AMD 'Big Navi' GPU might be right around the corner – but don't hold your breath

AMD 'Big Navi'
(Image credit: Future)

Ever since E3 2019 when AMD lifted the veil on the Radeon RX 5700 and RX 5700 XT, we always knew it wouldn't be the highest level of performance AMD would reach with Navi – and a high-end "Big Navi" might be right around the corner. 

The latest in a long line of "Nvidia Killer" leaks and rumors comes via an official Korean RRA certification, and spotted via a retweet by famed leaker Komachi. This specific leak doesn't have any new insights as to what we can expect from this new graphics card, but it does hint at the idea that we could be seeing the next high-end graphics card from AMD very soon

As pointed out by the lovely folks over at PCGamesN, these RRA certifications usually make their way out about a month or so before the public release of a new graphics card, so we could be seeing 'Big Navi' in the very near future. 

How likely is it?

However, we're not so sure that will actually happen. You see, according to another PCGamesN report, AMD will be holding an investors meeting, where it's likely to unveil RDNA 2. Unless Team Red wants to hamper the sales of its would-be-brand-new graphics card by saying "a better one is coming later this year," we think AMD might hold off on Big Navi for now. 

It also doesn't make much sense that AMD would launch a big 4K-ready graphics card right now, as it wouldn't have ray tracing compatibility. It's more than likely that RDNA 2, if it is announced on March 5, will feature hardware-accelerated ray tracing, as that's something AMD's Navi GPUs for the PS5 and Xbox Series X will be capable of. Then again, AMD could just push out a 4K graphics card because the market is hungry for it. 

At the end of the day, we're just going to have to wait until AMD is ready to spill the beans on its next graphics card. And, hey, maybe we will see an RTX 2080 Ti rival in the next month from Team Red – we know we'd love to get our hands on it. 

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Bill Thomas

Bill Thomas (Twitter) is TechRadar's computing editor. They are fat, queer and extremely online. Computers are the devil, but they just happen to be a satanist. If you need to know anything about computing components, PC gaming or the best laptop on the market, don't be afraid to drop them a line on Twitter or through email.

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