From www.digitaltrends.com

Gigabyte's RX 9070 XT GPU.
TechPowerUp / Gigabyte

Some thought that AMD’s upcoming best graphics cards would be launching in a matter of days, but we now know that’s not going to happen. According to David McAfee, vice president and general manager of AMD’s Ryzen CPU and Radeon graphics division, the GPUs are doing great and will be widely available — but not until March.

This delay is an interesting choice, given that some retailers were ready to open preorders on January 22. Multiple listings of the card from all over the world have been leaked at this point, and although we haven’t seen almost any of its specifications, those listings implied that the cards were ready to go, or at least would soon be available.

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!

— David McAfee (@McAfeeDavid_AMD) January 20, 2025

AMD just confirmed my fears about the RX 9000 series

Get your weekly teardown of the tech behind PC gaming

The manner of the announcement was pretty odd, too. After the cards were a complete no-show at CES 2025, AMD implied that the GPUs deserved their own event outside of the 45-minute keynote that also omitted its next-gen Z2 chips. Now, McAfee took to X (Twitter) to quietly reveal that AMD’s plans aren’t so set in stone, and it all comes down to an ambiguous release date sometimes in March.

At this point, with Nvidia’s full RTX 50-series range right around the corner, many AMD enthusiasts expected more. The reaction to McAfee’s announcement in Twitter replies was lukewarm at best, with many fans wondering where this delay is coming from. AMD and Nvidia are locked in a perpetual battle in the GPU market, and it’s hard not to give Nvidia the upper hand here, as we know the release date of the first two GPUs, but also the entire spec sheet for all four. Meanwhile, all we know about the RX 9000 series is that it’ll have 16GB VRAM, but even that comes from leaks.

AMD didn’t show off the cards during the event, but its partners had them on display during CES 2025, so we know the hardware seems ready to go. AMD’s Frank Azor also told the press that the cards were set to launch “in a matter of weeks,” which still checks out even if it’s at the end of March, but just barely. Nvidia’s RTX 5070 and RTX 5070 Ti should both be out by then, with a tentative February release date.

It’s possible that one of my least favorite leaks may have turned out to be true. A Chiphell forum leaker recently shared that AMD pulled back on the late January release date for the RX 9000 series, citing “waiting for Nvidia” as one of the reasons. It’s hard to say what AMD might be waiting for at this point, but one way or another, we now know for a fact that the RX 9000 series won’t be here until March.

Monica J. White

Monica is a computing writer at Digital Trends, focusing on PC hardware. Since joining the team in 2021, Monica has written…

AMD’s new GPUs were a complete no-show at CES 2025

Various AMD RX 9000 series graphics cards.

Many awaited AMD’s CES 2025 keynote with bated breath. After all, the company was expected to divulge more information about the RX 9000 series, which could soon compete against some of the best graphics cards.

But, by the end of the keynote, the YouTube chat and my own mind were both flooded with just one question: “What about new graphics cards?”
Nothing but a brief mention

Read more

AMD is conceding to Nvidia with the RX 9070 XT and FSR 4

AMD announcing FSR 4 during CES 2025.

AMD revealed its long-awaited RDNA 4 architecture at CES 2025, but it arrived with more of a thud and less of a bang. Although the new RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 could make the list of the best graphics cards, it’s hard to say if they will right now, despite the fact that the cards are expected to arrive in the first few months of this year.

In its action-packed CES keynote, the new RDNA 4 range was a passing note instead of the main event. Although details about the new RDNA 4 architecture are light, AMD says it updated just about every aspect of its GPU design. That includes better ray tracing performance with third-gen RT accelerators, broader media encoding support with a second-gen AMD Radiance Display engine, and critically, AI grunt with second-gen AI accelerators.

Read more

Radeon RX 9000 series: everything we know about AMD’s next GPUs

RX 7900 XTX and RX 7900 XT on a pink background.

AMD’s RX 9000 series is right around the corner, and it’s almost ready to compete against some of the best graphics cards. While leaks about the lineup have been scarce for many months, things are getting better. As we’re leading up to the official announcement at CES 2025, a lot of information has come out.

Initially referred to as the RX 8000 series, the RDNA 4 generation is now expected to come with a name change and an interesting spread of GPUs. Here’s everything you need to know about the RX 9000 series.
AMD RX 9000 series: availability

Read more

[ For more curated Computing news, check out the main news page here]

The post AMD just confirmed my fears about the RX 9000 series first appeared on www.digitaltrends.com

New reasons to get excited everyday.



Get the latest tech news delivered right in your mailbox

You may also like

Subscribe
Notify of
0 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

More in computing