AMD RDNA 4 release date and announcement leak alleges "at least" one next-gen RX 8000 series GPU launch for January
AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su confirmed in October that the company will release the “first” of the next-generation RDNA 4 GPUs “in early 2025”. The statement is a little vague and doesn’t clearly mention the announcement and the release date of the RDNA 4 GPUs. However, per the information that leaked on Chinese forums, AMD is planning to reveal a bunch of things at CES 2025, including the RX 8000 RDNA 4 cards.
Supplementing the above-mentioned reports, serial leaker Moore’s Law Is Dead has now confirmed the RDNA 4 announcement and possible release date for at least one RX 8000 series GPU.
Radeon RX 8000 series release date and announcement
MLID claims that AMD will go through with the “full unveiling of RDNA 4” at CES 2025. This announcement will be followed by the release of at least one RX 8000 series GPU before the end of January 2025. MLID doesn’t reveal any more details regarding the RX 8000 SKU that will be available to buy in January, but we can make a few educated guesses.
First up, AMD will likely release the RX 8800 XT, or whatever the top RDNA 4 Navi 48 card ends up being called, first before moving down the stack. Team Red followed the same pattern with the launch of the RDNA 3-based RX 7900 XTX and the RX 7900 XT cards in December 2022. Mid-range and entry-level GPUs like the RX 7800 XT and the RX 7600 followed later.
Secondly, Nvidia is expected to launch the RTX 5090, the RTX 5080, and, possibly, the RTX 5070 Ti at CES. The lower-midrange and entry-level cards like the RTX 5070 and the RTX 5060 are not expected anytime soon. AMD could likely follow suit and wait for Team Green to launch the cheaper options before revealing their Navi 44-based entry-level and mid-range options.
RDNA 4 performance: How much better will RDNA 4 be vs RDNA 3
One of the things gamers need to keep in mind is that, this time around, AMD is not competing with Nvidia’s flagship and high-end offerings, the RTX 5090 and the RTX 5080. Instead, Team Red is focusing on the entry-level and mid-range segments. So, RDNA 4 GPUs like the RX 8800 XT will not be beating the upper end of the RTX 50 lineup.
That said, the RDNA 4 cards won’t be slouches either. Per leaks, the rasterization performance of the Navi 48 GPU at the heart of the RX 8800 XT lies between the RX 7900 XT and the RX 7900 XTX. The less powerful Navi 44 reportedly falls between an RX 7600 XT and an RX 7800 XT (Available on Amazon).
RDNA 4 ray tracing, on the other, hand is expected to be much better than RDNA 3 with leaks claiming that RDNA 4 packs “completely different” ray tracing to RDNA 3.
In the end, the RDNA 4 cards can prove to be a hit with fans if they perform well and, more importantly, have a great price. Fortunately, we won’t have to keep guessing and relying on leaks about the RX 8000 and RTX 50 GPUs, as CES is a little over a month away. Till then, take any leaks presented here with a grain of salt.
Source(s)
Moore's Law Is Dead on YouTube, Teaser image: Notebookcheck, Peter Rovder on Unsplash, edited
