AMD RDNA 4 GPU rumors are flowing, including a possible name change to RX 9070 – because bigger is better, compared to Nvidia’s RTX 5070?
- AMD is likely to launch RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 next-gen GPUs
- Previous rumors suggested this would be the RX 8000 series
- Performance is rumored to be a bit slower than previous rumors from the grapevine
Rumors about AMD’s next generation of GPUs gained momentum over the weekend and we’ve learned that these RDNA 4 graphics cards might not be the RX 8000 series as previously thought – and we’ve been treated to further speculation about price and performance , at.
So the theory now is that AMD will launch an RX 9070 XT, as first noted by an editor at Chiphell, pointed out by HXL on X. This will likely be the top RDNA 4 GPU, previously rumored to be the RX 8800 XT.
It comes alongside a vanilla RX 9070 as a lower-level offering, as another presence on All Wattsa name we don’t know in the rumor scene – right. They believe the RX 9070 XT will be slightly slower than the current 7900 XT, and that the regular RX 9070 will be roughly equivalent to the 7800 XT’s performance.
All The Watts also spilled some alleged price ranges, and it looks like AMD is expecting around $449 to $649 (in the US) for the Navi 48 graphics cards, which will put the RX 9070 XT at that $650 level, and the regular RX 9070 perhaps for $550 to $600. It all feels very vague though – we’re also told the price of the Navi 44 single-chip GPUs will range from $179 to $349 (presumably RX 9060 models and below).
Another rumormonger on
Finally also Hoang Anh Phu claimed that a rendering of a GPU that appeared in an official AMD advertisement is likely a reference design for one of AMD’s next generation graphics cards. Season that and all that talk liberally, of course.
It’s further worth noting that All The Watts expects there will also be mobile 9070 variants, which wouldn’t be a surprise, but we may also get some new GPUs for the current RDNA 3 range, namely the RX 7750 and 7650. especially could be an interesting addition for more affordable GPUs (hopefully).
(By the way, VideoCardz has noticed all these different posts, so a big four hat tips goes their way – 1, 2, 3, 4).
Analysis: increase to 9070?
There’s been a lot of spills surrounding AMD’s next generation of GPUs in a very short time, and it looks like the RX 9070 XT and 9070 are really going to happen. The story is that this was a late move from AMD in terms of next-gen naming, as Team Red was supposed to be working with RX 8000 until recently, as rumored through the rumor mill.
Why change the name? Well, in some ways, the move to RX 9070 performs the trick of making it seem ‘better’ than Nvidia’s xx70-class graphics card, which this time will be the RTX 5070 (and apparently the 5070 Ti). So your mid-range choice early next year could be the RTX 5070 (Ti) or RX 9070 (XT), so the bigger number must be better, right?
It’s that kind Backbone (out of 11) marketing thinking, we assume (if it happens) – and it’s interesting to note that, rather than the 9700 XT, it’s the 9070 XT. (Although that will help avoid confusion with AMD’s Ryzen CPU names, to be fair, and the Ryzen 9700X – but it also looks very much like Nvidia is being ‘outdone’).
The other reason could be that AMD – again according to rumors – plans to completely move away from the RDNA brand after this next generation of graphics cards. In other words, we won’t have RDNA 5, but UDNA, the ‘U’ meaning unified, as this architecture will presumably bring together CDNA (data center) and RDNA (gaming) under one umbrella.
If that happens, AMD will likely abandon the RX x000 name path entirely, which would make sense instead of going for RX 10000 – which of course won’t work after RX 9000. In other words, the move to UDNA effectively makes the RX 9000 name free for this generation – so why not use it now? We’re just engaging in pure speculation here, but this makes us think it might be a bit more likely that UDNA, and not RDNA 5, is next on AMD’s GPU roadmap.
As for the performance levels mentioned above for the RX 9070 XT and 9070, these will likely be a bit of a disappointment. The previous hope was that the RDNA 4 top GPU could be a little faster than the 7900 XT, and according to All The Watts it seems a little slower – but be skeptical about that.
Furthermore, we assume this is about rasterization (non-ray tracing performance), and for ray-traced graphics, AMD likely has a much bigger jump in framerates waiting for us, or at least that’s what other rumors suggest.