Rumor mill: Those looking forward to AMD's next-gen RDNA 4 desktop graphics cards might be waiting a little longer than anticipated – but they'll still be here before Nvidia's equivalent GeForce 5000 series. That's according to a new rumor that claims Team Red's rollout of its upcoming GPUs is being delayed because of all the unsold RDNA 3 cards.
There have been conflicting reports about when AMD will launch its RDNA 4-based graphics cards. Some say it will be toward to the end of this year, while others have pointed to a CES 2025 reveal and launch.
Prolific leaker Kepler is one of those who believes AMD will release its new cards at CES in January. Now, YouTube Channel Moore's Law is Dead is claiming a "Q1 2025 release," and the reasons why are quite interesting.
Oh CES is for N48. N44 is probably Q2.
– Kepler (@Kepler_L2) July 5, 2024
According to MLID, which cites an AMD partner and a major retailer, the RDNA 4 cards were supposed to release earlier but are actually being delayed. This is because of a "massive" oversupply problem with the current Navi 31-based cards, such as the RX 7900 XT, RX 7900 XTX, and RX 7900 GRE. The retailer source added that low-to-mid range RDNA 3 cards are selling "okay."
It's worth remembering that MLID doesn't have the best reputation when it comes to the accuracy of its claims. However, it's true that Navi 31 cards aren't exactly flying off the shelves. Looking at the latest Steam survey, the most popular model among participants is the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX in 34th position.
Getting rid of the Navi 31 surplus before the release of RDNA 4 makes sense because the new cards offer much better price to performance – it'll be hard to sell an expensive RDNA 3 card when a cheaper RDNA 4 GPU is more powerful.
Nvidia is believed to be releasing its RTX 5080 and 5090 series at CES, keeping with its tradition of launching the high-end options first. With the RTX 5070 and others arriving later, AMD will likely have some time before RNDA 4's direct competition arrives.
In September, AMD confirmed that it will not be competing with Nvidia when it comes to the next generation of flagship graphics cards. A Team Red executive confirmed that releasing cards in the Radeon RX 8000 line to match Nvidia's top RTX 5000 GPUs won't be a priority. Instead, AMD will be focusing on its mid-range and lower-end products to increase the company's overall market share.
AMD might have delayed RDNA 4 launch due to oversupply of RDNA 3 graphics cards
