Fresh rumors suggest delayed AMD Big Navi GPU launch date, reveal possible VRAM specs

The other day we were reporting that AMD’s Big Navi GPUs may end up faster than Nvidia’s RTX 3000-series, and previous rumors were also claiming that team red may launch the RDNA2 cards weeks before the Ampere lineup. Well, fresh rumors now point to a different release schedule, plus we also learn more about the VRAM on the Big Navi models.

ChipHell forum member wjm47196 with a decent history of solid leaks reports that the Big Navi cards may not actually launch before Nvidia’s Ampere lineup. Apparently, the first Big Navi validation samples from TSMC were only recently sent to a Shanghai AMD HQ for driver development and integration. Final performance figures are not exactly known since drivers are not yet ready, so what we have been hearing regarding that ~50% performance boost over the Nvidia RTX 2080 Ti may turn out to be pure speculation.

Furthermore, not even the card PCB designs appear to be finalized, yet AIB partners should be receiving finalized design resources in the next few weeks. Now, Nvidia is rumored to launch the Ampere gaming GPUs in September, and, judging by the current state of affairs with AMD’s PCB designs, the Chinese leaker expects team red to launch the Big Navi GPUs in October or possibly early November. This means that Nvidia still has a chance to keep the performance crown at launch, even if only for a few months.

As for the VRAM part of the leak, wjm47196 informs that the Big Navi cards are supposed to get 16 GB capacities with a 384-bit bus that points towards GDDR6 rather than the HBM2 memory type. In this respect, Nvidia is expected to use the GDDR6X memory chips with 18 Gbps bandwidth, and AMD may opt for this faster version, as well.