We have noticed an uptick of AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Ryzen 9 9900X3D-related leaks in mid-to-late February; suggesting an imminent launch. Officially, a Q1 release window was set by Team Red leadership during their CES 2025 presentation, and further disclosures pointed to a loose March window. Earlier today, Golden Pig Upgrade disclosed NDA-busting information—the veteran leaker believes that AMD will be lifting global Ryzen 9 9950X3D CPU review embargoes on March 11. VideoCardz jumped on this unofficial announcement, and reached out to industry insiders. The anonymous contacts reported back; they allege that a March 12 retail release is on the cards.

It is believed that the 16-core and 12-core X3D-equipped "Granite Ridge" Ryzen 9 desktop chips will roll out on the same day (March 12). Coincidentally, Golden Pig Upgrade reckons that Intel's Core Ultra 200HX "Arrow Lake" mobile processor series will launch alongside Team Red's high-end gaming duo. The latter two are touted to attract the majority of press attention on day one. As pointed out by VideoCardz, the release of Radeon RX 9070 GPUs is—speculatively—scheduled a week in advance of AMD's expansion of its Ryzen 9000X3D lineup. Early last week, price points were leaked—courtesy of accidental Newegg listings: $699.99 for the Ryzen 9 9950X3D, and $599.99 for the 12-core Ryzen 9 9900X3D.

Navigating AMD's various modern processor model naming schemes is tricky business, and another layer of complexity has been added this week; with newly revealed "Strix Point" and "Krackan Point" CPUs. Three previously unannounced SKUs have appeared on AMD's Chinese website: Ryzen AI 9 H 365, Ryzen AI 7 H 350, and Ryzen AI 5 H 340. At first glance, these models codes seem to be familiar—after a double take, we see a small difference in nomenclature. The addition of a middle-placed/detached "H" has press outlets and hardware enthusiasts scratching their collective heads. After discovering Team Red's Ryzen AI 9 H 365 APU listing, Lonely City Hardware posted a humorous observation on social media: "for the Chinese market. No one can remember the full name."

Frustratingly, Western search engines (at the time of writing) just point you to the non-H equivalents. The "H" designation denotes Chinese market exclusivity; TechPowerUp has covered previous-generation examples in the recent past. When comparing technical details and specification sheets to Western equivalents, VideoCardz noted that there were no apparent differences—platform and packaging are the same (FP8). A cross-reference—of clock speeds, thermal ratings, and core architecture (Zen 5/Zen 5C)—points to spec parity across East and West variants.

Last week, graphics card industry watchdogs alerted the wider hardware public to a registration of XFX Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 custom design SKUs in South Korea. The recent leak points to an upcoming release of unannounced RDNA 4 -based SWIFT and QUICKSILVER models; XFX's official website does not list anything newer than its current Radeon RX 7000 series offerings. Based on a fresh momomo_us social media post, Amazon's South Korean branch has accidentally published product pages for Radeon RX 9070 (non-XT) 16 GB SWIFT and QUICKSILVER cards. Related imagery and a single screenshot were preserved and then shared online; we are looking at very minimal black shroud and backplate designs.

TechPowerUp handled a similarly dark-tinted XFX demonstration sample at CES 2025, but the latest leaked models do not visually match with this "premium black" preview unit. The Radeon RX 9070 QUICKSILVER's backplate appears to utilize the exact same backplate design, but its shroud's aesthetic setup is more elaborate (lots of angular surfaces). The CES "premium white" sample's overall shape and profile align with the leaked SWIFT model. XFX's black and white options were listed by a Canadian e-tailer, a week ago. momomo_us's single screen capture points to alleged XFX Radeon RX 9070 SWIFT SKU clock speeds—apparently, its Amazon page was adorned with the following info points: 1400 MHz (base), 2210 MHz (game), and 2700 MHz (boost). As interpreted by VideoCardz, this is a factory-overclocked unit—PowerColor's Red Devil RX 9070 card shares the exact same clock settings.

