Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

A year and a half after the launch of RDNA 3 , AMD ’s artwork card lineup has grown a petty stagnant — as has Nvidia ’s . We ’re all wait for a new generation , and fit in to previous leaks , AMD was bring forth quick to releaseRDNA 4later this year . Except that now , we ’re hearing that it might not happen until CES 2025 , which is still six months away .

launch the new GPUs in the first quarter of 2025 is a conclusion that could easily backlash , and it ’s never been more important for AMD to get the timing rightfulness . In fact , if AMD really settle to wait until January 2025 to unveil RDNA 4 , it ’ll miss out ona immense opportunity to quiver Nvidia .

There’s never been a better time

Who ’s a personal computer hardware enthusiast ’s best friend during the menstruation between one generation of GPUs and the next ? Various leaker , of course . Without them , we ’d be kept in the dark for months on end .

The downside ? A quite a little of the stuff we pick up turns out to be false , and it ’s all too sluttish to make something up and share it as a rumor , then see it echo throughout the net as if it were a fact . As a result , hunting for utile information about next - gen graphics cards is a act of a minefield .

Out of all the rumors I ’ve heard about RDNA 4 andRTX 50 - seriesgraphics cards , the musical theme that they ’d hit the shelves in late 2024 was mayhap the least outlandish . After all , it made perfect sense for a number of reasons , and that ’s true for both manufacturers .

First , it ’d have been two years after their former big launching , and that ’s often the spread between one gen and the next . Second , the back one-half of the year is in general when many tech giants aim to get some new products out . It ’s not just due to holiday sales but also because there are usually plenty of fresh games being released around the same time , prompt gamers to update their PC .

confessedly , there have been fewer hearsay about AMD ’s RDNA 4 than there have been about Nvidia ’s RTX 50 - serial publication . But based on what we know , it seems safe to take on that Nvidia willopen with its high - end cardsnear the end of the twelvemonth . Mainstream GPUs , like the RTX 5070 and the RTX 5060 , are only said to follow in 2025 .

That ’s fantastic news for AMD .

No , it ’s not about set up something undecomposed than Nvidia and stealing possible sales . Despite reportedly havingbetter brand acknowledgment than Intel , AMD is always the underdog in its competition with Nvidia , which remains the go - to for many gamers . There are only so many customers it can ever hope to “ slip . ” It ’s about filling a niche that Nvidia is basically leaving wide open and up for snatch .

If Nvidia launches the RTX 5090 and the RTX 5080 in tardy 2024 , we ’re look at two GPUs that will be $ 1,000 and more . ( I would be overjoyed to see a sub-$1,000 RTX 5080 , but I ’m a realist . ) Such GPUs look great in benchmark and are exciting in AAA biz , but allow ’s face it — most of us do n’t need them , and most of us do n’t want to spend that much money on a graphics card alone .

With two next - gen behemoths from Nvidia ( although theRTX 5080 is reportedly not blend in to be that impressive ) , what can you do if you want a next - gen GPU , but do n’t require to spend a pocket-size portion ? Well , this is where AMD could swoop in as the alternative . With RDNA 4 launching between September and December , AMD would provide a solution to this job . Next - contemporaries posting with enough performance and a less - than - outrageous price ? I ’m no marketing guru , but that sounds like a recipe for succeeder . Better yet , there ’d be nothing that Nvidia could do to remedy that .

The problem is that this scenario might never become a world .

CES 2025? Really?

accord to frequent GPU tipsterKepler_L2 on X ( formerly Twitter ) , AMD may retain off with launching RDNA 4 . I do n’t have in mind a month or two . I mean holding off for so long that suddenly , it ’s 2025 and the cards are still not on the shelves .

The leaker , cryptic as ever , did n’t unwrap much — in fact , their predictions were only made in a answer to someone else ’s tweet . When asked about whether RDNA 4 would be release in 2024 , Kepler reply : “ CES . ” And it ’s not even both of the GPUs that are said to be launched at that time . Kepler expect that the Navi 48 ( the flagship ) will be unveiled during CES 2025 , but the Navi 44 ( the lower midrange card ) will only watch in the 2nd one-fourth of 2025 .

Oh CES is for N48 . N44 is probably Q2 .

& mdash ; Kepler ( @Kepler_L2)July 5 , 2024

Obligatory disavowal : Until try otherwise , this is just a rumour . And , as I ’ve outlined above , this is a rumor that may not make too much sense from a business standpoint . I do n’t pretend to be a market psychoanalyst , but all the foretoken channelize to the fact that the end of this twelvemonth would be a good meter for AMD to strike against Nvidia . Come next yr , Nvidia will already be on the leaflet of launch the RTX 5070 and the RTX 5060 . Who knows , maybe some remnants ofIntel Battlemagewill even make it to mart by then , too .

With that out of the doorway , I ca n’t help oneself but finger a little apprehensive about AMD and the larger state of computer graphic visiting card right now . A delay is one thing , but when looking at the big picture , I ’m starting to wonder just how much AMD still like about its consumer graphic cards . We ’ve already had to conform our expected value quite a lot , but it seems another readjustment might be necessary .

