AMD's upcoming Radeon RX 9070 XT graphics card can boost its engine clock up to 3.10 GHz, a new leak that surfaced on ChipHell says. Depending on the board design, its total board power can reach up to 330 W, the leak adds. The GPU should come with a very high base frequency for the engine clock, with the leaker claiming a 2.80 GHz base frequency (can be interpreted as Game clocks), with the GPU boosting itself up to 3.10 GHz when the power and thermals permit. The RX 9070 XT will be the fastest graphics card from AMD to be based on its next-generation RDNA 4 graphics architecture. The company isn't targeting the enthusiast segment with this card, but rather the performance segment, where it is expected to go up against NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5070 series.

RDNA 4 is expected to introduce massive generational gains in ray tracing performance, as AMD is rumored to have significantly developed its ray tracing hardware, to reduce the performance cost of ray tracing. However, as it stands, the "Navi 48" silicon that the RX 9070 XT is based on, is still a performance-segment chip, which succeeds the "Navi 32" and "Navi 22," with a rumored compute unit count of 64, or 4,096 stream processors. Performance-related rumors swing wildly. One set of rumors say that the card's raster graphics performance is in league of the RX 7900 GRE but with ray tracing performance exceeding that of the RX 7900 XTX; while another set of rumors say it beats the RX 7900 XT in raster performance, and sneaks up on the RTX 4080. We'll know for sure in about a month's time.

Recent benchmark leaks have revealed that AMD's upcoming Radeon RX 9070 XT graphics card may not deliver the groundbreaking performance initially hoped for by enthusiasts. According to leaked 3DMark Time Spy results shared by hardware leaker @All_The_Watts, the RDNA 4-based GPU achieved a graphics score of 22,894 points. The benchmark results indicate that the RX 9070 XT performs only marginally better than AMD's current RX 7900 GRE, showing a mere 2% improvement. It falls significantly behind the RX 7900 XT, which maintains almost a 17% performance advantage over the new card. These findings contradict earlier speculation that suggested the RX 9070 XT would compete directly with NVIDIA's RTX 4080.

However, synthetic benchmarks tell only part of the story. The GPU's real-world gaming performance remains to be seen, and rumors indicate that the RX 9070 XT may offer significantly improved ray tracing capabilities compared to its RX 7000 series predecessors. This could be crucial for market competitiveness, particularly given the strong ray tracing performance of NVIDIA's RTX 40 and the upcoming RTX 50 series cards. The success of the RX 9070 XT depends on how well it can differentiate itself through features like ray tracing while maintaining an attractive price-to-performance ratio in an increasingly competitive GPU market. We expect these scores not to be the final tale in the AMD RDNA 4 story, as we must wait and see what AMD delivers during CES. Third-party reviews and benchmarks will give the final verdict in the RDNA 4 market launch.

AMD's interim RDNA 3.5 architecture will power the Radeon RX 8000 series integrated graphics in "Strix Halo" mobile processors, while the more advanced RDNA 4 architecture is reserved for the higher-tier Radeon RX 9000 series of discrete graphics, according to @9550pro on X. We previously believed that AMD's Ryzen AI MAX 300 Strix Halo processors would carry an iGPU with Radeon 8000S branding. However, at the same time, we expected the Radeon RX 8000 series of desktop GPUs to have a similar branding while being powered by RDNA 4. The new Radeon naming scheme is now transparent, thanks to the latest leaks of the naming schemes and early glimpses of reference design.

The RDNA 4-based RX 9000 series will be powered by the Radeon RX 9070 XT, built on the Navi 48 silicon. This GPU represents AMD's new focus on the high-volume midrange performance segment rather than competing in the ultra-enthusiast high-end space. The architecture promises enhanced SIMD IPC performance and a specialized ray tracing solution that significantly reduces performance overhead compared to current offerings. According to All The Watts, the RX 9000 lineup is expected to include various SKUs across different performance tiers, including the RX 9060, 9050, and 9040 series. Meanwhile, the RDNA 3.5-powered RX 8000 series will serve as a refined iteration of the current RDNA 3 generation. Still, they will be exclusive to AMD's mobile segment in the form of iGPU, integrated inside Strix Halo APU. Both RDNA 4 GPUs and RDNA 3.5-based APUs are scheduled for the CES 2025 event unveiling in January.

