New AMD Radeon GPU could shake up budget graphics card market, suggests leak

A fresh rumor suggests a new AMD Radeon RX 7650 GRE graphics card could be revealed at CES 2025, potentially changing the budget GPU market.

A new leak is hinting at a brand new AMD Radeon graphics card that could become an affordable option for gamers. The rumor, straight from the leak mines on X (formerly Twitter), seems to suggest that the new AMD Radeon RX 7650 GRE will be announced at the next CES trade show in January 2025.

This wouldn’t be the first AMD card to use the GRE branding, with the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE making it onto our best graphics cards shortlist as the best mid-range GPU you can buy. However, we would expect the new card to be a far more affordable option, based on its model number.

In a post on X, regular hardware leaker Hoang Anh Phu (@AnhPhuH) gave a very brief hint to the new GPU, simply stating the name of the card alongside a CES 2025 hashtag. This would seem to imply that AMD plans to announce the AMD Radeon RX 7650 GRE at the next Consumer Electronics Show trade show event in Las Vegas in early January 2025.

Looking at existing AMD Radeon RX 7000 series cards, the model name of RX 7650 GRE suggests the new card will sit in the middle ground between the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT and its younger sibling, the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT. The RX 7700 XT is a good card for 1440p gaming, using a Navi 32 XL GPU with 12GB of GDDR6 VRAM, which retails for around $449. The RX 7600 XT, meanwhile, uses a Navi 33 XT GPU, has a higher 16GB of GDDR6 VRAM, and retails for $329.

If it does land between these two cards, that suggests a budget-friendly cost for the RX 7650 GRE of somewhere between $300-400, although this is entirely speculation. This pricing would make it more expensive than the Radeon RX 7600 – the best budget card right now – but with (what we’d assume would be) better performance and more VRAM for only $100-$200 more.

The RX 7650 GRE is also likely to be the last of AMD’s RDNA 3 cards before new RDNA 4 Radeon GPUs are released, with rumors that those cards are coming in early 2025.

One potential problem for those excited by this possible upcoming launch, though, is that the GRE branding has generally been a marker of China-exclusive or at least China-first GPU releases from AMD. GRE stands for Golden Rabbit Edition, referring to the Chinese zodiac. As such, it’s quite possible that this card, if confirmed, will release for Chinese audiences only or first before a wider release.

We’ve seen some GRE products, such as the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE, eventually launch outside of China – with that card actually proving to be a really good value option – but it’s also possible AMD could be switching to just using GRE as a general marker of new variants of its GPUs. The timing of the launch certainly hints at the latter being the case, as CES is a very much a western-market-focused show, so a new China-exclusive card would be an odd fit.

All told, if you’re looking for a new graphics card, it might be worth holding off until January. Along with this possible launch shaking up the budget end of the market, Nvidia’s next-gen 5000 series cards are expected to launch in January, including the new flagship Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090. Meanwhile, AMD is also plotting its own early January launches for its RDNA 4 cards.

Preparing for a new PC build with a brand new GPU? Check out our how to build a gaming PC guide for a quick refresher, as it’ll talk you through all of the steps you need to take, from picking the right parts to tidying up your cables afterwards.