AMD’s upcoming RDNA 4 flagship graphics card is reportedly named the Radeon RX 9070 XT, marking the introduction of a new Radeon 9000 series branding.
This revelation comes from Chiphell’s senior member, Napoleon, and aligns with growing speculation around AMD’s next-generation GPU lineup.
A Shift to Radeon 9000 Branding
Rumors about AMD’s RDNA 4 GPUs have been circulating for months, with the lineup expected to debut at CES 2025 and hit retail shelves in the first quarter of the year.
While initial reports suggested the series would adopt Radeon RX 8000 branding, recent leaks indicate that AMD has opted for the Radeon RX 9000 designation instead.
According to Napoleon, AMD’s naming convention will also undergo a notable change. Rather than the traditional “XX00” format, the new GPUs will follow an “X0X0” structure.
This means successors to the Radeon RX 7700 XT and 7800 XT will not be named 9700 XT or 9800 XT but rather 9070 XT and 9080 XT, based on this hypothesis.
Alignment with Market Trends
Interestingly, AMD’s new naming scheme appears to mirror NVIDIA’s GeForce lineup, such as the RTX 4070 and the forthcoming RTX 5070.
This approach isn’t entirely new for AMD, as the company has previously adopted higher numerical branding to align with competitors.
For instance, AMD switched from Ryzen AI 100 to Ryzen AI 300 branding to differentiate itself from Intel’s Core Ultra lineup. Larger numbers can be advantageous in marketing, potentially giving the impression of greater capability.
The Radeon RX 9070 XT naming also aligns with AMD’s existing strategy for other products, like the Strix Halo iGPU, which goes up to the Radeon RX 8060S. Since the Radeon RX 80X0 series is built on RDNA 3.5 architecture, the jump to RX 90X0 branding for RDNA 4 makes logical sense.
Performance Expectations
Leaked performance benchmarks suggest the Navi 48 GPU, part of the RDNA 4 lineup, will compete directly with NVIDIA’s RTX 4080 in rasterization.
It is also rumored to outperform the Radeon RX 7900 XTX by up to 45% in ray tracing performance while offering improved power efficiency.
Despite being categorized as a mainstream offering, the Navi 48 GPU is expected to cost around $500, positioning it as a rival to NVIDIA’s upcoming RTX 5070, which is anticipated to share a similar price point.
With CES 2025 around the corner, the reveal of AMD’s RDNA 4 GPUs will shed more light on the company’s strategic shift and the performance potential of its new flagship graphics card.
