A new AMD device called "ATI-102-D18802" has passed RRA certification, fuelling speculation that it could be a powerful new Navi graphics card pitched at competing with the likes of the RTX 2080 Ti and RTX 2080 Super, two of the most powerful consumer GPUs made by its rival Nvidia.
It could also be the GPU that's going to power both the PS5 and Xbox Scarlett next-generation consoles.
The ATI-102-D18802 RRA certification was spotted by Wccftech’s Usman Pirzada, who noticed that the string of digits followed the same naming convention as other AMD devices, leading Pirzada to conclude that this could be a very powerful GPU using AMD's recent Navi architecture.
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Before we go any further, we should point out (as Pirzada does) that this is all based on a certification that could be pulled or revised, along with a hefty dose of speculation, so treat this news with a fair old pinch of salt.
Fighting for the high-end
If the ATI-102-D18802 does in fact turn out to be a powerful Navi graphics card from AMD, this is noteworthy as it could represent a return to the high-end market for AMD.
Recently, AMD is been concentrating on the budget and mid-range market for graphics cards, and while this strategy seems to be paying off for AMD, as it offers much better performance and value compared with Nvidia's comparable budget and mid-range GPUs, it has also meant that Nvidia has been unopposed when it comes to high-end GPUs.
So, for enthusiasts and gamers who want the most powerful GPUs for playing at high frame rates and 4K resolutions, their only choice is Nvidia.
But what does the RRA certification tell us? It means that AMD could have finalized its plans for its upcoming high-end GPU and submitted it to the authorities, which means it could be coming relatively soon.
By that we mean between three to six months, which is the usual time it takes between getting RRA certification and the final product going on sale.
Pirzada noticed the product name coincides with previous AMD naming conventions for its GPUs, and based on the 'D18' part of the name, it's very possible that this is a Navi GPU, and the '802' part of the name suggests it's a more powerful version than previous Navi cards, which had the code name 'D18205'.
Considering the timing of the certification, this could be an RDNA 2-based full Navi chip. RDNA 2 is AMD's next-gen GPU technology, recently rumored to show up in 2020, and this leak could correspond with those rumors.
If it is RDNA 2-based, it might have ray tracing support built-in, and could be the graphics card powering both the PS5 and Xbox Scarlett consoles. Both Sony and Microsoft have confirmed that the next-gen consoles will run on AMD hardware, so this could be an early glimpse at the graphics technology powering those consoles.
Again, there's a lot of speculation here, but if real, this could end up being a very exciting GPU from AMD – and Nvidia might be starting to worry.
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