It remains a mystery to me why AMD launched Radeon RX 9070 GRE with 12GB of VRAM, let alone the reasons behind the manufacturer’s decision to maintain China exclusivity for the card. Now, it seems Team Red plans to give the niche pixel pusher a little more muscle via a memory upgrade and possibly other spec improvements.
In a recent Board Channels discussion (via Videocardz), reports of a Radeon RX 9070 GRE with additional VRAM are emerging. More specifically, rumours claim the card will shift from 12GB of memory capacity to 16GB, mirroring the rest of the Radeon RX 9070 Series.
Additionally, whispers persist that AMD “may upgrade this series product line in the future.” This likely hints at changes to the card’s GPU die, with increases to compute units and more. This would echo the release strategy of Radeon RX 6750 GRE, which first launched in a 10GB configuration before a 12GB variant came to light complete with beefer specs.
If these rumours prove true, we should see these upgrades materialise sometime between September and October. It’s unclear whether AMD plans to launch the card more widely, as the the brand did Radeon RX 7900 GRE, but there’s no signs of a broader release as of yet.
Radeon RX 9070 GRE would prove useful to AMD in other markets, as it would help plug the $200 gap that currently exists between Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB and Radeon RX 9070. As reviews for the card have shown, this would effectively afford Team Red a more-affordable competitor to RTX 5070.
Whether AMD believes releasing Radeon RX 9070 GRE more broadly or not, the brand will likely need some kind of response to Nvidia’s alleged oncoming storm of GeForce RTX 50 Super Series. Part of the reason for RDNA 4’s success has been ample VRAM, which Blackwell could soon render moot.
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