The wait is finally over. After teasing the Radeon RX 9070 and 9070 XT at CES 2025, AMD has officially unveiled its next-generation graphics cards, set to hit the market on March 6th. The Radeon RX 9070 XT, priced at $599, will compete with Nvidia’s RTX 5070 Ti, which costs $749, while the Radeon RX 9070, priced at $549, will go up against the RTX 5070, also priced at $549.
Let’s dive into the details of AMD’s new RDNA 4 graphics architecture, which has been designed from the ground up with a greater focus on AI. This new architecture works hand in hand with the new FSR 4 technology to take on Nvidia’s DLSS. The block diagram and performance information for the second generation of RDNA 4 can be seen above.
One of the key improvements in RDNA 4 is its ray tracing performance, which has historically been behind Nvidia’s (and recently Intel’s). AMD claims that the RDNA 4 Compute Units (the building blocks of the Radeon GPUs) deliver twice the ray tracing throughput of the RDNA 3 CUs in today’s graphics cards. The company has also optimized the Radeon RX 9070 XT’s storage subsystem to process ray tracing tasks more efficiently.
In terms of performance, AMD claims that the Radeon RX 9070 XT will deliver 51% more power than the flagship of the last Radeon GPU generation, the Radeon 6900 XT. The 9070 XT is expected to be roughly on par with the new Geforce RTX 5070 Ti in terms of traditional “raster” game performance.
The Radeon RX 9070, on the other hand, should be 38% faster than the Radeon RX 6800 XT and 26% faster than the popular RTX 3080. AMD has also announced that the Radeon RX 9070 and 9070 XT are designed for 4K gaming at a 1440p price, making them an attractive option for gamers who want high-quality performance without breaking the bank.
FSR 4 in detail
FSR 4 is AMD’s new upscaling and frame generation technology, which has been designed to work seamlessly with RDNA 4. This technology uses AI to improve performance and image quality, and AMD claims that it delivers great performance increases with image quality that matches or even exceeds native graphics. FSR 4 builds on AMD’s existing FSR 3.1 framework, which enables developers to integrate the new technology quickly.
FSR 4 will support 30 games at launch, with the number of supported games expected to grow to 75 by the end of the year. Some of the games that will support FSR 4 include God of War: Ragnarok, The Last of Us Part I, Horizon: Forbidden West, and the Spider-Man series, as well as blockbusters like Call of Duty: Black Ops 6/Warzone, Marvel Rivals, Warhammer 40k: Space Marine II, and Kingdom Come Deliverance II.
HyPr-RX and AMD Fluid Motion Frames 2.1
AMD has also announced an update to its driver-based frame generation technology, AMD Fluid Motion Frames (AFMF). AFMF version 2.1 offers improved image quality in frame generation with reduced ghosting and better motion handling. This technology is part of AMD’s HyPr-RX suite of functions, which combines and activates several Radeon features in one fell swoop, including driver-based frame regeneration and upscaling, Radeon Anti-Lag, and Radeon Boost.
HyPr-RX can provide breathtaking speed improvements in thousands of games, although the image quality can sometimes deteriorate somewhat in driver-based upscaling, especially with UI elements. AMD seems to be positioning HyPr-RX as a competitor to Nvidia’s DLSS 4 technology.
The battle for the next generation starts soon
The release of the Radeon RX 9070 and 9070 XT marks the beginning of the battle for the next generation of graphics cards. With Nvidia’s RTX 50 series facing criticism for its high prices and low performance increases, AMD has a chance to surpass its competitor. However, the company will need to deliver on both performance and price-performance ratio to gain an advantage.
The Radeon RX 9070 and 9070 XT will be available on March 6th, with AMD promising a “wide availability” at launch. While exact euro prices are not yet known, the RX 9070 is likely to cost around 685 euros, while the 9070 XT could land at around 625 euros. We’ll have to wait until the release to see how the new AMD chips stack up against the competition.