AMD's Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Ryzen 9 9900X3D "Zen 5" processors are due for launch next month, but an exact date has not been announced. Currently, Team Red's 3D V-Cache-equipped Ryzen 9000 CPU series is composed of a single SKU: the popular eight-core Ryzen 7 9800X3D model. A new leak points to a possible imminent lineup expansion; the sixteen-core Ryzen 9 9950X3D and twelve-core Ryzen 9 9900X3D CPUs have finally popped up on Geekbench Browser. Both candidates seemed to be tested on the same PC platform; utilizing a GIGABYTE X670 AORUS ELITE AX motherboard and 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) of DDR5-4800 MT/s RAM. Notebookcheck

The Ryzen 9 9950X3D sample scored overall with 3363 (single-core) and 20,465 points (multi-core) in Geekbench 6.3. As expected, the Ryzen 9 9900X3D candidate's overall tallies came in slightly lower—it achieved 3274 (single-core) and 19,227 points (multi-core) overall. Press outlets were quick to compare these figures to prior generation outputs (refer to Wccftech's chart, below). On average, the incoming "Zen 5" parts surpass "Zen 4" equivalents by an average of 15%—in terms of single-core performance. Multi-core performance improvements are less significant; coming in at an average of 7%. The range-topping Ryzen 9 9950X3D CPU's multi-core performance score is "lower than expected," but closer-to-launch optimizations could rectify this matter. Geekbench results often do not reflect the true potential of tested silicon; gamers tend to dismiss or completely ignore these data points. Last month, an AMD executive revealed that the two upcoming X3D Granite Ridge desktop chips: "will provide similar overall gaming performance to the Ryzen 7 9800X3D." Speculative price points—of $699 (16-core) & $599 (12-core)—leaked online last week.

A leaked document has revealed an alleged review release date of March 5; occurring the day before a rumored global market release of AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 graphics cards. VideoCardz has reported on its inspection of "NDA materials" intended for members of the press. Team Red has officially announced a proper RDNA 4-themed event; February 28 is an important date on their calendar. Fresh reportage suggests that hardware media outlets and online influencers will be briefed next week, mere days away from AMD's highly-anticipated presentation.

Following head-scratching delays and a secretive marketing strategy (earlier on in 2025), Team Red and its AIB co-conspirators are expected to deliver full specifications, performance data, and pricing during next week's special event. Leaks have pointed to a possible March 6 launch; VideoCardz did not spot any mentioning of this specific date in leaked Radeon RX 9070 NDA documents. A steady flow of insider knowledge has already hinted at speculative "Navi 48" technical details and pre-release performance figures. Will AMD confirm (rumored) PCIe 5.0 connectivity, or acknowledge leaked "Pro" 32 GB variants (with less sarcasm)?

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.

David McAfee—AMD's corporate vice president and general manager of client channel business—has highlighted February 28 as a highly important date for next-gen graphics technology. The much-anticipated (and teased) Radeon RX 9000 series unveiling event has a confirmed time slot on that day: 8 AM EST. The overseer of Ryzen CPU and Radeon GPUs has warded off curious queries from journalists and members of the PC hardware for several weeks, since the conclusion of CES 2025. A confusing early January presentation did not include a segment dedicated to upcoming RDNA 4 products. Online conjecture pointed to Team Red delaying and restrategizing the launch of Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 models.

AMD enthusiasts will breathe a collective sigh of relief, after reading McAfee's announcement: "the wait is almost over. Join us on February 28 at 8 AM EST for the reveal of the next-gen AMD Radeon RX 9000 Series. Get ready to make it yours when it hits shelves in early March. RSVP by subscribing to the AMD YouTube channel." Insider sources reckon that retailers will have stock on shelves by the rumored March 6 launch day. Mid-to-late January leaks suggested a fairly comprehensive distribution of board partner custom cards across European retail channels. Alleged specifications and performance results have leaked out over the past month and a half—will AMD (and AIBs) have any surprises lined up for the February 28 event?

Late last month, an AMD "How to Sell" Ryzen AI MAX series guide appeared online—contents provided an early preview of the Radeon 8060S iGPU's prowess in 1080p gaming environments. Team Red seemed to have some swagger in their step; they claimed that their forthcoming "RDNA 3.5" integrated graphics solution was up to 68% faster than NVIDIA's discrete GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile GPU (subjected to thermal limits). Naturally, first-party/internal documentation should be treated with a degree of skepticism—the PC hardware community often relies on (truly) independent sources to form opinions. A Chinese leaker has procured a pre-release laptop that features a "Zen 5" AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 processor. By Wednesday evening, the tester presented benchmark results on the Tieba Baidu forums.

