Sources claim AMD’s 7nm Navi GPU looks better than expected

While we’ll see a trickle of AMD’s 7nm process later this year, next-generation CPUs and GPUs aren’t expected to debut until CES 2019 in January. The firm’s upcoming Navi GPU technology is still the furthest out according to the revealed roadmap, but early tests claim that the architecture is performing much better than expected.

“In 2019, AMD will catapult computing, gaming, and visualization technologies forward with the world’s first 7nm high-performance CPUs and GPUs, providing the power required to reach technology’s next horizon,” explained AMD earlier this month. But before the commercial release rolls around, Fudzilla has reportedly learned that Navi is impressing boffins during tests.

The report doesn’t go into detail on the benchmarks conducted internally, however it maintains belief that Navi will target the mid-range market as a successor to Polaris rather than AMD’s more recent Vega cards. High-end Navi cards could materialise, but this isn’t expected before 2020, if at all. This seems unlikely, given that 7nm+ is set to supersede Navi’s 7nm process shortly after.

Beyond this, Navi is expected to house on-board artificial intelligence (AI), a feature that, according to former Radeon Technologies Group Raja Korduri, was pushed back from Vega due to time constraints.

Although AMD will be unveiling its 7nm Vega refresh during CEO Lisa Su’s CES 2019 keynote, it isn’t certain whether Navi will make a full appearance given its later release window during the second half of the year. Until AMD officially announces the new line of GPUs, all of this information should be taken with a pinch of salt.

KitGuru Says: Even though Nvidia’s RTX line-up has been polarising due to price, the new ray-tracing technology has interested a good portion of our reader base. Hopefully AMD’s Navi will provide decent competition, flooding choice into the market.

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