It turns out that the Radeon RX 8800 XT, the top SKU in AMD's next generation gaming GPU series, is actually named the Radeon RX 9070 XT. European computer hardware retailer may have leaked the name, along with that of the Radeon RX 9070 (non-XT), ahead of its January 2025 reveal. The two cards appeared in the store's search filters, where it was screengrabbed by enthusiasts. The RX 9070 XT is what was supposed to be the RX 8800 XT; while the RX 9070 is the RX 8800. Extrapolating this, the series could include the RX 9060 series, the RX 9050 series, and the RX 9040 series, says All The Watts.

What prompted this change in nomenclature probably has to do with the company's decision to withdraw from the enthusiast segment of gaming GPUs. While the RX 9070 XT technically succeeds the RX 7800 XT, a performance-segment, 1440p-class SKU, the company wouldn't want its product stack to have a "void" left by the lack of an "RX 8900 series." The company also took the opportunity to skip the RX 8000 series altogether, which probably give it room to rebadge some SKUs from the RX 7000 series over to the RX 8000 series. The RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 are based on the "Navi 48" silicon, and implement the RDNA 4 graphics architecture.

These are possibly the first pictures of the reference-design AMD Radeon RX 8800 XT graphics card. The pics surfaced on Reddit by a user who claimed to have access to an investor presentation that features images of the card placed next to an AMD Ryzen 9 PIB retail box. The card's design looks quite similar to MSI's Ventus 3X—a silver baseplate frames inlets to a triple fan setup, which cools a heatsink underneath. This is a fairly large card, roughly the size of a reference RX 7900 XT. The dark background accent which the silver plate contrasts, features a front-facing illuminated Radeon logo. This card is designed to look better when installed in a vertical slot, than it is with a standard installation.

The Radeon RX 8800 XT is expected to be the fastest SKU available from the generation, as AMD has ceded the enthusiast segment to focus on high-volume performance and mainstream market segments. The RX 8800 XT is based on the "Navi 48" silicon, and is powered by the RDNA 4 graphics architecture. Besides incorporating many of the graphics stack enhancements RDNA 3.5 introduced over RDNA 3, RDNA 4 is expected to improve the SIMD IPC, and come with a highly specialized ray tracing hardware solution that reduces the performance cost of ray tracing. It is also expected to implement a newer foundry node.

Update 15:43 UTC: It's likely that this card is called "Radeon RX 9070 XT," read our newer report for more.

PowerColor is planning to introduce a new line of custom-design graphics cards called "Reaper." This fits into the scheme of PowerColor's naming that include Red Devil, Red Dragon, HellHound, and Fighter. The company is planning to debut Reaper with AMD's upcoming Radeon RX 8000 series based on the RDNA 4 graphics architecture. It remains to be seen if Reaper is positioned above the flagship Red Devil series, or something lower, replacing Fighter.

Things are moving rather quickly with the AMD Radeon RX 8000 series, with the company reportedly planning to debut at least two new performance-segment SKUs along the sidelines of the 2025 CES. The two SKUs are rumored to be based on the "Navi 48" silicon, and AMD is gunning for sales volumes and market share by targeting the most bulky market segments, going after the GeForce RTX 5070 series and RTX 5060 series. The RDNA 4 graphics architecture is expected to make big strides in reducing the performance cost of ray tracing, through a more specialized ray tracing hardware setup, besides generational improvements in performance and performance-per-Watt.

TechPowerUp today released the latest update to TechPowerUp GPU-Z, the graphics sub-system information and monitoring utility for PC gamers and enthusiasts. Version 2.61.0 adds support for the new Intel Arc B580 and B570 "Battlemage" graphics cards. Preliminary support is also added for AMD "Navi 48" RDNA 4. This is also the first version of GPU-Z to support detection of Qualcomm Adreno 540, 630, 640, and 642L. GPU-Z is an x86 application, although you can run it on Windows on Arm platforms, where the operating system's emulation allows GPU-Z to detect the underlying hardware.

