AMD to release RDNA 2 graphics cards for 4k gaming at the end of this year
AMD will release video cards with an RDNA 2 GPU at the end of this year. According to the manufacturer, the cards are intended for 4k gaming and have hardware support for ray tracing. AMD is also putting the RDNA 3 generation on the roadmap for 2022.
AMD will designate the Radeon cards based on RDNA 2 as Navi 2X and RDNA 3 will be referred to as Navi 3X on the new roadmap. Concrete details about the new video cards are still missing, but AMD has now announced that the first RDNA 2 cards will be released at the end of this year and that they are high-end cards for 4k gaming. Over the current RX 5000 cards based on the RDNA 1 architecture, AMD promises a 50 percent improvement in performance per watt. That would be possible through higher clock speeds and architecture adjustments.
During its Financial Analyst Day, AMD reaffirmed that the new architecture will have hardware support for ray tracing. New details on that have not been disclosed. AMD also reports that the RDNA 2 video cards will receive support for variable rate shading. This allows certain parts of the image, for example the edges, to be rendered in a lower resolution to save computing power. Recently, Microsoft announced that the Xbox Series X will also get that technology. The new Xbox uses a GPU based on the RDNA 2 architecture.
AMD’s RDNA 2 cards are made using a 7nm process. It is not yet known how the successor will be made. AMD puts ‘advanced node’ on the roadmap and thus keeps the options open. The choice may depend on the available capacity on 5nm nodes. AMD will then have its Zen 4 cores made. AMD could also opt for TSMC’s 6nm node, for example.
Furthermore, AMD has announced the CDNA architecture, a GPU architecture for data centers. The C stands for Compute. AMD currently still uses video cards based on the GCN architecture for data centers, the CDNA cards will follow. The cDNA maps are optimized for tasks such as machine learning and use in supercomputers. AMD will release the first CDNA cards later this year and will show a roadmap that also includes the CDNA 2 architecture, which should be ready in 2022. Cards with that GPU architecture will probably end up in the El Capitan supercomputer in combination with Zen 4 cores.