After information about when the first next-generation graphics from Nvidia, which is said to be the GeForce RTX 5080, could appear in stores, we also have something from the opposite camp, if you prefer graphics from AMD (and perhaps also from the cheaper camp). Information from the Chinese or Taiwanese industry indicates when graphics of the RDNA 4 architecture should appear, heading for the low-cost category of cards like GeForce 4060 (Ti) and Radeon RX 7600 (XT).
According to the Board Channels forum, which has information coming from card manufacturers, AMD, like Nvidia, seems to be able to accelerate the release of cards and instead of the models being spread out over several months, all or most of them could come out during the first quarter .
Information so far has indicated that the Radeon RX 9070 XT should probably go on sale at the end of January (perhaps in the last week, i.e. 27-31-01). According to previous rumors, the Radeon RX 9070 model “without XT” could perhaps ride with it at the same time, which is also allegedly a graphics card with 16 GB of memory, so it will lose against the XT model only in lower gross performance.
But according to Board Channels, this January release may be relatively limited. At least in the Chinese market, it is said that there will not be large stocks of these new GPUs, and wider availability should only start from February (February). This could mean that the first batches of Radeon RX 9070 XTs at release could be limited and might sell out in stores before the next ones arrive. In any case, the reveal and announcement will be at CES 2025 next week.
But there is also a certain chance that this information only concerns China, when AMD could, for example, prioritize Western markets with the release and start sales in China late. This is how the company did it with the Radeon RX 7600 XT, which was not initially available in China, and the RX 6750 GRE model was offered instead.
Radeon RX 9060 or 9050 in March?
Information from Board Channels continues with when additional graphics may appear following the first wave from January and possibly February. This should supposedly happen in March, i.e. still in the not-so-distant future. What exactly these new March cards are isn’t entirely said.
It could either be that Radeon RX 9070 with 16GB of memory, which would be a cheaper, slightly trimmed version of the RX 9070 XT model. However, the BenchLife website previously wrote about it that it will also be released in January. If it were to be confirmed, the March release could already concern the graphics coming on the smaller cheap GPU Navi 44. This is roughly half the chip with 2048 shaders with RDNA 4 architecture and 128-bit memories (Navi 48 in more powerful models has 4096 shaders and 256-bit memories) .
It would therefore be the successor to the Radeon RX 7600 and RX 7600 XT, although they may be priced a bit higher and these older cards will remain in the menu below them. These cards could possibly be called Radeon RX 9060 XT or RX 9060 if they are aimed against the RX 4060 (Ti) or the new RX 5060 (Ti) models from Nvidia. A release as early as March would be gratifying, as the sooner new blood (and competitive pressure) appears in this ribbon, which are more accessible to the casual gamer, the better.
There is probably a third option somewhere in between. If it is true that both models (RX 9070 XT, RX 9070) based on the Navi 48 chip have 16GB of memory, and thus a full 256-bit bus, the possibility opens that a third model could be based on the Navi 48. This would have a memory interface cut to 192 bits, and thus only 12GB of memory. It could then fit in price between 16GB cards and cheap 8GB graphics with a Navi 44 chip.
However, AMD often releases such graphics after a while (also because they use chips with defects from the factory saved by turning off the affected units, so it is probably often waiting for more of them to accumulate). Therefore, there is probably a chance that the Radeon RX 9060 and possibly the 9060 XT will appear in March. The designation RX 9050 is probably also possible (but this could also probably be a cut-down version with 96-bit memories, if it comes out).
The Radeon RX 6500 XT was also a graphics card without a hardware video encoder, as it was primarily a notebook GPU
Navi 44 without video encoders?
The Navi 44 chip should be relatively small (and thus relatively cheap to manufacture). Hopefully the prices won’t get much higher than the Radeon RX 7600 and 7600 XT. Due to the price, the Navi 44 will probably be limited to a PCI Express interface with only 8 lines (whether PCIe 4.0 x8 or 5.0 x8 remains to be seen) and it is said that it is possible that the hardware video encoder will not be present on the chip to save money. The reason is that the on-chip multimedia block takes up a lot of space, but is redundant in the increasingly important notebook deployment because the same or similar engine is already integrated in the processor.
And on the AM5 platform, most processors already have a video encoder in their integrated GPU (except for the Ryzen 5 7500F and 8700F / 8400F models). So it would be more efficient not to put the encoder in a separate GPU, and the graphics can be a bit cheaper instead. A bigger problem would be on the AM4 platform, where processors without iGPU are the norm, but this is gradually on the decline, and there is always the question of whether a regular gamer looking for the most economical gaming CPU and GPU needs hardware compression so much.
Resources: VideoCardz, Kepler_L2
Source: www.cnews.cz
