there shall be any RX 9080 or RX 9090 playing cards, however given the entire speak about AMD conceding the premium fanatic phase to Nvidia this era, the 9070 and 9060 collection playing cards are more likely to be the one playing cards we get this go round.
No worth or agency launch date has been given, solely that we must always anticipate the brand new Radeon playing cards in Q1 2025.
Is abandoning the fanatic phase a sensible transfer for AMD?
AMD’s obvious determination to cede the fanatic phase to deal with the midrange and upper-budget segments has been telegraphed by AMD for some time now, and it seems that that is in reality what AMD has deliberate.
Personally, I believe it’s an incredible transfer on AMD’s half. In case you’ve received a grand to spend on a graphics card, you’re all however sure to go for an Nvidia GPU. However the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE presently sits atop our greatest graphics card record for a motive. The RTX 4090 and RTX 4080 are perfect for 4K gaming, however in line with Valve’s Steam {Hardware} Survey, the huge, overwhelming majority of players on the market are gaming at 1080p, with 1440p gaming being the realm with probably the most development. 4K players, in the meantime, make up lower than 5% of players on the market.
Which makes plenty of sense. Gaming at 4K is extraordinarily costly for more and more marginal profit. As TechRadar’s parts editor, imagine me, I’ve extensively examined the entire greatest 4K graphics playing cards over and over, and I can hardly inform the distinction between 1440p and 4K when it comes to visible sharpness, however I can certain inform the distinction when it comes to framerate, and until you will have a 120Hz or higher gaming monitor, you’ll by no means get to see the a lot quicker 1440p framerate {that a} 4K graphics card just like the RTX 4080 (or AMD RX 7900 XTX, for that matter) can provide you.
The one individuals who can actually profit from a 4K graphics card at this level are individuals with a hell of some huge cash to spend on constructing one of the best gaming PC potential with a high-end gaming monitor. That’s a really slim market, and in case you’re that form of gamer, you’re simply going to splurge on a premium Nvidia card.
AMD’s obvious acknowledgment of this offers it an incredible alternative to market its in any other case improbable graphics playing cards to the overwhelming majority of players, particularly these whose goodwill has been burned by Nvidia’s more and more excessive costs.