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AMD has already launched some of its next-generation CPUs for desktop and mobile, so it follows the company will launch its RDNA 4 GPU lineup soon as well. Nobody knows when that will happen, but one of these mysterious GPUs has now appeared in a shipping manifest, indicating they might launch soon.
The chip spotted as being in transit by Twitter user Olrak29_ is labeled Navi44 XL, which is a curious moniker as it’s the same name attached to the die used in the Radeon 6800 from the RDNA 2 days. Tom’s Hardware speculates this particular nugget of silicon is possibly being shipped from TSMC to AMD labs somewhere, which gives us a great idea for a really nerdy heist movie. The name of the chip also suggests it’s a midrange die, as its high-end dies typically have the number “1” in their name, so Navi41 would be something really big. And Navi44 hints at something much smaller, as the number goes up as die size goes down for AMD.
Since all we have is the name of the die to go on, it can be assumed this is the lower-end offering for RDNA 4, so it’ll likely power a theoretical Radeon RX 8600. There’s also rumored to be a higher-end Navi48 die above this one, which will round out the company’s 1440p gaming cards, most likely the Radeon RX 8800 and 8700. AMD is rumored to launch with the Navi48 cards first, likely at CES in 2025, then follow that up with Navi44 later in the year to add 1080p gaming cards to its stable of discrete GPUs. AMD is not expected to launch a high-end, 4K gaming card for RDNA 4.
The launch of RDNA 4 is highly anticipated, like all new GPU launches are. But gamers are already seemingly disappointed by the rumor that these GPUs will be midrange-only instead of a fire-breathing competitor to Nvidia’s Blackwell GeForce cards. However, the vast majority of gamers are still playing at 1080p, with some having upgraded to 1440p, and even fewer gaming at 4K. That said, if AMD can deliver high frame rates for 1440p and 1080p gaming at competitive prices with great power consumption, we assume the griping will cease—as long as it doesn’t botch the launch the way it did with Zen 5.