Nvidia is preparing its new Ampere GPUs for the end of this year, however, AMD is not standing still either, and thanks to the new Navi GPUs, there are major developments in this segment. More specifically, we are talking about the Navi 21 (RDNA 2) GPU and an update for Navi 10, which is used by the current RDNA 1.0 graphics cards.
Navi 21 and Navi 10 ‘Refresh’ are planned for this year
AMD will fight in the high-end segment with the Navi 21 GPU, which we knew had the following specifications.
- Up to 80 processing units/5120 GPU cores
- A die size of about 505mm²
- 50% more power per watt
These specifications are not official, but these technical details give AMD a real chance to be competitive not only in terms of raw power but also in terms of power per watt, an area where they have been missing in recent years.
AMD will manage a GPU of this size by segmenting it into 4 models:
It seems that AMD is following a similar strategy as last year with Navi 10. The XTX variant will probably be the strongest that will face Nvidia Ampere.
AMD Navi Pro variants
For the professional market AMD would plan 2 variants:
Exclusive Apple variants
We also know that AMD develops exclusive GPUs for Apple devices, namely the XLA:
Besides Navi 21, we are talking about other derived GPUs like Navi 23, with a smaller die size similar to Navi 10. Navi 23 could be the replacement for Navi 10 graphics cards (RX 5600 XT, 5700 XT etc.), but with the improvements implemented in the RDNA 2 architecture.
Update AMD Navi 10
For a long time there was a rumor that Navi 10 would coexist with the new Navi-2x chips, but new sources say that AMD will renew these GPUs with three new, improved models.
If this is true, the Navi 23 GPUs will probably arrive much later than Navi 10 (Refresh), otherwise, it would be difficult to position the improved Navi 10 models that exist alongside the Navi 23 variants.
As the weeks go by we will know everything with greater certainty, with much more information about RDNA 2 and Nvidia Ampere graphics cards.