ASUS today announced the XG Core Radeon RX 9060 XT LP 16 GB GDDR6, a compact external graphics solution that adds discrete graphics to compatible laptops, gaming handhelds and mini PCs through USB4 connectivity. Powered by AMD RDNA 4 architecture, it pairs 16 GB of GDDR6 memory with support for gaming, creative applications and compatible AI workloads. With the XG Core, users do not need to make any internal hardware modifications to their device to access the power of discrete graphics.

Discrete graphics for more demanding workloads
Thin laptops and compact PCs make everyday computing convenient, but users may need additional graphics power as their games and applications become more demanding. XG Core offers a way to extend the capabilities of a compatible device without replacing the entire system. Its external design adds a dedicated GPU when needed, giving users the flexibility to keep the device they already use for work, travel or play.

According to the latest update on the ASUS page, the official specifications for the PCIe slot-powered 75 W ASUS XG Core Radeon RX 9060 XT LP differ significantly from those of the regular desktop card. As an external graphics solution, the XG Core powers the GPU through the PCIe slot without needing external GPU PCIe power connectors. The XG Core operates at a default game clock of 1,010 MHz and can boost up to 1,600 MHz. In OC mode, these figures increase modestly to 1,030 MHz and 1,620 MHz, respectively, which is not very noticeable. This contrasts sharply with the standard Radeon RX 9060 XT LP edition, which has a base frequency of 1,380 MHz—nearly 37% higher—and a boost frequency of up to 3,040 MHz, which is nearly double.

The differences in frequency also correlate with power consumption. The Navi 44 XTLP in the XG Core solution is rated for just 75 W, while the desktop GPU is designed for a 140 W power draw and requires an external GPU power connector. The entire XG Core unit, including its USB4 controller, is capped at 75 W. This aggressive power limit necessitates lower clock speeds to maintain stability and thermal performance within its compact chassis, which measures roughly 114 × 117 × 39 mm. The device connects to host systems via USB4 and provides limited display outputs, making it a portable graphics dock suitable for mini-PCs, notebooks, and handhelds.

Leaker Kepler_L2 says AMD will bring RDNA 5+ to its Zen 7 "Grimlock" APUs in 2029. He posted on the NeoGAF forum, replying to a user who guessed RDNA 5 would trickle down to regular mobile chips in 2028 or later. His answer was "RDNA5+ in 2029 with Grimlock." He gave no details on how RDNA 5+ differs from RDNA 5, and AMD hasn't confirmed the name or timing. Grimlock is the codename for the Zen 7 Ryzen generation. This update follows Kepler_L2's January claim that AMD is splitting its APU roadmap in two. Products that don't need strong integrated graphics, like office laptops or laptops with a high-end discrete GPU, stay on RDNA 3.5 until 2029, while "premium" parts get RDNA 5. Medusa Halo is expected to be one of those.

The picture is messy, though. We previously reported that Medusa Point should get RDNA 4m, a tweaked RDNA 3.5 with FSR 4 support, and AMD's HIPRT 3.2 release notes list Medusa support for gfx1170, gfx1171 and gfx115E. The gfx115x family is RDNA 3.5, so it looks like at least one Medusa chip could stick with it. If this ends up being true, anyone waiting on a mainstream Ryzen laptop or handheld with RDNA 5 graphics may be waiting a long time. That's a long run for one iGPU architecture, but of course, this is all leak territory until AMD says something concrete.

AMD's Radeon RX 9070 GRE graphics card, initially designed for customers in China and later sold in more markets, has officially reached a frequency of 3.9 GHz. TechPowerUp Forum user "ShrimpBrime" created custom tools for Radeon GPUs called "R-Team OC" and "GPU Frequency Generator." Using the stock XFX Radeon RX 9070 GRE Swift GPU without any VBIOS modifications, specialized cooling, or other hardware changes, the overclock was stable for some time. However, the driver crashed and recovered shortly after the screenshots were taken. Utilizing the custom-developed RTOC tool for Radeon tuning and monitoring, the GPU was loaded with regular triangles in DirectX 9 instead of a demanding 3D title, meaning that this OC is not applicable in real-world testing, but serves as a proof of concept.

