AMD's Radeon AI Pro R9700 Hits Retail Market, Challenging NVIDIA in AI GPU Space

AMD's elusive Radeon AI Pro R9700 makes its first retail appearance for the DIY market -- Customer on Reddit buys the Gigabyte "AI Top" variant for $1,324

AMD announced the Radeon AI Pro R9700 back at Computex earlier this year, a professional GPU built on the RDNA 4 architecture meant to give Nvidia a run for its money. As the name suggests, it's geared towards AI workloads that require a lot of memory. Therefore, even though the R9700 shares many of the same specs as the gaming-oriented RX 9070 XT, it has double the VRAM at 32 GB. Originally, this card was limited to system integrators and OEM vendors as AMD barely laid out any availability details, but it seems like it's finally here for the DIY market. Just today, a user on Reddit reports receiving their R9700 bought through a proper retail channel, not some underground website sifting through non-descript cards that didn't pass inspection at an OEM. The variant they received was from Gigabyte, namely part of their "AI Top" lineup with a blower-style cooler. R9700 Just Arrived from r/LocalLLaMA The AI Pro 9700 has a Navi 48 GPU inside with 4,096 cores or 64 Compute Units -- same as the 9070 XT -- and is manufactured using TSMC's N4P node. It packs 53.9 billion transistors into a 357 mm² die that's packaged with a monolithic design, a departure from the MCM approach used for Navi 31, its predecessor. As previously mentioned, it has 32 GB of GDDR6 memory saturated across a 256-bit wide bus. Now that the specs are out of the way, it's also important to note that blowers are common in professional GPUs because they're expected to be used in a server environment. In such cases, it's better to pump hot air out the back so it exits the stack entirely, unlike in a traditional desktop case, where open-air designs recirculate heat inside the entire chassis. Perhaps the most crucial takeaway from this is the price. The community already had a decent idea about the range, but at around $1,200 confirmed (list price, the user paid $1,324 including tax and shipping), AMD is offering a great deal for AI/ML workloads, especially if you're running LLMs locally on your machine. In comparison, Nvidia's RTX 5090 offers the same amount of memory but at twice the cost. If we strictly talk professionally, the RTX Pro 4500 has similar specs but costs more than twice as much. Now, memory isn't everything, and the Green Team's offering is expected to be a lot more powerful as well, but there's no denying the value proposition with AMD. Moreover, Intel will also be throwing its hat in the ring with the Arc Pro B60 Dual, which combines two BMG-G21 dies (each with 24 GB of memory) to double the VRAM to 48 GB. Since the B60 Dual is also reported to be $1,200, it will be up to you to choose whether you can bear oneAPI or ROCm, or simply use Vulkan for sanity's sake. For now, it's great to see the R9700 being supplied to the DIY market, as it had limited availability with almost no signs of AIB variants being sold to the public. As to how prolific availability will be remains to be seen.

ASRock Creator Radeon AI PRO R9700 Listed On Newegg For $1329; GIGABYTE's Custom Edition Also Reportedly Shares The Same Price

AMD's board partners have started shipping the fastest workstation RDNA 4 GPU, revealing the pricing. AMD's strongest workstation RDNA 4 GPU is finally arriving on the shelves. The company showcased its Radeon AI PRO R9700 at the Computex event a few months ago and launched it at the end of last month. However, the GPU was hardly available at retailers, and XFX was one of the first board partners to announce the availability of the GPU through system integrators. Thankfully, more AIBs are now coming forward to sell their own designs since AMD isn't selling the reference model. As per a Redditor in the LocalLLAMA subreddit, he recently received the Radeon AI PRO R9700 from GIGABYTE. This edition features a Turbo Fan and a blower-style design very similar to the render of the reference edition. XFX, too, has a similar design and expects similar models from other board partners as well. As per the OP, the GIGABYTE Radeon AI PRO R9700 came with a list price of $1220, but with taxes and shipping, the total price he paid was $1324. A similar price can also be seen on one of the major NA retailers, which has recently listed ASRock's Creator Radeon AI PRO R9700. This GPU also brings a blower-style design with Creator-branding and is currently listed at $1329 on Newegg. Right now, it's available for purchase, but it appears that it is $130 more expensive than the GIGABYTE card. It's possible that this isn't the official MSRP for the Radeon AI PRO R9700, because since it has just begun to appear on retailers, the initial prices may be somewhat higher. Nonetheless, considering the GPU costs between $1200 and $1300, it's going to be twice as expensive as the fastest RDNA 4 gaming GPU, i.e., the Radeon RX 9070 XT. Both GPUs share identical specifications, including 4096 Stream Processors, 128 ROPs, nearly the same TDP, and the same 20 Gbps GDDR6 memory with a 256-bit memory interface. However, the Radeon AI PRO R9700 brings 32 GB of memory capacity compared to 16 GB on the RX 9070 XT, making it ideal for productivity and AI workloads. The Radeon AI PRO R9700 also comes with memory ECC support for Linux for detecting and correcting memory errors. Expect more such R9700 to ship soon, as we have several AMD board partners who have announced their own custom editions, including ASRock, ASUS, and Sapphire.