AMD’s Next-Gen RDNA 5 “Radeon” Gaming GPUs Could Pack Over 12K Cores, 128 Cores Per Compute Unit

New details surrounding AMD's next-gen RDNA 5 "Radeon" gaming GPUs suggest a total of 128 cores per compute unit & over 12K on the top die.

AMD's RDNA 5 "Radeon" Gaming GPUs Rumored To Pack 128 Cores Per Compute Units, Over 12K Cores For The Flagship Configuration

According to the latest information posted by Chiphell's forum member, ZhanZhongHao, it looks like AMD's RDNA 5 GPUs will feature a total of 128 cores per compute unit. This is a drastic increase versus the existing RDNA 4 GPUs, which feature a total of 64 cores per compute unit.

As per the previous details, AMD is expected to launch at least four GPU die configurations based on its RDNA 5 graphics architecture. These will be featured within the Radeon and Radeon PRO families. These include a top-tier die with 96 compute units, a mid-tier die with 40 compute units, a low-end die with 24 compute units, and an entry-level die with just 12 compute units.

Based on the 128 cores per compute unit configuration, we should be looking at the following core counts for each respective die:

• RDNA 5 Top Die: 96 CUs / 12,288 Cores
• RDNA 5 Mid Die: 40 CUs / 5,120 Cores
• RDNA 5 Low Die: 24 CUs / 3,072 Cores
• RDNA 5 Entry Die: 12 CUs / 1,536 Cores

Currently, the AMD RDNA 4 GPUs come in two dies: the Navi 48 and Navi 44. The top Navi 48 GPU die packs up to 64 compute units and scales down to 48 compute units. The Navi 44 GPU, which is the entry-level SKU, features a total of 32 compute units and scales down to 28 compute units.

AMD made a lot of changes with its market positioning of the RDNA 4 series. The lineup only offered two dies, and went with a monolithic route, which made it more economical to manufacture, resulting in better supply than the prior RDNA 3 generation, which had some issues keeping up with supply in the early months due to its chiplet nature. Going with chiplets did have benefits from an economic point of view, but also required advanced packaging, which led to slight manufacturing delays.

Meanwhile, the RDNA 5 GPU architecture & lineup looks very similar to AMD's RDNA 2 generation, which also featured a total of four dies, scaling from 80 CUs down to 16 CUs. In a sense, RDNA 5 will be doubling the core count of Navi 31, which was the last flagship GPU with 6144 cores. This will also be a 3x increase versus the Navi 48 (RDNA 4) GPU.

One should remember that RDNA 2 was the last generation where AMD was competitive in the ultra-enthusiast segment, too, against NVIDIA. The RX 6900 XT GPU was right there with the RTX 3090. Meanwhile, NVIDIA managed to outperform AMD's last ultra-enthusiast flagship, the 7900 XTX, by a great margin since AMD positioned their offering around the 80-series cards. The company had prototypes of a much faster graphics card, but that was dropped due to economic and power reasons.

This generation, while AMD didn't go the ultra-enthusiast route, they did manage to come close to RTX 5080 in many titles, and RDNA 5 can once again not only bring them close, but manage to close the gap with the NVIDIA RTX competitors if they tackle the space with strong performance and features. AMD is expected to make a comeback in the high-end segment for the Radeon gaming side, with some huge improvements in areas such as RT & AI, and RDNA 5 is looking like it might be the start of that journey once again.

Potential AMD RDNA 5 / UDNA GPU Configurations (via Kepler_L2):

GPU Die	Navi 5X	Navi 5X	Navi 5X	Navi 5X
Positioning	Flagship-Tier	Mid-Tier	Low-Tier	Entry-Tier
Max Compute Units	96 CUs (12288 Cores)	40 CUs (5120 Cores)	24 CUs (3072 Cores)	12 CUs (1536 Cores)
Max Memory Bus	512-384 bit	384-192 bit	256-128 bit	128-64 bit
Max VRAM Capacity	24-32 GB	12-24 GB	8-16 GB	8-16 GB

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