Jacob Roach / Digital TrendsTable of ContentsTable of ContentsAMD RX 9000 series: availabilityAMD Radeon RX 9000 series: specs and architectureAMD RX 9000 series: lineupAMDs RX 9000 series is right around the corner, and its 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 were 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. Heres everything you need to know about the RX 9000 series.Recommended VideosJacob Roach / Digital TrendsA year ago, many thought that wed see the RX 9000 series in 2024. Some were optimistic and speculated that AMD would launch it in the summer of 2024. That didnt happen, and now, we know for a fact when these cards will be announced but their release dates are still a subject of speculation.Get your weekly teardown of the tech behind PC gaming AMD is set to announce the RX 9000 series during its CES 2025 keynote, which will take place at 11 a.m. PT on January 6. Its currently unclear which cards will be announced, but most leakers agree that well see at least the presumed flagship RX 9070 XT, with perhaps the non-XT version or the more budget-friendly RX 9060 XT thrown into the mix.RelatedAs for availability, its anybodys guess right now. Its likely that the RX 9070 XT will be available by the end of January, although current reports say that itll be hard to come by until February.By all accounts, it seems like AMD will launch at least two to four GPUs under the RDNA 4 umbrella, and those cards are likely to be available within the first quarter of the year. For specifics, we have to wait until January 6 and possibly beyond, depending on which cards will be included in the first announcement.AMD RDNA 4Process nodeTSMC N4PArchitectureRDNA 4ChipNavi 48, Navi 44Memory typeGDDR6Maximum bus width256-bitMaximum clock speed3GHz-3.3GHzIt became clear very early on that AMD may not be trying to compete against the best of Nvidias RTX 50-series this time around. Various hardware leakers have been saying for well over a year that even AMDs flagship may only rival the likes of Nvidias upcoming RTX 5070, and this is reflected in the rumored specs for each card.AMDs senior vice president, Jack Huynh, spoke to Toms Hardware, pretty much confirming what leakers have been saying: AMDs plan for the RX 9000 series is to focus on the mainstream PC gaming market. Huynh said: Do I want to go after 10% of the total addressable market (TAM) or 80%? Im an 80% kind of guy because I dont want AMD to be the company that only people who can afford Porsches and Ferraris can buy. We want to build gaming systems for millions of users.This mindset implies that Nvidias two most high-end cards, the RTX 5080 and the RTX 5090, will not see any direct competition in this generation.Well dive into GPU-specific leaks below, but first, lets talk about what to expect from RDNA 4 as a whole.So far, it seems that the lineup itself might be pretty slim. Only two GPUs have been mentioned: Navi 48 and Navi 44. Some leakers, such as Moores Law Is Dead, claim that the flagship used to be Navi 41, which wouldve been capable of challenging at least Nvidias RTX 5080, but it is said to have been scrapped alongside the Navi 42. That leaves us with the Navi 48 as the flagship card and the Navi 44 as the mid-to-low-range option.AMD doesnt appear to be introducing any major architectural changes in RDNA 4. Hardware leakers, such as RedGamingTech, used to mention that AMD may be switching to an MCM design in RDNA 4. Those rumors have since gone quiet were likely looking at a monolithic die.Package sizes:Navi 23: 35 x 35mmNavi 44: 29 x 29 mm Everest (@Olrak29_) October 14, 2024According to Olrak29 on X, AMD may be reducing package sizes in the new generation by a considerable amount, scaling down to 29 x 29 millimeters for Navi 44 which is the smaller of the two GPUs. AMD is also likely to switch to a more efficient node, which most leakers currently expect to be the TSMC 4nm process (most likely the N4P).The company is said to be sticking to GDDR6 memory modules for reference, Nvidia has used GDDR6X in the RTX 40-series and will use GDDR7 in Blackwell. Kepler_L2, a known leaker, also claims that AMD may limit the bandwidth to 18Gbps, whereas Nvidias RTX 5080 might use faster 30Gbps modules. Again, AMD may have planned to use GDDR7 VRAM in the high-end portion of the lineup, which is most likely not going to make it to market.Only 18Gbps Kepler (@Kepler_L2) April 23, 2024On the upside, many leakers agree that AMDs focus may have been firmly on ray tracing with the RX 9000 series. We might see the introduction of more specialized ray tracing hardware that would help boost such workloads at a hardware level.AMD CEO Lisa Su also promised major gaming