Rumor: AMD graphics cards with Navi GPU at 7nm coming around August 2018

AMD would have its Navi GPU ready between July and August next year. The successor to Vega is made at 7nm. During Siggraph 2018, which takes place in mid-August, AMD would announce a professional video card with Navi GPU.

Website TweakTown claims to have the information about the arrival of Navi. The website does not mention a source, but well before the release of Vega also reported that the video cards with those GPUs would be scarce. That turned out to be the case in practice.

AMD has already announced that the Navi GPUs will be made at 7nm. On an official company roadmap, Vega’s successor is slated to be sometime between 2017 and 2020, with no specific date specified. GlobalFoundries, the chip manufacturer where AMD has its CPUs and GPUs made, said it was on track with 7nm production in June. The first chips should be ready by the middle of next year and mass production will start in the second half, according to the company.

An introduction to Siggraph 2018 wouldn’t be unexpected. AMD seized the same fair this year for the introduction of the RX Vega video cards. However, TweakTown reports that a professional card will be announced at that fair for graphics professionals and that Navi will be ready between July and August. Perhaps cards for gamers will be announced sooner.

AMD will switch to GlobalFoundries’ 12nm process early next year for both Ryzen and Vega. Currently the cpus and gpus are made at 14nm. The move to the slightly smaller process is likely to yield small gains in efficiency and clock speeds. The move to 7nm for the Navi GPU, in combination with a new design, is likely to yield greater gains.