Among the other GPUs we've added support for, include the iGPU of the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D, NVIDIA H100 80 GB HBM3, A4000H, A800 40 GB Active, RTX 5880 Ada, and Tesla K40st. We've also added PCI vendor detection for ONIX, the new Intel Arc board partner, and Shangke. A crash on some AMD Ryzen systems with older drivers, an installed discrete GPU, and disabled iGPU, has been fixed. Grab GPU-Z from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z 2.61.0

AMD's upcoming Radeon RX 8000 series GPUs based on RDNA 4 architecture are just around the corner, with rumors pointing to a CES unveiling event. Today, we are learning that the Radeon RX 8800 XT GPU will feature a 220 W TDP, compared to its Radeon RX 7800 XT predecessor with 263 W TDP, thanks to the Seasonic wattage calculator. While we expect to see better nodes used for making RNDA 4, the efficiency gains stem primarily from the improved microarchitectural design of the new RDNA generation. The RX 8800 XT will bring better performance while lowering power consumption by 16%. While no concrete official figures are known about RNDA 4 performance targets compared to RDNA, if AMD plans to maintain the competitive mid-range landscape with NVIDIA "Blackwell" and, as of today, Intel with Arc "Battlemage," team red must put out a good fight to remain competitive.

We reported on AMD Radeon RX 8800 XT entering mass production this month, with notable silicon design a departure from previous designs. The RX 8800 XT will reportedly utilize a monolithic chip dubbed "Navi 48," moving away from the chiplet-based approach seen in the current "Navi 31" and "Navi 32" GPUs. Perhaps most intriguing are claims about the card's ray tracing capabilities. Sources suggest the RX 8800 XT will match the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080/4080 SUPER in raster performance while having a remarkable 45% improvement over the current flagship RX 7900 XTX in ray tracing. However, these claims must be backed by independent testing first, as performance improvements depend on the specific case, like games optimized for either AMD or NVIDIA yield better results for the favorable graphics card.

Apparently, AMD's next-generation gaming graphics card is closer to launch than anyone in the media expected, with mass-production of the so-called Radeon RX 8800 XT poised to begin later this month, if sources on ChipHell are to be believed. The RX 8800 XT will be the fastest product from AMD's next-generation, and will be part of the performance segment, succeeding the current RX 7800 XT. There will not be an enthusiast-segment product in this generation, as AMD looks to consolidate in key market segments with the most sales. The RX 8800 XT will be powered by AMD's next-generation RDNA 4 graphics architecture.

There are some spicy claims related to the RX 8800 XT being made. Apparently, the card will rival the current GeForce RTX 4080 or RTX 4080 SUPER in ray tracing performance, which would mean a massive 45% increase in RT performance over even the current flagship RX 7900 XTX. Meanwhile, the power and thermal footprint of the GPU is expected to reduce with the switch to a newer foundry process, with the RX 8800 XT expected to have 25% lower board power than the RX 7900 XTX. Unlike the "Navi 31" and "Navi 32" powering the RX 7900 series and RX 7800 XT, respectively, the "Navi 48" driving the RX 8800 XT is expected to be a monolithic chip built entirely on a new process node. If we were to guess, this could very well be TSMC N4P, a node AMD is using for everything from its "Zen 5" chiplets to its "Strix Point" mobile processors.

While the current generation of AMD graphics cards employs RDNA 3 at its core, and the upcoming RX 8000 series will feature RDNA 4, the latest leaks suggest RDNA 5 is not in development. Instead, UDNA will succeed RDNA 4, simplifying AMD's GPU roadmap. A credible source on the Chiphell forums, zhangzhonghao, reports that the UDNA-based RX 9000 series and Instinct MI400 AI accelerator will incorporate the same advanced Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU) designs in both products, reminiscent of AMD's earlier GCN architectures before the CDNA and RDNA split. Sony's next-generation PlayStation 6 is also rumored to adopt UDNA technology. The PS5 and PS5 Pro currently utilize RDNA 2, while the Pro variant integrates elements of RDNA 4 for enhanced ray tracing. The PS6's CPU configuration remains unclear, but speculation revolves around Zen 4 or Zen 5 architectures.