Lowering expectations

To understand the context of this approaching launch , we want to revisit the past tense . In 2022 , before the launching of RDNA 3 , I was emotional about what seemed to be a solid genesis of art cards . AMD appeared to have a real competitor to Nvidia on its paw , and the GPUs impinge on the market just a month after Nvidia ’s RTX 4080 . AMD could n’t have timed that launch comfortably if it tried .

TheRX 7900 XTX , priced at $ 200 less than theRTX 4080 , offered interchangeable performance in terms of pure rasterization in games . Sure , it still was n’t theray tracingworkhorse Nvidia was able to extradite , and the deficiency ofNvidia ’s Deep Learning Super Sampling 3 ( DLSS 3)frame generation was a bummer — but it was a solid GPU at a less outrageous price .

For the first time in a tenacious time , I actually considered generate up on Nvidiaand trying out AMD in my own personal computer . But , having seen the RX 7900 XTX in action , and with the Leontyne Price not being a lot different from that of the RTX 4080 , I ended up get the Nvidia batting order .

I ca n’t say I regret my choice of GPU . The RTX 4080 is an absolute power plant . With that say , I continue rooting for AMD , and I was impressed with some of its RDNA 3 computer graphic cards . TheRX 7800 XTand theRX 7900 GREespecially support out as model of good value for the money , and that ’s a element that ca n’t be overlooked in microcomputer ironware .

If there was one thing I ’d have wish to see from AMD in RDNA 3 — other than a slightly cheaper flagship — it was a rival to the RTX 4090 . The RX 7900 XTX can rival the RTX 4080 , but that ’s still 30 % to 40 % slower than the 4090 . It ’d have been nice to see AMD come up with an answer to Nvidia ’s most muscular GPU , but hey , there was always the next generation . I ’ve been awaiting it eagerly with all the force of my reignite exuberance for AMD … until the leaks and rumors bulge , that is .

We ’ve now heard from enough sources thatAMD is stepping downfrom the high - last GPU slipstream that it almost feel like it ’s been confirmed at this point . Of of course , it was n’t , because AMD is yet to say a Logos about RDNA 4 . But rumor has it that the top identity card in the batting order will outpace this generation ’s RX 7900 XT in re trace and will keep up with it in rasterization . That ’s not that much to write dwelling house about , honestly .

The whole period between RDNA 3 and RDNA 4 has bit by bit lowered my expectation for AMD ’s gaming GPU business . Do n’t get me wrong . There ’s a lot of deservingness in focusing on mainstream cards . This is more true than ever before now , when Nvidia might not even have a sub-$1,000 GPU out until well into the first quarter of 2025 .

On the other hand , that ’s all the more reason why holdup might backlash . Taking advantage of this short windowpane of sentence when Nvidia wo n’t have any next - gen GPU at an affordable price could be huge , and during the holiday shopping time of year , no less . Now is not the time for delays .

Let ’s assume that this rumour is true . Would AMD be detain RDNA 4 because the wag were n’t ready , despite trace of them having started exhibit up in drivers month ago ? Or is it because it ’s just not that desperate to rack up those final stage - of - the - yr sales anymore ?

Bigger fish to fry?

AMD claw its way out of close failure in 2015 and made a splendid counter as the one and only true competition to two giants : Intel and Nvidia . While its competition mostly speciate in just one thing , AMD has diversified , and although it does n’t direct either market , it ’s responsible for for some of thebest processorsand sometop - notch GPUs . In recent years especially , AMD ’s product have been getting cracking reviews , from its 3D V - Cache gaming mainframe to its more moderately price GPUs .

But AMD ’s gaming segment seems to be bleeding money . Its gambling revenue neglect by 48 % year - over - year , and even AMD itself does n’t expect it to get adept .

Jean Hu , AMD ’s CFO , of late talked about howthe subpar sales of its Radeon GPUsaffected the gaming segment in a braggart room . The party predicts that the tax revenue in that segment will continue to slump . Where ’s AMD going to make money then ? It ’s simple : From its data point center field and guest segment .

There ’s been a displacement in focussing for near every tech company out there in recent year . From Copilot+ PCs to ChatGPT toApple Intelligence , everything is all about AI . For companionship like AMD , that mean data centers and accelerators like the AMD Instinct MI300X that magnate procreative AI and high - performance computation ( HPC ) . AMD will never make as much money from its consumer gaming products as it does from its enterprise portfolio — that ’s a fact . The same run low for Nvidia .

AMD ’s leadership plainly recognizes that . In a late interview with German websiteHandelsblatt , AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su order the publishing : “ We are still at the very beginning of the AI revolution . My finish is for us to lead this revolution . ”

All of that put together and combined with the fact thatAMD ’s GPU shipments have recently decreased , andMoore ’s natural law Is Deadrevealing that AMD may be discontinue the production of RDNA 3 cards confirms my big fears . Could RDNA 4 be stay simply because AMD ’s focus is now elsewhere ? Therearemuch bigger fish to fry , after all .

It ’s too early to panic , of course . These are all just ostensibly unconnected anecdotes , and we very well may still see RDNA 4 this year . But if we do n’t , and if RDNA 5 carry on the same trend of not being overly competitive , it will no longer be a stretch to put on that AMD ’s gaming business is becoming an rethink — and that ’d be bad news for personal computer gamers .