Thanks to new leaks that have occurred recently, we can update and expand on the information we have about the Radeon RX 8800 XT, a next-generation graphics card that It will be the most powerful model from the RDNA 4 family and which will be positioned as a medium-high variant.

AMD has confirmed that it will not launch high-end graphics cards with the Radeon RX 8000, so there will be no Radeon RX 8900 XT or Radeon RX 8900 XTX. There is an explanation for this and the fact that the company is going to profile this series as a transitional generation, which will allow it to pave the way for major changes.

This transition takes us to UDNA architecturewhich will be the result of the unification of the RDNA (consumer) and CDNA (professional) architectures, which is one of the biggest and most important evolutions that AMD has yet proposed in the graphics sector.

If we go back to the Radeon RX 8800 XT, nothing is confirmed yet because it hasn’t been officially announced yet, but all the information we have It is quite reliable and it makes a lot of sense, so what we see next has a good chance of coming true.

Possible specifications of Radeon RX 8800 XT

• Navi 48 graphics core made on TSMC’s 4nm node.
• 64 computing units.
• 4,096 shaders at over 3 GHz.
• 256 texturing units.
• 128 raster units.
• 64 third-generation cores to accelerate ray tracing.
• 128 second generation cores for AI.
• 256-bit bus.
• 16 GB of GDDR6 memory at 20 Gbps (640 GB/s bandwidth).
• 4MB L2 cache.
• 64 MB of L3 cache on four 16 MB chiplets.

The Radeon RX 8800 XT will theoretically make use of the full Navi 48 core, although this graphics card is also rumored to have 3,584 shaders. Both options are open, but right now the 4,096 shader configuration sounds louder.

It also makes more sense to think that the Radeon RX 8800 XT will use a 4,096 shader configuration because AMD You can reserve 3,584 shaders for the Radeon RX 8700 XTa configuration that would be more balanced and that would allow for more consistent performance between models and between generations.

With this new AMD graphics card decides again for the MCM type design, i.e. a multi-chip module. The GPU will have a monolithic design, but the L3 cache will be externalized on four 16MB chips. The manufacturing nodes of the two components will also be different, with the graphics core expected to use TSMC’s 4nm node and the L3 cache to be manufactured on TSMC’s 5nm or 6nm node.

The graphics memory configuration still raises some questions, but the latest I’ve seen suggests a Radeon RX 8800 will not use GDDR7 memory for cost reasons, and that it will choose GDDR6 memory instead. It makes sense, but like I said, nothing is confirmed, so both options are open.

If AMD uses 16 GB of GDDR6 memory at 20 Gbps, the bandwidth of the Radeon RX 8800 XT will be lower than that of the Radeon RX 7900 XT, which reaches 800 GB/s. If GDDR7 memory is used at 28 Gbps, the former would achieve a bandwidth of 896 GB/swhich surpasses the Radeon RX 7900 XT and is very close to the 960 GB/s achieved by the Radeon RX 7900 XTX.

Compared to Radeon RX 7800 XT, Radeon RX 8800 a small increase in shaders (3,840 versus 4,096), but it retains the 256-bit bus, 16 GB of graphics memory and 64 MB of L3 cache. The most important performance differences between the two come from the switch to the RDNA 4 architecture and the significant increase in operating frequencies.

Rumor has it that one of the biggest leaps AMD will make with RDNA 4 will be in ray tracing performance. On the other hand, it should also be noted that the jump from TSMC’s 5nm node to a 4nm node, also from TSMC, should enable improving performance and efficiency.

Performance, ideal resolution and comparable performance

If the configuration ends up with 4096 shaders at 3 GHz, the Radeon RX 8800 XT will perform 24.57 TFLOPs in FP32. Considering dual-emission shaders, the theoretical maximum would be 49.14 TFLOPs at FP32, a number that puts it behind the Radeon RX 7900 XTX, which achieves 61.39 TFLOPs at FP32, and very close to the Radeon RX 7900 XT, which has a maximum peak 51.48 TFLOPs.

