AMD and Nvidia could be set for epic GPU showdown with RX 9070 and 9070 XT going on sale at the same time as the RTX 5080

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Rumored RDNA 4 pre-order date is January 23, with GPUs likely to go on sale maybe a week later – when the RTX 5080 arrives

AMD RX 9070 GPU models
(Image credit: AMD / TechPowerup)
  • B&H Photo accidentally posted early listings of RDNA 4 graphics cards
  • RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT were given a pre-order date of January 23
  • That’d suggest an on sale date at the end of January, when Nvidia’s RTX 5080 (and 5090) hit the shelves

AMD’s next-gen RDNA 4 graphics cards, which were revealed (in a rather fleeting manner) at CES 2025, might be available sooner than you thought – on pre-order at least, if the date accidentally posted by a US retailers turns out to be correct.

B&H Photo apparently put up early listings for some Asus RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT graphics cards (TUF and Prime models), all of which came with a pre-order date of January 23.

Those listings have now been removed, but not before they were screenshotted by one of the regular hardware leakers on X, @momomo_us (hat tip to VideoCardz).

So, it appears that we might be able to reserve these much-awaited RDNA 4 graphics cards in just two weeks, presumably ahead of a release which would come maybe a week or so after.

An AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE from PowerColor on a desk with its retail packaging

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

Analysis: Battle of the next-gen desktop GPUs

Interestingly, another recent rumor on the RX 9070's release date came from graphics card maker XFX, which has some kind of either announcement or launch of these GPUs planned for January 24. One way or another, then, it seems that something’s going to happen with RDNA 4 as we get to the final week of January.

It feels like this might be the official revelation of the full spec and price details (which weren’t shared at CES 2025), ahead of the on-shelf availability (which is why B&H has it as pre-orders going live). Obviously take all this with a large helping of salt, and indeed there’s a difference in the dates – January 23 or 24 – which casts further doubt on these rumors. True, the XFX rumors comes from its middle east division, but the time difference between that and the 9am ET pre-order kick-off B&H had down is still on the same day (just).

We’ll just have to wait and see, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if AMD was planning to kick off RDNA 4 and have these graphics cards on the shelves late in January, because Nvidia’s RTX 5090 and 5080 go on sale come January 30. So, the dates fall in place for what might be a big next-gen GPU showdown – of sorts.

As you might be aware, the RX 9070 models aren’t going to compete with Nvidia’s RTX 5080 (and certainly not the 5090), so how is this a ‘showdown’ exactly? Well, the reality is that the RTX 5080 is going to be way too pricey for most consumers, even though the $999 MSRP was more affordable than expected. (Yes, some folks were thinking it’d easily be $1,199, maybe more – though third-party boards will inevitably land more in this territory, as most of them will be a fair bit pricier than the Founders Edition at Nvidia’s MSRP).

What we’ll have, then, is a situation where in theory AMD can come in with way more affordable next-gen GPUs, grabbing the interest of would-be buyers, scooping up more sales with RDNA 4 as folks realize just how pricey RTX 5080 GPUs will be – when Nvidia’s $999 Founders Edition inevitably sells out in a flash – potentially winning the showdown in this way.

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Darren Allan

Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for TechRadar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - 'I Know What You Did Last Supper' - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).