The leaker uploaded a screenshot from a 3DMark Time Spy session. No further insights were shared via written text. On-screen diagnostics pointed to a "Radeon 8050S" GPU, and the CPU being an "AMD Eng Sample: 100-000001243-50_Y." Wccftech double-checked this information; they believe that the OPN ID corresponds to a: "Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 with the Radeon 8060S, instead of the AMD Radeon 8050S iGPU...The difference between the two is that the Radeon 8060S packs the full 40 Compute Units while the Radeon 8050S is configured with 32 Compute Units. The CPU for each iGPU is also different and the one tested here packs 16 Zen 5 cores instead of the 12 Zen 5 cores featured on the Ryzen AI MAX 390." According to the NDA-busting screenshot, Team Red's Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 engineering sample racked up an overall score of 9006 in 3DMark Time Spy. Its graphics score tally came in at 10,106, while its CPU scored 5571 points. The alleged Radeon 8060S iGPU managed to pull in just under NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile dGPU (average) score of 10,614. The plucky RDNA 3.5 40 CU iGPU seems to outperform a somewhat related sibling; the Radeon RX 7600M XT dGPU (with 32 RDNA 3 CUs) scored 8742 points. Radeon 8060S trails the desktop Radeon RX 7600 GPU by 884 points.

XFX and ASRock have registered various Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 SKUs in South Korea—earlier today, harukaze5719 discovered these "public secrets." The National Radio Agency received two filings from Hightech Systematic Limited (aka XFX); the graphics card manufacturer is seeking certification for five models. A single filing from ASRock Incorporation contains one product, a Radeon RX 9070 (non-XT) Challenger 16 GB card—TechPowerUp spent a little bit of hands-on time with this particular model at CES 2025.

XFX showcased two unnamed custom Radeon 9070 graphics card designs at last month's CES event, but yesterday's leak revealed a slew of incoming MERCURY, QUICKSILVER and SWIFT SKUs. The latest South Korean filings corroborate a couple of the accidental Canadian retail listings. The unannounced QUICKSILVER Magnetic Air model has attracted the most interest—promotional imagery is not available at the time of writing, but VideoCardz reckons that XFX could borrow elements from last year's hot-swappable Radeon RX 7900 XTX and RX 7800 XT Series design. TPU's W1zzard praised XFX's Magnetic Air system, in his evaluation of the Radeon RX 7900 XTX MERCURY model. An "amazing removable fan implementation" was pinpointed as a major highlight. The unusual usage of Honeywell PTM7950 thermal paste—a phase change material (PCM)—was another novel plus point.

AMD will be launching its new generation of "RDNA 4" Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 graphics cards next month, but we will likely hear more about technical details and price points from official sources around late February. Team Red had scheduled a special "launch event," but Radeon RX 9070 series leaks continue to flow online. Earlier today, reports alluded to an XT variant that allegedly sports a generous VRAM pool of 32 GB. VideoCardz has received another RDNA 4 tip-off, courtesy of Tomasz Gawroński and the AnandTech forums. Based on screenshots, Canada Computers has inadvertently revealed regional prices (minus tax) for PowerColor and XFX's opening round of custom Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 models.

Team Red is reportedly lining up an aggressive price strategy; industry insiders reckon that that baseline MSRP for the Radeon RX 9070 XT will be $599. Its non-XT sibling is expected to launch at a minimum point of $499. The Canada Computers leak seems to contain a small selection of models that hover closer to AMD's guidelines, but the majority of listed cards seemingly demand a premium upcharge. PowerColor's barebones models appear to conform closest to Team Red's recommended baseline—according to VideoCardz's conversion-crunching, the Radeon RX 9070 XT Reaper will cost $999 CAD (~$697 USD). The RX 9070 (non-XT) Reaper will come in at $839 CAD (~$586 USD). We spotted no surprises when looking up and down the list of leaked PowerColor RDNA 4 SKUs; TechPowerUp staffers handled Red Devil, Hellhound and Reaper samples at CES 2025. In sharp contrast, XFX appears to have all sorts of options lined up for launch (refer to VideoCardz's chart, below). Two unnamed demonstration units—in black or white—were on display at AMD's recent partner roundup.

AI PC capabilities have evolved rapidly in the two years since AMD introduced the first x86 AI PC CPUs at CES 2023. New neural processing units have debuted, pushing available performance from a peak of 10 AI TOPS at the launch of the AMD Ryzen 7 7840U processor to peak 50+ TOPS on the latest AMD Ryzen AI Max PRO 300 Series processors. A wide range of software and hardware companies have announced various AI development plans or brought AI-infused products to market, while major operating system vendors like Microsoft are actively working to integrate AI into the operating system via its Copilot+ PC capabilities. AMD is on the forefront of those efforts and is working closely with Microsoft to deliver Copilot+ for Ryzen AI and Ryzen AI PRO PCs.