Compared to NVIDIA’s capabilities, the closest would be the GeForce RTX 4080which has a performance of 48.74 TFLOPs in FP32 and whose performance is almost identical to that of the Radeon RX 7900 XTX despite the lower number of TFLOPs. This is important because, as I’ve told you on more than one occasion when we talk about gaming performance, TFLOPs aren’t everything.

It would be the closest to the Radeon RX 8800 XT in raw performance within the previous generation GeForce RTX 3090 Ti, which has a performance of 40 TFLOPs in FP32. Their performance could end up being very similar, especially in 4K, where the high bandwidth achieved by the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti (1 TB/s) has the biggest impact.

The Radeon RX 8800 XT will be a capable graphics card move games in 4K without problemsboth in terms of raw performance and graphics memory, as it will be configured with 16 GB. Its performance in games under rasterization will be similar to the Radeon RX 7900 XTX, and thus also the GeForce R&TX 4080.

Ray tracing is where the Radeon RX 8800 XT could spring a big surprise, as according to the latest information it has up to 45% more performance with this technology than the Radeon RX 7900 XTX. That sounds good, but this information is tricky because it relates to ray tracing performance in Resident Evil 4 Remake, a game that doesn’t make good use of the technology.

It will be important to see the performance figures this ray-tracing graphics card achieves in games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Alan Wake 2titles that use this technology intensively and appropriately. This is not to say that this performance increase will not be possible, but rather that using Resident Evil 4 Remake as a reference to measure ray tracing performance is not a good idea because it does not reflect reality.

Before finishing this part, it is important to note that there are also rumors saying that AMD could take advantage of the launch of the RDNA 4 architecture introduce improvements to its FSR technology, which includes scaling and image generation. These improvements would be aimed at using hardware-accelerated AI, but nothing concrete yet.

Recommended power supply and CPU for Radeon RX 8800 XT move

Some PSU manufacturers have leaked that the Radeon RX 8800 XT’s TBP will be 220 watts. That’s a number lower than the 263 watts TBP that the Radeon RX 7800 XT has, meaning we’ll need a less powerful PSU than we would need to power the other.

These consumption figures also suggest a a significant improvement in terms of efficiencybecause if everything we saw in this article is true, the Radeon RX 8800 XT would have almost the same performance in games as the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and would consume much less because exceeds 350 watts at full load. The difference in consumption would be more than 130 watts.

If all of this is true, a computer consisting of a Ryzen 5 7600, 32GB DDR5, NVVMe M.2 SSD, 240mm AIO liquid cooling and a chassis with 6 fans would together with that Radeon RX 8800 XT consume in the accusation of some 390 watts. This means that with a high-quality power supply about the power 500 watts would be enough.

Still we don’t know what type of connectors will use this graphics card. Some rumors say it will be configured with two 8-pin connectors and others say it will come with a 16-pin connector. We’ll have to wait for more information to lean more in favor of one stream or the other.

As I always tell you, it will also depend on the processor we use, because not all of them have the same consumption. If we use an Intel Core i9-13900K with the same previous configuration, the consumption it would increase to 565 wattsand in that case we would need at least a 600 watt power supply, although it would be ideal to opt for a power supply of at least 650 watts.

As for the processor, it would be ideal to complement the Radeon RX 8800 XT with a Ryzen 5 7600 or an Intel Core i5-12600K. With both, we will be sure to enjoy good performance in games, both in terms of IPC and core count. This is especially important if we use scaling technologies because these they lower the base resolution and increase CPU dependency.

Release date and possible price

The launch of Radeon RX 8800 XT is expected in the month January 2025. The announcement will most likely take place at CES and that it will launch at the same time or shortly after that announcement. We know that it has already entered the series production phase, so the deadlines are being met.

As for the price, everything seems to indicate that AMD will decide to place it in the $500 range, although this could change depending on what NVIDIA does with the GeForce RTX 5070, both in terms of price and performance, as it will be the model to compete with the Radeon RX 8800 XT.

If confirmed, the Radeon RX 8800 XT price in Spain will be between 549 and 599 euros. Keep in mind that this price scale would be for the reference models, i.e. the most basic and economical ones, and that those with better finishes and premium finishes will be more expensive.

AI generated images.