improvements in the new architecture. We know that improvements are subjective here, what with the flagship potentially not rivaling AMDs current top GPU, but its still possible that well see generational gains in that mainstream bracket.Confirmed, this is RX 9070 XT. Hoang Anh Phu (@AnhPhuH) December 23, 2024For many months, almost everyone expected AMDs next-gen lineup to be called the RX 8000 series. It made sense, as this wouldve followed the naming scheme that AMD had used since the RX 5000 series. Many myself included also thought that the flagship would be the RX 8800 XT, marking the step-down from the previous RX 7900 XTX.In December, that narrative changed. Many sources reported that the RDNA 4 lineup was now being referred to as the AMD RX 9000 (or RX 90) series, and the flagship was most likely going to be the RX 9070 XT. This is pretty sudden, as just a couple of weeks before the news broke, weve seen the RX 8800 XT mentioned in Seasonics power calculator.AMD may have had a last-minute name change, but the two GPUs have remained the same. Below, Ill talk about what we can expect from the RX 9070 XT and the RX 9060 XT.AMD Radeon RX 9070 XTJacob Roach / Digital TrendsThe Radeon RX 9070 XT is currently expected to be the star of the RDNA 4 lineup, and its also the GPU Im most excited about in 2025.Current leaks estimate that the RX 9070 XT will be based on the Navi 48 XTX GPU, and itll come with 4,096 cores. Its also said to feature 16GB of VRAM across a 256-bit bus, clocked at 18 to 20Gbps. The maximum memory bandwidth to expect from such a configuration is 640GB/s.The card is also said to offer an impressive maximum clock speed that may hit as high as 3.1GHz. All of this will be achieved at a total board power of roughly 260 watts, as per VideoCardz.These specs position the RX 9070 XT as a direct rival to cards like Nvidias RTX 5070, and early performance leaks do nothing to dispel that notion. Although many believed that AMD might deliver something along the lines of the Nvidia RTX 4080 (and some still believe that), it seems like a more conservative estimate is needed but performance leaks are really all over the place.For example, zhangzhonghao on the Chiphell forums recently shared that the RTX 4080 and the RX 9070 XT are within just 5% of each other. No matter which ones the winner in that equation, thatd be great news for the RX 9070 XT, but most leakers tend to disagree. Previous estimates pinpoint the RX 9070 XT at around the same level as the RX 7900 XT.This kind of performance level puts the RX 9070 XT in a difficult position, one where itll be forced to compete not just against cards like the RTX 4070 Super or the RTX 4070 Ti Super but also AMDs own RDNA 3 offerings. As a result, a lot of it will come down to pricing, which is still unknown at this stage.Many say that the card may cost up to $700, which would make sense given the fact that it might be marketed as a competitor to the RX 7900 XT. However, with the latter priced at $650 or less, it might be a hard sell for AMD. Its also possible that AMD may price the 9070 XT lower, in the $500 range, which would make it a great value offer, similar to the RX 7800 XT.This GPU is most likely to be the first to hit the market, with some availability expected before the end of January. AMD may also be working on an RX 9070 non-XT.AMD Radeon RX 9060 XTJacob Roach / Digital TrendsThe rumored RX 9060 XT is still a huge enigma. Its expected to be based on the Navi 44 GPU, which may, in turn, come in two flavors: one with a 192-bit bus, and the other with a 128-bit bus.We might be looking at a similar situation to what weve seen in the RX 7000 series, where AMD released an RX 7600 and an RX 7600 XT. The latter had twice the VRAM, sitting at a whopping 16GB, but still limited to a 128-bit memory bus. If the above leak is true, we might still see an RX 9060 with 8GB memory and an RX 9060 XT with 16GB, but the XT model might now get a wider, 192-bit interface.48 256 64 20 48 256 64 1848 192 48 1944 128 32 18 16 04 20 256 32 8533 04 02 64 6400 All The Watts!! (@All_The_Watts) August 28, 2024However, some leakers, such as All_The_Watts, only mention just one variant of the Navi 44. This same leaker revealed that the RX 9060 XT might come with 32 compute units (CUs) and 18Gbps of memory speed, which is the same as the RX 7600. However, architectural improvements between RDNA 3 and RDNA 4 should still hopefully provide the GPU with some sort of a boost, even if these specs check out.Availability for this card is expected around March this year. If the previous generations pricing is anything to go by, the RX 9060 XT should cost around $250 to $350.Editors Recommendations