In the report "The Year of the AI PC is 2025," Forrester lays out its argument for why this year is likely to bring significant changes for AI PCs. Forrester defines the term "AI PC" to mean any system "embedded with an AI chip and algorithms specifically designed to improve the experience of AI workloads across the computer processing unit (CPU), graphics processing unit (GPU), and neural processing unit (NPU)." This includes AMD products, as well as competing products made by both x86 and non-x86 CPU manufacturers. 2025 represents a turning point for these efforts, both in terms of hardware and software, and this Forrester report is an excellent deep dive into why AI PCs represent the future for enterprise computing.

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Ryzen 9 9900X3D "Zen 5" processors are due for launch at some point next month, but Team Red's recent-ish introductory presentation did not include any details regarding prices. Given patterns demonstrated by previous generations of Team Red's popular 3D V-Cache-equipped CPUs, we can safely assume that the incoming duo will demand a premium over the already released Ryzen 7 9800X3D SKU (MSRP: $479). Late last week, momomo_us happened upon speculated price points during a sleuthing session involving a comparison shopping website.

The PCPartPicker's price aggregation engine pulled data from two Newegg listings—now scrubbed from existence—that outlined a cost of $699.99 (plus a $12.41 shipping fee) for the 16-core Ryzen 9 9950X3D model, and $599.99 (plus shipping) for the 12-core Ryzen 9 9900X3D. Fortunately, VideoCardz preserved this information over the weekend. PCPartPicker has removed the aforementioned figures from its price history chart system, and Newegg has delisted the offending pages. The leaked price points align closely with MSRPs set for previous-gen (Zen 4) Ryzen 9 7000-series CPUs: $699 for the 7950X3D, and $599 for 7900X3D. The de-listed prices could be based on placeholder information—the Ryzen 7 9800X3D launched last November with a generational premium of $30 (Ryzen 7 7800X3D's original MSRP was $449). AMD has alluded to gaming performance being on a roughly even plane, so the incoming Ryzen 9 9950X3D and 9900X3D models are not expected to surpass the Ryzen 7 9800X3D as "THE best gaming processor."

At some point this week, HP's North American online store was updated with new high-end EliteBooks that feature AMD Strix Point APUs. Three models appear to support up to 128 GB of LPDDR5X-8533 memory—these curious entries were highlighted by tech enthusiast Hoang Anh Phu (AnhPhuH). The advertised maximum 8533 MT/s transfer rate exceeds Team Red's official reference figure (7500 MT/s) for the EliteBook X G1a's Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 APU. Looking further up in the Team Red "Strix Point" product stack, we spotted their Ryzen AI 9 HX PRO 375 spec sheet boasting a maximum LPDDR5x transfer speed of 8000 MT/s. Press outlets have expressed doubt when analyzing three of HP's EliteBook X G1a SKUs. Theories point to product pages containing possible placeholder information, or inaccuracies.

Working with the belief that the specs are legit, AnhPhuH commented: "this is the first laptop featured with 128 GB LPDDR5x-8533 128-bit memory. That would mean it's using four 256 Gb x32 modules(?!). As far as I know, all three major DRAM manufacturers currently only have 128 Gb x32 modules...the EliteBook X G1a uses Strix Point, not Strix Halo, so it only pairs with four x32 modules (two 64-bit channels)." HP's web shop states that the EliteBook X G1a models are due to launch on March 14. We hope that further clarification and concrete specifications appear online closer to release time. Initial pricing starts at $2749 for the lowliest of the three "128 GB LPDDR5X-8533" equipped models. The agonizingly named flagship "HP EliteBook X G1a 14 inch Notebook Next Gen AI PC Wolf Pro Security Edition" offering comes in at an eye-watering $4299.

German PC hardware retailer MindFactory sold an astonishing 25,625 AMD and Intel CPUs in January 2025. However, an honor falls to AMD this time, as Team Red has managed to capture as much as 92.16% (23,615) of all units sold by this retailer. Not only did it leave Intel with 7.84% (2010) of total units sold, AMD also beat Intel in average selling price, where AMD managed to keep ASP at 320 Euros, while Intel buyers were considering some less expensive CPU SKUs at 290 Euros. This has resulted in AMD's revenue share recording 93.45% at 8,300,674 Euros, while Intel left a smaller mark at 6.55% or 581,959 Euros. The best-selling CPU was AMD's Ryzen 7 9800X3D, sold in 8,390 units in January.

