Superior Micro Units is unveiling its Radeon RX 9000 Collection graphics chips.
The graphics playing cards will likely be accessible on March 6, 2025. They may go up towards some robust competitors within the type of Nvidia’s imminently transport GeForce RTX 50 Collection graphics playing cards, which CEO Jensen Huang unveiled with nice fanfare at CES 2025. AMD intends to compete in cheaper price bands towards Nvidia.
I spoke with Frank Azor, at AMD, in regards to the competitors throughout CES. In our interview, I requested who buys $2,800 graphics playing cards. Azor stated, “Energy to the individuals which might be. In my view, in the event you’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. For those who worth the stuff they put into that card, go for it.”
Azor added, “If we had been to construct a card like that, then they’d construct a $4,500 card. In some unspecified time in the future you must say, ‘What’s the sport we’re taking part in right here now?’ If 90% of players 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 embrace the AMD Radeon RX 9070 Collection, which 56 RDNA 4 compute models and 53.9 billion transistors. It could actually do 4K gaming at 1440p worth, 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 can even have an AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT graphics card with extra compute models and accelerators. The RX 9070 XT has 64 compute models, 64 HW RT accelerators and 128 HW AI accelerators. It could actually run at a lift clock of two.97 GHz and has 16GB of video reminiscence. The wattage is 304 watts.
The RX 9070 XT will likely 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 models, 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 instances 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 assist 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 Collection X/S and PlayStation 5, and Valve’s Steam Deck.
The corporate says its focuses on what players need, which is extra accessible GPUs. AMD’s information reveals that 85% of players purchase GPUs that value lower than $700. It presents greater resolutions for gaming at 1440p and 4K shows, extra efficiency on raytracing, and simple upgrades.
Azor stated, “We actually designed the AI compute in RDNA 4 to allow FSR4. With FSR3 – and a pair of and 1, however actually with 3 – the constancy you see for a non-ML-based upscaling decision and body era resolution–it’s in contrast to the rest within the business. Nvidia wasn’t in a position to do it. They’ve been utilizing machine studying your entire time. We had been in a position to get this far with an unimaginable high quality and constancy and efficiency enchancment with none machine studying. The good thing about that’s it really works ubiquitously on so many various playing cards, and it’ll proceed to be adopted by tons of video games. “
Pc makers adopting the playing cards embrace Acer, ASRock, Asus, Gigabyte, PowerColor, Sapphire, XFX, Yeston and Huge Armor.
“We’re saying formally that we’re specializing in the place 90% of players purchase their graphics playing cards, which is under $1,000. That’s our focus with RDNA 4,” Azor stated. “The market mustn’t count on us to construct a card above $1,000. We needed 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 price proposition. After we nailed that stuff with the 7800XT and 7900GRE, the market rewarded us. They valued what we had been doing there. We would like extra of these hits and fewer of these misses.”
He added, “Our technique with RDNA 4, we’ve targeted 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 decide, Azor stated it’s going to be a tremendous yr for PC graphics.
“It’s a really thrilling yr for PC gaming. One, we now have a graphics transition for all three firms. That’s tremendous thrilling,” he stated. “That solely occurs each couple years. For all three firms to do it on the identical time, that occurs each two to a few years, but it surely’s cool that Intel is there too. They’re on the identical schedule for a refresh. They’ve discovered a very good place of their market. They’re in regards to 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 very good worth prop for your entire 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 embrace Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, Indiana Jones and the Nice Circle, Civilization VII and extra. In 2025, there could be an opportunity we are going to see a PC model of Grand Theft Auto VI. We even have Avowed, South of Midnight, Murderer’s Creed: Shadows and extra.
