With the release of the Radeon RX 7600 XT with 16 GB of VRAM AMD’s plans for the current RDNA-3 generation should be complete for the time being. Accordingly, at least the rumor mill is already looking ahead.
Concretely, it’s about the upcoming RX-8000 series, which is expected at the end of the year – and which, according to a recent rumour, has the potential to match Nvidia’s RTX 4080 in terms of rasterizing performance and cost only half as much.
The most important facts in a nutshell
- The upcoming RX-8000 series from AMD could compete with Nvidia’s RTX 4080 in terms of rasterizing performance, according to rumors, but only cost half as much
- AMD is reportedly planning to return to a monolithic chip design for RDNA 4
- AMD’s lack of competitiveness in ray tracing is cited as a reason to focus on rasterizing performance
This is what the leak claims: The rumor comes from YouTuber “Moore’s Law is Dead” (MLID), who discusses the upcoming RDNA-4 GPUs in a podcast with Fabio “Ancient Gameplays” Pisco (primarily known for AMD driver analysis).
Specifically, MLID claims that the previously used multi-chiplet approach for RX 8000 will be abandoned. As a result, AMD does not see itself in a position to compete directly with the RTX 4090 and its probable successor RTX 5090
Instead, AMD is going back to its roots: RDNA 4 will once again focus on a monolithic chip design and take it to the extreme. According to MLID, AMD is aiming to bring the “performance of the RTX 4080 / RX 7900 XTX to 400 to 600 US dollars” (equivalent to 360 to 550 euros)
The lack of competitiveness with the ray tracing capacities of Nvidia GPUs is also cited as a reason for this line of thought.
Although AMD can more than keep up in terms of rasterizing, it lags so far behind in ray tracing that a graphics card in the higher price range is seen as less worthwhile.
With a focus on pure rasterizing performance, on the other hand, the company is creating its own unbeatable niche in terms of price, which will only be topped up again with high-end graphics cards for RDNA 5.
Is the leak realistic? At least the claim is consistent with a previous rumor that AMD is not planning a high-end GPU for the RX-8000 generation
Instead, the manufacturer wants to focus fully on the entry-level and mid-range price range – similar to the RDNA-1 generation, for example, which can be considered a success with the RX 5700 XT after some work on the driver.
But ultimately, it remains very questionable whether AMD will really be so aggressive with pricing, as desirable as that would be from a gamer’s perspective.
Now it’s up to you: The performance of an RTX 4080 for around 500 euros – a fair price for such an AMD graphics card? Would you consider such a GPU, even if it can deliver less ray tracing performance? Or are you set for the foreseeable future when it comes to your graphics card? Let us know in the comments!