Using a customized GPU frequency generator built in DirectX 9, the GPU rendered a simple scene containing 2,048 triangles per draw call and 2,048 draw calls per frame, totaling 4,194,304 triangles. This is light work for modern graphics cards but just enough to maintain a high frequency. The developer says the 3.9 GHz reading was maintained under load rather than appearing as a momentary telemetry spike, while approximately 3.85 GHz was reproduced repeatedly, including with AMD's own Radeon Software overclocking controls. To verify the readings, ShrimpBrime compared GPU-Z and HWiNFO64 with telemetry gathered through AMD's ADL and ADLX interfaces. RTOC polls shared monitoring data every 2 ms, although fresh power-management telemetry reportedly arrives roughly every 15.5 ms.

AMD has published HIPRT 3.2, the latest version of its ray tracing library for HIP, and the release notes name the integrated graphics of its upcoming Zen 6 "Medusa" processors outright. Under new features, AMD lists Medusa support for three GPU architecture IDs: gfx1170, gfx1171, and gfx115E. HIPRT is mostly used by rendering apps like Blender, so this says nothing about gaming performance. Still, the link between these IDs and Medusa has so far rested on compiler patches and leaks, and now the Medusa name sits right in AMD's own changelog.

The gfx117x IDs belong to RDNA 4m, which first showed up in LLVM back in February. AMD added GFX1171 and GFX1172 targets in March, merged GFX1171 into Mesa 26.3 in August, and pushed RDNA 4m firmware later that month. Despite the name, RDNA 4m sits in the GFX11 family with RDNA 3 and 3.5, plus a few RDNA 4 style additions like FP8/BF8 conversion and new matrix instructions. The gfx115E entry is the more curious one. GFX115x covers the RDNA 3.5 graphics in Strix Point and Strix Halo, so it looks like at least one Medusa chip could stick with RDNA 3.5. The same release fixes a bug that truncated architecture numbers containing a letter, gfx115E included.

Daniel Blanco's DLSS-NR on AMD project has grown well past its original scope. The mod first got NVIDIA's DLSS 5 Neural Rendering running on Radeon cards back in September, and later pulled off a 74% performance jump in a single day. The new Alpha 0.8.0 release, published on October 17, now brings almost the whole DLSS stack to AMD GPUs. That includes DLSS 4.5 Super Resolution (Models M and L), Ray Reconstruction (Model F), and Frame Generation with up to 4x multi-frame generation (MFG) in games that expose DLSS FG inputs. FSR 4.1.1 is also bundled, so it no longer depends on the driver, and a new NeuralHub mod manager handles game detection and installation.

According to the developer, this is a ground-up reimplementation of the DLSS runtimes using custom HIP kernels rather than a translation layer, and users have to supply their own NVIDIA DLLs. RDNA 4 and RDNA 3 cards get the full feature set, while RDNA 2 support is still experimental and limited to Neural Rendering. The developer says DLSS 5 Neural Rendering now runs at roughly 90 to 100 FPS at 1080p on an RX 9070 XT, and the goal is to match an RTX 5070 Ti. Early results with Ray Reconstruction are mixed, however. One Reddit user reported no performance loss in Cyberpunk 2077 with path tracing at 1440p on an RX 9070 XT, while others saw drops of up to 25%. The mod only works in DirectX 12 games on Windows 11, and anti-cheat software blocks it, so readers are advised to stick to single-player titles.

SAPPHIRE Technology, in collaboration with AMD and One More Level S.A., the acclaimed developer of first-person action-platformer and hardcore slasher Ghostrunner, formally unveils the SAPPHIRE NITRO+ AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT Valor Mortis Edition graphics card.

