AMD’s next-gen Navi 33 GPU could disappoint some gamers
But speculation about fewer cores doesn’t mean the GPU won’t deliver
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AMD’s next-gen Navi 33graphics cardcould sport 4,096 cores (stream processors) according to the latest from the GPU grapevine, which is fewer than the rumor mill previously theorized, plus it may not turn up until 2023 (we’ll come back to that point later).
This is speculation from one of the more regular Twitter hardware leakers, Greymon55, who updated their bio to indicate that figure of 4,096 cores – but with a question mark added, reminding us of how deep this is in rumor territory currently (keep that bagful of condiments handy).
The change is notable because asWccftechpoints out, Greymon55 previously suggested that Navi 33 would have more cores than this: 5,120 to be precise. Hence some folks immediate thoughts on this fresh rumor are heading along the lines of Navi 33 – which could possibly be the GPU that powers the RX 7600 series, given that Navi 23 (current-gen) is themidrange RX 6600– not being quite as powerful as originally anticipated.
Hold your stream processing horses before trying to draw even any vague conclusions here, though, as the overall performance level of Navi 33 is still predicted to exceed the current flagshipRX 6900 XTby Greymon55. The leaker furthertweetsto clarify that Navi 33 was “designed to be better than the 6900 XT” and even if it doesn’t meet that design goal, its performance is still expected to be around the level of the 6900 XT.
n31:5nm+6nm 256bit gddr6 n32 5nm+6nm 192bit gddr6n33 6nm 128bit gddr6 perf>6900xtad102 5nm 384bit gddr6xad103 ?ad104 ?ad106 ?September 19, 2021
Analysis: Very early days yet
In a nutshell, then, Greymon55 is suggesting that while Navi 33 will have fewer cores than they previously believed, what might be the midrange offering forRDNA 3cards could still turn out to be more powerful than theRDNA 2flagship – driven by what are presumably some seriously impressive architectural advances – or if not, it shouldn’t fall short and is expected to deliver around the same gaming oomph.
Really, though, it’s still very early in the overall timeframe for AMD’s next-gen graphics cards to be making such predictions. We’ve got to be very skeptical around all this, and even Greymon55 admits this in anothertweetin which they say that as time goes on, the “specifications will become clearer” – and so obviously this speculation is in pretty muddy rumor terrain as it is.
Greymon55 furtherobservesthat AMD is “still planning” when it comes to next-gen GPUs, and that they won’t see the light of day until 2023, as mentioned at the outset of this story. Presumably early 2023, given that we werepreviously expecting the new graphics cardsto launch at the end of 2022.
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Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for TechRadar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - ‘I Know What You Did Last Supper’ - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).
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