AMD Navi 21 Lite, Navi 22, and Navi 23 spotted in Linux driver patch, expected to offer tough competition to NVIDIA Ampere

We know that a successor to AMD's RDNA graphics architecture is definitely in the works and that we might be seeing RDNA 2 in upcoming Navi GPUs. We've also been speculating about the Navi 20 series that is touted to finally offer a viable competitor to the current high-end NVIDIA RTX 2080/2080 Ti Turing offerings. Now, new Linux driver patches seem to further confirm that the Navi 20-series in indeed under development.

The entries for Navi 23, Navi 22, and Navi 21 Lite were first spotted by user Berniyh over at the 3DCenter forums. In the case of Navi, lower numbers have traditionally indicated more powerful chips. Considering AMD would continue following the same nomenclature, it appears that Navi 21 would be the most powerful of the three. However, what we see here is a mention of Navi 21 Lite and not Navi 21.

Previous rumors have suggested that Navi 23 is the supposed 'NVIDIA Killer' that could take on the RTX 2080/Ti. So, this leaves us with a few speculations — either Navi 23 is the actual high-end card we should be looking at or AMD is prepping a real flagship with Navi 20/21 that would be competitive against NVIDIA's upcoming Ampere offerings. 

AMD is expected to transition to 7nm+ with RDNA 2 and with NVIDIA Ampere also expected to adopt a similar process, it will be interesting to see how well the competition shapes up. It is too early to speculate whether AMD would be able to really come up to speed with Ampere's supposed improvements in ray tracing and core clocks, but there is no reason to dismiss the possibility either. 

Expect AMD to launch Navi 20-series sometime around Computex 2020 with a possible unveiling during CES 2020.