Monday, March 10th 2025
AMD's David McAfee Celebrates 25th Anniversary of Radeon Graphics Technology
This month, we at AMD celebrate two significant milestones in the Radeon story. First, the 25th anniversary of Radeon, a journey that began in 2000 with the ATI Radeon DDR card. Back then, 32 MB of VRAM, a 143 MHz clocks, and 30M transistors were cutting-edge tools that sparked your early adventures. Today, those specs are a nostalgic memory, dwarfed by the leaps we've made together culminating in the 24 GB of memory, multi-GHz clocks, and nearly 60B transistors of RDNA 3 cards driving the immersive worlds you now explore. But we're not stopping there. We're proud to continue that innovation journey with the RDNA 4-based Radeon RX 9070 XT and Radeon RX 9070, available starting today. This is more than a new chapter for us, it's a promise to you, the gamers who fuel our passion. We know what matters when you choose your next GPU: raw performance to conquer your favorite titles, tech that's ready for tomorrow's blockbusters, and value that respects your investment. That's precisely what RDNA 4 delivers.
Our goal with RDNA 4 wasn't to chase an elite crown few can reach. Instead, we focused on you, the heart of gaming, crafting cards that bring exceptional power to the setups most of you run. Compared to our last gen, RDNA 4 boosts raster performance for crisper, smoother visuals. Ray tracing throughput doubles, letting you soak in lifelike lighting and reflections without compromise. And with an 8x uplift in machine learning performance, we're unlocking new possibilities - like FSR 4, our latest leap in ML-based upscaling.
Integrated deeply into game engines, FSR 4 renders at 1080p and scales to 4K, delivering 3x to 4x higher frame rates with near-native quality. That means you can crank settings in your favorite games and still hit buttery-smooth FPS, all without sacrificing the details you love. We're launching with over 30 titles with FSR 4, games you're already playing, and we're on track for 75+ by year-end.
We designed the Radeon RX 9070 XT (starting at $599) and RX 9070 (starting at $549) to hit the sweet spot—each with 16 GB of GDDR6, next-level ray tracing, and awesome performance-per-dollar. These aren't just cards; they're your ticket to owning battlegrounds, from competitive esports to cinematic RPGs, without breaking the bank. Reflecting on 25 years, we're humbled by how far gaming has come—and how you've shaped it. RDNA 4 is our way of saying thank you: a GPU lineup that powers your victories, secures your future playtime, and fits your budget. Our engineers have poured their expertise into this moment, and we're thrilled to see it in your hands. Here's to the next 25 years of Radeon—and to every clutch moment, epic raid, and immersive story we'll share along the way.
Sources:
AMD Community, TechPowerUp Interview
Our goal with RDNA 4 wasn't to chase an elite crown few can reach. Instead, we focused on you, the heart of gaming, crafting cards that bring exceptional power to the setups most of you run. Compared to our last gen, RDNA 4 boosts raster performance for crisper, smoother visuals. Ray tracing throughput doubles, letting you soak in lifelike lighting and reflections without compromise. And with an 8x uplift in machine learning performance, we're unlocking new possibilities - like FSR 4, our latest leap in ML-based upscaling.
We designed the Radeon RX 9070 XT (starting at $599) and RX 9070 (starting at $549) to hit the sweet spot—each with 16 GB of GDDR6, next-level ray tracing, and awesome performance-per-dollar. These aren't just cards; they're your ticket to owning battlegrounds, from competitive esports to cinematic RPGs, without breaking the bank. Reflecting on 25 years, we're humbled by how far gaming has come—and how you've shaped it. RDNA 4 is our way of saying thank you: a GPU lineup that powers your victories, secures your future playtime, and fits your budget. Our engineers have poured their expertise into this moment, and we're thrilled to see it in your hands. Here's to the next 25 years of Radeon—and to every clutch moment, epic raid, and immersive story we'll share along the way.
