The Chiphell forum has provided a steady flow of AMD RDNA 4-related leaks—going back to early December; members believed that "Radeon RX 8800 XT" GPUs were imminently entering into a mass production phase. Since then, Team Red and board partners have officially revealed a full deck of Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 models—complete with a "modernized" naming scheme. By Christmas (2024), insiders appeared to have working units in their clutches—denizens of Chiphell have continued to dole out pre-release info; even deep into launch week. UNIKO's Hardware picked up on the latest signals; with owners of unnamed custom Radeon RX 9070 XT cards: "calling out bad cooling on GDDR6 VRAM."

As highlighted by Wccftech, NDA-busting disclosures have alluded to commendable GPU thermal measurements—when driven at full load—but several leakers have noted less than stellar results from VRAM temperature readings. Chiphell-sourced GPU-Z screenshots indicate a maximum recorded VRAM temperature of 94℃, with the involved GPU's hotspot hitting a top temp of 79°C. This leaked candidate seems to be a 329 W TBP-rated model. Wccftech observed inconsistencies with the other evaluated sample: "under full load, the GPU temperature at the hot spot reaches a max of 63°C but the memory temperature touches 88°C. The surprising thing to note in the first case is that the TBP is only 237 W, which seems weird considering the Radeon RX 9070 XT (reference spec) starts at a TBP of 260 W. This might be a bug...The user has confirmed that the first one isn't the RX 9070 as one would think, but it is the RX 9070 XT as well." The "guided" upper limit for newer VRAM standards is 95°C, so one of the anonymous custom cards is dancing dangerously in close proximity to the proverbial flame. Certain hardware news outlets reckon that GDDR6X memory will succumb to damage once a 120°C ceiling is hit. Hopefully, these issues are limited to a handful of review samples—a couple of AMD's trusted board partners have opted for Honeywell PTM7950 thermal pads and robust heatpipe formations. Stay tuned to TechPowerUp for W1zzard's incoming RDNA 4-related verdicts.

It turns out that the Radeon RX 8800 XT, the top SKU in AMD's next generation gaming GPU series, is actually named the Radeon RX 9070 XT. European computer hardware retailer may have leaked the name, along with that of the Radeon RX 9070 (non-XT), ahead of its January 2025 reveal. The two cards appeared in the store's search filters, where it was screengrabbed by enthusiasts. The RX 9070 XT is what was supposed to be the RX 8800 XT; while the RX 9070 is the RX 8800. Extrapolating this, the series could include the RX 9060 series, the RX 9050 series, and the RX 9040 series, says All The Watts.

What prompted this change in nomenclature probably has to do with the company's decision to withdraw from the enthusiast segment of gaming GPUs. While the RX 9070 XT technically succeeds the RX 7800 XT, a performance-segment, 1440p-class SKU, the company wouldn't want its product stack to have a "void" left by the lack of an "RX 8900 series." The company also took the opportunity to skip the RX 8000 series altogether, which probably give it room to rebadge some SKUs from the RX 7000 series over to the RX 8000 series. The RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 are based on the "Navi 48" silicon, and implement the RDNA 4 graphics architecture.

These are possibly the first pictures of the reference-design AMD Radeon RX 8800 XT graphics card. The pics surfaced on Reddit by a user who claimed to have access to an investor presentation that features images of the card placed next to an AMD Ryzen 9 PIB retail box. The card's design looks quite similar to MSI's Ventus 3X—a silver baseplate frames inlets to a triple fan setup, which cools a heatsink underneath. This is a fairly large card, roughly the size of a reference RX 7900 XT. The dark background accent which the silver plate contrasts, features a front-facing illuminated Radeon logo. This card is designed to look better when installed in a vertical slot, than it is with a standard installation.

The Radeon RX 8800 XT is expected to be the fastest SKU available from the generation, as AMD has ceded the enthusiast segment to focus on high-volume performance and mainstream market segments. The RX 8800 XT is based on the "Navi 48" silicon, and is powered by the RDNA 4 graphics architecture. Besides incorporating many of the graphics stack enhancements RDNA 3.5 introduced over RDNA 3, RDNA 4 is expected to improve the SIMD IPC, and come with a highly specialized ray tracing hardware solution that reduces the performance cost of ray tracing. It is also expected to implement a newer foundry node.

Update 15:43 UTC: It's likely that this card is called "Radeon RX 9070 XT," read our newer report for more.

AMD's upcoming Radeon RX 8000 series GPUs based on RDNA 4 architecture are just around the corner, with rumors pointing to a CES unveiling event. Today, we are learning that the Radeon RX 8800 XT GPU will feature a 220 W TDP, compared to its Radeon RX 7800 XT predecessor with 263 W TDP, thanks to the Seasonic wattage calculator. While we expect to see better nodes used for making RNDA 4, the efficiency gains stem primarily from the improved microarchitectural design of the new RDNA generation. The RX 8800 XT will bring better performance while lowering power consumption by 16%. While no concrete official figures are known about RNDA 4 performance targets compared to RDNA, if AMD plans to maintain the competitive mid-range landscape with NVIDIA "Blackwell" and, as of today, Intel with Arc "Battlemage," team red must put out a good fight to remain competitive.

We reported on AMD Radeon RX 8800 XT entering mass production this month, with notable silicon design a departure from previous designs. The RX 8800 XT will reportedly utilize a monolithic chip dubbed "Navi 48," moving away from the chiplet-based approach seen in the current "Navi 31" and "Navi 32" GPUs. Perhaps most intriguing are claims about the card's ray tracing capabilities. Sources suggest the RX 8800 XT will match the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080/4080 SUPER in raster performance while having a remarkable 45% improvement over the current flagship RX 7900 XTX in ray tracing. However, these claims must be backed by independent testing first, as performance improvements depend on the specific case, like games optimized for either AMD or NVIDIA yield better results for the favorable graphics card.

Apparently, AMD's next-generation gaming graphics card is closer to launch than anyone in the media expected, with mass-production of the so-called Radeon RX 8800 XT poised to begin later this month, if sources on ChipHell are to be believed. The RX 8800 XT will be the fastest product from AMD's next-generation, and will be part of the performance segment, succeeding the current RX 7800 XT. There will not be an enthusiast-segment product in this generation, as AMD looks to consolidate in key market segments with the most sales. The RX 8800 XT will be powered by AMD's next-generation RDNA 4 graphics architecture.

There are some spicy claims related to the RX 8800 XT being made. Apparently, the card will rival the current GeForce RTX 4080 or RTX 4080 SUPER in ray tracing performance, which would mean a massive 45% increase in RT performance over even the current flagship RX 7900 XTX. Meanwhile, the power and thermal footprint of the GPU is expected to reduce with the switch to a newer foundry process, with the RX 8800 XT expected to have 25% lower board power than the RX 7900 XTX. Unlike the "Navi 31" and "Navi 32" powering the RX 7900 series and RX 7800 XT, respectively, the "Navi 48" driving the RX 8800 XT is expected to be a monolithic chip built entirely on a new process node. If we were to guess, this could very well be TSMC N4P, a node AMD is using for everything from its "Zen 5" chiplets to its "Strix Point" mobile processors.