AMD will debut its new line of high-end graphics cards, which will bring ray tracing to Team Red gamers for the first time and take on rival Nvidia in the high-end GPU space, this morning. AMD’s forthcoming GPU will usher in the company’s new Navi 2x microarchitecture, which has been colloquially referred to as “Big Navi” by fans. Big Navi will power AMD’s oft-rumored Radeon RX 6000 graphics card family, giving gamers an alternative to Nvidia’s latest GeForce RTX 3080 graphics.
This year’s unveiling will follow a different course compared to most of AMD’s previous GPU launches, given the ongoing global pandemic. This means that AMD will likely host its launch online without any splashy media event, as it did earlier this month with the Ryzen launch. Despite taking a more low-key approach in the interest of safety, the change to an online format means that fans will be able to watch the event live from the comfort of their homes.
How to watch the Radeon RX 6000 unveiling
AMD CEO Lisa Su promised that AMD will be hosting two events in October. With the company’s Ryzen launch out of the way, we can now turn our attention to AMD’s Radeon launch. The company had previously confirmed that its Radeon RX GPUs will officially debut at 9 a.m. PT on October 28.
Like with the Radeon launch, we can expect AMD to host its event through a livestream on the company’s YouTube channel. If you’re interested in following the launch keynote live, be sure to check the channel, as well as AMD’s homepage. We’ll also bring you all the latest coverage from the event, so you can also visit the Digital Trends homepage to get the freshest updates.
What to expect from AMD’s graphics event
The Radeon RX 6000 series will rely on the Navi 2x microarchitecture, which will be part of AMD’s RDNA 2 branding. The same architecture will be headed to PCs, as well as to next-generation streaming consoles, this holiday season, including Microsoft’s Xbox Series X and Sony’s PlayStation 5. And while unconfirmed, AMD’s PC flagship graphics card is expected to debut under the Radeon RX 6900 XT branding.
The “Big Navi”-powered GPUs will allow AMD to go toe-to-toe with rival Nvidia in the graphics space, bringing real-time ray tracing to the Radeon series for the first time. Team Red gamers can expect big generational performance uplifts given the improved hardware and features. When AMD debuted its Ryzen processors, Su teased that the forthcoming Radeon cards will bring 4K gaming at 60 frames per second (fps) in titles like Borderlands 3.
Despite potentially relying on a slower GDDR6 memory specification, the flagship Radeon RX 6900 XT is expected to debut with up to 16GB of VRAM, more than the 10GB found on Nvidia’s Founders Edition variant of the RTX 3080. The card could ship with up to 5,120 cores and come clocked at 2.5 GHz while consuming less power than Nvidia’s flagship, according to MacOS Big Sur source code leaks, Techspot reported. The PC card could also usher in a new design with a larger footprint.
If the new Radeon cards can achieve Su’s promised performance with ray tracing enabled, it will allow AMD to take on Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3080, which has earned positive reviews since its debut.
In addition to the flagship Radeon RX 6900 XT, AMD is also expected to announce other models in the family, including the midrange Radeon RX 6700 XT.
And unlike its rival, which has encountered backlash over shortages of its GeForce cards, AMD is said to have issued guidelines to retailers to ensure that its GPU gets to as many gaming fans as possible, Tweaktown reported. The cards are expected to be available before the end of the year.
