After years of twiddling our thumbs and coughing impatiently over the sound of our whirring graphics cards followers, we lastly have a launch date for AMD’s next-gen Navi GPUs. Well, it’s extra of a launch window than a stable gold date, per se, however given how few concrete particulars we’ve had about them to this point, I’ll take no matter we are able to get at this level.
Confirmed yesterday throughout AMD’s annual earnings calls, the primary 7nm (nanometer) Navi graphics card is presently slated to reach someday between July-September (or Q3, as enterprise varieties are wont to name it) later this 12 months, which actually isn’t that far-off now. So with a purpose to put together you for what’s coming, right here’s all the pieces we all know to this point about AMD’s Navi GPUs.
AMD Navi: what’s it?
Navi is the present code title for AMD’s subsequent era of graphics playing cards. Set to exchange AMD’s present Radeon RX Vega playing cards, Navi will use a 7nm manufacturing course of, in addition to function a brand-new GPU structure, which is able to hopefully make them extra environment friendly (and due to this fact highly effective) than AMD’s present gen graphics playing cards.
Navi can even include what’s presently being known as ‘Next Gen Memory’, however whether or not 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 totally, no person is aware of.
What we do know, nonetheless, is that Navi will help ray tracing, the flamboyant new lighting tech presently the new matter 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 final month by way of Wired’s PlayStation 5 exclusive (which is able to use a customized variant of certainly one of AMD’s Navi GPUs), the truth that AMD’s Navi playing cards will certainly help ray tracing tells us plenty of issues – and that will help you separate most likely probably details from clearly made-up fiction, I’ve put all the pieces we learn about them to this point into one helpful information.
AMD Navi launch date confirmed (kind of)
At one level, Navi was presupposed 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 brought on additional delays to the launch of AMD’s 7nm Navi GPUs.
Finally, nonetheless, we now know that the primary AMD Navi card will arrive someday between July-September 2019, as AMD prime girl Dr Lisa Su confirmed to buyers yesterday (April 31, as transcribed by Seeking Alpha) that “[AMD] expect to introduce our first 7-nanometer Navi gaming GPUs in the third quarter.”
Precisely when it would launch in that window, no person is aware of but. Previous rumours instructed an enormous reveal round E3 this 12 months, which takes place between June 11-14. While that doesn’t technically fall inside that July-September window, it’s doable AMD should still use E3 as their major unveiling occasion, with a correct launch date to comply with someday in July.
After all, the different large hearsay presently doing the rounds is that they’ll launch on July 7 (or 7/7, in case you wanted an excellent deeper tie to their 7nm manufacturing course of), which isn’t that lengthy after E3 ends. After all, AMD did an analogous factor with their Radeon 7 launch earlier within the 12 months, utilizing CES in the beginning of January to unveil it earlier than launching it a month later in the beginning of February.
Of course, there’s additionally this 12 months’s Gamescom to contemplate as properly, which takes place between August 21-24. That additionally falls inside AMD’s Q3 launch window and is arguably higher suited to an enormous, public launch occasion given its give attention to correct Joe Public customers versus srs bsns commerce folks. Nvidia additionally used Gamescom to launch their RTX playing cards final 12 months, so maybe this 12 months AMD will steal the present as an alternative.
Only time will inform, after all, however with simply a few months to go earlier than Q3 truly begins, we hopefully gained’t have to attend too lengthy earlier than we discover out.
AMD Navi specs: is it going to be well worth the wait?
Of course, for these after the best graphics card doable, 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 take into consideration the RTX 2080’s fancy, performance-boosting DLSS tech as properly.
However, the truth that AMD’s Navi graphics playing cards can even undoubtedly help ray tracing tells us plenty of 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 instructed me themselves {that a} DLSS-esque expertise for Navi isn’t actually on the playing cards for them. That means they’re going to should be fairly rattling highly effective to do it correctly with out taking a large hit on the outdated body price.
“Our priority is going to be looking at SMAA and TAA [anti-aliasing techniques] and not proprietary technologies,” an AMD spokesperson instructed 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 critical uncooked horsepower (which would definitely tally with the way in which they offered the Radeon 7) as an alternative of counting on AI to choose up the slack.
Then once more, different hearsay sleuths paint a way more modest image of Navi’s spec capabilities. Indeed, WCCFTech assume there will probably be three completely different Navi playing cards launching this 12 months – the RX 3080, RX 3070 and RX 3060 – which is able to match the RTX 2070, RTX 2060 and GTX 1660 respectively. Tweaktown, in the meantime, are betting the top-end one will probably 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 just lately launched Radeon 7, as a result of in any other case what’s the purpose of the Radeon 7? I additionally fail to spot 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 converse a lot to the so-called energy of Navi.
AMD Navi value: how a lot are they going to price?
The key piece of the puzzle we’re lacking proper now’s value. If WCCFTech’s data is to be believed, the highest RTX 2070-level Navi card might price as little as $249, in response to their mysterious sources, whereas the GTX 1660 rival is presently rumoured to price simply $129. I extremely doubt that may find yourself being the case, to be sincere, particularly if Nvidia’s present pricing is something to go by, however who is aware of – possibly a little bit of competitors out there is simply what we have to shunt all the pieces again down once more after Nvidia’s months and months of graphic card dominance.
Still, I count on every Navi card will price significantly greater than both of these rumoured costs, however we’ll most likely solely get correct affirmation as soon as AMD’s formally introduced them – which hopefully gained’t be an excessive amount of longer if an E3 2019 reveal proves to be appropriate. I’ll convey you extra as I get it.