The first UDNA gaming GPUs are expected to enter production by Q2 2026. Interestingly, AMD's RDNA 4 GPUs are anticipated to focus on entry-level to mid-range markets, potentially leaving high-end offerings until the UDNA generation. This strategic pause may allow AMD to refine AI-accelerated technologies like FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) 4, aiming to compete with NVIDIA's DLSS. This unification is inspired by NVIDIA's CUDA ecosystem, which supports cross-platform compatibility from laptops to high-performance servers. As AMD sees it, the decision addresses the challenges posed by maintaining separate architectures, which complicate memory subsystem optimizations and hinder forward and backward compatibility. Putting developer resources into RDNA 5 is not economically or strategically wise, given that UDNA is about to take over. Additionally, the company is enabling ROCm software support across all products ranging from consumer Radeon to enterprise Instinct MI. Accelerating software for one platform will translate to the entire product stack.

A Chinese tech forum ChipHell user who goes by zcjzcj11111 sprung up a fascinating take on what the next-generation AMD "Navi 48" GPU could be, and put their imagination on a render. Apparently, the "Navi 48," which powers AMD's series-topping performance-segment graphics card, is a dual chiplet-based design, similar to the company's latest Instinct MI300 series AI GPUs. This won't be a disaggregated GPU such as the "Navi 31" and "Navi 32," but rather a scale-out multi-chip module of two GPU dies that can otherwise run on their own in single-die packages. You want to call this a multi-GPU-on-a-stick? Go ahead, but there are a couple of changes.

On AMD's Instinct AI GPUs, the chiplets have full cache coherence with each other, and can address memory controlled by each other. This cache coherence makes the chiplets work like one giant chip. In a multi-GPU-on-a-stick, there would be no cache coherence, the two dies would be mapped by the host machine as two separate devices, and then you'd be at the mercy of implicit or explicit multi-GPU technologies for performance to scale. This isn't what's happening on AI GPUs—despite multiple chiplets, the GPU is seen by the host as a single PCI device with all its cache and memory visible to software as a contiguously addressable block.

GPU chip packages of the "Navi 4x" generation of GPUs could be generationally smaller than their predecessors, according to leaked package dimensions of the "Navi 44" chip put out by Olrak29_. With its next-generation Radeon RX gaming GPUs based on the RDNA 4 graphics architecture, AMD has decided to focus on gaining market-share in the performance and mainstream segments, ceding the enthusiast segment to NVIDIA. As part of its effort, the company is making RDNA 4 efficient at every level—architecture, process, and package.

At the architecture level, RDNA 4 is expected to improve performance, particularly the performance cost of ray tracing, through a more specialized ray tracing hardware stack. At the process level, AMD is expected to switch to a more efficient foundry node, with some reports suggesting the TSMC 4 nm, such as the N4P or N4X. For a mid-range GPU like the "Navi 44," which succeeds the "Navi 23" and "Navi 33," these mean a rather big leap from the 7 nm or 6 nm DUV nodes. The leak suggests a smaller package, measuring 29 mm x 29 mm. In comparison, the "Navi 23" package measures 35 mm x 35 mm. The smaller package could make these GPUs friendlier with gaming notebooks, where mainboard PCB real-estate is at a premium.

AMD in an interview with Tom's Hardware, confirmed that its next generation of gaming GPUs based on the RDNA 4 graphics architecture will not target the enthusiast graphics segment. Speaking with Paul Alcorn, AMD's Computing and Graphics Business Group head Jack Huynh, said that with its next generation, AMD will focus on gaining market share in the PC gaming graphics market, which means winning price-performance battles against NVIDIA in key mainstream- and performance segments, similar to what it did with the Radeon RX 5000 series based on the original RDNA graphics architecture, and not get into the enthusiast segment that's low-margin with the kind of die-sizes at play, and move low volumes. AMD currently only holds 12% of the gaming discrete GPU market, something it sorely needs to turn around, given that its graphics IP is contemporary.

