AMD Unveils RDNA 4 GPUs and Cutting-Edge X3D CPUs at CES 2025

AMD has officially unveiled its latest Ryzen Z2 processors for portable PCs, but its CES 2025 presentation also showcased an entire lineup of current generation graphics cards and the latest X3D processors for both desktops and laptops.

We will begin with the graphics information, as the American company highlighted two products based on the new RDNA 4 architecture – the RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 – along with a long-awaited enhancement to their FSR upscaling technology, FSR4.

The RX 9070 XT and 9070 are designed to compete with Nvidia’s mid-range 40-series and 50-series graphics cards, with the RDNA 4 architecture promising enhanced ray-tracing capabilities, improved AI features, and an upgraded media encoder – all areas where AMD has faced challenges against competitors like Nvidia and Intel. These cards are manufactured using a 4nm process and will be available this quarter, with models from brands such as Acer, Asus, Sapphire, XFX, ASRock, Gigabyte, and PowerColor.

FidelityFX Super Resolution 4 marks AMD’s first use of AI for upscaling, something Nvidia has long utilized to great effect. This feature is particularly suited for RDNA 4 graphics cards and hopefully will represent a significant advancement over previous AMD initiatives in what has become a fiercely competitive landscape with companies like Sony, Intel, and Nvidia all producing effective solutions. As before, frame generation and anti-lag technologies are also included.

AMD is also harnessing its graphics cards’ enhanced AI capabilities to allow users to generate images, summarize locally stored documents, and pose questions to an AMD-related chatbot – so it won’t be long before humorous screenshots of bizarre bot interactions start circulating once the cards hit the market.

The company’s CPU announcements are relatively straightforward. Firstly, we received the two new desktop 9000 X3D CPUs that we were anticipating: the 9950X3D and 9900X3D, both expected to launch in the first half of 2025.

If you’re familiar with the 7950X3D and 7900X3D, this territory should feel familiar, as both are two-CCD chips, with the higher-end version being a fully activated unit and the lower-end version a scaled-down model. This means 16 cores for the 9950X3D and 12 for the 9900X3D, with the flagship unit providing a maximum boost of 5.7GHz and 144MB of vertically-stacked v-cache. The cache cannot be seen on each core, which is slightly disappointing.

The performance metrics for the 9950X3D look promising as well, with AMD’s data indicating an 8 percent improvement over the 7950X3D across 40 titles. There are some significant gains here in certain games, with a 1.58x increase in Counter-Strike 2, 1.28x in Far Cry 6, and 1.16x in Starfield. Compared to the significantly less powerful Core Ultra 9 285K, AMD’s labs found an average performance increase of 20 percent, with results of 1.3x or higher in titles such as Starfield, Cyberpunk 2077, Space Marine 2, Final Fantasy 16, Far Cry 6, and Watch Dogs.