AMD's highly anticipated RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT graphics cards, unveiled at CES 2025, are finally getting a release date: March 2025. This announcement, made via Twitter/X by David McAfee, VP & GM of Radeon Graphics and Ryzen CPUs, confirms the cards' arrival next month.
McAfee stated that the Radeon 9000 series is "looking great" and will have a wide global release. However, crucial details like specifications and pricing remain undisclosed. Industry speculation suggests the RX 9070 series will compete directly with Nvidia's RTX 5070 and RTX 5070 Ti, launching in February.
Interestingly, despite the lack of official announcement, reports suggest review units are already in the hands of tech reviewers and critics, with eTeknix confirming receipt of samples. This pre-release distribution has fueled speculation about AMD's motives. Some believe the delay is a strategic move to directly counter Nvidia's February launch, allowing for a more focused comparison. Others suggest pricing pressure from Nvidia may have influenced the decision.
The situation highlights the current market landscape, where Nvidia commands a dominant 88% of the discrete GPU market (according to a June 2024 report), leaving AMD with a mere 12%. This underscores the pressure on AMD to strategically launch its RX 9070 series to effectively challenge Nvidia's market dominance. The lack of clear communication surrounding the launch has, however, created some confusion and uncertainty.
