An AMD Radeon RX 6000 series refresh may be on the way, a little over a year since the original RDNA 2 graphics cards came out in late 2020.
A leak from user Wjm47196 on the Chiphell forums suggests that AMD is planning to release new graphics cards based on Navi 21 and Navi 22 GPUs – the same GPUs that power Radeon RX 6000 graphics cards like the RX 6800 XT – and will allegedly replace the current models.
Most likely, this refresh is in response to Nvidia’s own RTX 3080 Ti or to the upcoming RTX 3090 Ti. The former has a higher memory bandwidth due to the faster 384-bit memory bus, netting you 912GB/s of memory bandwidth. The latter, if the rumors strike true, would be the first card for the consumer market with 21Gbps memory.
The new cards might launch in the second quarter but nothing substantial has been confirmed at this time. But because AMD hasn’t announced anything, we’d take this refresh with a grain of salt.
Analysis: AMD needs a refresh
While the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 Ti is going to be overkill the second it hits the market, AMD already can’t really compete with the RTX 3090. Its most high-end card, the Radeon RX 6900 XT, falls short in most titles, especially when you add ray tracing to the equation.
Because RDNA 3 graphics cards weren’t mentioned at AMD’s CES 2022 keynote, it’s likely that they’re quite a ways out, and with rumors about Nvidia Lovelace GPUs ramping up, AMD will probably need something to compete on the high-end. And an AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT or RX 6850 XT might be the stopgap Team Red needs.
Via VideoCardz