58 Comments on AMD's David McAfee Celebrates 25th Anniversary of Radeon Graphics Technology
Blame Raja?
www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/sapphire-pulse-rx-9070-xt.b12275
Red Devil models have consistently required PSUs with capacities well beyond what is actually necessary; www.powercolor.com/product-detail115.htm
I don't mind, since quality PSUs are fairly affordable. It's wise to choose one with a higher capacity, as it ensures longevity and prepares you for future upgrades.
Radeon group posted their highest profits during the early PS5 & RDNA2 era. This can be seen in their financial reports.
*and* (in the same statement) bringing up the 24GB XTX, while celebrating their newest 16GB card...
If AMD is not actively baiting (and building) upon the 32GB and XTX(H) Navi48 rumors, then they're hilariously obtuse. :laugh:
The 2700X had a 50th anniversary as well; with nothing special added to the table other then a 50th brand.
Oh wait, it totally was!That's a hot, hot take (and Raja's attitude across his many positions and product history prove otherwise).
The lineage and soul of the AMD GPG, and certainly ATi as most knew them, stems back to ArtX (former SGI employees), imo, which contributions truly led to the change from Rage to Radeon as we know it.
It was many people like Dave Orton, Eric Demers, and others (some still there, but most gone afaik) that brought about, and forward, the philosophy that largely continues with AMD GPG to this day, imo.
I wish I had a list of the Artx employees that were absorbed into ATi (and then some later into AMD), as I don't recall every single one at this moment.
If I showed you all their innovations and methodologies that went into some of the products people have loved over the years you would be stunned how many of them stem from mainly those people.
If I showed you that list, you'd realize they created the Radeon philosophy. It is a very small group of incredibly talented people (not to say others haven't and don't continue to contribute greatly to this day).
It was something like a dozen people or so.Yeah, that's very much appears to be happening. How that chip/card are going to handle ~525W I do not know, but I guess we're probably to find out. I can only imagine if that thing can boost to ~3.9ghz.
I just want to know if they're going to undercut the 5070ti with stock RT performance of a 5080 (and enough ram not to suck at 1440pRT/4k raster). That would be very cool, and very much Radeon. :love:+3000. I've wanted to talk about this for a while, so I'm glad you brought it up.
I think Ruby embodied Radeon so perfectly. I miss it soooo much. I know female mascots in that fashion became passe for a while, but they really should bring her back. I think today's audience would love it.
For nostalgia, if nothing else. Or, you know, the younger generation embracing the older generations nostalgia and finding a way to connect.
I also think it would do their branding, and maybe even morale, a lot of good. There's just something so special about Ruby; I don't know if it's the scrappy nature, attitude, lineage you can follow or what. IYKYK.
It also contrasted with Dawn (the nVIDIA fairy) so incredibly perfectly. Are you corporate shine or are you an underdog rebel?
I don't promote brand wars, but to me that character really embodied being part of something; a group sharing similar attitude/methodology, and something you could celebrate when owning their products.
I still think they *want* people to think of Radeon that way, so I can't think of a better way to do it than to bring back Ruby and help solidify that branding in a more grandiose fashion.
I feel like today's generation would *get* it in a way we used to and that maybe got lost for a while (and why they stopped doing it).
Ruby was a mascot; a very cool thing that embodied Radeon's attitude. It was an expression of joy and an outlet for the hard edge of creating and understanding the technology.
It wasn't ever about selling sex or anything like that, which is why I think it stopped (it got associated with 'booth babe' culture), at least not to me. I think the current public would understand and embrace that.
Some may take it further, but that's the irony of life; let them. People will do that with anything if they're extremely passionate about it, for the rest of us we can just enjoy a cool tech demo. :)
I don't think AMD understands this, but sometimes you do things like sell a Ruby body pillow in the store bc that's just how current culture is. I just want a key chain, maybe a figurine, but some want a body pillow.
Or, again, just a tech demo.
But oh oh, no don't blame the man, he did great work achieving a slow decline over several decades, yeah. You have got to be kidding me. Strategical flip-flopping every 2-3 generations, below the belt marketing that keeps backfiring on AMD... Rebrandeon...
Now... look at where RDNA is positioned today... effectively on par with Nvidia if you discount the ridiculously large chips.
