AMD confirms Radeon RX 9070 XT and RDNA 4 launch date

AMD has confirmed the release date or window for its first RDNA 4 desktop gaming GPUs. AMD's David McAfee, who helps head up the company's Ryzen and Radeon groups, has taken to social media to confirm that the Radeon 9000 Series will go on sale in March 2025.

The Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 combo, announced earlier this month at CES 2025, is expected to kick off the launch. However, the timing is causing many within the PC gaming community to express frustration with what is being viewed as a delay. Launching in March means AMD's GPUs will arrive after NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5070 and RTX 5070 Ti combo - RDNA 4's main competition.

AMD's new RDNA 4 architecture includes advanced AI hardware for the new FSR 4 Super Resolution and Frame Generation, improved ray-tracing performance, enhanced creator media encoding capabilities, and optimizations to RDNA's Compute Units. No official benchmarks are available; however, quite a few companies have already showcased their upcoming Radeon RX 9070 XT cards.

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Some retailers are already reporting that they have stock, which is causing rumors to swirl and people to speculate that AMD has delayed RDNA 4's launch for several reasons. One, NVIDIA's pricing for the RTX 5070 ($549) and RTX 5070 Ti ($749) caught the company off-guard, so it pulled the RDNA 4 reveal at CES and is currently re-evaluating its launch plans and pricing to remain competitive.

On the other hand, March 2025 aligns with the Q1 2025 launch window AMD teased at CES, and David McAfee adds that hardware and software "are looking great" and that a wide range of cards will be "available globally" at launch. If rumors of RTX 4080-like performance for the Radeon RX 9070 XT turn out to be accurate and RDNA 4's ray-tracing capabilities showcase a massive improvement, there's much to be excited about. It's just a shame that the expected late-January launch is now sometime in March.

Look at all the RDNA 4 GPUs we went hands-on with at CES.

• Read more: GIGABYTE's flagship AORUS Radeon RX 9070 XT ELITE GPU - RDNA 4 up close
• Read more: ASRock's flagship Radeon RX 9070 XT TAICHI uses a 16-pin power connector
• Read more: ASRock Radeon RX 9070 and 9070 XT Steel Legend spotted, an RDNA 4 GPU for RGB fans
• Read more: PowerColor's Radeon RX 9070 XT Red Devil up close, all-white model also coming
• Read more: PowerColor's Radeon RX 9070 XT Reaper is a new two-slot GPU based on AMD's reference design
• Read more: ASUS's updated TUF GAMING GPUs cover both GeForce RTX 50 Series and RDNA 4 cards