Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Computing
  3. News

RDNA 3 could make AMD’s Radeon RX 6900 XT successor 250% more powerful

By

Despite the fact that AMD had barely just announced its Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards at the end of 2020 and the GPUs are still hard to find because of supply issues, innovation isn’t stopping. AMD is already rumored to be working on its next-gen GPU that uses the company’s RDNA 3 microarchitecture, which could give the graphics cards a performance lift of 2.5 times what is currently capable on the company’s high-end Radeon RX 6900 XT today. The Radeon RX 6900 XT uses the same RDNA 2 architecture found on AMD’s chips for the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 consoles.

Recommended Videos

The RDNA 3 microarchitecture is also known by Navi 31. Previously, it’s been speculated that AMD could be adapting its use of chiplets from its Ryzen processors to its Radeon graphics chips to get more performance. This would be the first time that AMD would use chiplets on a graphics card, if these rumors prove accurate. The chiplet design is known as MCM, or multi-chip module.

AMD Radeon RX 6000
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Twitter user @Kepler_L2 speculated that RDNA 3 could arrive with a total of 160 compute units as a result of that design change. That means that AMD’s use of MCM could result in two chiplets, each containing 80 compute units. And according to Hot Hardware, if the ratio of compute units and stream processors remain the same, the new RDNA 3-powered graphics cards could result in a total of a whopping 10,240 stream processors, roughly double what is available with Navi 21 on the Radeon RX 6900 XT.

Get your weekly teardown of the tech behind PC gaming
Check your inbox!
Privacy Policy

The upgraded hardware would result in a performance uplift of 2.5x, according to Twitter user @_rogame. Hopefully, the new architecture will allow the future Radeon RX graphics cards to perform better at ray tracing, which would allow AMD to remain competitive with rival Nvidia’s latest RTX 3000 series GPUs that are based on the Ampere architecture. While the Radeon RX 6000 series is a strong competitor to the RTX 3000 series, early reviews suggest that ray tracing performance isn’t as strong on the AMD card.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

In addition to changes to the overall chip design, AMD could squeeze more performance out of its GPUs by using a larger Infinity Cache and higher IPC on RDNA 3. On desktop, the RDNA 3-powered graphics card could likely be called the Radeon RX 7000 series if AMD follows its current naming convention. A launch date is not yet known for when RDNA 3 will debut.

AMD is believed to once again turn to partner TSMC to fabricate its RDNA 3 graphics silicon, which could be based on a new 5nm design. This would make the chipset competitive with Intel’s next-gen Xe and Nvidia’s unannounced Hopper GPU, both of which are rumored to also be manufactured using TSMC’s 5nm node, according to Tweaktown. AMD’s next-gen Zen 4 processors are also rumored to move from a 7nm node to a smaller 5nm node, a move that will allow AMD to pack in more transistors to get more processing performance.

Editors’ Recommendations

Topics
Chuong Nguyen
Chuong Nguyen
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Silicon Valley-based technology reporter and Giants baseball fan who splits his time between Northern California and Southern…
I tested AMD’s RX 7800 XT against Nvidia’s RTX 4070, and there’s a clear winner
AMD logo on the RX 7800 XT graphics card.

With the release of the Radeon RX 7800 XT and RX 7700 XT, AMD finally set foot in the mainstream gaming sector with its RDNA 3 lineup. Nvidia, its biggest rival, which also makes some of the best graphics cards, was the first to release competing cards with similar performance -- at least on paper. But are Nvidia's options better than AMD's in this generation?

The RX 7800 XT was, from the get-go, said to be the competitor to Nvidia's RTX 4070, but in reality, these GPUs differ both in price and performance. We've tested the RX 7800 XT and compared it to the RTX 4070, and we now know which of these two GPUs is the one to pick.
Pricing and availability

Read more
AMD’s two new GPUs significantly undercut Nvidia
AMD's Scott Herkalman presenting the RX 7800 XT graphics card.

AMD has just unveiled two new graphics cards aimed at gamers -- the Radeon RX 7800 XT and the RX 7700 XT. Set to rival some of the best graphics cards in this generation, the two GPUs are a way to bridge the gap in AMD's modest RDNA 3 lineup. AMD teases that both cards are suited for 1440p gaming, which could help them compete in the mainstream gaming market.

The prices are what stand out: the RX 7800 XT starts at $500, while the RX 7700 XT goes for $450. That significantly undercuts Nvidia's RTX 4070 at $600, though the RX 7700 XT is more expensive than the RTX 4060 Ti at $450.  Nvidia could really use some competition, so let's hope that AMD's new GPUs will be powerful enough to make a dent in Nvidia's market domination.

Read more
This AMD GPU could have destroyed Nvidia, but we might never see it
Radeon logo on the RX 7900 XTX.

Rumor has it that AMD may have decided not to launch any high-end GPUs in the next generation of graphics cards, meaning RDNA 4. However, this freshly leaked diagram gives us some insight into what could have been -- or perhaps, what will be -- if AMD's best graphics card of the next generation was made. It appears that AMD's next-gen architecture is a lot more complex than RDNA 3.

The diagram comes from YouTuber Moore's Law is Dead, who, as always, cites his own anonymous sources. It's only a partial diagram, but even that quick look into the architecture of RDNA 4 tells us a lot. While not sure which GPU this is, Moore's Law Is Dead refers to it as Navi 4C, and all signs point to it being AMD's top GPU for the next generation. Still, it's unclear if this new naming convention refers to Navi 41 or perhaps Navi 42, as Navi X and Navi M have also been mentioned recently.

Read more