After months of speculation, the official announcement of AMD's next-generation RDNA 4 GPUs appears imminent. Leaks suggest AMD will unveil RDNA 4 at CES 2025, with at least one RX 8000 series graphics card launching by the end of January.
RDNA 4 Announcement and Release Date
According to Moore's Law Is Dead (MLID), AMD will fully unveil RDNA 4 at CES 2025, followed by the release of at least one RX 8000 series GPU later that month. While the specific model launching in January remains undisclosed, it's likely to be a high-end card, possibly the RX 8800 XT (or its equivalent), based on the Navi 48 GPU. AMD previously followed this pattern with the RDNA 3 launch, releasing the RX 7900 XTX and XT first, then the mid-range and entry-level cards.
RDNA 4 Performance Expectations
AMD's focus with RDNA 4 appears to be on the mid-range and entry-level segments, rather than directly competing with NVIDIA's highest-end RTX 50 series cards. Leaked performance figures suggest the Navi 48 GPU's rasterization performance falls between the RX 7900 XT and RX 7900 XTX, while the Navi 44 sits between the RX 7600 XT and RX 7800 XT.
Ray tracing performance is expected to be a significant improvement over RDNA 3, with rumors of a "completely different" ray tracing architecture.
The success of RDNA 4 will depend on both performance and pricing. With CES 2025 just around the corner, official information should be available soon. Until then, it's best to treat these leaks with caution.
