AMD has confirmed that next-gen "Radeon" RDNA 4 GPUs will launch in early 2025 & substantially upgrade ray tracing and AI capabilities.
AMD's RDNA 4 GPUs Are Now Confirmed For An Early 2025 Launch: Better Ray Tracing & New AI Features
During its Q3 2024 earnings call, AMD's CEO confirmed that the company is preparing to transition to the next-gen Radeon GPU family based on the RDNA 4 graphics architecture. This new lineup is expected to be called the Radeon RX 8000 series, but given AMD's recent changes to its portfolio, a new naming scheme is also highly possible.
It is mentioned that the next-gen AMD Radeon GPUs based on the RDNA 4 graphics architecture will be launched in early 2025. The two major changes highlighted include "significantly" faster ray tracing performance and adding new AI capabilities. The following is the full quote from AMD's CEO:
In Gaming Graphics, revenue declined year-over-year as we prepare for a transition to our next-gen Radeon GPUs based on our RDNA 4 architecture. In addition to a strong increase in gaming performance, RDNA 4 delivers significantly higher ray tracing performance and adds new AI capabilities.
We are on track to launch the first RDNA 4 GPUs in early 2025.
Lisa Su - AMD CEO (Q3 2024 Earnings Call)
AMD's RDNA 4 graphics architecture has already seen a preview in the form of the SoC for the PS5 Pro, which offers better ray tracing performance and also offers PSSR AI Upscaling. Currently, AMD has been leveraging traditional methods to upscale images, but while DLSS & XeSS use tensor cores to process AI, AMD has been updating its FSR & Fluid Motion Frames models on AI, but now we can expect better and stable image quality with the addition of new AI capabilities.
We know so far that AMD has just two chips in plans for the RDNA 4 family, the bigger Navi 48 and the smaller Navi 44. Both of these chips will feature GDDR6 memory with speeds of up to 20 Gbps, and it looks like there are more details about the SKUs featured within the lineup.
Both the AMD RDNA 4 Navi 48 and Navi 44 GPUs are expected to feature at least two SKUs. These include the following:
- Navi 48 SKU #1 - R24D-E8
- Navi 48 SKU #2 - R24D-E6
- Navi 44 SKU #1 - R25D-P8
- Navi 44 SKU #2 - R25D-P4
It will be interesting to see how AMD competes against its rivals as it will have to tackle two fronts, the Arc Battlemage GPUs from Intel which target a similar mainstream/high-end audience while NVIDIA brings out the Blackwell "RTX 50" heavyweights though the green team may either have to fast-forward a mid-range solution in the RTX 50 series or offer price-cuts on existing products to keep up the heat against new Intel and AMD launches in the mainstream segment as it's first line of products will be aimed at enthusiasts.
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 | 4nm? |
| 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 (4 SEs?) |
| 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 (2 SEs?) |
About the author: A Software Engineer by training and a PC enthusiast by passion, Hassan Mujtaba serves as Wccftech's Senior Editor for hardware section. With years of experience in the industry, he specializes in deep-dive technical analysis of next-generation CPU and GPU architectures, motherboards, and cooling solutions. His work involves not only breaking news on upcoming technologies but also extensive hands-on reviews and benchmarking.
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