A detailed analysis of socket distribution reveals AMD's AM5 platform's overwhelming dominance, securing 18,410 units or 71.84% of total sales. The mature AM4 platform maintains a significant market presence with 5,205 units (20.31%), showing strong continued demand for AMD's previous-generation socket. Intel's LGA 1700, compatible with 12/13/14th generation processors, accounted for 1,745 units (6.81%), while their older platforms showed minimal market penetration. The LGA 1851 socket, supporting Intel's latest Core Ultra 200S processors, managed just 185 units (0.72%), with legacy LGA 1200 and LGA 1151 sockets trailing at 55 (0.21%) and 25 (0.1%) units respectively. AMD's latest platform market performance suggests strong consumer confidence in AM5's upgrade path and performance capabilities. This dramatic market share capture by AMD represents one of the most significant shifts in the desktop CPU market in recent years, particularly notable given the higher average selling prices at which AMD CPUs are now sold.

Mid-week, a member of Valve's Linux graphics driver team updated the Mesa 25.0 documentation with an insightful note—in which, Samuel Pitoiset (lead developer of the RADV open-source driver) shared an early observation regarding AMD's upcoming RDNA 4 generation. The software engineer and his colleagues are busy getting everything finalized prior to an impending Mesa 25.0 feature freeze. Wednesday's patch notes reveal the outlook for "GFX12 on RADV"—Pitoiset seemed satisfied about "initial support expectations—he reckoned that it: "should be good enough, but it's missing two features (cooperative matrix and video decode/encode), compared to GFX11 (RDNA 3) because lack of time. DCC is still under active development, but it might be possible to finish it during the RC period."

According to Phoronix's expert opinion, the two missing features are not complete "show-stoppers" for potential buyers of first wave RDNA 4 GPUs. The site's editor-in-chief—Michael Larabel—posits that the "vast majority of those wanting to buy the Radeon RX 9070 graphics cards (when they launch in March)" will not be discouraged by the inceptive absence of RADV Vulkan Video and VK_KHR_cooperative_matrix. He added some post-publication clarification regarding the RADV patch notes: "this is only about Vulkan Video, not VA-API video acceleration... It seems some readers are taking this to mean VA-API support for the new VCN block isn't ready for RDNA 4. It's just the RADV Vulkan Video support that isn't complete." Mesa 25.0 is expected to reach a stable release stage by the end of February—just ahead of Team Red's next-gen desktop GPU launch. Late last week, an AMD official divulged that their team would be: "taking a little extra time to optimize the software stack for maximum performance" on Radeon RX 9070 XT and Radeon RX 9070 (non-XT) graphics cards.

ASRock has quietly updated its CPU Support List with entries for the upcoming AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D and 9900X3D desktop processors—starting off with motherboard BIOS versions 3.15 and 3.16. The Taiwanese manufacturer seems to be the very first company to add these "Zen 5" models to public-facing motherboard compatibility databases—according to yesterday evening's VideoCardz report, the likes of MSI, GIGABYTE, and ASUS have not yet followed suit (at the time of writing). The appearance of Team Red's "Granite Ridge" 16-core and 12-core 3D V-Cache-equipped processors on ASRock's website has set off chatter across PC hardware discussion communities.

AMD has not officially revealed a specific launch date (or pricing details) for its Ryzen 9 9950X3D and 9900X3D CPUs—instead, a loose March window has been marked down on this year's calendar. Industry watchdogs believe that ASRock's freshly updated database is proof of an imminent launch—a couple of insiders predicted a January rollout, but this seems unlikely to occur by the end of this working week. Given the reported scarcity of Team Red's already released and highly-praised Ryzen 7 9800X3D gaming processor, many folks will welcome the addition of two alternative options. Team Red has already set expectations for the (presumably) more expensive models—recently, a product manager disclosed that their "new chips will provide similar overall gaming performance" to the current champion.

