Monday, January 29th 2024
Top AMD RDNA4 Part Could Offer RX 7900 XTX Performance at Half its Price and Lower Power
We've known since way back in August 2023, that AMD is rumored to be retreating from the enthusiast graphics segment with its next-generation RDNA 4 graphics architecture, which means that we likely won't see successors to the RX 7900 series squaring off against the upper end of NVIDIA's fastest GeForce RTX "Blackwell" series. What we'll get instead is a product stack closely resembling that of the RX 5000 series RDNA, with its top part providing a highly competitive price-performance mix around the $400-mark. A more recent report by Moore's Law is Dead sheds more light on this part.
Apparently, the top Radeon RX SKU based on the next-gen RDNA4 graphics architecture will offer performance comparable to that of the current RX 7900 XTX, but at less than half its price (around the $400 mark). It is also expected to achieve this performance target using a smaller, simpler silicon, with significantly lower board cost, leading up to its price. What's more, there could be energy efficiency gains made from the switch to a newer 4 nm-class foundry node and the RDNA4 architecture itself; which could achieve its performance target using fewer numbers of compute units than the RX 7900 XTX with its 96.
When it came out, the RX 5700 XT offered an interesting performance proposition, beating the RTX 2070, and forcing NVIDIA to refresh its product stack with the RTX 20-series SUPER, and the resulting RTX 2070 SUPER. Things could go down slightly differently with RDNA4. Back in 2019, ray tracing was a novelty, and AMD could surprise NVIDIA in the performance segment even without it. There is no such advantage now, ray tracing is relevant; and so AMD could count on timing its launch before the Q4-2024 debut of the RTX 50-series "Blackwell."
Sources:
Moore's Law is Dead (YouTube), Tweaktown
Apparently, the top Radeon RX SKU based on the next-gen RDNA4 graphics architecture will offer performance comparable to that of the current RX 7900 XTX, but at less than half its price (around the $400 mark). It is also expected to achieve this performance target using a smaller, simpler silicon, with significantly lower board cost, leading up to its price. What's more, there could be energy efficiency gains made from the switch to a newer 4 nm-class foundry node and the RDNA4 architecture itself; which could achieve its performance target using fewer numbers of compute units than the RX 7900 XTX with its 96.
292 Comments on Top AMD RDNA4 Part Could Offer RX 7900 XTX Performance at Half its Price and Lower Power
Making compute GPGPUs with multiple compute dies is easy because the criteria are different - finish the single massive task as fast as possible - no need to worry about how evenly it speeds through that task, so higher inter-die latency is acceptable if the additional die(s) add enough performance to overcome the latency downsides. Presumably the latency increase of moving to MCD is a one-off cost, so two dies is the worst-case scenario and scaling up the number of dies beyond two adds all of the compute benefits with no further latency penalties.
If we can get 7900XTX RT performance as is at $400, on man that a fantastic RT card. Performance is all relative to price. If the 7900XTX was priced at $1,500 it would be an absolute terrible card. If it was $200, there is no point in literally buying anything else. Sure, there might be some higher margins in something like a 4090, but when it makes up less than 1% of the market. If you can secure volume, volume will be more profitable. And I am sure it'll help a lot to have more cards out there then less cards.
Look at nvidia customers, most never have an issue, so they keep buying nvidia.
(I said most customers as, for whatever reason, TPU is somehow filled with all the people who are constantly having issues on their GPUs, no matter the hardware vendor)
Why would I bother and put so much effort just to let (most) users buy Nvidia cards for lower prices?
İt is bitter but true unfortunately. People who never used AMD cards and RT would always complain about bad AMD drivers and low rt performance. And most people just believe that.
If it's like:
RDNA 4 - mid 2024
RDNA 5 - Early 2025
Then it's do not really matter, RNDA 4 would be just a kind of architectural refresh.
We are here to talk and have fun so let's have another theory that i have no proof at all that is true or not
We all know that PS5/XBOX series will have a refresh. Would it be possible that RDNA 4 is the maximum they can push the architecture without going too far and break think for the refreshed APU of both console.
It's possible that RDNA 4 is just a step gap used for APU in console and laptop/desktop and RDNA 5 will come later with the full range. It's not because RDNA 4 doesn't have a top end card that AMD will never have one anymore. RNDA1 didn't had top end card either.
And to be honest, in the current market, the midrange is what AMD need to win. In my opinion, when you are spending 800+$ you better just get the product that have all the feature and perf.
if you shop low/mid range, well, the best price/perf is probably what you are after as you want to get the most bang for the bucks.
However, it doesn't look like AMD is in that mindset at all.
But to be honest if one is looking to push 4K the 4090 is a better option but it will cost you.If this change is true and they don't reduce the VRAM buffer I would consider it for a side grade. But I will probably just sit on RDNA 3 and wait for RDNA 5.
Microsoft console business has different problems not linked to AMD, but linked to their GamePass model.
Nothing's gonna change.What a naïve take. That's just an external image being sold. They're a multi-billion-dollar corporation with the drive and demands of such corporations. And it's the suits that decide everything.
Nvidia has not even tried to release chiplet-based consumer GPUs, which is more complex process.
For the first generation of chiplet-based GPUs, RDNA3 is quite ok for the beginning. Far away from great architecture, but good enough.
True, it is slower, but it is much cheaper both for manufacturers and consumers, and it will be improved in next iterations.
4090 is only 25% faster in 4K raster, but it is more than 100% more expensive than 7900XTX. 4090 is currenly arguably the worst possible value GPU for gaming. Silly gaming product for halo users for $2,000. Whoever wants to spend two grand on this card in order to game, please enjoy it, by no means, but don't try to tell us that there is 'value' in paying twice as much as the next card only to get 25% more performance in 4K. Nonsense.
4090 is definitely more suitable and valuable for creators, engineers, AI enthusiasts and graphics designers.
(and yes I know I'm insane)
:)