AMD Abandons Specific RDNA 3 GPU Plans Due to Increased Cost & Power Consumption

AMD’s EVP and SVP, Rick Bergman and David Wang, recently did an interview where they talked about the company’s future plans regarding the RDNA 3 and CDNA 3 architectures. They revealed an interesting tidbit as to why AMD didn’t release an RDNA 3 GPU under its Radeon RX 7000 lineup which is a direct competitor of NVIDIA’s RTX 4090.

Bergman stated that it is entirely possible for AMD to develop a specification based on the RDNA 3 GPU that competes with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090. However, this is not the chosen strategy for the Radeon RX 7000 lineup. 

AMD certainly acknowledges the true potential of the RDNA 3 architecture which can be utilized even further. Such a configuration could result in higher power with increased costs. However, AMD intends to stay under budget for their mid-range GPUs which is why this plan was dropped. 

“However, the GPU developed in this way was introduced to the market as a graphics card with a TDP (thermal design power) of 600W and a reference price of $1,600 (about 219,000 yen)”, and was accepted by general PC gaming fans . After thinking about it, we chose not to adopt such a strategy.”

Rick Bergman

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 was rumored to be pretty heavy on power consumption, but this turned out to be a false alarm. The graphics card is rated between 450W and 500+W for custom AIB models. 

Upon comparison, the RTX 4090 is more efficient than the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX. These claims are supported by the multiple reviews submitted by users. 

AMD has delayed the realization of the true multi-GPU die for RDNA 3 GPUs. These GPUs are the first gaming architecture to feature a chiplet architecture. Hopefully, we will get to see some exciting updates soon.

About Advanced Micro Devices

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is an American multinational semiconductor company headquartered in Santa Clara, California.

AMD develops computer processors and related technologies for business and consumer markets. AMD’s main products include microprocessors, motherboard chipsets, embedded processors and graphics processors for servers, workstations, personal computers and embedded system applications.