According to the latest leak about the next-generation graphics cards, we may have to wait longer than expected for the AMD Radeon RX 8000 series.
As noted by Tom’s HardwareLeading hardware leaker Kepler claimed in a post on X that Team Red won’t unveil its RDNA 4 GPUs until CES 2025 at the earliest.
We’ve heard that the flagship Navi 48 will be shown off first at CES in January 2025, followed by the Navi 44 “probably” in the second quarter of next year, so April 2025 at the earliest – if this is true, of course.
This latest rumor contradicts earlier reports that claimed Navi 48 maps could be released later this year (with one exception, but even that prediction was not as pessimistic as Kepler’s).
Both the Navi 44 and 48 are mid-range graphics cards, as you’ll likely recall, and we’ve heard claims that the latter flagship could come close to the current RX 7900 XTX but at a much lower price. That’s the hope, anyway, but take all of this with a lot of spice, of course.
All signs point to RDNA 4 not making any major leaps
All the signs we’ve seen for the RX 8000 series point to little more than incremental improvements. In fact, to the point that RDNA 4 has been described more as a “bug fix” for RX 7000 graphics cards than anything else.
In the past, Kepler broke news about the now-cancelled Navi 4X/4C chip (which was rumored to have a 50% performance boost over the 7900 XTX) for being too expensive. This dates back to information from the same leaker from last year who claimed that RDNA 4 “will not have high-end GPUs”, as the Red Corner appears to be aiming for the mid-range market as we noted.
AMD’s plan, then, seems to be an attack on the mid-range and lower-end segments of the GPU market. Hopefully, these RDNA 4 cards with compelling value propositions can win the hearts of gamers and pull them away from Nvidia products.