AMD Sets March Launch Window for Radeon RX 9070 XT & 9070 Graphics Cards

[T0@st]

AMD has finally made an official announcement regarding the much anticipated launch of RDNA 4 graphics cards. The first wave of next-generation models—Radeon RX 9070 XT and 9070 (non-XT)—are lined up for a loose "around March" release, thus conforming to recent company statements that pointed to a first quarter (of 2025) rollout. The rumor mill had Team Red strategizing a launch for later this month—potentially beating NVIDIA to the next-gen GPU punch, but "price hurdles" and other factors have allegedly contributed to a revision of tactics.

Yesterday, David McAfee—Vice President and General Manager of Ryzen and Radeon products—ended speculation with a social media post: "Radeon 9000 series hardware and software are looking great, and we are planning to have a wide assortment of cards available globally. Can't wait for gamers to get their hands on the cards when they go on sale in March!" Hardcore PC hardware enthusiasts will likely be left confused by this fresh proclamation—a steady flow of January leaks have provided evidence of Navi 48 GPU-based products sitting in retail storage facilities, unboxing of certain partner models, and insiders playtesting early samples. Industry watchdogs posit that AMD's "aggressive pricing approach" has rubbed retailers the wrong way—the extra wiggle room could be spent on negotiating wholesale costs.



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[Chaitanya]

After excellent Arc B series launch by Intel, this is turning into a shambolic display from Radeon division.

 

[nguyen]

Looks like AMD strategy is competing with Nvidia in storage space, retailers can't stock up RTX if they have storage full of Radeon

 

[Event Horizon]

If it's delayed till March there better be excellent availability when it does launch.

 

[windwhirl]

If it's delayed till March there better be excellent availability when it does launch.

In the meantime, if there are any stock problems with 5070/5070 Ti, this is only gonna make it worse.

 

[Sabotaged_Enigma]

Terrible effort... They should've been more determined to slash the price down if they really want to compete in the market, or just at least sell enough cards.
I was very interested in Navi 48, but when I know the target power I no longer am. Now I more want to see Navi 44...

 

[freeagent]

They need to hire me, I have some idears.

 

[Broudka]

If it's delayed till March there better be excellent availability when it does launch.

Too late, buyers will have moved to Nvidia.

 

[Cr4zy]

AMDs ability to launch products is terrible. Feels like all their departments are on different timelines. Feel like they're competing more with their own marketing department than their actual competitors.

 

[colossusrageblack]

I'm guessing AMD's moves are predicated on what Nvidia has done which is price the 5070 at $549 and make multi frame gen a bigger deal than it is. My guess is they are stalling to get their software to do multi frame gen with FSR4, that way they can come out and say "we also have frame gen" and are also faster than a 4090. I also think the price point has them rethinking their own prices. I believe they are also banking on Nvidia having a paper launch at least until March, so anyone wanting a 5070 or 5070Ti will have a hard time getting one for a while. However, that's a big gamble. Anyone who was ready to upgrade this gen and finds a 5070 or 5070 Ti will just go for it and not bother waiting to see what AMD is preparing.

 

[bug]

Weren't the launches supposed to move forward to dodge the upcoming import tariffs? This is going to be interesting.

 

[Daven]

AMDs ability to launch products is terrible. Feels like all their departments are on different timelines. Feel like they're competing more with their own marketing department than their actual competitors.

AMDs discrete GPU department is the smallest in the company based on revenue figures. They released so many mobile SoCs and desktop CPUs at CES that in combination with continual Instinct data center GPU efforts, I'm guessing these GPUs get low, low priority.

Weren't the launches supposed to move forward to dodge the upcoming import tariffs? This is going to be interesting.

Tariffs are charged at the ship loading docks as goods are offloaded. So AMD moved shipments from the fabs/packaging companies forward and are already here so no tariffs. AMD just won't let the stores sell them yet.

 

[Pax256]

Wondering if this strategy of later release is related to tariffs. Nvidia gets to sell its batch of cards before tariffs hit then has to hike prices by 10-25% past a certain date for future batches but AMD has a batch of tariff free gpus it can sell after March to make a good splurge in the market... Plus it has more time to work on drivers and enabling features for the release or soon after.

 

[eidairaman1]

They need to hire me, I have some idears.

Find an application form and send them your resume

 

[freeagent]

Find an application form and send them your resume

Lol I didn't finish high school, I am sure there are more qualified people than I

 

[dir_d]

I'm guessing this has to do with them wanting to see the 5070 final numbers so they can adjust somethings or maybe FSR4. I would rather them just make the XT $499 and put the card out they have now, on the clocks they have now. If FSR4 isn't ready, that's ok, the card is $499 and it can run FSR 3.1 until then. Waiting till March when cards are already at retailers is not a smart move. Makes it seem like you have no clue what you are doing.

