AMD Shatters Myths: Unveiling the Truth Behind RX Radeon 9070 “RDNA 4” GPU Leaks Ahead of CES!

AMD’s head architect of gaming advises against believing the previous performance speculations regarding Radeon RX 9070 “RDNA 4” GPUs as they are indeed faster.

Frank Azor Indicates Enhanced Raster and RT Performance of AMD Radeon RX 9070 “RDNA 4” GPUs, Labels Earlier Speculations and Leaks as ‘Incorrect’

AMD intentionally postponed the RDNA 4 GPU launch to observe what its rival, NVIDIA, is developing. In a discussion with PC World, Frank Azor, the Chief Architect of Gaming at AMD, stated that they executed the delay in line with their strategy, and now they understand how to proceed with the GPU release.

He highlighted some intriguing aspects during the thirty-minute conversation, but the most significant was what we had anticipated. According to Frank, the initial performance leaks regarding the AMD RDNA 4 GPUs, specifically the leading Radeon RX 9070 XT, are false. He asserts that the ‘pre-CES’ speculations and leaks concerning the RX 9070 XT performance are incorrect and when questioned whether the performance is lower or higher, he affirmed that it is indeed the latter.

Regarding the pre-CES leaks and speculations about the RX 9070 XT, we recall that there weren’t many, though we reported a few of them. One leak indicated that the RX 9070 XT would be marginally quicker than the Radeon RX 7900 GRE as observed in the Time Spy benchmark. Subsequently, rumors circulated suggesting that the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT would perform within 5% of the RTX 4080’s capabilities. Since both leaks propose significantly varying performance potentials for the RX 9070 XT, Frank may be referring to only one of them.

He likely regarded the former leak as inaccurate since, later on, we obtained multiple leaks suggesting that the RX 9070 XT is comparable to the RX 7900 XT and RTX 4070 Ti Super. Some estimates propose performance levels closer to the RTX 4080. Frank also mentioned that the RX 9000 GPU series is now considerably superior in both rasterization and ray tracing performance, and indicated that their 9070 models are positioned against class 70 cards, such as the RTX 5070 and 5070 Ti.

Naturally, Frank declined to share specifics about the RX 9070 models such as specifications and pricing, but he mentioned that the RX 9070 XT will not reach the $1000 threshold. As he noted that they modified the naming scheme to clearly indicate which NVIDIA GPU they will compete with, it appears they will aim for the price range of the RTX 5070.

The RTX 5070 has an introductory price of $549, thus a price around $500 is anticipated. We have already seen a Gigabyte RX 9070 XT Gaming OC card listed for $529 with a retailer in the Philippines, implying that the Radeon RX 9070 XT reference card could retail for under $500. To prevail in this fierce rivalry, AMD must provide competitive or superior raster performance as it seems unlikely that they will surpass NVIDIA in ray tracing capabilities.