Published in Graphics

AMD second-generation RDNA GPU architecture comes in 2020

by on29 January 2020


Possible refresh as well

During the Q4 2019 earnings call, AMD's president and CEO, Dr. Lisa Su, confirmed that the 2nd generation RDNA GPU architecture will launch in 2020, as well as hinting at a possible refresh of the existing product lineup in the same year.

"In 2019 we launched our new architecture in GPUs, it's the RDNA architecture, and that was the Navi-based products. You should expect those will be refreshed in 2020, and we will have our new next-generation RDNA architecture that will be part our 2020 lineup", said Dr. Lisa Su during the earnings call.

As detailed by the company in earlier roadmaps, the RDNA 2 architecture will be based on a 7nm+ manufacturing process, and earlier details also pointed out at variable rate shading (VRS) and ray tracing to AMD GPUs.

amd rdna2 1

The variable rate shading (VRS) is a rendering technique supported by most APIs, which varies the shading rate for different parts/regions of the frame, thus increasing performance and quality. We already mentioned that AMD is playing a catch-up game with Nvidia and its GPUs, so it is not a surprise that VRS is supported on Nvidia Turing architecture, as well as Intel's Gen11 graphics architecture.

Earlier at a Q&A session after the keynote at CES 2020, AMD's Dr. Lisa Su confirmed that "big Navi" GPU is coming this year.

While talking about current 1st gen RDNA architecture Navi-based products, Su hinted that these might also get a refresh this year, but it is not clear if these are the mentioned RDNA 2 or just a refresh based on the current RDNA architecture.

In any case, AMD is hosting the 2020 AMD Investor Day conference in March, so more details will surface eventually.

 

Last modified on 30 January 2020
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