AMD’s Radeon RX 9070 and RDNA 4 embrace the AI revolution

The rumors were true! AMD unveiled the Radeon RX 9070 and 9070 XT during the company’s CES 2025 keynote on Monday, powered by the next-generation RDNA 4 architecture with a new AI-focused version of FSR (FidelityFX Super Resolution) in tow.

Gamers hoping for deep details were left wanting, however, as AMD classified this as a “preview” without much hard information. It was more of a tease than anything, honestly, though it’s clear that AMD is finally, truly embracing AI hardware within GPUs. Here’s what we do know.

For years, AMD has battled Nvidia’s vaunted DLSS using (mostly) graphics cores rather than integrating dedicated AI hardware. Not anymore.

AMD says RDNA 4 was built from the ground up on TSMC’s 4nm process to “supercharge” AI performance, driven by a massive overhaul to the AI compute architecture. Next-gen Radeon GPUs will also benefit from an upgraded ray tracing architecture, as well as “substantial improvements” to the second-gen AMD Radiance Display Engine’s encode and decode performance.

So far, so good — though the devil will be in the details around this seemingly monumental architecture change for Radeon, and AMD isn’t providing any more details than this just yet.

The added AI chops in RDNA 4 and the Radeon RX 9070 will be immediately augmented by a new software feature: FidelityFX Super Resolution 4. AMD told press that FSR 4 revolves around machine learning-based upscaling (like Nvidia’s DLSS) and was developed specifically for the new AI accelerators in RDNA 4. The company teased it with a screenshot of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.

Expect to see “dramatic” performance and quality improvements versus prior versions of FSR, per AMD. Which makes sense, given that AMD’s primarily GPU-based FSR technology has lagged in those areas compared to DLSS and even Intel’s XeSS features, which both tap into dedicated AI hardware to provide buttery-smooth upscaled gaming experiences.

To drive home that Radeon is embracing AI now, the company’s Adrenalin Software will also add a generative AI tab, where you can create images from text prompts or ask AI to summarize local documents. Eh, okay.

AMD finished its teaser with a splash shot of Radeon RX 9070 graphics cards from a variety of board partners. All the usual suspects are here, with the odd exception of MSI.

The company also provided press with the above slide to try to illustrate what AMD is trying to do with its new model numbers. Radeon is leaping to the 9000-series (to align with Ryzen 9000-series branding) while also moving branding for specific GPU models from the 100s to the 10s spot in the name (to align with Nvidia’s scheme). AMD wants you to know that the Radeon RX 9070 is an Nvidia RTX 5090 competitor, essentially.

And that is probably why AMD is light on RDNA 4 details at CES. Its keynote was held mere hours ahead of Nvidia’s own, where Jensen Huang is expected to reveal the hotly anticipated GeForce RTX 50-series GPUs. AMD likely wants to see where its rival’s pricing and performance fall before committing to specific segments itself.

Either way, it’s great to see AMD finally embrace the potential of dedicated AI hardware. AI upscaling is killing native graphics, after all. The company says it’ll provide more information about the Radeon RX 9070 and RDNA 4 ahead of launch sometime in the first quarter of 2025.