Superior Micro Gadgets is unveiling its Radeon RX 9000 Sequence graphics chips.
The graphics playing cards might be out there on March 6, 2025. They may go up towards some robust competitors within the type of Nvidia’s imminently transport GeForce RTX 50 Sequence graphics playing cards, which CEO Jensen Huang unveiled with nice fanfare at CES 2025. AMD intends to compete in lower cost bands towards Nvidia.
I spoke with Frank Azor, at AMD, concerning the competitors throughout CES. In our interview, I requested who buys $2,800 graphics playing cards. Azor stated, “Energy to the individuals which are. For my part, for those who’re going to spend that a lot cash on a card, it’s been confirmed that you’ll purchase it from Nvidia. That’s okay. When you worth the stuff they put into that card, go for it.”
Azor added, “If we have been to construct a card like that, then they’d construct a $4,500 card. Sooner or later you need to say, ‘What’s the sport we’re taking part in right here now?’ If 90% of avid gamers are shopping for a $1,000 or under graphics card, let’s concentrate on the precise gaming market and never distract ourselves with making an attempt to be king of the hill.”
The brand new graphics playing cards embody the AMD Radeon RX 9070 Sequence, which 56 RDNA 4 compute items and 53.9 billion transistors. It will probably do 4K gaming at 1440p value, AMD stated, with pricing set for in between the $899 RX 7900 XT and the $549 RX 7900 GRE.
The 9070 guarantees 38% sooner gaming versus the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT ($649) at 4K max settings and 26% sooner than the Nvidia RTX 3080 ($699) at 4K max settings.
AMD may even have an AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT graphics card with extra compute items and accelerators. The RX 9070 XT has 64 compute items, 64 HW RT accelerators and 128 HW AI accelerators. It will probably run at a lift clock of two.97 GHz and has 16GB of video reminiscence. The wattage is 304 watts.
The RX 9070 XT might be 51% sooner at gaming versus the older RX 6900 XT ($999) and 26% sooner than the RTX 3090 ($1,499) at 4K max settings.
It’s the first sequence of chips that use the AMD RDNA 4 structure for its Radeon graphics. The structure has an enhanced reminiscence subsystem in comparison with the RDNA 3, in addition to improved scalar items, dynamic register allocation and elevated effectivity and clock speeds.
Its third-generation raytracing accelerators can generate twice as a lot raytracing per compute unit. The second era AI accelerators can generate eight occasions extra Int8 with Sparsity.
It has an enhanced media engine for 20% greater media high quality vs RDNA 3, and it has future-ready tech with help for PCIe Gen5, HDMI 2.1b and DisplayPort 2.1a.
AMD famous its chips drive probably the most iconic gaming gadgets, together with the PC, consoles just like the Xbox Sequence X/S and PlayStation 5, and Valve’s Steam Deck.
The corporate says its focuses on what avid gamers need, which is extra accessible GPUs. AMD’s knowledge reveals that 85% of avid gamers purchase GPUs that price lower than $700. It provides greater resolutions for gaming at 1440p and 4K shows, extra efficiency on raytracing, and straightforward upgrades.
Azor stated, “We actually designed the AI compute in RDNA 4 to allow FSR4. With FSR3 – and a couple of and 1, however actually with 3 – the constancy you see for a non-ML-based upscaling decision and body era answer–it’s in contrast to anything within the business. Nvidia wasn’t capable of do it. They’ve been utilizing machine studying all the time. We have been capable of get this far with an unimaginable high quality and constancy and efficiency enchancment with none machine studying. The advantage of that’s it really works ubiquitously on so many alternative playing cards, and it’ll proceed to be adopted by tons of video games. “
Pc makers adopting the playing cards embody Acer, ASRock, Asus, Gigabyte, PowerColor, Sapphire, XFX, Yeston and Huge Armor.
“We’re asserting formally that we’re specializing in the place 90% of avid gamers purchase their graphics playing cards, which is under $1,000. That’s our focus with RDNA 4,” Azor stated. “The market shouldn’t anticipate us to construct a card above $1,000. We wished to construct a gamer’s card, specializing in worth and delivering nice efficiency per greenback. RDNA 3, after we deviated from that, the market struggled with our worth proposition. Once we nailed that stuff with the 7800XT and 7900GRE, the market rewarded us. They valued what we have been doing there. We wish extra of these hits and fewer of these misses.”
He added, “Our technique with RDNA 4, we’ve centered on optimizing the portfolio, the structure, the know-how, the place we’re making our investments. You’re going to get an structure and a card that cater to the video games you like to play and that matter to you, not a bunch of fancy know-how demos.”
No matter what you choose, Azor stated it’s going to be a tremendous 12 months for PC graphics.
“It’s a really thrilling 12 months for PC gaming. One, we have now a graphics transition for all three corporations. That’s tremendous thrilling,” he stated. “That solely occurs each couple years. For all three corporations to do it on the identical time, that occurs each two to 3 years, but it surely’s cool that Intel is there too. They’re on the identical schedule for a refresh. They’ve discovered a superb place of their market. They’re concerning the entry. We’re going to be in the midst of the stack. Then you’ve Nvidia on the excessive finish of the stack. It’s a superb worth prop for all the business.”
So far as video games that may benefit from these playing cards, Azor stated there’s a lot coming. The titles which have already shipped embody Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, Indiana Jones and the Nice Circle, Civilization VII and extra. In 2025, there may be an opportunity we’ll see a PC model of Grand Theft Auto VI. We even have Avowed, South of Midnight, Murderer’s Creed: Shadows and extra.
