AMD RDNA 2: New rumors allege 50% better performance than RDNA 1 with no added power consumption

AMD is claiming that RDNA 2 will offer up to 50% better performance than RDNA 1 cards for the same power consumption, according to sources close to RedGamingTech (RGT). Like NVIDIA has done, with RGT using the architectural and clock speed improvements that NVIDIA made when developing the GTX 580 and GTX 1080 as examples, AMD's work to optimise its cards from the bottom up will start paying dividends as of RDNA 2.

RGT reports that its sources have informed it that RDNA 2 will be called the RX 6000 series, and that it will derive its performance improvements over the existing RX 5xxx series not only from architectural improvements, but also "considerably more Compute Units" (CUs). These new cards will operate at higher clock speeds, too.

The RX 6000 series will also feature Hybrid Ray Tracing capabilities, and RGT contends that the card that appeared on OpenVR Benchmark is an example of RDNA 2. However, these RX 5xxx successors will not arrive until at least 2H 2020, with no fixed date currently being offered. As RGT points out, this means that the RTX 2080 Ti-beater we saw on OpenVR Benchmark has time to mature and deliver even higher levels of performance.

RGT also makes a link between the optimisation that AMD has done with RDNA 2 to the PlayStation 5. While the console is expected to run an RDNA 1 chip, the website has seen internal testing documentation of it running at 2 GHz for PS5 software. The RX 5700 reached 180 W at stock levels during our tests and apparently 200 W when clocked to 2 GHz, which is significantly higher than the wattage at which the complete PS4 operates. RGT opines that the PlayStation 5 will be able to balance power consumption and high clock speeds thanks to optimisations that AMD has made to its semi-custom silicon.

In short, the arrival of the RX 6000 and RTX 3000 series alone should make 2020 a great year for gaming. Adding two new consoles into the mix should have gamers even more excited for what this year holds, too.