AMD's small portfolio of current-gen (RDNA 3) mobile-oriented Radeon dedicated GPUs pales in comparison to a wide selection of related desktop offerings—a certain demographic of PC gamers have wondered whether the incoming RDNA 4 generation will produce more options for portable platforms. An extensive Notebookcheck article indicates that Team Red is not (immediately) interested in catering to mobile dGPU enthusiasts—the online publication conducted an interview with Ben Conrad, director of product management (client-side). The "Navi Mobile" Radeon RX 7000M range is an uncommon sight on gaming laptops—relative to NVIDIA's wide rollout of dedicated GeForce RTX 4000 Mobile GPUs—normally, higher-end models are present on ultra-expensive specification sheets (paired with "Dragon Range" Ryzen HX CPUs). Industry experts believe that lower-end options are more likely to turn up inside external enclosures.

One of Notebookcheck's questions focused in on this topic—they believe that: "the number of AMD dGPU-based laptop SKUs have been pretty anemic." Their interviewee was ambushed with a query regarding his company's outlook for mobile RDNA 4 options. In response, Conrad stated: "our current graphics strategy is focused on the desktop market with RDNA 4. So, I think you'll see those types of products first in the future. Certainly, RDNA 4 and future graphics technologies will make it into mobile, whether they be on APUs or future products." VideoCardz has read "between-the-lines" and posits that Team Red could skip a generation—UDNA is possibly a better fit for a new wave of laptop dGPUs. A sort-of stopgap has appeared on the horizon—in the shape of AMD's forthcoming "Strix Halo" RDNA 3.5-based integrated solution. The flagship chip's Radeon 8060S iGPU looks promising when compared to a current-gen dGPU, but it will likely struggle when pitted against Team Green's "Blackwell" dedicated mobile platform. Upcoming competition in the APU field will arrive in the form of Intel's "Panther Lake" processors—slated for launch later this year. Its next-gen iGPU is said to utilize the Xe3 "Celestial" architecture.

Earlier in the month, AMD introduced multiple Ryzen 200 series CPU models—these mainstream laptop and desktop offerings are based on well established architectures. Team Red is once again treading familiar ground with its selection of "Hawk Point" hardware—featuring "Zen 4" CPU cores, as well as (RDNA 3) Radeon 700M series integrated graphics solutions. AMD's latest mild re-branding of existing designs—notably the Ryzen 8000 mobile APU series—are expected to arrive within the second quarter of 2025. Several of these "new" products will sport NPUs, but marketing/press material is surprisingly free of all things AI-related.

Yesterday, a Lenovo China product manager revealed that the entire Ryzen 200 product stack will adopt the FP8 chip package—formerly exclusive to the region-exclusive Ryzen 7 8745H APU. The Beijing-based company representative disclosed—via a Weibo blog post—that the incoming Ryzen 200 processor series will not use the "FP7 and FP7r2" formats. Additionally, they also introduced a previously unannounced SKU: "the FP8 package version of Ryzen 7 8745H will be launched in 2025 as Ryzen 7 255H." This model is likely another Chinese exclusive—the Weibo comment section provides further evidence of new Lenovo ThinkBook products being based on this Ryzen 7 255H. AMD's official listings have quietly confirmed that their Ryzen 200 series will be FP8-exclusive. Team Green is likely making matters easier for itself, by streamlining its packaging options for this affordable-tier of laptop-oriented chips.

AMD Radeon engineers are spending newly allocated extra time on optimizing their upcoming FidelityFX Super Resolution 4 (FSR 4) technology—industry watchdogs believe that a finalized version will launch alongside the initial lineup of RDNA 4 graphics card, now scheduled for release in March. Recently, David McAfee—Vice President and General Manager of Ryzen and Radeon products—revealed that his colleagues were working hard on maximizing performance and enabling "more FSR 4 titles." Insiders have started theorizing about how the current landscape of FSR 3.1-compatible games will translate with next-gen "AI-driven" upscaling techniques—several outlets believe that a freshly patched PC version of The Last of Us Part I is paving the way for eventual "easy" updates.

Kepler_L2—an almost endless fountain of Team Red-related insider knowledge—picked up on a past weekend VideoCardz report, and proceeded to add some extra tidbits via social media interaction. They started off by claiming that Team Red's: "RDNA 4 driver replaces FSR 3.1 DLL with FSR 4." When queried about the implication of said development, Kepler believes that all FSR 3.1 game titles will become ready to support FSR 4 on day one. The upgrade process—possibly achieved through a driver-level DLL swap—is reportedly quite easy to implement. According to the insider: "yeah, it should just work."

