According to industry sources, AMD's upcoming Radeon RX 9000 series of graphics cards will have a staggered release. While the series is expected to be unveiled at CES in January, wider availability of the RX 9070 XT is not expected until February, with lower-end models arriving in March.
Radeon RX 9070 XT Launch
The report, based on information from “AMD’s internal department,” indicates that the Radeon RX 9000 series will be unveiled at CES on January 7th (Chinese time), with the RX 9070 XT as the initial focus. However, volume shipments of these cards are not expected to begin until February, following the Chinese New Year.
“AMD will likely launch the RX 9070 XT in January, but wider availability and custom model shipments will be delayed."
AMD typically prioritizes its MBA (Made by AMD) designs during initial product launches, which often delays board partners from shipping custom variants. This aligns with previous AMD product launches where initial availability was limited. This also means that we will first get the reference cards from AMD themselves, before board partners are able to ship their versions of these GPUs.
Mainstream Radeon RX 9000
The report also suggests that other models, specifically mainstream cards, will launch in March. It's not clear if this refers to the Radeon RX 9070 (non-XT), the Radeon RX 9060, or even lower SKUs. However, this suggests that RDNA 4 desktop GPUs will see a segmented launch, further delaying the availability of most of the range.
AMD has faced similar issues in recent launches, including delays in the shipping of the Ryzen AI 300 series, gaming handhelds and Mini-PCs as well as the limited availability of the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, often at prices well above MSRP.
