Long-awaited after the launch of competitor NVIDIA's new GeForce, AMD is preparing its release.
All PC gamers were expecting an announcement at CES 2025 in Las Vegas at the beginning of January, but there was no announcement. AMD preferred to let NVIDIA proceed quietly with the launch of its GeForce RTX 50 series "Blackwell" to prepare its riposte, and it wasn't until February 28 that a formal presentation took place. David McAfee, vice-president and general manager of AMD's Ryzen CPU and Radeon Graphics division, was one of the main hosts of the presentation, which finally confirmed the Radeon RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT, along with their new features, release date and price.
RDNA 4 and the 25th anniversary of the Radeon brand © AMD
Right from the start, we notice that AMD is very aggressive on the pricing front, perhaps to take advantage of NVIDIA's supply problems: the Radeon RX 9070 XT will be sold " from $599 ", while the model below it, the Radeon RX 9070, will be " from $549 ". In both cases, it's important to point out that actual prices will depend on the goodwill of AMD's partners, since the American firm has no plans to launch cards in its own name. Once again, these are indicative prices, and when you consider the scandal surrounding the launch of the GeForce RTX 50 series, it's cause for concern.
Particularly attractive prices, if confirmed © AMD
AMD is also taking advantage of these prices to talk about " 4K gaming at the price of a 1440p card ", with its own previous-generation Radeon RX 7900 GRE in the company's sights. Indeed, the latter had the same launch price as the Radeon RX 9070 XT, but AMD claims 21% higher performance for the RX 9070 vs. this RX 7900 GRE, while the gap climbs to 42% in favor of the RX 9070 XT. In all cases, we're talking about average performance on a panel of around 30 games at 3840 x 2160 with ultra graphics detail.
Radeon RX 9070 in March, RX 9060 by the end of June © AMD
Enhancement technologies are more popular than ever, and while NVIDIA took advantage of the launch of the GeForce RTX 50 series to announce DLSS 4, AMD had to bring FSR 4 into the picture. Even if the technology is less ambitious, progress looks set to be major for AMD, which should also improve ray tracing support. Last but not least, the brand also made a little Apple-style " one more thing ": at the end of the presentation, David McAfeea took the floor to announce the release of lower-end models - the Radeon RX 9060 and RX 9060 XT - before the start of summer. Given that the RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT will be available on March 6, this gives AMD a bit of time.
