AMD: 7nm ‘Navi’ GPU & 'Rome' CPU to Launch in Q3
by Ryan Smith & Anton Shilov on April 30, 2019 5:44 PM EST
Offering a brief update on the state of future products as part of its post-earnings conference call this afternoon, AMD has confirmed that both their upcoming Rome (Zen 2) CPU and their first Navi architecture GPU will launch in the 3rd quarter of this year.
AMD's Rome of course needs no introduction. The first product out of AMD based on their Zen 2 architecture, the chip is built on TSMC's 7nm process and should offer some interesting performance and power efficiency improvements. Of particular note, the chip incorporates a new-to-AMD chiplet based design approach, using separate I/O and CPU dies to simplify manufacturing and allow for easier chip customization.
As AMD's second-generation EPYC processor, we're expecting Rome to be the big server fight for AMD – whereas first-generation EPYC was mostly to test the waters and prove AMD’s readiness, Rome will be where AMD can finally start winning major customer orders. Overall, AMD says that the CPU will be sampling this quarter and launching in Q3; though if it’s anything like Intel’s server CPU launches, then the ever-hungry major hyperscalers may end consuming all of the initial supply.
Meanwhile Navi is the codename architecture for AMD’s next generation of GPUs. The first Navi GPU, which is also being built on TSMC’s 7nm process, is set to launch in Q3 of this year. It should be noted that Navi isn’t a single GPU, but rather should be a family of GPUs (as is traditional for GPUs), so it’s not clear which exact model is launching – if it’s high-end, mid-range, or otherwise.
In other comments on their conference call, AMD did say that Navi will be priced lower than the Radeon VII, but at $699 for what's their most expensive consumer card, this doesn't really narrow things down. Overall, Q3 will be 2 years since AMD’s Vega GPU architecture launched and longer still since Polaris, so AMD’s entire GPU stack is potentially up for a refresh during the Navi generation.
In terms of technology we know very little about the Navi architecture thus far. But if there’s a Q3 launch then this will no doubt soon be changing.
Related Reading:
- AMD's 7nm CPUs & GPUs To Be Fabbed by TSMC, on Track for 2018 - 2019
- AMD Tech Day at CES: 2018 Roadmap Revealed, with Ryzen APUs, Zen+ on 12nm, Vega on 7nm
- AMD Unveils GPU Architecture Roadmap: After Polaris Comes Vega
Source: AMD
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
38 Comments
View All Comments
TristanSDX - Tuesday, April 30, 2019 - link
assuming Navi will be equal to 2070 but without RT, then price can't be higher than 350-400$Smell This - Wednesday, May 1, 2019 - link
I think you got that back-asswords.Vega/Navi apparently has some special sauce baked into 'Radeon Rays' compute. Whether that is MS DXR, et al, remains to be seen (or, scene).
Navi *mainstream* -- meaning $250 +/- -- is a legitimate goal. Think GTX 1660 Ti (TU116) but with 25% less die and 25% more compute . . .
wumpus - Monday, May 6, 2019 - link
From everything I've heard, 2019 will only have "*mainsteam*" Navi. Anything faster will have to wait until 2020. I'd expect a Polaris scaled up to max out GDDR6, no more (probably looking a lot like a Vega56/64).StevoLincolnite - Tuesday, April 30, 2019 - link
Navi is probably just going to be a Polaris replacement for the mainstream, still graphics core next... Vega will sit in the high end.It will be rather uninspiring I think.
gglaw - Tuesday, April 30, 2019 - link
there should be a 2070 and 2060 equivalent without RT for much less, so decent value for a new build but for people already running Vega-64 or any new Nvidia card nothing this year is expected to be a major upgrade. Nothing too exciting but lower price and lower power variants of what's already out there isn't too bad.Irata - Thursday, May 2, 2019 - link
That is what I am hoping for - good value and performance with decent power consumption in the 200-300 range. Could not care less about Ray Tracing for now (and in that price range).haukionkannel - Thursday, May 2, 2019 - link
How much less we get 7nm card that is about speed of 2080, without RT cores... Yeah about the same as 2080... So 2070 without RT cores can be as expensive as 2070... But that 400$ sounds very plausible. 250 for 2060 speed and 125 for 1060 speed...Alexvrb - Tuesday, April 30, 2019 - link
That's right at my price point. :DNot great for bragging rights, but... if it performs well for the mid-range, it will sell. They'll widen the Navi lineup after that, at any rate.
mode_13h - Wednesday, May 1, 2019 - link
Remember that Vega VII wasn't originally supposed to launch to consumers.So, Navi could well scale up to Vega VII and beyond. It would take less die area to reach parity, since Navi won't have all the fp64 and might even lack some of the machine learning instructions (or restrict them to just a few cores, like how consumer GPUs normally implement fp64).
del42sa - Wednesday, May 1, 2019 - link
I believe there will be NAVI20 which suppose to be Vega 20 replacement for next year. it´s unclear if AMD will repeat it´s decision and will put them in consumer market as they did with Radeon VII...And I don´t think Q3 Navi version will replace Radeon VII, as it makes no sense ...