Coming Soon: The Next Generation of AMD Graphics Cards!

Written by Sean Mekinda

Yesterday's AMD conference was focused entirely on their new lineup of graphics cards, revealing that the new AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX and AND Radeon RX 7900 XT would both be built on the groundbreaking AMD RDNA 3 architecture, the first AMD GPUs with a chiplet design. They're also coming very soon: both cards are releasing December 13th!

AMD RDNA 3 is designed with efficiency in mind, delivering up to 54% more performance-per-watt over AMD RDNA 2, so you can get even more power from less wattage. Additionally, the new lineup includes up to 96 new unified compute units, second-generation AMD Infinity Cache, and up to 24GB of GDDR6 RAM, meaning you'll be seeing up to 1.7x better performance on select 4K games over AMD RDNA 2 architecture. Also updated is ray tracing, taking up-to a 1.8x leap over the previous RDNA 2.

And if you've got an ultra-high-end monitor, don't worry - MD Radeon RX 7900 can handle it thanks to DisplayPort 2.1, enabling 4K gaming at a massive 480Hz and 8K gaming at an absolutely killer 165Hz.

Here are some of highlights, straight from AMD:

• AMD RDNA 3 Architecture – Featuring an advanced chiplet design, new compute units and second-generation AMD Infinity Cache technology, AMD RDNA 3 architecture delivers up to 54% more performance per watt than the previous-generation AMD RDNA 2 architecture6. New compute units share resources between rendering, AI and raytracing to make the most effective use of each transistor for faster, more efficient performance than the previous generation. 
• Chiplet Design – The world’s first gaming GPU with a chiplet design delivers up to 15% higher frequencies7 at up to 54% better power efficiency. It includes the new 5nm 306mm2 Graphics Compute Die (GCD) with up to 96 compute units that provide the core GPU functionality. It also includes six of the new 6nm Memory Cache Die (MCD) at 37.5mm2, each with up to 16MB of second-generation AMD Infinity Cache technology.
• Ultra-Fast Chiplet Interconnect – Unleashing the benefits of second-generation AMD Infinity Cache technology, the new chiplets leverage AMD Infinity Links and high-performance fanout packaging to deliver up to 5.3TB/s of bandwidth.
• Expanded Memory and Wider Memory Bus – To meet the growing requirements of today’s demanding titles, the new graphics cards feature up to 24GB of high-speed GDDR6 memory running at 20Gbps over a 384-bit memory bus.
• Dedicated AI Acceleration and Second-Generation Raytracing – New AI instructions and increased AI throughput deliver up to 2.7X more performance than the previous AMD RDNA 2 architecture8, while second-generation raytracing technology delivers up to 1.8X more performance than the previous generation9.
• DisplayPort™ 2.1 Support – The industry’s only high-end gaming graphics cards to support DisplayPort 2.1 technology with UHBR 13.5, offering up to 54Gbps of display link bandwidth and enabling high-refresh 4K (up to 480Hz) or 8K (up to 165Hz) gaming on next-gen displays.
• New AMD Radiance Display™ Engine – Provides 12 bit-per-channel color for up to 68 billion colors and higher refresh rate displays compared to AMD RDNA 2 architecture and includes support for DisplayPort 2.1 and HDMI 2.1a.
• High-Refresh Gaming – DisplayPort 2.1 provides increased display bandwidth compared to DisplayPort 1.410, with the ability to support up to 900Hz, 480Hz and 165Hz refresh rates for 1440p, 4K and 8K displays, respectively.
• Dual Media Engine – Supports simultaneous encode or decode streams up to 8K60 for HEVC and supports AV1 encode11, delivering up to 1.8X higher engine frequency than AMD RDNA 2 architecture12.

7900 Series Specs At A Glance:

AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX

Image: AMD

• Releasing Tuesday, December 13th
• 24GB GDDR6 RAM
• 96 Compute Units
• 2.3Ghz game clock
• 2.5Ghz Boost Clock
• 96MB Infinity Cache
• 355W TDP

AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT

Image: AMD

• Releasing Tuesday, December 13th
• 20GB GDDR6 RAM
• 84 Compute Units
• 2.0Ghz game clock
• 2.4Ghz Boost Clock
• 80MB Infinity Cache
• 300W TDP

If you missed the presentations, you can watch the whole thing here:

Be sure to keep an eye on the Micro Center Community for more details as they become available, as well as launch-day benchmarks, overviews, and build guides!