AMD's Lisa Su confirms RDNA 4 GPU details - 2025 launch, powerful ray tracing, and AI

Yesterday, we reported on AMD's Q3 2024 financial results, which showed revenue and growth once again driven by its Data Center segment. Regarding AMD's Gaming business, which covers Radeon products for PC and console production for Sony and Microsoft, revenue was down 69% - with extremely thin profit margins.

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As part of the earnings call, AMD CEO Lisa Su addressed the slump in the company's gaming business by teasing its next-generation RDNA 4 products. She confirms that RDNA 4 GPUs are on track to launch "in early 2025" and has teased what to expect.

In addition to a "strong increase in gaming performance," Lisa Su has confirmed two RDNA 4 features for next-gen Radeon RX 8000 Series GPUs that should bring its capabilities closer to the NVIDIA and GeForce RTX juggernaut.

"In gaming graphics, revenue declined year-over-year as we prepare for a transition to our next-gen Radeon GPUs based on our RDNA 4 architecture," Lisa Su said. "In addition to a strong increase in gaming performance, RDNA 4 delivers significantly higher ray tracing performance and adds new AI capabilities."

Significantly higher ray-tracing points to the 2-3X RT performance that Sony has been touting regarding its new PlayStation 5 Pro or PS5 Pro console. Sony has said that the Pro console's ray-tracing hardware was sourced from next-gen AMD graphics technology, so it's fantastic to hear Lisa Su confirming its addition to the RDNA 4 lineup.

The second part, "new AI capabilities," sounds like another teaser for AMD FSR 4 switching to an AI model like DLSS and Sony's PSSR for the PS5 Pro. We wouldn't be surprised if it ends up being a PC version of PSSR, bringing AMD's upscaling tech closer to DLSS regarding image quality than ever. The downside is that switching to an AI solution probably means that the best quality mode will be exclusive to RDNA 4 hardware.

The early 2025 confirmation also means we can expect to see RDNA 4 at CES 2025 in January, with a launch shortly after that. NVIDIA is also expected to debut its GeForce RTX 50 Series line-up, with the RTX 5090, RTX 5080, and RTX 5070. Yeah, it's going to be a wild time in Las Vegas.