Forget past RDNA 4 leaks, RX 9070 XT GPU is faster than rumors suggested, AMD exec tells us

AMD's Frank Azor has been on a roll with RDNA 4 (and Ryzen) related revelations this week, and the latest from the executive is an assertion that the next-gen graphics cards will be faster than leaks have primed us to expect.

Azor is AMD's Chief Architect of Gaming Solutions (who heads up marketing for consumer and gaming products) and he dropped this latest nugget in an interview with PC World that you can see above.

The exec said that AMD is going to "try our hardest so hopefully everyone will be satisfied with the price and the performance" of RDNA 4, and added that any performance estimations and leaks that we've seen prior to CES have not been accurate.

You're going to get better performance than most - if not all - of the leaks that have popped up that he's seen, Azor said. In short, the RX 9070 XT is going to hit higher frame rates than indicated via the grapevine.

How much better will performance be? Unsurprisingly, the AMD chief stopped short of telling us that.

Pricing parameters

Azor also noted that the top RDNA 4 model won't be a $1,000 graphics card, and we'd hope not, as a mid-range GPU. This is a reference to something he said in another recent interview, with Spanish YouTuber Michael Quesada, namely that the price will pitch between $300 and $1,000 - which is basically a huge spread so as not to give us any real clues as to where the final MSRP might end up.

It's entirely possible that even AMD itself still hasn't finalized those next-gen MSRPs, and discussions are still being held around them - though a decision will have to be made soon.

Based on other rumors, an announcement event for the RX 9070 (and maybe more) is coming likely as we head into the final week of January, and the price could land at about $479, with somewhere around the $500 mark seeming most likely for us.

What's clear is that the value proposition will be a strong one, which is what Azor said in his chat with Quesada this week, mentioning that it'll be in the same ballpark as the RX 7900 GRE - which was a very well-liked GPU at a good price.

So, while officially the RDNA 4 graphics cards, led by the RX 9070 XT, are down as just a first quarter launch for now - a very wide timeframe - with all this chatter about the next-gen GPUs, it feels very much like the stage is being set for a big reveal in just a couple of weeks.

With the naming of the RX 9070 models theoretically setting up the flagship to compete with the RTX 5070, and now these hints that the 9070 XT is going to be more powerful than expected, the next-gen GPU battle looks to be heating up. Although as we've said before, wherever the RX 9070 XT pitches up in terms of frame rates, AMD can have this graphics card make sense with the right choice of price tag.