AMD’s RDNA 4-based Navi 48 GPU is more or less confirmed now in the latest ROCm commits & will be powering next-gen Radeon RX 8000 series graphics cards.
AMD Navi 48 Is The First RDNA 4 GPU For Radeon RX 8000 Graphics Card To Officially Show Up
The Navi 48 GPU is one of the two RDNA 4 graphics chips that will be powering the next-gen Radeon RX 8000 lineup. The other one, the Navi 44 GPU, was recently mentioned in rumors alongside its bigger sibling. Now, the first merge commits have been for ROCm which targets the Navi 48 GPUs so it looks like early silicon is now being tested at the AMD labs.
Not much is mentioned within the ROCm GitHub about this upcoming AMD RDNA 4 GPU SKU but as per the latest rumors, the Navi 48 GPU is expected to be the fastest of the two chips and will target the more higher-end product offerings. With that said, Navi 48 isn’t a typical high-end SKU like the Navi 31 (RDNA 3) or Navi 21 (RDNA 2) series as those were reportedly canned in favor of more mainstream chips to target the mass market.
As such, the AMD Navi 48 GPUs are currently expected to land somewhere around Navi 31 performance while being strong perf/$ options for the gaming masses. Currently, the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE, the entry-level RDNA 3 SKU, retails for around $549 US since its new pricing update. If AMD manages to offer better performance than the 7900 GRE at a price point of around $400-$500 US, then that could be a killer deal for gamers.
One thing to note is that AMD’s RDNA 4 GPU architecture will be a brand new design so we should also consider the fact that the red team can fine-tune its performance within ray tracing titles and also offer additional goodies such as an AI-infused FSR upscaling technology which rivals NVIDIA’s DLSS even though FSR 3 in its current state is a very good alternative for gamers. AI acceleration can sort some of the shortcomings of FSR and bring enhanced image quality in areas where it currently lacks against DLSS.
Although limited details are available on the RDNA 4 GPUs, we can expect the next-generation lineup to feature support for GDDR7 memory which will initially come in 28/32 Gbps dies & with 16Gb (2 GB VRAM per module). However, AMD could also go the more cost-effective route and simply use faster GDDR6 dies for now. The chips are also rumored to be smaller and monolithic which means that the MCD design will be abandoned a year after its introduction.
AMD RDNA Generational GPU Lineup
| Radeon Lineup | Radeon RX 5000 | Radeon RX 6000 | Radeon RX 7000 | Radeon RX 8000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GPU Architecture | RDNA 1 | RDNA 2 | RDNA 3 / RDNA 2 | RDNA 4 |
| Process Node | 7nm | 7nm | 5nm/6nm | 5nm/3nm? |
| GPU Family | Navi 1X | Navi 2X | Navi 3X | Navi 4X |
| Flagship GPU | N/A | Navi 21 (5120 SPs) | Navi 31 (6144 SPs) | Navi 41 (Cancelled?) |
| High-End GPU | Navi 10 (2560 SPs) | Navi 22 (2560 SPs) | Navi 32 (4096 SPs) | Navi 48 |
| Mid-Tier GPU | Navi 12 (2560 SPs) | Navi 23 (2048 SPs) | Navi 33 (2048 SPs) | N/A? |
| Entry-Tier GPU | Navi 14 (1536 SPs) | Navi 24 (1024 SPs) | Navi 34 (1024 SPs)? | Navi 44 |
News Source: @Kepler_L2