AMD’s next-gen graphics cards have been glimpsed, or at least we’ve seen references to RDNA 4 pop up in Linux – and this comes on top of recent YouTube leakage which sounds worrying for Nvidia (we’ll come back to that later).
Wccftech reports that a couple of AMD chips are mentioned as supported in Linux patches, namely the GFX1200 and GFX1201.
Now, GFX11 is the RDNA 3 range, so GFX12 is the next generation of RDNA 4, which is likely to be RX 8000 models (assuming AMD continues with its graphics card naming scheme in a logical progression).
We don’t know what these GPUs actually are, but the suggestion is they might be Navi 44 and Navi 48 flavors.
That would mean they are lower-end chips – remember that Navi 31 is the current flagship, and it works down from there. To give you some idea, looking at current-gen AMD GPUs, Navi 33 is the lowest tier chip and it’s used in the RX 7600, so in theory these next-gen models would sit below that level.
Really, though, this is guessing at what GFX1200 and GFX1201 might be, so take all this with a wheelbarrow full of salt.
Analysis: Promising progress – and RDNA 4 hype continues to build
At any rate, the point to focus on with this new leak isn’t what GPUs these may be, but the fact that RDNA 4 models are showing up in early work for support, which suggests that the next-gen graphics cards are progressing nicely towards release.
Of course, that release is still a good way off – we only have to look at the scarcity of rumors to know that. Much of what we have heard thus far pertains to RDNA 4 potentially shying away from the high-end, and topping out at mid-range graphics cards. There may not be a Navi 41, in other words, and previously the Navi 43 and 44 chips have been talked about as spearheading the RX 8000 family (which is reflected in this latest leakage).
Still, these mid-range RDNA 4 offerings are expected to be pretty powerful, and could offer performance to outgun the current RX 7900 XT, as YouTuber Moore’s Law is Dead recently contended (as mentioned at the outset). Except with a much better value proposition thanks to a far more palatable price tag (perhaps around the $500 mark in the US, or maybe even less than that – and priced in line with that elsewhere). Time will tell, but the hype train is building up a fair head of steam around how good AMD’s next-gen GPUs might be.
The release date for RDNA 4 is theorized as later in 2024, and AMD could sneak in ahead of Nvidia’s RTX 5000 graphics cards, seeing as some of the latest gossip around the latter Blackwell GPUs indicates they might slide to early 2025.
So, with the prospect of big value proposition products from Team Red pipping Blackwell to the post, and perhaps dominating our list of the best graphics cards, it’s easy to see why Nvidia might get a bit concerned.