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AMD Navi 21 "Big Navi" GPU stack leaks, budget gamers may have to contend with a Navi 10 Refresh rather than pinning hopes on Navi 23

SKUs of AMD Navi 21 "Big Navi" and Navi 10 Refresh have now leaked. (Image Source: Wccftech)
SKUs of AMD Navi 21 "Big Navi" and Navi 10 Refresh have now leaked. (Image Source: Wccftech)
SKU names and PCIe device IDs variants of AMD's upcoming "Big Navi" Navi 21 GPU across Gaming, Pro, and Apple-exclusive segments have leaked. Navi 21 will be largest die in the Navi 2x family and is expected to feature up to 80 CUs and 5,120 SPs. AMD would also be making available a Navi 10 Refresh to cater to budget and mid-range gamers as Navi 23 is likely to be comparatively more expensive owing to higher clocks and core counts.

Famed leakster and friend @_rogame has finally launched his own website and the very first article offers some juicy information on AMD's purported "Big Navi" GPU and interestingly, a Navi 10 Refresh for the low-end and mid-range gaming segment. This comes consequent to some of the PCIe device IDs that @_rogame managed to unearth last month. 

Navi 21 for Gaming, Pro, and Mac

We are already aware that Navi 2x will feature three GPUs: the Navi 21 (505 m2), Navi 22 (340 mm2), and Navi 23 (240 mm2). Navi 21 will likely feature up to 80 Compute Units (CUs) and 5,120 Stream Processors (SPs) and is touted to offer 50% better performance per Watt. According to @_rogame, Navi 21 will be primarily segmented for three markets: Gaming, Pro, and Apple. The Gaming variants include the XTX, XT, XL, and XE SKUs similar to what AMD offered with the Radeon RX 5600 and 5700 series GPUs. It is not fully clear whether the XTX variant will be just a binned XT with better clocks or will, in fact, feature higher CU counts. 

The XT and XL SKUs will also be offered as Pro variants for the workstation market similar to the Radeon Pro W5700X and the Radeon Pro W5700, respectively.

AMD will also be making early-access exclusive XT and XL silicon (and their Pro variants) for Apple. These will likely be featured in the upcoming iMac/iMac Pro Refresh and the next Mac Pro.

Navi 10 Refresh for budget gamers

While Navi 23 should cater to the mid-range and budget gaming market, a new die means that it will still be expensive compared to the current Navi 10 offerings. Therefore, AMD could be refreshing its current Navi 10 lineup with three variants: the Navi 10 XT+ to replace the RX 5700 XT, Navi 10 XM+ to replace the RX 5600M, and the Navi 10 XTE+ to replace the RX 5600 XT

If this is true, budget and mid-range gamers who would have hoped to have a Navi 2x upgrade may be somewhat disappointed. But ultimately, it all depends on how AMD prices Navi 23 and Navi 10 Refresh; it is possible that the price gap between the two could be significant.

AMD could finally become competitive with NVIDIA's flagship GPUs with Navi 2x. Tom from the Moore's Law is Dead YouTube channel cited sources claiming that RDNA2 is only about 10% faster than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti. However, he also says that these were likely to be mobility cards and desktop RDNA2 should be able to afford much higher performance. 

Both NVIDIA Ampere and AMD Big Navi GPUs are expected to launch sometime in September.

Navi 21 Gaming. (Image Source: Hardware Leaks)
Navi 21 Gaming. (Image Source: Hardware Leaks)
Navi 21 Pro. (Image Source: Hardware Leaks)
Navi 21 Pro. (Image Source: Hardware Leaks)
Navi 21 for Apple iMac/iMac Pro and Mac Pro. (Image Source: Hardware Leaks)
Navi 21 for Apple iMac/iMac Pro and Mac Pro. (Image Source: Hardware Leaks)
Navi 10 Refresh. (Image Source: Hardware Leaks)
Navi 10 Refresh. (Image Source: Hardware Leaks)
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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > News > News Archive > Newsarchive 2020 05 > AMD Navi 21 "Big Navi" GPU stack leaks, budget gamers may have to contend with a Navi 10 Refresh rather than pinning hopes on Navi 23
Vaidyanathan Subramaniam, 2020-05-23 (Update: 2020-05-23)