It is not unusual for an abundance of leaks and rumors to drop whereas main into a serious occasion like CES 2025, and that is precisely what occurred relating to AMD’s RDNA 4 graphics cards.
All the things from naming schemes to potential designs had been popping up, and plenty of rumors finally grew to become truth once I acquired AMD’s CES press bundle relating to its new Radeon GPUs for 2025. All main publications acquired the identical Radeon information forward of AMD’s presentation, and we had been all left scratching our heads when there was no on-stage point out of RDNA 4.
What occurred on AMD’s facet, and why am I rethinking my determination to improve to NVIDIA’s upcoming RTX 5070?
Why did AMD pull its RDNA 4 GPU presentation on the final second?
Tom’s Hardware’s Paul Alcorn spoke with AMD execs David McAfee and Frank Azor following the corporate’s CES presentation. McAfee gave assurances that RDNA 4 is on monitor by way of improvement and expectations, blaming the dearth of dwell protection on the CES presentation’s 45-minute restrict. Azor additionally famous that AMD needed to see what NVIDIA had to demonstrate at its CES keynote, which turned out to be RTX 5000 GPUs from the “Blackwell” structure.
I watched NVIDIA’s keynote speech dwell, and when it was introduced that the $549 RTX 5070 might match the facility of a much more costly RTX 4090, I earmarked the upcoming GPU as the following piece of {hardware} going into my gaming PC.
Because the hype from NVIDIA’s presentation died down, it grew to become clear that plenty of PC fans weren’t too enthusiastic about NVIDIA’s efficiency claims. Positive, the RTX 5070 is an enchancment over the earlier “Ada” era, however the entire “as highly effective as an RTX 4090” leans closely into AI upscaling and the brand new DLSS 4.
The RTX 5070 is much from matching the RTX 4090 by way of uncooked {hardware} energy, plus it has half of the VRAM at 12GB (although it’s GDDR7 in comparison with GDDR6X). NVIDIA does declare that its improve to DLSS 4 will decrease VRAM calls for, however by how a lot stays to be seen. Contemplating the RTX 4060 with 8GB of VRAM gets walloped by new games like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, having as a lot VRAM as doable in your GPU does not appear to be a nasty thought as we wade into 2025.
Now that we’re on the opposite facet of CES 2025, extra new leaks and rumors involving AMD’s next-gen RDNA 4 GPUs have been popping up. If AMD can comply with by means of when it formally publicizes Radeon RX 9000-series playing cards, I is perhaps conserving my all-AMD PC intact.
The official RDNA 4 information from AMD
As I wrote in a submit highlighting the announcement of the Ryzen 9 9950X3D and RDNA 4 GPUs, AMD made its Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 GPUs official in a CES press launch. The corporate famous that the brand new RDNA 4 structure provides enhancements for compute unit optimization, IPC and clock frequency, AI compute structure, and media encode/decode engines.
The 4nm RDNA 4 structure has second-gen AI accelerators, third-gen ray tracing accelerators, and a second-gen Radiance Show engine. These new AI accelerators appear to be a giant key right here, as AMD additionally revealed its new FidelityFX Tremendous Decision 4 (FSR 4) upscaling know-how.
Slightly than persevering with to depend on spatial upscaling algorithms a la FSR 3, the brand new FSR 4 makes the change to machine studying identical to NVIDIA’s DLSS. From the press launch, AMD says it is made “dramatic enhancements by way of efficiency and high quality in comparison with prior generations.”
{Hardware} Unboxed created a fantastic video from the CES 2025 showroom detailing the variations between FSR 3.1 and FSR 4. With the idea that the demo was working two prototype variations of the flagship Radeon RX 9070 XT, it shortly turns into clear that AMD is not bluffing with its efficiency claims.
FSR 3 is notoriously dangerous at offering small however high-quality particulars, particularly in fast-moving scenes. These difficulties turn into extra pronounced as you elevate the display’s decision. The AMD demo, nonetheless, appears to have alleviated a lot of these points. Even background particulars are extra pronounced and clear when utilizing FSR 4. This demo supplied by {Hardware} Unboxed may be very restricted, however it’s promising.
Other than a slide explaining why AMD selected to change up its GPU naming conference — an effort to align the newest GPUs with the newest Ryzen CPUs and NVIDIA’s personal branding — that is about all of the official info we’ve from AMD.
Publish-CES leaks have me reconsidering my RTX 5070 determination
From my perspective, AMD’s last-minute pull of its RDNA 4 announcement is sensible. It knew that NVIDIA can be stealing plenty of the GPU information area with its RTX 5000 announcement, and I would wager that AMD has gained some further protection with its RDNA 4 no-show.
My private gaming PC lately acquired a brand new Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor (together with a brand new motherboard and reminiscence), and the Radeon RX 6800 GPU inside is now subsequent on the record of upgrades.
I had it in thoughts that I would be switching to NVIDIA for this era, totally on the again of DLSS and the truth that AMD actually did not have something to compete on the stage of efficiency I need, however that continues to alter as new leaks and rumors come out within the wake of CES.
Some of the current leaks, reported by Videocardz, pegs the RX 9070 XT close to the identical stage because the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER in Cyberpunk 2077 and Black Delusion: Wukong. Extra attention-grabbing is the truth that the leaks cowl FHD, QHD, and 4K resolutions, in addition to these video games being optimized for NVIDIA.
In one other leak reported by Videocardz, somebody on the Chiphell discussion board posted a screenshot of what’s assumedly the RX 9070 XT, sporting 16GB of GDDR6 VRAM and a 329W TGP.
Contemplating I plan on utilizing the Ryzen 7 9800X3D for years to come back, dipping once more right into a full AMD construct — with extra advantages coming from AMD’s Infinity Cache tech — retains getting extra interesting. Now I simply have to attend and see what the brand new RDNA 4 GPUs will price earlier than I make a last determination.