Adrian Thompson, VP of Marketing, SAPPHIRE"The NITRO+ Valor Mortis Edition is exactly what our community asked us for; flagship Radeon performance with a design that means something. We wanted every detail, from the custom backplate to the artwork on the fans, to feel like it belongs in the world of Valor Mortis. Working with AMD and One More Level, we've built a card that performs at the highest level, comes with a coupon for the game in the box, and stands out as a true collector's piece."

AMD's next-generation gaming graphics cards featuring the RDNA 5 GPU architecture are unlikely to debut before the second half of 2027, according to well-known hardware leaker Kepler_L2. The leaker suggests that AMD is unlikely to release any RDNA 5 desktop graphics cards before Computex 2027, indicating that these GPUs will probably arrive in the latter half of that year. AMD is expected to lead with the silicon codenamed "AT2," which is part of a family of discrete RDNA 5 GPUs. This will be followed by "AT0," "AT3," and "AT4," which are expected to launch a few quarters later in 2028. Since "AT2" likely refers to a mid-range design, AMD might begin its rollout with a mid-range GPU first, followed by flagship and lower-end models in 2028.

Previously, we learned that AMD's RDNA 5 GPUs will incorporate GDDR7 memory with unknown capacities, as GDDR7 is now listed among the supported VRAM types in the AMDGPU driver. Currently, AMD's graphics cards use GDDR6 for the consumer RDNA 4-based Radeon RX 9000 series, while Instinct MI data center and workstation GPUs use HBM3E and HBM4 memory. Since AMD is developing data center GPUs with HBM and consumer cards are the only models using GDDR, the GDDR7 placeholder suggests future support for RDNA 5.

AMD has confirmed that its FSR 4 machine learning upscaling technology will be available for APUs with integrated graphics by the end of this year. Jack Huynh, senior vice president and general manager of the computing and graphics group, shared this news with the South Korean media in Seoul. He mentioned that FSR 4 will be coming to more devices as AMD optimizes the software stack for APUs. Initially, FSR 4 was only available on RDNA 4-based Radeon RX 9000 series graphics cards. This summer, AMD added support for FSR 4 on RDNA 3 hardware with Radeon RX 7000 series discrete graphics cards. However, APUs like "Strix Halo," which feature RDNA 3.5 integrated graphics, were not supported. Now, it appears these models will receive official support by the end of the year. Below is the machine-translated official quote:

AMD's Jack HuynhWe will expand FSR 4 across our product lineup, including APUs, gaming laptops and handheld devices, by the end of this year.

Microsoft's Advanced Shader Delivery (ASD), which provides pre-compiled shaders with the game itself, is finally becoming available on a range of platforms. The company confirmed that this feature will expand to NVIDIA's GeForce RTX graphics cards and the RTX Spark platform later this month. This means that game developers will be able to ship pre-compiled shaders to speed up game loading times and reduce any shader-induced stuttering during gameplay. When Microsoft unveiled a public preview of ASD, it reportedly supported various AMD RDNA generations, but now more platforms are receiving support.

Currently, ASD is claimed to work on AMD RDNA 1, RDNA 2, RDNA 3, RDNA 3.5, and RDNA 4 GPU generations, as well as on Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Series with Adreno integrated graphics. Later this month, Microsoft plans to extend ASD to Intel Arc B-Series, which includes B570, B580, Intel Core Ultra Series 2, and Intel Core Ultra Series 3. This update will coincide with support for all NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPUs and the RTX Spark platform, ensuring that every RTX-based GeForce system benefits from the speedup.

AMD may be preparing a significant update to its Ryzen Z-Series processors designed for handheld devices, with the latest Z3 processor bringing substantial changes over the previous generation. At the core of everything will be the CPU architecture. For the standard Ryzen Z3, AMD plans to use four "Zen 6" cores and two "Zen 5" low-power cores. The Ryzen Z3 Extreme will share the same CPU core configuration, resulting in a total of six cores and twelve threads in the CPU cluster. Alongside this, there will be a cluster with an integrated graphics solution, featuring up to 12 Compute Units of RDNA 4m. This version reportedly derives from RDNA 3.5 but includes RDNA 4-style ALUs for matrix operations that power technologies like FSR 4.

