AMD has published new GPU firmware files into the linux-firmware.git repository related to its upcoming GPU architecture. Serving as a base for microcode files used by the Linux kernel drivers, these files contained firmware hinting at an RDNA 3+ GPU.
Team Red is starting to drop hints at the approaching release of its RDNA 3+ chips. These have apparently reached an advanced enough development phase, prompting AMD to add supported firmware for Linux driver creation. We don’t yet know the GPU’s name or architecture, but files called GC 11.5 and GFX11.5 give us some insight. Since the latter has been previously linked to RDNA 3+, chances are this update is also related – a sentiment Phoronix shares.
AMD used to publish firmware files on launch day, but it’s a lot more timely than it used to be. While this is good news for developers, who can update open-source graphics drivers without unnecessary stress, it makes it more difficult to know exactly when RDNA 3+ will land. It can’t be far off now, though. Our best guess is that we’ll see something at Computex in June.
RDNA 3+ GPUs, also called RDNA 3 refresh or RDNA 3.5, will appear on Zen 5 laptop solutions such as Strix Halo APUs. Though we don’t have any performance metrics yet, they should offer a noticeable performance uplift. If not by architectural improvement, chips housing RDNA 3+ iGPUs could brute-force fps increases with a large CU count. But as you may know, we don’t have a crystal ball, and thus, we must wait a bit longer to find out.