On a pointed question on whether AMD will continue to address the enthusiast GPU market, given that allocation for cutting-edge wafers are better spent on data-center GPUs, Huynh replied: "I am looking at scale, and AMD is in a different place right now. We have this debate quite a bit at AMD, right? So the question I ask is, the PlayStation 5, do you think that's hurting us? It's $499. So, I ask, is it fun to go King of the Hill? Again, I'm looking for scale. Because when we get scale, then I bring developers with us. So, my number one priority right now is to build scale, to get us to 40 to 50 percent of the market faster. Do I want to go after 10% of the TAM [Total Addressable Market] or 80%? I'm an 80% kind of guy because I don't want AMD to be the company that only people who can afford Porsches and Ferraris can buy. We want to build gaming systems for millions of users. Yes, we will have great, great, great products. But we tried that strategy [King of the Hill]—it hasn't really grown. ATI has tried this King of the Hill strategy, and the market share has kind of been...the market share. I want to build the best products at the right system price point. So, think about price point-wise; we'll have leadership."

This could very well be what the elusive new PlayStation 5 console looks like. DeaLabs illustrated its design as part of its article compiling all rumored tech specs of the console. The console's body retains the essential design of the digital-only variant of PlayStation 5, and its refresh. The disc variant of PlayStation 5 has a crease accent running along its side panels, toward the top one-quarter. The PS5 Pro possibly has more crease accents in its place, possibly even serving as a set of air vents. This is only a 2-color illustration, which means the console could have a unique body color scheme, too.

The PlayStation 5 Pro is being designed for a nearly 2-3 times performance uplift over the original PlayStation 5, and its 6 nm mid-lifecycle refresh. AMD remains the SoC supplier for the PS5 Pro, and its chip is codenamed "Viola." This chip could be built on a more advanced foundry node than even the 6 nm "Oberon Plus" powering the PS5 (refresh). It is a semi-custom chip in the true sense, as it has a unique mix of AMD IP blocks from several generations.

AMD's next generation RDNA 4 graphics architecture will see the company focus on the performance segment of the market. The company is rumored to not be making a successor to the enthusiast-segment "Navi 21" and "Navi 31" chips based on RDNA 4, and will instead focus on improving performance and efficiency in the most high-volume segments, just like the original RDNA-powered generation, the Radeon RX 5000 series. There are two chips in the new RDNA 4 generation that have hit the rumor mill, the "Navi 48" and the "Navi 44." The "Navi 48" is the faster of the two, powering the top SKUs in this generation, while the "Navi 44" is expected to be the mid-tier chip.

According to Kepler_L2, a reliable source with GPU leaks, and VideoCardz, which connected the tweet to the RDNA 4 generation, the top "Navi 48" silicon is expected to feature a 256-bit wide GDDR6 memory interface—so there's no upgrade to GDDR7. The top SKU based on this chip, the "Navi 48 XTX," will feature a memory speed of 20 Gbps, for 640 GB/s of memory bandwidth. The next-best SKU, codenamed "Navi 48 XT," will feature a slightly lower 18 Gbps memory speed at the same bus-width, for 576 GB/s of memory bandwidth. The "Navi 44" chip has a respectable 192-bit wide memory bus, and its top SKU will feature a 19 Gbps speed, for 456 GB/s of bandwidth on tap.

AMD's upcoming Radeon RX 8000 "RDNA 4" GPU has been spotted on Geekbench, revealing some of its core specifications. These early benchmark appearances indicate that AMD is now testing the new GPUs internally, preparing for a launch expected next year. The leaked GPU, identified as "GFX1201", is believed to be the Navi 48 SKU - the larger of two dies planned for the RDNA 4 family.

