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Dismal AMD RDNA 3 refresh rumor suggests all RDNA 3+ RX 7000 SKUs have been canned

The Radeon RX 7900 XTX and the RX 7900 XT have MSRPs of US$999 and US$899 respectively. (Source: Notebookcheck)
The Radeon RX 7900 XTX and the RX 7900 XT have MSRPs of US$999 and US$899 respectively. (Source: Notebookcheck)
Launch reviews of the RX 7900 XT/XTX found that the GPUs weren’t performing as well as AMD had advertised. This disparity between the marketed and the measured performance sparked speculation that the Navi 31 GPU might be suffering from bugs. Later rumors suggested that a revised Navi 31 could be in the works. Also called RDNA 3+, reports now claim that the possible RDNA 3 refresh has been canceled.

Back in November 2022, we reported that AMD might be working on a revised Navi 31 GPU capable of reaching 3 GH+ clock speeds. The GPU was said to be featured in the Radeon RX 7990 XTX, RX 7950 XTX, and RX 7950 XT boards. Some termed this possible refresh as the RDNA 3+. Now, hardware leaker @All_The_Watts claims on Twitter that the RDNA 3+ has been canceled.

Per the leaker, AMD has binned all RDNA 3+ SKUs as they failed to hit performance and efficiency targets. The leaker goes on to say that RDNA 3+ is “bad all platforms”. All_The_Watts previously suggested that the RDNA 3+ would be the “true full fix” as flagship Navi 31 featured in the RX 7900 XT/XTX and mid-range Navi 33 suffer from identical hardware bugs that Team Red was unable to discover until it was too late. Navi 32 and Phoenix APU were reportedly doing fine as AMD had managed to fix the GPUs.

The cancelation of the RDNA 3 refresh could be real, as Paul from RedGamingTech has also heard similar reports from some of his sources. Curiously, a few of Paul’s sources maintain that the RDNA 3 refresh is still happening, but it will be a while before the boards are released.

Additionally, the midrange Navi 33 and Navi 32 appear unaffected as the cards are on the way.

Finally, Paul suggests that AMD could have shelved the RDNA 3 refresh due to the lack of engineering resources. The company has allegedly decided to pour resources into other products such as the Phoenix Point APUs as well as RDNA 4 graphics architecture which is supposed to be a “monumental effort”.

It has been less than two months since the release of the first RDNA 3 boards. So, it is too early to talk about the fate of the purported revised RDNA 3 GPUs with certainty. As such, only time will tell whether AMD has actually decided to scrap RDNA 3+ cards altogether.

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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > News > News Archive > Newsarchive 2023 01 > Dismal AMD RDNA 3 refresh rumor suggests all RDNA 3+ RX 7000 SKUs have been canned
Fawad Murtaza, 2023-01-23 (Update: 2023-01-23)