AMD has just published its "How to Sell" Ryzen AI MAX series guide—several news outlets have pored over the "claimed" gaming performance charts contained within this two-page document. Team Red appears to be in a boastful mood—their 1080p benchmark results reveal compelling numbers, as produced by their flagship Zen 5 "Strix Halo" processor (baseline 55 W TDP). According to Team Red's marketing guidelines, the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 APU: "competes with a GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile GPU at similar TDP and form factor." The first-party produced comparison points to their Radeon 8060S integrated graphics solution being up to 68% faster—in modern gaming environments at 1080p settings—than the competing Team Green dedicated laptop-oriented GPU, limited to 65 W TGP due to form factor restrictions. Overall, the AMD test unit does better by 23.2% on average (referring to Wccftech's calculations).

According to the document, AMD's reference system was lined up against an ASUS ROG Flow Z13 (2023) gaming laptop specced with an Intel Core i9-13900H processor, and a GeForce RTX 4070 mobile graphics card. The Ryzen AI Max+ 395's "massive iGPU" can unleash the full force of forty RDNA 3.5 compute units, paired with up to 96 GB of unified on-board memory (from a total pool of 128 GB). Non-gaming benchmarks place the flagship Team Red processor above Intel Core Ultra 9 288V and Apple M4 Pro (12-core) CPUs—as always, it is best to wait for verification from independent evaluators. Saying that, the "Strix Halo" APU family has generated a lot of excitement—even going back to early leaks—and the latest marketed performance could drum up further interest.

Gplay.BG's YouTube channel uploaded a fascinating video feature over the past weekend—providing another look at PowerColor's Radeon RX 9070 XT Red Devil special edition retail package. The Bulgarian retailer's CEO—Ivan Hinov (aka DonBrutar)—appeared to have a sealed box in-hand. Gplay's presentation implies that they have joined the ranks of other European shops having RDNA 4-based cards in-stock, although VideoCardz reckons that special/limited edition Red Devil bundles (of recent generations) are normally distributed to media outlets. Hinov repeatedly referred to one of VideoCardz's recent news articles—regarding a speculated AMD Radeon RX 9070 GPU series launch window. Industry insiders reckon that AMD had—initially—formed a release strategy focusing on late January, possibly on the 23rd. The new cards will be launched around March time, according to an official Team Red statement.

Gplay's video provides some extra insight on this topic—Hinov confirms (in a roundabout way) that his company received information about a January release window, prior to Team Red's announcing of a postponement. The VideoCardz insider network discovered possible launch MSRPs of: "around $899 for the RX 9070 XT, and $749 for the non-XT." Interestingly, Gplay's chief commented on these rumors during his comparison segment: "delay of the Radeon RX 9070 (non-XT) and Radeon RX 9070 XT has created uncertainty. These cards were expected to launch at prices significantly higher than the Radeon RX 7800 XT and close to the Radeon RX 7900 XT, which makes little sense. For example, the Radeon RX 9070 XT was rumored to cost 500 BGN (~$269 USD) more than the RX 7900 XT while offering only marginally better performance. This pricing strategy was a clear mistake."

Late last week, the official PowerColor website was updated with dedicated product pages for their Radeon RX 9070 XT Hellhound and Reaper custom designs going live. As expected, a bare minimum of information is displayed alongside multiple promo images—we witnessed this exact same pattern with the Red Devil's official listing, half-way through January. AMD's board partners are seemingly keeping quiet about first wave RDNA 4 hardware specifications—TechPowerUp and other tech news outlets have, so far, ascertained the fundamentals from leaks and accidental listings.

An extensive hands-on experience—at CES—was covered in our news section, but PowerColor's showroom representatives were not overly chatty when asked about under-the-hood details. Allegedly, the company's Radeon RX 9070 (non-XT) Reaper model has turned up at a British e-tailer's warehouse—printed SKU info indicated the presence of 16 GB VRAM. Judging from photos and renders, the Navi-48 GPU-based Hellhound and Reaper are relatively svelte when compared to the chunkily-proportioned (triple-slot) Red Devil. The new Hellhound model occupies the middle of PowerColor's graphics card product stack—this dual-slot design features a smattering of RGB lighting and a dual BIOS switching system, the latter implies that a factory overclock has been implemented. The slightly smaller (SFF-friendly) affordable-tier Reaper card is reportedly specced with reference clocks—looking at photos, there is no physical mode switcher present on this design. The barebones Reaper aesthetic does not encompass fancy integrated lighting systems—anti-RGB champions will find this choice most pleasing.