And it's a bit early to declare victory, RDNA 4 is a good product for once, now to drill that onto the consumer's mind will take execution and timing. I do have faith though.
I'm gonna die on this hill, Raja did nothing wrong lol :toast:
There were some neat products beforehand (like the AIWs), but that's just wrong. Do you actually know anything about these companies?
Dave: good. Raja: bad. Eric: good. Raja: bad. Lots of countless other engineers/officers good. Raja bad. Now they are fixing the damage his decisions made to the brand, and it isn't the first time.
Vayra is kinda-sorta correct, as far as I know (and that is quite a bit, although obviously I don't know and/or remember every specific detail).
Raja is not a stupid person; he absolutely made positive contributions to some products. But as a leader/decision-maker he was not successful, and made provably poor choices for their markets.
This was proven not only by the what came out of AMD from him, but also Intel.
He literally got....he 'left' both those companies under questionable circumstances. This is not what you do with people that are helping your brand or successfully completing their goals.
Many of the people I am mentioning left of their own accord, but unfortunately some of them also got caught in layoffs/bad restructuring ideas at misc moments as well, which is a bummer.
I don't think it was really their fault, though, as over the years there have been many times AMD was in a world of hurt and other times they took RTG for granted, as well.
That's not important to this thread, though. It's about celebrating 25 years of Radeon. I have the last Rage and *had* the first Radeon; should have kept them all...only kept the Fury MAXX (bc weird).
I absolutely should have kept my 9500/9700/9800 pros, and will always feel stupid that I didn't. I think I sold each one for the other though.
Then sold that for an X800XL that was absolutely not a review sample that shouldn't have been sold, so I guess that explains that. Yep, long-time Radeon user. RV670/770, Barts, Pitcairn...lots of stuff.
Then I eventually bought a 970 with fucked up ram/bus, and it eventually almost burned down my house. Went mostly back to Radeon after that, but obviously buy what makes sense (which is usually a Radeon).100000000% accurate. I don't know the man, but this is what history tells us.
Now THAT would be how you create something special.
Fascinating designs, Fiji and Vega. Really, many of them are. Even Navi 3 is, imho.
That doesn't mean every single one was the all-out-best product in the market at the time, and sometimes they were good options simply due to (comparative) pricing, but one cannot say they weren't innovative.
Certainly forward-thinking wrt relative bandwidth concerns and saving space on the die (from adding too much cache), etc. It's decisions like this, even if not the *most* performative, that show their strengths.
It keeps costs down while using whatever is available to them to get the performance that is required into a product. You may say Navi 3 didn't have the greatest RT, or ML wasn't ready, or didn't hit high clocks.
That is all fair. But they still made good GPUs that accomplished their goal for relative raster markets of 1080p, 1440p, and 4k at good pricing. That is due to those decisions (and perhaps sometimes concessions).
Concessions I would argue were fair (lower prices bc not having features that many haven't really needed or weren't using up until this point).
I personally think they nailed it with 9070 XT. Even more-so if prices stay in-check and/or eventually decline to the 7800xt/gre market. That's a great product for that budget tier (right now). RT/FSR4 included.
If so, then you must re-apply that profile when installing new drivers.
Also, there's always a chance something goes wrong with an update, it's software after all and it isn't immune to everything. Trying a clean driver install could help.
Fill out your PC specs, open a thread and we're glad to help :)
25.3.1 working normaly on wife's 6650 XT, my 6800 XT and a mates 7900 XTX.
Never had any issues with ATI/AMD cards and I've had plenty:
Rage Pro 128,
8500,
9600 Pro,
X1650 Pro (the AGP one),
6600 GT,
8800 GT,
GTX 260,
GTX 460 (cheap LC Power PSU blew up on this one and took the GPU with it, got a free replacement from MSI),
R9 270X,
R9 290X,
RX Vega 56 (BIOS-flashed to 64 and overclocked to heavens),
RX 6800 XT (MPT and OC to 340W).
That’s absolutely wrong!!! We want availability at MSRP and MSRPs that reflect the true performance level of the GPU and not how much money you can get.
Anyway, cheers for many more years of Linux gaming and open-source technologies! :toast: