AMD Details Radeon RX 9070 Preparation Efforts Ahead Of Its March Launch
McAfee said that the "hardware and software [were] looking great", but we speculated that the late-in-Q1 launch timing might be down to wanting extra time to work on the drivers, a desire to make sure retailers were fully supplied with stock to sell, or perhaps an aim to accelerate adoption of the new AI-based FidelityFX Super Resolution 4.
As it turns out, it's all of those things. In a couple of new tweets, David McAfee as well as AMD's gaming honcho Frank Azor confirmed our suspicions responding to commenters. Azor's tweet is above; replying to our very own EIC Dave Altavilla, Frank says specifically that the graphics team is "working hard to put the finishing touches on the software." He also notes that they're "working on some nice FSR4 bring-ups."
Frank didn't say anything about building inventory, but McAfee sure did. In a reply to Australian tech YouTubers Hardware Unboxed, McAfee specifically mentions the same things Azor did, as well as a further remark about AMD's partners launching additional models and "building initial inventory at retailers." So there you have it.
Frankly, even though we align with gamers in being eager to get our hands on the latest Radeon GPUs, it's probably a good idea for AMD to go ahead and let NVIDIA launch its parts to see where the dust settles. The extra driver optimization time will help AMD avoid launch-day software SNAFUs, and it will also help AMD to better position its products against the competition.
We're also pleased to hear that the company is actively focusing on stock challenges. Intel clearly didn't expect its B580 GPU to be the hit that it was, and those cards are basically unobtanium. If AMD and its partners are concerned about the same issue with the Radeon RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT, it could point to high confidence in the quality of the parts. We'll probably know sometime in early March, and you'll know as soon as we can tell you.