It features 28 Compute Units in the Geekbench listing, which in this case refers to Work Group Processors (WGPs). This likely translates to 56 Compute Units positioning it between the current RX 7700 XT (54 CU) and RX 7800 XT (60 CU) models. The clock speed is listed at 2.1 GHz, which seems low compared to current RDNA 3 GPUs that can boost to 2.5-2.6 GHz. However, this is likely due to the early nature of the samples, and we can expect higher frequencies closer to launch. Memory specifications show 16 GB of VRAM, matching current high-end models and suggesting a 256-bit bus interface. Some variants may feature 12 GB VRAM with a 192-bit bus. While not confirmed, previous reports indicate AMD will use GDDR6 memory.

It appears like 2024 will go down as the second consecutive year without any new GPU generation launch from either NVIDIA or AMD. Kopite7kimi, a reliable source with NVIDIA leaks, says that the GeForce RTX 50-series "Blackwell" generation won't see a debut before the 2025 International CES (January 2025). It was earlier expected that the company would launch at least its top two SKUs—the RTX 5090 and RTX 5080—toward the end of 2024, and ramp the series up from 2025. There is no explanation behind this "delay." Like everyone else, NVIDIA could be rationing its foundry allocation of the 3 nm wafers from TSMC for its high-margin "Blackwell" AI GPUs. The company now makes over five times the revenue from selling AI GPUs than it does from gaming GPUs, so this development should come as little surprise.

Things aren't any different with NVIDIA's rivals in this space, AMD and Intel. AMD's RDNA 4 graphics architecture and the Radeon RX series GPUs based on it, aren't expected to arrive before 2025. AMD is making several architectural upgrades with RDNA 4, particularly to its ray tracing hardware; and the company is expected to build these GPUs on a new foundry node. Meanwhile, Intel's Arc B-series gaming GPUs based on the Xe2 "Battlemage" graphics architecture are expected to arrive in 2025, too, although these chips are rumored to be based on a more mature 4 nm-class foundry node.

We've known since May that AMD is giving its next generation RDNA 4 graphics architecture a significant upgrade with ray tracing performance, and had some clue since then, that the company is working on putting more of the ray tracing workflow through dedicated, fixed function hardware, unburdening the shader engine further. Kepler_L2, a reliable source with GPU leaks sheds light on some of the many new hardware features AMD is introducing with RDNA 4 to better accelerate ray tracing, which should give its GPUs a reduced performance cost of having ray tracing enabled. Kepler_L2 believes that these hardware features should also make it to the GPU of the upcoming Sony PlayStation 5 Pro.

To begin with, the RDNA 4 ray accelerator introduces the new Double Ray Tracing Intersect Engine, which should at least mean a 100% ray intersection performance increase over RDNA 3, which in turn offered a 50% increase over that of RDNA 2. The new RT instance node transform instruction should improve the way the ray accelerators handle geometry. Some of the other features we have trouble describing include a 64-byte RT node, ray tracing tri-pair optimization, Change flags encoded in barycentrics to simplify detection of procedural nodes; improved BVH footprint (possibly memory footprint): and RT support for oriented bounding box and instance node intersection. AMD is expected to debut Radeon RX series gaming GPUs based on RDNA 4 in early 2025.

A curiously described graphics card was detected by Olrak29 as it was making it through international shipping. The shipment description for the card reads "GRAPHIC CARD NAVI48 G28201 DT XTX REVB-PRE-CORRELATION AO PLATSI TT(SAMSUNG)-Q2 2024-3A-102-G28201." This can be decoded as a graphics card with the board number "G28201," for the desktop platform. It features a maxed out version of the "Navi 48" silicon, and is based on the B revision of the PCB. It features Samsung-made memory chips, and is dated Q2-2024.

