AMD has unveiled its highly anticipated next-generation GPUs, including the Radeon RX 9070 line for gaming and content creation, on Jan. 6 ahead of CES 2025 in Las Vegas. Powered by the cutting-edge RDNA 4 architecture, the new Radeon lineup promises significant advancements in AI computing, media encoding, and ray tracing capabilities. These GPUs are expected to hit the market in Q1 2025.
AMD’s GPUs compete with NVIDIA’s, which are also expected to see a refresh at CES.
“As consumers and professionals increasingly recognize the productivity benefits of AI PCs, AMD is further increasing its performance leadership in the market,” Jack Huynh, senior vice president and general manager of AMD’s computing and graphics group, said in a press release. “With the next generation of AI-enabled processors, we are proliferating AI to devices everywhere, and bringing the power of a workstation to thin and light laptops.”
The Radeon RX 9070 series is built on RDNA 4 architecture
The Radeon 9000 series GPUs are built to complement AI workloads.
The first two cards in the series, Radeon 9070 XT and Ryzen 9070, will be available in hardware from Acer, Asus, and other manufacturers. Details about the new series remain limited, but the RDNA architecture — built on the 4nm manufacturing process — promises significant advancements. The GPUs are expected to excel in AI computing, offer improved media encoding capabilities, and deliver improved ray tracing for gaming and graphics creation.
Not much information is available about the Radeon RX 9070 series yet. However, AMD said over 100 enterprise platform brands will use AMD Pro technology through 2025.
The company also announced the Ryzen 9000 HX series, including the beefy Ryzen 9950X3D for gaming and content creation.
SEE: Shortly before CES 2025, OpenAI announced its new phase: the quest for “superintelligence.”
Ryzen AI Max and others bring AI performance to laptops
Overall, Ryzen continues to devote significant attention to AI PC products, including the third-generation AMD Ryzen AI and Ryzen AI 300 Pro series processors announced at CES.
These chips compete with Qualcomm’s and Intel’s Copilot+ PC processors. AMD claims that the Ryzen AI 7 350 and Ryzen AI 5 340 perform at 50 TOPS at peak performance. Options range from the 6-core, 12-thread AI Max Pro 380 to the 16-core, 32-thread AI Max/AI Max Pro 395 build. The AI Max and AI Max Pro series offer up to 256 GB/s bandwidth. HP and Asus are on board to sell laptops and mini workstations equipped with these chips.
AMD announced the AI Max and AI Max Pro series processors for gaming, scheduled for the first half of 2025. Although mobile gaming may be the primary use case, these heavy-duty graphics engines may find their way into compact workstations for graphic designers, game developers, and other graphics-intensive professional use cases.
Ryzen Z2 and Ryzen 200 processors coming soon
Other announcements from AMD at CES 2025 included:
- The Ryzen Z2 Series for handheld PC gaming is available in the first quarter of 2025.
- The Ryzen 200 Series processors for IT environments and other mainstream commercial uses are available in the second quarter of 2025.
“AMD Ryzen CPUs offer the best TCO [total cost of ownership], delivering exceptional performance and efficiency,” said Robert Kochheim, global portfolio manager of digital workplace at Shell in an AMD press kit.
