AMD crashes Nvidia RTX 4000 launch party with RDNA 3 GPU announcement

AMD’s RDNA 3 graphics cards are going to be launched on November 3, we’ve just heard on Twitter.

Team Red’s Scott Herkelman, who is Senior VP & General Manger for Graphics at AMD, tweeted to let us know the date, and that more details on these next-gen RX 7000 GPUs will be coming soon.

The 3rd day of the month obviously coincides with this being RDNA 3, but what’s more telling about the timing here is that today is the big day for Nvidia’s own next-gen reveal.

As you’ve likely heard, Nvidia’s GeForce event at GTC is all but confirmed to be RTX 4000 – with super-heavy hints having been dropped all round – and it’s widely expected that we’ll see a new RTX 4090 GPU, and quite possibly more besides.

Clearly, with the timing of this tweet from AMD being two hours before CEO Jensen Huang’s GTC keynote, Team Red wants to crash the party and remind gamers that RTX 4000 won’t be the only option for buyers later this year.

Analysis: A rather sneaky thunder-stealing move

While it’s not uncommon to see this kind of attempt to shift the focus and limelight – or at least some of it – in the tech industry, we’ve got to say that this feels rather unsporting by AMD to cut its interference this close to the Nvidia Lovelace launch. So, it appears the gloves are coming well and truly off in the clash of the next-gen GPUs….

And funnliy enough, this announcement of an RDNA 3 reveal comes hot off the heels of a fresh rumor that the RX 7000 range will see AMD achieve incredible boosts speeds of close to 4GHz. Now, take that with a wheelbarrow full of seasoning, but it’s certainly pointing to some seriously speedy GPUs – and again, just on the cusp of Nvidia’s launch.

Remember that the rumor mill has Nvidia’s RTX 4090 going on sale next month, and we’ll soon find out the truth of that. With AMD’s RDNA 3 unveil happening on November 3, the question is – how long will it take after that before those next-gen graphics cards hit the shelves? Right now, it’s looking like Nvidia will have a sales head-start of around a month, at least for the flagship GPU – but what other cards will be revealed is still uncertain. Speculation is pointing to the RTX 4090 plus a pair of 4080 models (with 12GB and 16GB of VRAM, and some other major differences potentially).

AMD is thought to be kicking off with its higher-end offerings too, presumably going on sale later in November, but it may not be until next year before we see more affordable next-gen models – and indeed that might be the case for Nvidia, too. The RTX 4060 is rumored for next year, and possibly the 4070, as well.