Komachi_ensaka recently released a CU count of AMD’s upcoming Navi 21 GPU and this is the same count released by Chiphell Filters and other Twitter Filters, so it’s definitely starting to look credible. At 80 CU, you’re looking at the 5120 streaming processor and it could be the great Navi that gamers have been waiting for for almost 3 years.
AMD’s Navi 21 GPU will get 80 CUs according to another leak
Twitter user _rogame also created a compilation of the leaked specs and this is a great table for reference purposes:
80 CUs translate to 5120 stream processors (assuming the same ratio as GCN) and if AMD can run them at a minimum of 1700 MHz, you are looking at a surprising TFLOP of 17.5 TFLOP. Considering this is 7nm, AMD should be able to hit it easily (unless they encounter TBP restrictions), though it’s still looking for a fairly steep power consumption of around 300W (not that any player in the high-end segment cares about energy consumption). )
It is entirely possible that this is the Big Navi that we were promised almost 2.5 years ago and the one that will give AMD fans the high-end card they were waiting for. On the other hand, it is also possible that this is a new die that the company prepared and, although these graphics cards will obviously be more powerful than the RX 5800 series, it is not yet Big Navi.
Considering that we are seeing at least four confirmed AMD launches when it comes to graphics cards (thanks to EEC fillers), it is highly likely that the Open VR participant we recently saw is one of these. The nomenclature would dictate that the RX 5950 XT (or 6950 XT or whatever AMD decides to call it) is significantly more powerful than any of its younger siblings (such as the RX 5700 already released) and by following the steps involved, we can easily see that this is going to be a pretty powerful card.
AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su has also promised high-end Radeon RX Navi GPUs. Lisa also mentioned that AMD is investing heavily in ray tracing for its 2020 discrete GPU lineup that would feature second-generation RNDA architecture with hardware level integration to support ray tracing. The features to be expected from second-generation RDNA Navi GPUs would be:
- Optimized 7nm + process node
- Enthusiast Grade Desktop Graphics Card Options
- Hardware level ray tracing support
- A combination of GDDR6 and HBM2 graphics cards
- More energy efficient than first generation Navi GPUs
The GPU side of AMD has been pretty lackluster in recent years, and while the CPU side has come a long way, it’s time for Radeon to shine once again. The last awesome release I remember was Hawaii and it looks like the RX 5950 XT / 6950XT could restart AMD’s competitive streak on the GPU side. Equipped with a process advantage over its competitors, and with NVIDIA backed in a corner with its expensive Turing chips, this is one of the biggest opportunities for AMD Radeon to shine again.
