The new AMD Navi 23 graphics processor, known internally as the “NVIDIA Killer” will be released next year. Some days ago, we saw this graphics processor spotted in the Linux drivers, which confirms its existence next to Navi 22.
AMD Navi is going to become “Big” headache for Nvidia
Based on the Linux drivers, AMD would prepare three new GPUs based on TSMC’s 7nm+ node and RDNA2 architecture. These are AMD Navi 23, Navi 22 and Navi 21, which would all position themselves above the RX 5700/XT series.
Based on a number of patents filed by AMD, some industry rumors and AMD’s own official roadmap, the second generation RDNA architecture will be the company’s first to fully support ray tracing hardware acceleration, similar to Nvidia’s RTX series.
Based on these specific sources, however, only Navi 23 is internally referred to as “NVIDIA Killer”. Because Navi 23 is supposed to be the big Navi graphics processor, which would compete directly with RTX 2080 and RTX 2080 Ti, which currently have no competition with the high-end graphics cards.
It’s too early to know how competitive this GPU will be. Especially with Ampere from Nvidia around the corner, which seems to be a considerable generation change from Turing.
Based on patents and known information, Navi 23 would be delivered with the following technologies:
- Variable speed shading
- More efficient mixing precision calculation
- Smarter, faster caches
- Persistent computing and higher instructions per clock
- More advanced voltage regulation for higher clock frequencies and many other improvements.
Now that the first RDNA Navi graphics cards with a 7 nm node are on the market, AMD can focus on further fine-tuning the architecture that leaves the transition to the new manufacturing node behind. The challenge is to improve energy efficiency, as RX 5700/XT is known to be 225W (XT) power consumption graphics. To give you an idea, it would consume the same power as an RTX 2080, even though it has a matrix size of less than half (251mm² vs. 545m²).
The next year will be very interesting to see those who have prepared us AMD and Nvidia in the field of graphics cards. We will keep you up to date.