AMD’s next wave of Radeon gaming GPUs is shaping up to be a serious leap if fresh rumors hold true. Community chatter points to RDNA 5 moving to 128 cores per compute unit—double the 64 cores per CU used in the current generation—pushing the flagship configuration past 12,000 total cores.
The latest whispers suggest AMD is preparing four Navi 5X dies that scale from entry-level to flagship, mirroring the tiered approach that worked well in the RDNA 2 era. With 128 cores per CU, the rumored line-up would look like this:
– Top die: 96 CUs, 12,288 cores
– Mid die: 40 CUs, 5,120 cores
– Low die: 24 CUs, 3,072 cores
– Entry die: 12 CUs, 1,536 cores
That’s a massive theoretical step-up. For context, the last flagship with a big core count, Navi 31, topped out at 6,144 cores—so the top RDNA 5 die would effectively double it. Versus Navi 48 from the current RDNA 4 family, the rumored top-end would represent roughly a 3x core count increase.
RDNA 4 simplified AMD’s portfolio to two monolithic dies (Navi 48 and Navi 44), which helped yield and availability compared with RDNA 3’s chiplet-first approach that needed more advanced packaging. RDNA 5, however, appears to pivot back to a broader four-die stack reminiscent of RDNA 2, aiming to cover more performance tiers and potentially reassert a presence at the high end.
On the competitive front, RDNA 2’s RX 6900 XT went toe-to-toe with NVIDIA’s top card of its time, while the later 7900 XTX didn’t quite land in the same ultra-enthusiast bracket. This current generation came surprisingly close to an RTX 5080 in many titles, and RDNA 5 could close the remaining gap if AMD backs up the raw core muscle with stronger ray tracing and AI-accelerated features.
Leaked guidelines also outline possible memory and capacity ranges for each tier (via well-known community sources):
– Flagship-tier: up to 96 CUs, 512–384-bit bus, 24–32 GB VRAM
– Mid-tier: up to 40 CUs, 384–192-bit bus, 12–24 GB VRAM
– Low-tier: up to 24 CUs, 256–128-bit bus, 8–16 GB VRAM
– Entry-tier: up to 12 CUs, 128–64-bit bus, 8–16 GB VRAM
As always, treat these specs as early guidance rather than guarantees. Clocks, cache, architecture tweaks, and software features will ultimately dictate how these GPUs perform in real games—and AMD’s rumored focus on RT and AI could be as important as the core counts themselves.
Which upcoming GPUs are you most excited to see, and where do you think RDNA 5 will land in the high-end race?
