Radeon RX 9070 XT With 32GB Of VRAM Is Allegedly Coming To Challenge The RTX 5090
Oh boy, I can hear the clanging of pitchforks and crackling of fire from torches over the notion that AMD's upcoming Radeon RX 9070 XT will somehow challenge NVIDIA's flagship GeForce RTX 5090, which is a monster GPU and the fastest graphics card for gaming on the planet. But hear me out. In this context, I'm talking about the VRAM allocation, with a fresh rumor claiming there's a 32GB version in the pipeline.
To be clear, nobody is expecting the Radeon RX 9070 XT to steal the performance crown from the GeForce RTX 5090. It doesn't sound like AMD is interested (at least for now) in competing at the ultra high-end. GPUs like the 5090 are, in many ways, about bragging rights and winning mindshare, as one glance at the most represented GPUs on Steam will reveal—the most widely-used GPU on Steam right now is the GeForce RTX 3060, a mid-range card from two generations ago, while the now-ancient GeForce GTX 1650 occupies the number four spot.
While AMD hasn't challenged NVIDIA at the top of the GPU totem pole in quite a long time, it has earned street cred among gamers by equipping its cards with more VRAM than NVIDIA at comparative price points. That said, the Radeon RX 9070 XT is expected to feature 16GB of GDDR6 memory. That's the same as the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti and 4GB more than the non-Ti GeForce RTX 5070 (12GB), albeit those both feature faster GDDR7 memory.
Now here's where things get interesting. The folks at Videocardz spotted a post on Chiphell claiming AMD is working on an RDNA 4 offering with 32GB of VRAM. The initial thought is that this would be a professional graphics card for workstation duties, but the leaker further claims it is actually a Radeon RX 9070 XT variant.
Let's assume the leak is true for a moment. If so, we're looking at slower GDDR6 memory compared to the 32GB GDDR7 configuration on the GeForce RTX 5090. It would also mean equipping the card with 16 2GB GDDR6 memory chips, likely spit in half between the front and back of the PCB.
What's the point? There are two that we can think of. One is a assault on mindshare, and the other is to feed demand for a growing interest and reliance on AI workloads. Using GDDR6 memory on a narrower bus width means NVIDIA will still have the bandwidth advantage, as well as with overall performance. But the GeForce RTX 5090 is a card that starts at $1,999, if you can find one in stock, with several partner models priced hundreds of dollars more.
Rumor has it the Radeon RX 9070 XT will cost less than $899, and perhaps as low as $599. That's for the 16GB model. A 32GB model will obviously cost more, but not two grand. It shouldn't, anyway. Depending on pricing, the 32GB SKU could be a viable alternative to a true workstation card, especially for working with large language models (LLMs). It could also appear to gamers who leverage AI as a side hustle in some form.
We'll find out in time if the leak is true. AMD is expected to launch the Radeon RX 9070 XT in March, with the leaker claiming a 32GB model will follow by the end of the second quarter (so by June of this year).
