The world awaits the arrival of next-generation graphics cards, and all eyes are now turning towards CES 2025 where it's hoped that Nvidia and AMD will show off some shiny new GPUs. Until now the latter's offerings have been assumed to be the RX 8000-series, but several leakers are now saying they'll fly in under the RX 9000-series moniker. And keep your fork, because there's more—we may have already had a sneak peek of what a new Radeon GPU might look like.
X user momomo_us posted a screenshot of what looks to be retailer GPU listings, and sitting almost at the tippy top are two GPUs called the RX 9070 and the RX 9070 XT (via Tom's Hardware). Both new GPUs sit above AMD's current fastest graphics card in the listing, the RX 7900 XTX.
pic.twitter.com/sGRZn2z2I7December 22, 2024
This new X0X0 naming convention seems to be confirmed by fellow leaker All The Watts!, who's posted a list of card groupings from the RX 9070-series down to the RX 8040-series.
And wouldn't you know it, there's a third. According to X user and known leaker HXL, the 8000-series nomenclature refers to RDNA 3.5 GPUs like Strix Halo, while the 9000-series naming scheme is supposedly for fully-fledged RDNA 4 GPUs.
All three leakers posted this new info within an hour of each other, so that could mean it's all a big game of telephone—or that they're all relying on the same leaked info at once.
The past three generations of desktop AMD cards have been known as the RX 5000, RX 6000, and RX 7000-series respectively, with the second digit used as the primary model differentiator. So this new skip-a-digit system would be a break from recent tradition, although it'd make a lot of sense.
AMD's latest Zen 5 CPUs are also called the 9000-series, although they use second digit identifiers like the Ryzen 7 9800X3D. Lining up the latest AMD GPUs and CPUs with a 9000 number each makes things relatively neat and tidy at least, with the change in identifier number hopefully meaning we don't have to break out a decoder wheel, as has been provided by AMD in the past.
Not only that, but it looks like an eagle-eyed redditor may have spotted images of at least one of these new cards displayed prominently in a recent advertising banner:
Are these reference 8000 series card? from r/Amd
Reddit user SubtleSerenity spotted a black and silver cooler design in several AMD ads on the platform, which looks distinctly different from AMD reference card designs previous. Hoang Anh Phu, another trusted AMD leaker, has since stated that they believe the card to be the RX 9070 XT—although as with all leak confirmations, pinches of salt all round are probably still a good idea.
Not that there's anything particularly exciting or revolutionary about what looks like a standard three-fan cooler design, but it still seems that AMD's marketing department may have let an ad loose too early. The card is shown in conjunction with a Ryzen 9 CPU, so the image has possibly been made for use with bundle deals yet to come.
With rumours abound that the top RDNA 4 card may be 45% faster in ray tracing than the RX 7900 XTX (and deliver raster performance equivalent to an RTX 4080), what we're now assuming is the RX 9070 XT might be a bit of a killer card. It's still not likely to compete with anything at the top of Nvidia's next-generation graphics cards, as AMD's Jack Huyhn has already stated it's not aiming for the high-end market with the new generation of GPUs.
Still, at the right price? It could still be a great card if these numbers prove out, and perhaps FSR 4 might even the playing field a bit more now it's rumoured to be getting a dose of AI, like Nvidia's DLSS. Still, it's all speculation for now, so we'll have to wait until CES 2025 to officially find out.
