While Nvidia is set to showcase its Blackwell gaming powerhouse later today, AMD is kicking off CES 2025 with a wave of fresh announcements regarding its new RDNA 4 architecture. Although we still need to delve into the complex specifics of the architecture, we’re finally getting a glimpse of what AMD has in store for gamers this year.
AMD's RDNA 4 Unveiling
AMD is at long last revealing RDNA 4. This fresh architecture is built on a TSMC 4 nm process and features 2nd generation AI accelerators, 3rd generation ray tracing units, and what seems to be enhanced media encoding capabilities.
The improvements in media encoding are particularly noteworthy, as AMD's AMF encoder has not typically kept up with Nvidia's NVENC and Intel QuickSync. Moreover, broadcasting tools like OBS still lack proper support for AMF. It’s hoped that with RDNA 4, this will finally change.
New Features and Technologies
In addition, there’s FidelityFX Super Resolution 4 (FSR 4) on the horizon, which now utilizes the new AI accelerators in RDNA 4 cards and machine learning (ML) to enhance upscaling.
This might bring significant advancements over FSR 3, which was mainly just about upscaling mathematics, with ML features only utilized for fluid motion frames (FMF) generation.
AI is seeping into Radeon Adrenalin too with Adrenalin AI. This new feature allows users to create images, request document summaries, and receive support information.
Branding and Product Lines
AMD is also rolling out branding changes with the RDNA 4 generation. The company wants to imitate the naming conventions used by competitors to make it easier for users to make comparisons.
With the launch of RDNA 4, AMD is confirming that the RX 9000 series will represent the new architecture, while the RX 8000 series will be reserved for RDNA 3.5 mobile.
Today's RDNA 4 announcement highlights AMD's decision to pull back in the high-end GPU competition. Consequently, the only GPUs currently available from Team Red are the Radeon RX 9070 XT and the Radeon RX 9070.
These GPUs are expected to hit the market in Q1 2025, distributed by AMD's add-in board (AiB) partners, which now includes Acer, a company that also manufactures Intel's Arc series of discrete GPUs.
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