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.
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