Micro Center Lists PowerColor Radeon RX 9070 XT Red Devil L.E. with "PCIe 5.0" Interface

[T0@st]

Upcoming AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 (non-XT) graphics card specification sheets remain under wraps; we will very likely be presented with the full kibosh on February 28. Throughout early 2025, Team Red and its board partners have divulged very little. Instead, PC hardware news outlets have depended on a steady flow of leaked information. The opening round of Team Red RDNA 4 models have been comprehensively linked to PCIe 4.0 connection standards, but recent anomalies have appeared online. Contradictory spec info arrived late last week, courtesy of a leaker having pre-release access to an allegedly very high-end custom design. The validity of an uploaded GPU-Z session screenshot was questioned by the PC gaming hardware community; the detected candidate card seemed to be connected via a PCI-Express 5.0 x16 bus interface. VideoCardz has stumbled upon additional evidence—their weekend reporting activities pointed to a compelling new product listing on the Micro Center website.

The North American e-tailer's webstore features a "PowerColor AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT Red Devil Limited Edition Overclocked Triple Fan 16 GB GDDR6 PCIe 5.0 Graphics Card." Micro Center's threadbare product page is devoid of promotional images/renders, in-depth technical details or specifications. The "no longer available" special edition package has an SKU assignment code of 796672, and a manufacturer part number read-out of LERX9070XT16GEO. VideoCardz reached out to their "inside source" at PowerColor for research purposes. The company mole confirmed that the PCIe 5.0 spec point is genuine. The leaked photo of "Red Devil packaging" did not reveal any PCIe interface-related info. The publication reckons that the PowerColor Radeon RX 9070 XT Red Devil model's interface "matches the appearance of the PCIe 5.0 standard," as seen on the new generation of NVIDIA RTX 50-series graphics cards. Looking back into recent history, Intel dropped initial plans for PCIe 5.0 connectivity with Arc "Battlemage" graphics cards. The B580 and B570 models have arrived at retail with bog-standard PCIe 4.0 x8 bus interfaces.



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[Assimilator]

Would make sense given that their own motherboards have been PCIe 5.0 for a while.

 

[Onasi]

I am actually curious - since there doesn’t seem to be any performance loss with Gen 5 vs 4 even with a 5090, which kinda shows that more PCI-e bandwidth isn’t needed, would it have been a smarter choice economically for AMD to go with Gen 4? Would it save a noticeable amount on PCB design for them and AIBs or would it have been negligible?

 

[Assimilator]

I am actually curious - since there doesn’t seem to be any performance loss with Gen 5 vs 4 even with a 5090, which kinda shows that more PCI-e bandwidth isn’t needed, would it have been a smarter choice economically for AMD to go with Gen 4? Would it save a noticeable amount on PCB design for them and AIBs or would it have been negligible?

Manufacturers already know that gen5 offers no real benefit over gen4 for consumers, it's just a willy-waving contest, so it could be as simple as AMD doing it for nothing more than marketing purposes.

 

[Wasteland]

I am actually curious - since there doesn’t seem to be any performance loss with Gen 5 vs 4 even with a 5090, which kinda shows that more PCI-e bandwidth isn’t needed, would it have been a smarter choice economically for AMD to go with Gen 4? Would it save a noticeable amount on PCB design for them and AIBs or would it have been negligible?

Yeah, pretty sick of PCie 5.0 in general. I was pleased to see that 5.0 SSDs went over like a wet fart--what they offer the consumer is basically unvarnished downside, more cost and more heat in return for an entirely hypothetical performance uplift. The story is similar for motherboards, which have skyrocketed in price. On the GPU side, PCie 5.0 may or may not correspond to higher prices, but either way I'm suspicious that PCie 5.0's extra bandwidth will provide an excuse for manufacturers to double down on their recently resurgent habit of cutting lanes. No one has reason to care if his motherboard only supports a GPU running at PCie 4.0x16 (or even 3.0x16 in many cases), but he might care if GPU manufacturers helpfully cut that down to x8 or x4.

 

[PixelTech]

Woah, in that the article's photo the GPU die looks to be closer to the PCIe slot then normal.

 

[Redwoodz]

Yeah, pretty sick of PCie 5.0 in general. I was pleased to see that 5.0 SSDs went over like a wet fart--what they offer the consumer is basically unvarnished downside, more cost and more heat in return for an entirely hypothetical performance uplift. The story is similar for motherboards, which have skyrocketed in price. On the GPU side, PCie 5.0 may or may not correspond to higher prices, but either way I'm suspicious that PCie 5.0's extra bandwidth will provide an excuse for manufacturers to double down on their recently resurgent habit of cutting lanes. No one has reason to care if his motherboard only supports a GPU running at PCie 4.0x16 (or even 3.0x16 in many cases), but he might care if GPU manufacturers helpfully cut that down to x8 or x4.

I'm not too familiar with the facts, but wouldn't it possibly free up more connectivity in total if they use reduced lanes?

 

[Space Lynx]

Woah, in that the article's photo the GPU die looks to be closer to the PCIe slot then normal.

your right, that is kind of strange

 

[LabRat 891]

Woah, in that the article's photo the GPU die looks to be closer to the PCIe slot then normal.

your right, that is kind of strange

Makes sense for Gen5 connectivity. Shorter traces, better signal integrity. 'Wonder if that'll leave the card more 'riser friendly' (on Gen4), too?

Edit: related reading I stumbled upon later in my day.

https://blog.samtec.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/04_15_2021_successful_PCIe_interconnect_guidelines.pdf

 

[Guwapo77]

Virtually every upgrade we hear the same thing, there is no benefit of the upgrade when it first comes out. As tech advances, so will the requirement for more bandwidth. I'm happy for PCI 5.0 and in time, we will have a graphics card that will utilize the space.

 

[LabRat 891]

Virtually every upgrade we hear the same thing, there is no benefit of the upgrade when it first comes out. As tech advances, so will the requirement for more bandwidth. I'm happy for PCI 5.0 and in time, we will have a graphics card that will utilize the space.

Reminds me of the opening era of AMD64. "You don't need no stinkin' 64-Bit CPU! Nothing even runs on it."


TBF though, even Gen4x8 cards ran @ Gen3 don't see a lot of average performance loss.
-I do wonder how 0.1% and 1% lows will be affected (Gen5x16 vs. Gen4x16 vs. Gen3x16 on Navi4x)

 

[Guwapo77]

Oh man, I remember that big time, software took forever to jump on board. My first computer had a simple PCI slot and folks were like, I'm not upgrading to AGP, there is no need for it.

 

[Veseleil]

I am actually curious - since there doesn’t seem to be any performance loss with Gen 5 vs 4 even with a 5090, which kinda shows that more PCI-e bandwidth isn’t needed, would it have been a smarter choice economically for AMD to go with Gen 4? Would it save a noticeable amount on PCB design for them and AIBs or would it have been negligible?

It might prove beneficial for an AI application in the near future. They wouldn't add the feature just to serve as a bragging right I'm sure of it.
And all that talk about 32GB versions is kinda hinting this card could become an AI workhorse for the masses. The latest pricing rumors are also contributing to this theory.

Woah, in that the article's photo the GPU die looks to be closer to the PCIe slot then normal.

They're all like that if you pay attention (9070xt's).

All in all, we're witnessing probably the most awkward gpu launch in the history.