PC hardware enthusiasts located in Germany, Poland and the United Kingdom have stumbled upon amusingly out-of-date AMD Radeon RX 9070 series GPU advertising. Earlier today, examples were presented on the Radeon subreddit—the social media-sourced announcements provide another look at Team Red's new reference design (Made-By-AMD/MBA) for the RDNA 4 generation, but the accompanying text (translated to English) implies that gamers can "play now" on not-yet-released Navi 48 GPU-based hardware. AMD has officially delayed its launch of Radeon RX 9070 XT and Radeon RX 9070 (non-XT) cards into March, but older leaked information pointed to a possible January 23 (today) rollout.

This marketing campaign has seemingly kicked off prematurely—perhaps initiated by mistake. VideoCardz reached out to retail sources for comment—their report indicates that promotional material was ready to go, but embargoes are reportedly still in place. They reckon that a basic specification teaser could emerge online in the near future. Board partners have already distributed products across retail networks, and finalized units have been unboxed—today's advertised claim of "immediate availability" is no longer valid, but many folks hoped for a pre-January 30 kick-off. NVIDIA will be launching its GeForce RTX 50 series at the end of this month, but industry soothsayers believe that things will not go smoothly.

This morning, an official Yeston social media account boasted about receiving a brand new Navi 48 GPU-equipped model: "🌸got my Sakura Atlantis RX 9070 XT today!! It's shiny!🧜‍♀️" This message was accompanied by four photos, showcasing the card in an outdoor setting. This particular custom design (with white PCB and I/O bracket) was first revealed around mid-January—also via a photo shoot, albeit indoors—with the full moniker: "Radeon RX 9070 XT-16G Sakura Atlantis." Many press outlets jumped onto the presence of "16G" in that name—indicating 16 GB of VRAM—a specification point that AMD was reportedly wanting hidden from public view. Unlike certain Team Red board partners, Yeston has not set up a dedicated product page for the new Sakura Atlantis.

A March launch window has been set—made official by AMD's David McAfee—for the Radeon RX 9070 XT and Radeon RX 9070 (non-XT). VideoCardz has observed a slow-down in promotional activities from AIBs over the past couple of days—bizarrely, GIGABYTE has chosen to scrub all Radeon RX 9000 series products from its website. Hardware Busters believes that AMD will be taking notes during the GeForce RTX 5070 GPU's launch week—they allege that the gathering of performance data (from NVIDIA hardware) is crucial in revising strategies for the March launch of RDNA 4 cards. In the meantime, Yeston will likely continue to post pretty pictures of its cute Sakura Atlantis design—also lined up for attachment on their upcoming "Blackwell" GPU-equipped lineup.

AMD's Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Ryzen 9 9900X3D "Zen 5" processors are scheduled for launch around March time, with many a hardcore PC enthusiast salivating at the prospect of an increase in core counts over already released hardware—the ever popular Ryzen 7 9800X3D CPU makes do with eight cores (and sixteen threads). Under normal circumstances, higher core counts do not provide a massive advantage in gaming applications—over the years, Team Red's 8-core 3D V-Cache-equipped models have reigned supreme in this so-called "sweet spot." Many have wondered whether new-gen 12 and 16-core SKU siblings had any chance of stealing some gaming performance thunder—a recently published VideoGamer article provides a definitive answer for the "Granite Ridge" generation.

The publication managed to extract key quotes from Martijn Boonstra—a Team Red product and business development manager—providing a slightly tepid outlook for the incoming Ryzen 9 9950X3D and 9900X3D models. The company executive stated: "(our) new chips will provide similar overall gaming performance to the Ryzen 7 9800X3D. There will be some games that perform a bit better—if the game engine utilizes more cores and threads—and some games will perform a little worse (if the game engine favors a single CCD configuration), but on the whole, the experience is comparable." Boonstra did not reveal any details regarding forthcoming prices—the Ryzen 7 9800X3D has an MSRP of $479 (if you are lucky enough to find one)—but he hinted that finalized digits will be announced "closer to launch." He signed off with standard marketing spiel: "Ryzen 9000X3D Series desktop processors are perfect for gamers and content creators alike...whether you are already on the AM5 platform, on AM4 or another platform, these products are sure to impress."