It appears AMD is getting closer to revealing its next-generation RDNA 4 discrete GPUs, which will rival the best graphics cards. First, benchmarks for the supposedly higher-end Navi 48 surfaced, and now Olrak29 has spotted the Navi 44 XL silicon in a shipping manifest. Both chipsets were previously noted in AMD’s ROCm open-source software stack.
AMD has been quiet about its upcoming Radeon RX 8000-series graphics cards. What little information we have on the RDNA 4 graphics cards leads to the speculation that AMD will only release two versions of the RX 8000 series, at least initially. Most recently, benchmarks of the Navi 48 began trickling onto Geekbench, likely as AMD’s engineers or partners tested the new GPU to establish its baseline.
Of course, the Navi 44 XL’s appearance on a shipping manifest doesn’t necessarily mean AMD will release the new cards anytime soon. The leak doesn’t provide many details on the shipping manifest. It shows the date, its HS customs classification code, and the description of the goods.
That’s it. We don’t know the origin of the shipment, its destination, or to whom it’s being delivered. This is 100 percent speculation, but this shipment could be from the fab plant to AMD’s engineers. It wouldn’t be surprising to see the Navi 44 XL benchmarks appear soon.
Rumors suggest AMD has abandoned plans for a high-end RX 8000, which would have used the Navi 41 GPU. This could signal AMD’s decision to devote more resources to the AI market. After all, the company’s gaming division is losing money, and AI GPU sales hold the potential to make much more money than a high-end gaming graphics card.
The Navi 48 XTX and Navi 44 XL are confirmed to still be in the pipeline. Presumably, the Navi 48 XTX will be a mid-range graphics card, while the Navi 44 XL will appear in budget models of the RDNA 4 graphics card series. Well-known hardware leaker Golden Pig Upgrade recently suggested RDNA4 will mimic RDNA1 in positioning, lacking much in flagship performance.
Rumors and leaks have pointed to an official announcement of the Radeon RX 8000 series at CES 2025 in January. Those speculators say that AMD will first release discrete graphics cards using the Navi 48 GPU. The low-end Navi 44 XL isn’t rumored to launch until the second quarter of 2025.
