AMD promises powerful RDNA 3 GPUs with a secret weapon
>
AMD’s upcoming next-gen RDNA 3 graphics cards will feature new features to push high-end gaming forward — in terms of powerful resolutions and frame rates — the company’s CEO promised in a profit call.
As Wccftech (opens in new tab) emphasized, in the call following the unveiling of AMD’s latest fiscal results, CEO Lisa Su said, “Our high-end RDNA 3 GPUs will deliver strong performance improvements and performance-per-watt compared to our current products, and include new features that deliver high – resolution, high frame rate gaming.”
Performance per watt is expected to be 50% (or slightly more) than what we’ve heard from AMD before, the same big jump seen with the move from RDNA to the current generation of RDNA 2 GPUs.
All of this comes ahead of the November 3 launch of the next-gen graphics cards, with the high-end models expected to be the first crop of RDNA 3 offerings. Those first GPUs are likely to be the RX 7900 XT, possibly alongside a more powerful 7900 XTX variant, and perhaps a 7800 XT, according to the most recent rumours.
Keep in mind that these graphics cards won’t be on sale for a while — maybe not until December, according to the latest speculation.
Analysis: So FSR 3.0 Is Inbound?
What could these new features be? (And it’s telling that AMD’s chief executive calls “features,” plural, rather than just one innovation). Well, the most obvious candidate for something to improve top gaming and move forward at those high frame rates is FSR 3.0. That would contradict Nvidia’s DLSS 3, the latter itself ushered in with Team Green’s new Lovelace generation (although only the expensive flagship RTX 4090 is currently on sale).
We’re basing that probability mainly on it, matching the description Su provides – a frame rate booster and something that allows you to play games upscaled to a 4K-mimicking resolution – and also that FSR 3.0 was reportedly in the works for RDNA 3 back in June.
The theory is that it will be a big step forward and could use AI (machine learning) to make it more powerful, just like Nvidia DLSS (and Intel XeSS for that matter). That’s despite Team Red’s argument that AI isn’t necessary for good quality upscaling (although, of course, we can get FSR 3.0 without AI — these are all whispers from the vine, after all).
What isn’t mentioned, or suggested here, is ray tracing, and it’s rumored that AMD may be way behind Nvidia’s prowess in that area. In other words, the situation won’t change much, although the gap seen with current-gen maps could be closed somewhat.
That said, there have been some exciting rumors about the rasterization (non-ray tracing) performance AMD could achieve (and efficiency even more so). So keep your fingers crossed for the event, because maybe we’ll see something special for Nvidia to really care about — and hopefully boost competition in the next-gen GPU arena. (Though, of course, that will depend on where AMD goes with pricing, not just performance).