The subsequent era of AMD Navi graphics cards have been a recognized amount for numerous years now, however it’s solely been over the last couple of months that we’ve began to see some correct, concrete particulars begin to emerge about them. We nonetheless don’t know a lot about their particular person specs, worth or a precise launch date but, however we do know, as an example, that they’ll assist ray tracing, the flowery new lighting tech presently the new subject of the day over on the brand new crop of Nvidia RTX playing cards.
Teased again at GDC with a Radeon RX Vega 56-powered ray tracing demo and confirmed yesterday by way of Wired’s PlayStation 5 exclusive (which can use a customized variant of AMD’s Navi GPU), the truth that AMD’s Navi playing cards will certainly assist ray tracing tells us numerous issues – and that will help you separate in all probability doubtless information from clearly made-up fiction, I’ve put all the things we find out about them to this point into one helpful information.
AMD Navi: what’s it?
Navi is the present code identify for AMD’s subsequent era of graphics playing cards. Set to interchange AMD’s present Radeon RX Vega playing cards, Navi will function a brand-new structure in addition to what’s presently being referred to as ‘Next Gen Memory’. Imaginative, I do know.
Whether that’s GDDR6 reminiscence, the subsequent iteration of HBM2 (High Bandwidth Memory 2) that’s presently in AMD’s Vega playing cards or one thing else completely, no person is aware of. What we do know, nevertheless, is that the Navi identify has been showing on AMD’s street maps way back to 2016. The solely downside is that it retains getting delayed.
AMD Navi launch date: why the heck is it taking so lengthy?
At one level, Navi was purported to arrive by the tip of 2018. But then the 14nm model of Vega acquired pushed again (the Vega 56 and 64), which in flip bumped again the 7nm model of Vega. The latter lastly got here out earlier this 12 months – see our Radeon 7 review for more information – however it additionally means this continuous shuffling again of launch dates has triggered additional delays to the launch of AMD’s 7nm Navi GPUs. And for some time, we had no thought when it will ever see the sunshine of day.
Now we all know that Navi will sit on the coronary heart of the PlayStation 5, which is presently anticipated to launch subsequent 12 months. The excellent news, although, is that we in all probability received’t have to attend that lengthy for precise Navi graphics playing cards to show up, as the present hearsay mill says AMD are planning a giant Navi launch round E3 this 12 months, which takes place between June 11-14 2019. That would make sense given Navi’s PlayStation 5 connection, for whereas Sony is probably not attending E3 themselves, they’re nearly actually going to be holding their very own convention on the similar time someplace down the street very similar to EA do with their EA Play occasion.
Some have pegged their launch date a bit of later for someday in July – the present estimate seems to be July 7 (or 7/7, in case you wanted a good deeper tie to their 7nm manufacturing course of) – however evidently, summer season seems to be prefer it could possibly be a giant time for some correct Navi bulletins.
AMD Navi specs: is it going to be well worth the wait?
Of course, for these after the best graphics card potential, it’s all been a bit irritating. Indeed, as highly effective because the Radeon 7 is, it’s nonetheless not fairly the equal of Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 2080 – particularly when you have in mind the RTX 2080’s fancy, performance-boosting DLSS tech as properly.
However, the truth that AMD’s Navi graphics playing cards will even positively assist ray tracing tells us numerous issues. For instance, we’ve already seen how a lot of a toll ray tracing takes on the efficiency of Nvidia’s RTX graphics playing cards when their proprietary DLSS tech isn’t enabled, and AMD have informed me themselves {that a} DLSS-esque know-how for Navi isn’t actually on the playing cards for them. That means they’re going to must be fairly rattling highly effective to do it correctly with out taking an enormous hit on the outdated body charge.
“Our priority is going to be looking at SMAA and TAA [anti-aliasing techniques] and not proprietary technologies,” an AMD spokesperson informed me throughout a briefing for the Radeon 7. “For us, it’s about enabling technology across all three verticals [PC, console and cloud gaming] and ensuring the end user experience is going to be great across all three. DLSS is a proprietary technology supported in only a small number of PC games. SMAA and TAA offer a superior combination of image quality and performance that’s free of the harsh sharpening of DLSS.”
Fighting phrases, these, however it means that AMD’s extra involved about delivering some severe uncooked horsepower (which would definitely tally with the best way they offered the Radeon 7) as a substitute of counting on AI to select up the slack.
Then once more, different hearsay sleuths paint a way more modest image of Navi’s spec capabilities. Indeed, WCCFTech assume there can be three completely different Navi playing cards launching this 12 months – the RX 3080, RX 3070 and RX 3060 – which can match the RTX 2070, RTX 2060 and GTX 1660 respectively. Tweaktown, in the meantime, are betting the top-end one can be across the RTX 2080 once more.
Personally, I don’t assume it makes a lot sense to have a next-gen Navi card that’s simply as highly effective because the lately launched Radeon 7, as a result of in any other case what’s the purpose of the Radeon 7? I additionally miss out on the logic of releasing three new next-gen Navi playing cards and nonetheless having the old-gen Vega-based Radeon 7 sitting proper on the prime, as a result of that additionally doesn’t communicate a lot to the so-called energy of Navi.
AMD Navi worth: how a lot are they going to value?
The key piece of the puzzle we’re lacking proper now could be worth. If WCCFTech’s info is to be believed, the highest RTX 2070-level Navi card might value as little as $249, in line with their mysterious sources, whereas the GTX 1660 rival is presently rumoured to value simply $129. I extremely doubt that can find yourself being the case, to be trustworthy, particularly if Nvidia’s present pricing is something to go by, however who is aware of – perhaps a little bit of competitors available in the market is simply what we have to shunt all the things again down once more after Nvidia’s months and months of graphic card dominance.
Still, I anticipate every Navi card will value significantly greater than both of these rumoured costs, however we’ll in all probability solely get correct affirmation as soon as AMD’s formally introduced them – which hopefully received’t be an excessive amount of longer if an E3 2019 reveal proves to be right. I’ll carry you extra as I get it.