AMD is planning to retreat from the enthusiast segment of gaming graphics cards with the RDNA 4 generation. The company originally entered this segment with the RX 6800 series and RX 6900 series RDNA 2 generation, where it saw unexpected success with the crypto-mining market boom, besides being competitive with the RTX 3080 and RTX 3090. This bust by the time RDNA 3 and the RX 7900 series arrived, and the chip wasn't competitive with NVIDIA's top-end. Around this time, the AI acceleration boom squeezed foundry allocation of all major chipmakers, including AMD, making large chips based on the latest process nodes even less viable for a market such as enthusiast graphics—the company would rather make CDNA AI accelerators with its allocation. Given all this, the company's fastest GPUs from the RDNA 4 generation could be the ones that succeed the current RX 7800 XT and RX 7700 XT, so AMD could capture a slice of the performance segment.

NVIDIA's GeForce "Blackwell" generation of gaming GPUs will stick to being traditional monolithic die chips. The company will not build its next generation of chips as either disaggregated devices, or multi-chip modules. Kopite7kimi, a reliable source with NVIDIA leaks, says that the largest GPU in the generation, the "GB202," is based on a physically monolithic design. The GB202 is expected to power the flagship GeForce RTX 5090 (or RTX 4090 successor), and if NVIDIA sticking to traditional chip design for this, then it's unlikely that smaller GPUs will be any different.

In contrast, AMD started building disaggregated devices with its current RDNA 3 generation, with its top two chips, the "Navi 31" and "Navi 32," being disaggregated chips. An interesting rumor suggests that team red's RDNA 4 generation will see a transition from disaggregated chips to multi-chip modules—packages that contain multiple fully-integrated GPU dies. Back to the green camp, and NVIDIA is expected to use an advanced 4 nm-class node for its GeForce "Blackwell" GPUs.

AMD has quietly added some interesting codenames to its ROCm hardware support list. The biggest surprise is the appearance of "RDNA 4" and "Navi 44" codenames, hinting at a potential successor to the current RDNA 3 GPU architecture powering AMD's Radeon RX 7000 series graphics cards. The upcoming Radeon RX 8000 series could see Navi 44 SKU with a codename "gfx1200". While details are scarce, the inclusion of RDNA 4 and Navi 44 in the ROCm list suggests AMD is working on a new GPU microarchitecture that could bring significant performance and efficiency gains. While RDNA 4 may be destined for future Radeon gaming GPUs, in the data center GPU compute market, AMD is preparing a CDNA 4 based successors to the MI300 series. However, it appears that we haven't seen all the MI300 variants first. Equally intriguing is the "MI300X1" codename, which appears to reference an upcoming AI-focused accelerator from AMD.

While we wait for more information, we can't decipher whether the Navi 44 GPU SKU is for the high-end or low-end segment. If previous generations are for reference, then the Navi 44 SKU would target the low end of the GPU performance spectrum. The previous generation RDNA 3 had Navi 33 as an entry-level model, whereas the RDNA 2 had a Navi 24 SKU for entry-level GPUs. We have reported on RDNA 4 merely being a "bug correction" generation to fix the perf/Watt curve and offer better efficiency overall. What happens finally, we have to wait and see. AMD could announce more details in its upcoming Computex keynote.

AMD on Monday said that its 2024 Computex Keynote address slated for June 3, will see a slew of next-generation product announcements. "Join us as Dr. Lisa Su delivers the Computex 2024 opening keynote and shares the latest on how AMD and our partners are pushing the envelope with our next generation of high-performance PC, data center and AI solutions," the brief release said.

AMD is widely expected to unveil its next-generation Ryzen 9000 "Strix Point" mobile processors for AI PCs capable of powering the recently announced Microsoft Copilot+, its next-generation Ryzen 9000 "Granite Ridge" desktop processors, its 5th Generation EPYC "Turin" server processors, and possibly even its next-generation Radeon RX RDNA 4 generation. At the heart of all its processor announcements is the new "Zen 5" CPU microarchitecture that's expected to introduce an over 10% IPC improvement with significant improvements in AVX512 performance over "Zen 4," which should benefit certain kinds of AI workloads.

AMD's future RDNA 5 graphics architecture will bear a "clean sheet" design, and may probably not even have the RDNA branding, says WJM47196, a source of AMD leaks on ChipHell. Two generations ahead of the current RDNA 3 architecture powering the Radeon RX 7000 series discrete GPUs, RDNA 5 could see AMD reimagine the GPU and its key components, much in the same way RDNA did over the former "Vega" architecture, bringing in a significant performance/watt jump, which AMD could build upon with its successful RDNA 2 powered Radeon RX 6000 series.

