Amidst speculation about the Radeon RX 8000 series of GPUs, AMD surprised everyone by confirming two upcoming graphics cards ahead of CES 2025. Team Red is yet to announce anything officially, but leaked patches from the AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 24.12.1 driver confirm the two new GPUs under the names of RX 8800 and RX 8600. The names are also not official yet, but we do know that the GPUs will be based on Navi 48 and Navi 44 respectively.
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AMD RDNA 4 Gaming GPU Expected for January 2025
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On December 3rd, AMD reposted on X about their press event next month at CES 2025 as they will be announcing their “next generation of innovation across gaming”. This hints at the global release of these two new graphics cards based on their next-generation RDNA 4 architecture. AMD seems to be looking to trade blows with Nvidia in Ray Tracing performance, as these upcoming GPUs are promising on paper.
Some Interesting Details From a Known Leaker
A user on Chiphell Forums named ‘zhangzhonghao’, known for previously leaking the Ryzen 9800X3D launch dates accurately, has revealed the anticipated performance gains of the RX 8800XT over the RX 7900XTX. He mentioned the RX 8800XT is expected to draw up to 25% less power and perform about 45% better in Ray Tracing than the RX 7900XTX. The latter attribute brings the GPU into the territory of the Nvidia RTX 4080/RTX 4080 SUPER. He also mentioned that the new GPUs have entered production, which is in line with previous rumors of the cards launching in early 2025.
According to Videocardz.com, the flagship GPU will only draw 220W-270W while delivering rasterized performance comparable to the RX 7900XTX. They also published a rumored spec sheet predicting the RX 8800XT will come with 16 GB GDDR6 memory running at 20 Gb/s, whereas the less powerful RX 8600XT will receive a modest 12 GB GDDR6 VRAM running at 19 Gb/s. For those wondering about the RX 8900XT or RX 8900XTX, there aren’t any leaks or rumors confirming that AMD is working on them.
What to Expect in 2025
As mentioned earlier, AMD plans to minimize the gap between Nvidia’s ray tracing prowess with their next generation of GPUs. This is evident with the Sony PlayStation 5 PRO, which uses AMD’s RDNA 4 for improved ray tracing. Similar to their rival, they have also doubled down on improving their AI capabilities, which will aid them in frame generation (FSR) and upscaling. Although this is good news for the enthusiastic gamer, AMD hasn’t shown any signs of producing a competitor for the RTX 4090 and the upcoming RTX 5090. This is because RDNA 4 is more of an enhancement over RDNA 3 rather than a generational upgrade.
AMD has shifted its focus to the entry-level and mid-range GPU consumer space for now, but hopefully, will come back with an answer to Nvidia’s future flagships. If AMD can price these cards appropriately, it will be a worrying sign for Team Green. With an expected price of around $500, the RX 8800XT will offer extreme value for money, consume less power, and offer significantly boosted performance numbers. All the speculations end on Monday, January 6 at CES 2025.
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