Mark your calendars, as AMD has narrowed down its Radeon RX 9000 Series launch plans. While we’re short an exact date, the company has confirmed it will release its next generation of graphics cards in March 2025. This unequivocally puts to rest any notion that RDNA 4 will arrive alongside its competition, GeForce RTX 50 Series, and could be the move that best guarantees success for the GPUs. However, there are still plenty of questions that need answering surrounding alleged delays and apparent leaks of retailer stock.
Straight from the horse’s mouth, AMD’s David McAfee took to X to share the news that Radeon RX 9000 Series will arrive in March. While there are few other concrete details to extract from his post, McAfee claims that “hardware and software are looking great” and that the company plans to have “a wide assortment of cards available globally.” The latter point hopefully indicates that both RX 9070 and 9060 Series cards will arrive simultaneously, but this could just as easily encompass RX 9070 XT and base 9070 instead.
AMD’s plans to release in March effectively give Nvidia free reign to dominate the news cycle and benchmark charts throughout January and February. So far, there’s no word on when GeForce RTX 5060 Series pixel pushers will hit the scene to rival Team Red, but I’d expect to see the budget graphics cards show up sooner rather than later now that GeForce RTX 4060 production is winding down.
If this strategy is born out of caution, I understand why AMD would take such an approach. Despite offering some great graphics cards, the adoption of Radeon RX 7000 Series remains relatively poor compared to GeForce RTX 40 Series. If the company is serious about taking market share from Nvidia, it can’t afford to repeat the same mistakes of offering post-launch price cuts in a bid to combat critical reception. Get it right out of the gate or don’t bother.
Price is but one part of the equation, as AMD needs to ensure FSR 4 comes out swinging against its competition. The adoption of machine learning will level the playing field in terms of quality but this only matters if there are plenty of places to enjoy it. Don’t forget that 75 games will support DLSS 4 come launch, making Nvidia’s innovation immediately and widely available to all potential buyers of GeForce RTX 50 Series.
Following the highs and lows of Arc B580 and Arc B570, I’m continuing to hold out hope that AMD can provide the midrange and budget market with some genuine value-oriented alternatives to Nvidia’s offerings. In lieu of specifications or performance estimations, it’s impossible to say how likely that is at present. In the meantime, all we can do is keep our fingers crossed that Radeon RX 9000 Series is worth the wait.
You can expect Radeon RX 9000 Series reviews from Club386 as and when AMD’s GPUs launch, so make sure you’re following the site on Google News. If you’re hungry for more graphics card talk, give our GeForce RTX 5090 unboxing a looksee as its launch draws ever closer.
