A new “Zen” moment? RDNA 5 should be a “clean sheet” GPU design from AMD

Will RDNA 5 bring about a “Zen” moment for the GPU market?

It’s hard to argue that AMD’s “Zen” CPU architecture didn’t have a huge impact on the CPU market. Thanks to the Zen CPU architecture, AMD moved from being a company that was on the road to bankruptcy to a leading semiconductor manufacturer. Now, it looks like AMD are planning to repeat this success within the GPU market with RDNA 5.

The hardware leaker “wjm47196” has claimed that AMD’s RDNA 5 graphics architecture will be a “clean sheet” design for the company. With this in mind, AMD is also likely to not use the RDNA name for this new GPU architecture and change it to something else. RDNA 5 could act as a fresh start for AMD within the GPU market. If AMD can repeat the success of Zen within the GPU market, RDNA 5’s launch will be a good time for gamers.

It has also been claimed that AMD’s upcoming RDNA 4 GPUs are effectively “bug fix” RDNA 3 GPUs with improved ray tracing capabilities. It has been alleged that AMD’s RDNA 3 GPU designs were impacted by a bug. This bug resulted in frequency/power consumption curve issues. This meant that RDNA 3 GPUs could not clock as high as AMD hoped. Additionally, this bug resulted in RDNA 3 GPUs consuming a lot of additional power. This should mean that RDNA 4 will feature higher clock speeds and greater power efficiency than RDNA 3.

RDNA 3 actually did not meet its own performance expectations due to some reasons, causing the large core frequency power consumption curve to get out of control, including but not limited to verification of on-chip interconnection for the mi series and sharing of R&D costs. The original double 192m if cache was also cancelled due to cost and power consumption issues.
rdna5 will be a clean sheet design similar to the zen series (or even change the name? Not sure), so it is necessary to open up the gap of rdna4 and fully conduct a case study and R&D.
RDNA 4 is just a bug fix similar to  RDNA 3, so the performance is still as expected and the best, which is comparable to 79xt. However, the ray tracing aspect of the GPU is still improved.

An RDNA 5 “Zen” moment for the GPU market would be huge for AMD

If this rumour is true, the launch of RDNA 5 will be pivotal for AMD. Stronger GPU offerings from AMD will have an impact on many areas of the PC/gaming market. Console manufacturers will have access to stronger GPUs from AMD. AMD will make gains in the CPU market thanks to stronger integrated graphics. The PC handheld market will have stronger GPUs (great for future Steam Deck or ROG Ally-like devices). Finally, stronger competition in the GPU market should help deliver more value for money to customers.

You can join the discussion on AMD’s alleged “clean sheet” design for RDNA 5 on the OC3D Forums.