Performance per Watt is the biggest metric on which a generation of GPUs can be assessed, and analysts believe that RDNA 3 missed the mark with generational gains in performance/watt despite the switch to the advanced 5 nm EUV process from the 7 nm DUV. AMD's decision to disaggregate the GPU, with some of its components being built on the older 6 nm node may have also impacted the performance/watt curve. The leaker also makes a sensational claim that "Navi 31" was originally supposed to feature 192 MB of Infinity Cache, which would have meant 32 MB segments of it per memory cache die (MCD). The company instead went with 16 MB per MCD, or just 96 MB per GPU, which only get reduced as AMD segmented the RX 7900 XT and RX 7900 GRE by disabling one or two MCDs.

AMD's next generation RDNA 4 graphics architecture is expected to feature a completely new ray tracing engine, Kepler L2, a reliable source with GPU leaks, claims. Currently, AMD uses a component called Ray Accelerator, which performs the most compute-intensive portion of the ray intersection and testing pipeline, while AMD's approach to ray tracing on a hardware level still relies greatly on the shader engines. The company had debuted the ray accelerator with RDNA 2, its first architecture to meet DirectX 12 Ultimate specs, and improved the component with RDNA 3, by optimizing certain aspects of its ray testing, to bring about a 50% improvement in ray intersection performance over RDNA 2.

The way Kepler L2 puts it, RDNA 4 will feature a fundamentally transformed ray tracing hardware solution from the ones on RDNA 2 and RDNA 3. This could probably delegate more of the ray tracing workflow onto fixed-function hardware, unburdening the shader engines further. AMD is expected to debut RDNA 4 with its next line of discrete Radeon RX GPUs in the second half of 2024. Given the chatter about a power-packed event by AMD at Computex, with the company expected to unveil "Zen 5" CPU microarchitecture on both server and client processors; we might expect some talk on RDNA 4, too.

Today, we have the latest round of leaks that suggest that AMD's upcoming RDNA 4 graphics cards, codenamed the "RX 8000-series," might continue to rely on GDDR6 memory modules. According to Kepler on X, the next-generation GPUs from AMD are expected to feature 18 Gbps GDDR6 memory, marking the fourth consecutive RDNA architecture to employ this memory standard. While GDDR6 may not offer the same bandwidth capabilities as the newer GDDR7 standard, this decision does not necessarily imply that RDNA 4 GPUs will be slow performers. AMD's choice to stick with GDDR6 is likely driven by factors such as meeting specific memory bandwidth requirements and cost optimization for PCB designs. However, if the rumor of 18 Gbps GDDR6 memory proves accurate, it would represent a slight step back from the 18-20 Gbps GDDR6 memory used in AMD's current RDNA 3 offerings, such as the RX 7900 XT and RX 7900 XTX GPUs.

AMD's first generation RDNA used GDDR6 with 12-14 Gbps speeds, RDNA 2 came with GDDR6 at 14-18 Gbps, and the current RDNA 3 used 18-20 Gbps GDDR6. Without an increment in memory generation, speeds should stay the same at 18 Gbps. However, it is crucial to remember that leaks should be treated with skepticism, as AMD's final memory choices for RDNA 4 could change before the official launch. The decision to use GDDR6 versus GDDR7 could have significant implications in the upcoming battle between AMD, NVIDIA, and Intel's next-generation GPU architectures. If AMD indeed opts for GDDR6 while NVIDIA pivots to GDDR7 for its "Blackwell" GPUs, it could create a disparity in memory bandwidth performance between the competing products. All three major GPU manufacturers—AMD, NVIDIA, and Intel with its "Battlemage" architecture—are expected to unveil their next-generation offerings in the fall of this year. As we approach these highly anticipated releases, more concrete details on specifications and performance capabilities will emerge, providing a clearer picture of the competitive landscape.