 

[SRB151]

It's quite possible that their problem is a bit less intrigue and more about simple issues. While there are multiple reasons that could be at issue (Problems with FSR4, bug found in cards, not enough stock for a proper launch (Nvidia seems low as well), etc., I think they have a bigger problem. While the raster performance of RDNA3 was in the ballpark to sell, It's obvious that most reviewers as well as Nvidia have done a great job of selling the image enhancement software so that a lot of buyers view it as more important than the actual card performance. Especially when the card performance is within a few points here or there, Nvida not only outsells 5 to 1, but gets a premium. I don't think AMD got caught flat footed about this and have a boatload of RDNA 3 GPU's to offload. If you release RDNA 4 and FSR4 next week, the only way to clear out the old chips is with a fire sale at a huge loss. Especially the MCM 7800 and 7900 chips.

In other words, their trying to manage their losses. Imagine what the stock market would do if they took a huge hit (even if it is one time) to their earnings. The stock market is no longer concerned with how any one company does, and AMD is already getting killed because Nvidia is so far ahead in AI, not because they're performing badly. And one bad quaartly result would have the stock worth less that it was 2 years ago, despite consistant growth.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

Such a terrible launch. Finally weeks after CES we get a tentative release month.....still no official performance or power numbers, or even a price.

JFC AMD, fire your ENTIRE marketing team, NOW. And most of your RTG management team. These people are dead weight. Nvidia is going to have sold hundreds of thousands of 5070s and 5080s by the time you pull your head from your collective anus and figure out how to launch a GPU.

Lol I didn't finish high school, I am sure there are more qualified people than I

Oh dont worry about it! School is, frankly, for the lowest common denominator these days. What with major public school systems graduating students with sub 10% literacy rates and all....

I remember being bored stiff in school. Learning a smattering of garbage that has 0 relevance to my life as an adult, whereas the stuff I looked into on my own time determined my career and success. I was qualified at 17 to hold a full time job and start my career. HS was more of a formality, the public schools are glorified babysitting services for teenagers, little actual learning takes place. Even if we didnt have the issues of imbecile parents and enablement and victimhood mentalities ruining entire generations of kids, I can assure you that you are more then likely smarter than most of your teachers. In my experience the actual good teachers dont last long before getting fed up.

You'd undoubtably do a better job then the clowns at AMD.

 

[The Shield]

Too late.

 

[Macro Device]

Lol I didn't finish high school, I am sure there are more qualified people than I

You know what a high school is. You are rather overqualified.

 

[Mysteoa]

To me, it looked like the cards will be out in January, and I think AMD lead me to believe this is the case. But if they did, who are they competing against, the RTX 5090? No, it is the RTX 5070/Ti which is not out until sometime in February.

Also, it doesn't look like FSR4 is ready. In their place, after seeing DLSS4, I would make sure there is some FSR4 for comparison and RTX 5070 out. This way they will get best first benchmarks that will stay up for long time.

 

[bug]

Tariffs are charged at the ship loading docks as goods are offloaded. So AMD moved shipments from the fabs/packaging companies forward and are already here so no tariffs. AMD just won't let the stores sell them yet.

Wow! The more I read, the weirder this gets.

I know nobody asked, but my money is on: Nvidia blindsided AMD and now they have to sell the 9070XT at cost. Or worse.

 

[Chane]

I was excited to hear the several stores were already getting stock on warehouse shelves. I was not expecting AMD to hold sale until March. My assumption is that there is a software, logistics hold up. Perhaps a change to the power/boost tables in the BIOS that they need to worry about deploying in the initial driver release. Bummer... Glass half-empty, January is almost over and February is a short month. Hopefully performance reviews can be released much earlier.

 

[RUSerious]

Too late, buyers will have moved to Nvidia.

Well, given AMD's market share in dGPU sales, it's already late for them. The restructuring of AMD's compute and consumer graphics groups started ~2 years ago. The main focus in on AI GPUs, despite what some AMD representatives say. Maybe by UDNA 6, AMD will have enough resources to take on NV, but in the near term the company have no choice but to pursue the highly profitable 'AI/ML' market with a laser focus and all available resources to compete with cash rich Nvidia. Sad to say this though.

 

[ThomasK]

So, a bunch of kids are mad because of the launch date, but they weren't going to purchase the product to begin with.

Get a life.