AMD will adopt a new architectural design on RDNA 5
During AMD’s Financial Analyst Day in June 2022, the company updated its GPU roadmap for the RDNA/CDNA series architectures, revealing that the RDNA 4 architecture GPUs correspond to the Navi 4x series chips. However, in recent months, the RDNA 4 architecture has been marred by numerous unfavorable reports, including issues with its design leading to the abandonment of high-end models, offering only two chip variants in the Navi 4x series, and potential delays in its release from 2024 to 2025.
According to Wccftech, AMD plans to adopt a completely new architectural design with RDNA 5, hoping to experience a pivotal “Zen” moment within its Radeon division.
It is reported that the RDNA 3 architecture GPU lineup did not proceed entirely as planned. The issue lies in the final chips not meeting the internal performance expectations, with uncontrollable power consumption and frequency curves. Initially, the Navi 31 was to be equipped with 192MB of Infinity Cache, but this was reduced to 96MB, resulting in efficiency improvements far below the initially advertised levels, making it difficult to compete against Nvidia’s Ada Lovelace architecture. RDNA 4 is a revised version of RDNA 3, with the best expectations reaching the performance level of the RX 7900 XT, mainly focusing on enhanced ray tracing capabilities. Additionally, Xilinx may begin to intervene in parts of AI software development, as AMD currently considers building the ROCm ecosystem a top priority.
As early as last year, there were reports that due to numerous “random issues” encountered during the development of the RDNA 4 architecture, filled with uncertainties, AMD decided to cancel the Navi 41 and Navi 42, retaining only the Navi 43 and Navi 44 chips. To avoid the awkward situation previously faced with the RDNA 3 architecture lineup, AMD resolved to reallocate resources: on one hand, ensuring the development progress of the existing RDNA 4 architecture; on the other hand, devoting more resources to accelerate the development of the RDNA 5 architecture, to compensate as soon as possible for the future product line gaps that the cancellation of Navi 41 and Navi 42 might cause. AMD has not abandoned its high-end product line in gaming graphics cards.
