AMD has taken due time to fill out the RDNA 3-based Radeon RX 7000 Series desktop GPU stack. First debuting with the $999 RX 7900 XTX and $899 XT back in December 2022, mainstream $269 RX 7600 appeared in May. There’s been radio silence for everything in between, as Team Red has focussed on getting shot of bountiful Radeon RX 6000 Series GPUs polluting the channel. There’s imminent launch hope for supposed Radeon RX 7800 XT, however, as recent filings have unearthed its existence. Adding fuel to this particular rumour fire are further release revelations from serial leaker Moore’s Law is Dead (MLID), hinting at an August unveil and stock on shelves in September.
MLID claims two Navi 32 products – the purpose-built die for midrange / premium RX 7000 Series GPUs – will be unveiled at next month’s Gamescom show held 23-27 August in Cologne, Germany. The top-bin GPU is Radeon RX 7800 XT and features the full 60-CU shader-array complement, 16GB of GDDR6 memory running at an effective 19.5Gbps through a 256-bit bus, all wrapped within a design topping out at 260W total board power. A second Navi 32 GPU, imputed to be Radeon RX 7700 XT, cuts power down to 245W and has either 48 or 54 CUs, and 12GB of memory at that same 19.5Gbps across a 192-bit bus.
Potential Specification Musings
| Radeon | RX 7900 XTX | RX 7900 XT | RX 7800 XT* | RX 7600 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Launch date | Dec 2022 | Dec 2022 | September 2023 | May 2023 |
| Codename | Navi 31 | Navi 31 | Navi 32 | Navi 33 |
| Architecture | RDNA 3 | RDNA 3 | RDNA 3 | RDNA 3 |
| Process (nm) | 5/6 | 5/6 | 6 | 6 |
| Transistors (bn) | 57.7 | 57.7 | TBC | 13.3 |
| Die size (mm2) | 522 | 522 | TBC | 204 |
| Compute Units | 96 of 96 | 84 of 96 | 60 of 60 | 32 of 32 |
| ALUs | 6,144 | 5,376 | 3,840 | 2,048 |
| Boost clock (MHz) | 2,500 | 2,400 | TBC | 2,625 |
| Peak FP32 TFLOPS | 61.44 | 51.61 | TBC | 21.50 |
| RT cores | 96 | 84 | 60 | 32 |
| AI cores | 192 | 168 | 120 | 64 |
| ROPs | 192 | 192 | TBC | 64 |
| Infinity Cache (MB) | 96 | 80 | TBC | 32 |
| Memory size (GB) | 24 | 20 | 16 | 8 |
| Memory type | GDDR6 | GDDR6 | GDDR6 | GDDR6 |
| Memory bus (bits) | 384 | 320 | 256 | 128 |
| Memory clock (Gbps) | 20 | 20 | 19.5 | 18 |
| Bandwidth (GB/s) | 960 | 800 | 624 | 288 |
| Power (watts) | 355 | 315 | 260 | 165 |
| Launch MSRP ($) | 999 | 899 | TBC | 269 |
Building out the suggested specs, Radeon RX 7800 XT fits in nicely within the stack, though it’s aimed more at the high end. Looking across to Nvidia, the most likely competition is coming from in-market GeForce RTX 4070, priced at $599 / £579, so we believe Radeon RX 7800 XT will launch at around this price. If recent history proves to be a good bellwether, AMD will probably be ahead in pure rasterisation but behind in ray tracing.
One potential fly in the ointment is the higher-than-Nvidia power consumption, which at 260W, if true, is 30 per cent greater than RTX 4070. Partner cards will probably push this closer to 300W on overclocked models, suggesting models will be big and somewhat bulky. However it shakes out, it’s good to see renewed competition in the premium end of the market, but it’s still disappointing to see AMD drag its GPU heels so much – 10 months after initial RX 7000 Series launch is a long time to wait for another desktop GPU.
