AMD RDNA 3 leak teases new Nvidia-killing graphics power

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Forget Nvidia RTX 3090 — AMD RDNA 3 leak teases huge power

AMD RDNA 3 graphics cards could have huge performance
(Image credit: AMD)

It’s currently easier to get blood out of a stone than find the current-gen graphics cards in stock, but that’s not stopped a leak from teasing the performance of next-generation AMD graphics. 

We know AMD is working on it’s RDNA 3 GPU architecture to build upon RDNA 2, which you’ll find in the AMD Big Navi, aka the Radeon RX 6900 XT and the Radeon RX 6800 XT. But a new leak has suggested future mid-range Radeon graphics cards will be as powerful as the top-end GPUs AMD currently has.  

This leak comes courtesy of regular tipster Yuko Yoshida, who said a GPU dubbed Navi 33 will be equal to the Navi 21 GPU found in the Radeon RX 6900 XT but will use a next-gen graphics core. WCCFtech reported that this all sounds somewhat farfetched, but then noted that AMD has promised significant performance gains from RDNA 2 to RDNA 3.

And if this leak proves to be legit then a Navi 33 cards could come with 80 compute units, like the Navi 21 GPU in the RX 6900 XT. That would see such a card trounce other heavy-hitting GPUs in the Radeon RX 6000 series.

Navi 33 would be the equivalent of Navi 23, which we are expecting to be the foundation of the Radeon RX 6600 and RX 6600 XT when they arrive some point in the near future.  

Given it’s set to use a next-gen RDNA 3 architecture, which is expected to move from the 7-nanometer process note to 5nm, a Navi 33 GPU is likely to offer more speed and efficiency than even its powerful predecessors, thanks to having more transistors per silicon slice. 

The Radeon RX 6900 XT is a serious 4K gaming graphics card, but comes with a hefty $999 price tag. That undercuts the $1,499 Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090, but is far from cheap. However, if AMD can bring that level of performance into mid-range graphics cards for under $500, then it would be onto a winner and could seriously take on the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080. 

Of course, this is all speculation based on a leak that we can’t verify. But it does paint a positive picture for future AMD graphics cards, likely to be revealed some time in 2022, providing semiconductor manufacturing can actually see enough next-gen graphics cards produced for eager PC gamers. 

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Roland Moore-Colyer
Roland Moore-Colyer

Roland Moore-Colyer a Managing Editor at Tom’s Guide with a focus on news, features and opinion articles. He often writes about gaming, phones, laptops and other bits of hardware; he’s also got an interest in cars. When not at his desk Roland can be found wandering around London, often with a look of curiosity on his face.