AMD is also planning to refresh the Rade 6000 RX 6000. Higher performance, 6nm chips or 18.0GHz memory?

AMD Radeon RX 6000 graphics with RDNA 2 architecture (source: AMD)

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Zdroj: AMD

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Nvidia is now releasing faster “refresh” models of the GeForce RTX 3000 graphics.

Nvidia now refreshes its graphics menu with models like GeForce RTX 3080 12GB or RTX 3090 Ti. Refreshed models tend to have higher performance or are more advantageous. But Nvidia will not offer such refreshments alone. The rival AMD has not heard for a long time that a half-generation refresh would be planned, but now we have news about it. Radeons RX 6000 are also said to get improved faster versions, perhaps with faster memories.

This information comes from a leader nicknamed Greymon55 from Twitter, who managed to prove himself a few times last year, while the report was also taken over by the relatively well-informed VideoCardz website. AMD yet on CES 2022 released a refresh graphic for notebooks, however, is not known for desktop graphics. AMD revealed only cheap models Radeon RX 6500 XT and Radeon RX 6400 (for OEM market). These represent price categories that were previously missing in the Radeon RX 6000 series, however, they already have 6nm chips instead of 7nm, so the question is whether they should no longer be perceived as part of such a reflection.

But that leaker Greymon55 now claims that AMD will actually refresh the desktop graphics Radeon RX 6000, so the new models could appear on higher floors. A half-generation update would be created, which Nvidia now releases for Ampere graphics (or which it had in 2019 in the form of RTX 2000 “Super” cards). These new models could possibly be distinguished by the number 50 at the end of the name, as such a designation was used for the newly discovered notebook graphics models. So models like the Radeon RX 6950 XT, 6850 XT or 6750 XT could come out.

Unfortunately, there is a lack of information on what this refresh would bring from a technical point of view. AMD might increase GPU frequencies (sometimes the number of units, such as the RX 6800), but then the question is whether it would also mean an increase in power consumption, as with the new Nvidia models (350W RTX 3080 12GB, 450W GeForce RTX 3090 Ti ). Radeons now have lower power consumption than GeForce, but if AMD came up with the same game and typical consumption levels rose in all graphics, we wouldn’t be happy about that.

GPU AMD Navi 22 11 — AMD Navi 22 GPU (right) compared to Navi 21 chip (left) (Source: AMD)

Faster memory?

AMD probably doesn’t need to increase the memory capacity of most graphics (except for the 4GB Radeon RX 6500 XT, where it is said that the release of the 8GB version is not completely ruled out, but is probably not planned soon). Therefore, models with double or otherwise increased capacity will probably not come. According to Greymon55, however, there is a chance that these new cards could differ in memory faster. AMD could start deploying GDDR6 running at 18.0 GHz efficiently. Which would give the cards 12.5% more throughput than today’s 16.0GHz GDDR6 memory models. For example, the hypothetical Rade 68X, 6850 XT and 6950 XT would improve to 576 GB / s. This should improve performance, especially in high resolutions.

Graphic design AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT 01 — AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT graphics reference (Source: AMD)

However, this scenario has not yet been confirmed, it is probably largely speculative. But maybe probable. AMD has now unexpectedly mounted the 18.0GHz GDDR6 on the Radeon RX 6500 XT in an effort to help it a bit with its 64-bit bus. If this low-end model can get them, maybe they could get at least some more powerful graphics.

6nm chips?

Another possibility would be that AMD would release additional 6nm chips, which this time would be revisions of some of the 7nm GPUs of the RDNA 2 architecture (Navi 21, 22 and 23). But this is probably less likely. For Navi 24 chips in Radeons RX 6500 XT, it is probably important to note that no previous version existed on the 7nm process. If so, maybe AMD wouldn’t spend on a new chip and stay with it. It is not clear whether it is economically viable for AMD to do 6nm refresh of 7nm Navi chips 23, 22 and 21 now due to less than a year on the market (because Rade 7000 Radeons with new RDNA 3 architecture chips it will allegedly replace them already at the end of 2022). So, for example, the Navi 22 and 23 will not serve as cheaper models in the RX 7000 generation.