CES 2025 brought unexpected news for AMD enthusiasts, as the company chose not to unveil the RDNA 4 GPUs. While the exact motivation remains unclear, many speculate that AMD wants to gauge Nvidia’s offerings with the RTX 50 series before making their own announcements.
AMD’s Strategic Focus
This decision seems logical because, without any flagship products, AMD must focus on the mid-range RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 to ensure they offer great price-to-performance ratios. Recent leaks have suggested promising performance improvements for these cards. Notably, leaker All_The_Watts has shared critical information regarding the performance, release date, and TDP of the RX 9070 models.
Performance Comparisons
All_The_Watts asserts that the RX 9070 XT performs at least as well as the RTX 4070 Ti Super, though it does fall short of the RTX 4080. This aligns with earlier reports indicating that the RX 9070 XT could outperform the RTX 4070 Ti Super, being roughly equivalent to the RTX 4080 Super in the game Black Myth: Wukong.
In terms of the RX 9070, the leaker suggests that this RDNA 4 card could either surpass or at least match the RTX 4070 Super, but it won’t reach the speed of the RTX 4070 Ti Super. This is at odds with an earlier leak suggesting the RX 9070 was comparable to the RX 7900 XT, which is 23% faster than the RTX 4070 Super in 3DMark Time Spy Graphics, according to our tests on Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.
Performance Gains Expected
Even if the performance estimates for the RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 are on the low side, these GPUs would still outperform the RX 7800 XT by 18.5% and the RX 7700 XT by 25%, based on 3DMark Time Spy Graphics results.
It’s worth noting that, according to All_The_Watts, AMD appears to be overclocking the RX 9070/XT models to enhance their performance. The impact of this overclocking is visible in the leaker’s claims about clock speeds and possibly TDP.
According to All_The_Watts, the RX 9070 XT is potentially being overclocked to reach clock speeds at or above 3 GHz. This is a significant increase compared to the RX 7900 XT, which has a max clock frequency of 2.4 GHz and a gaming frequency of 2 GHz.
Power Consumption Considerations
However, this increase in clock speed may lead to higher power usage, as the RX 9070 XT is reported to have a TDP in the range of 300 W. For context, the RX 7900 XT has a TDP of 315 W.
For the RX 9070 non-XT model, the alleged clock speed and TDP are said to be equal to or greater than 2 GHz and in the 200 W range, respectively.
In conclusion, according to a leak from Moore’s Law Is Dead, All_The_Watts has indicated that the RDNA 4 cards could be revealed on January 15. We won’t have to wait long to find out if these leaked details hold true. Until then, it’s best to treat this information as mere speculation.
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