AMD's next-gen APU sticking with RDNA 3.X for graphics is disappointing

According to reports and leaks, AMD's Medusa Halo is an upcoming mobile APU that will be a beast for PC gaming. Built on the forthcoming Zen 6 CPU architecture, it will deliver better CPU performance than Strix Halo and bump up the integrated Radeon graphics Compute Unit count from 40 to 48 - a 20% increase. This is unprecedented for integrated graphics, as you're looking at performance that could rival powerful discrete GPU options.

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With increased memory bandwidth, the APU could rival the desktop GeForce RTX 4070 in some titles. This information arrives via leaks and insider sources, so take this with a grain or two of salt. Still, with impressive integrated Radeon graphics, the latest word on Medua Halo is that it will stick with RDNA 3.X instead of the newer RDNA 4 architecture.

Based on what we've seen first-hand with the first two RDNA 4 discrete desktop graphics cards (check out our reviews of the AORUS Radeon RX 9070 XT ELITE and GIGABYTE Radeon RX 9070 GAMING OC), AMD's latest architecture is a massive improvement over RDNA 3.

From competitive ray-tracing performance to new AI hardware that powers the impressive FSR 4 Super Resolution update to more efficient hardware and even better rasterized performance, RDNA 4 is superior to RDNA 3 in every way. Now, AMD's Medusa Halo, sticking with the older architecture, would use something similar to RDNA 3.5, which includes enhancements to memory management and other aspects present in RDNA 4.

However, not moving to RDNA 4 still sounds like a mistake as the ray-tracing improvements and FSR 4 (exclusive to RDNA 4) would be transformative for mobile Radeon graphics. FSR 4 is such an improvement over FSR 3 that it finally sees the company deliver a viable and competitive alternative to NVIDIA DLSS. FSR 4 should be integral to AMD's mobile graphics future, as it should be on the key technologies driving the next-generation portable PC gaming handhelds.

AMD should be working on a version of FSR 4 that works with RDNA 3.X, or can leverage the AI performance of the latest Ryzen CPU architecture. In that case, the only thing missing from Medusa Halo is ray-tracing performance. Either way, as a literal Halo product, Medusa Halo won't exactly be cheap or aimed primarily at PC gamers - and it's still very much in development. We're just hoping that mobile RDNA 4 arrives sooner rather than later.