Compared to the previous Ryzen Z2 Extreme's eight-core CPU cluster and 16 CU RDNA 3.5 integrated graphics cluster, the new solution focuses on extracting extra performance from the new "Zen 6" cores and optimizing for RDNA 4m. This ensures the software stack is mostly new, without needing any backporting to older RDNA generations. The difference between the two Z3 variants will be in power limits, with the Z3 catering to the 15-watt segment, while the Z3 Extreme will be optimized for a 25-watt power envelope.

Modders working on bringing NVIDIA's DLSS 5 Neural Rendering to AMD Radeon GPUs just had their busiest day yet. The developer behind the DLSS-NR-on-AMD tool shipped two new versions within 24 hours, Alpha 0.3.3 and Alpha 0.4.0, together adding roughly 74% performance on Radeon hardware, according to the project's own GitHub release notes. YouTuber Ancient Gameplays tested the update in Cyberpunk 2077 at 3440x1440, and saw framerates climb from around 30 FPS on earlier builds to roughly 50 FPS on Alpha 0.4.0. That's a big jump for a workaround that started out barely playable. The original mod release had poor performance, but it looks like that's being addressed.

The tool works by feeding NVIDIA's own DLSS 5 DLL into Radeon RX 9000 GPUs, and reportedly RX 7000 cards too, intercepting the calls the DLL expects and routing the neural computation onto AMD hardware, since RDNA 4 supports the FP8 math DLSS 5 relies on. Alpha 0.3.3 also added a graphical installer with a built-in settings editor and overlay controls, so getting Neural Rendering running on Radeon apparently no longer means digging through file paths manually. Moreover, just today, the Alpha 0.4.1 update brought another 8% jump in overall performance, and a 9% performance increase under heavy gameplay loads.

AMD has submitted patches to its open-source graphics card drivers for Linux, adding support for GDDR7 memory, as anticipation builds for the company's next-generation RDNA 5 GPUs. In the AMDGPU open-source driver, GDDR7 is now listed among the supported VRAM types. Currently, AMD's graphics cards use GDDR6 for the consumer RDNA 4-based Radeon RX 9000 series, while Instinct MI data center and workstation GPUs use HBM3E and HBM4 memory. Since AMD is developing data center GPUs with HBM and consumer cards are the only models using GDDR, the GDDR7 placeholder indicates future support for RDNA 5.

Switching to GDDR7 will allow AMD to significantly boost the memory speeds of its graphics cards and potentially increase capacity, all while improving energy efficiency. The latest GDDR6 memory modules top out at 20 Gb/s, while GDDR7 can achieve 36 Gb/s today and even 48 Gb/s in future versions, according to JEDEC specifications. This could enable AMD's gaming and workstation GPUs with RDNA 5 technology to achieve significantly higher memory bandwidth, enhancing performance in memory-bound workloads.

A developer going by Uzbekunknown on GitHub has gotten NVIDIA's DLSS 5 Neural Rendering running on the Arc 140V integrated graphics of an Intel Lunar Lake system, as Tom's Hardware reports. The project, called dlss-nr-on-intel, is an independent reimplementation of the 71-block network that runs on Intel's XMX units through Vulkan. It has apparently been shown working in Tekken 7, Dead or Alive 5 Last Round, and Mortal Kombat 1. For now it only runs on Linux, and users must supply their own copy of NVIDIA's DLL. As far as performance goes, the developer says Tekken 7 ran at around 10 FPS at 640x360 resolution, and the frametimes are absolutely abysmal too. The author calls it a research port, not a finished product, so photo mode use looks like the only realistic scenario right now.

Perhaps even more interesting is how this port came to be. Apparently, the code was written almost entirely by AI. The developer credits Claude Opus 5 and OpenAI's Astra, saying they themselves only supplied the hardware, the binary, and the direction. They also state they cannot defend the code line by line, and that a driver bug one of the agents hallucinated shaped three development phases. This mod effort follows DLSS 5 reaching RTX 30-series and AMD RDNA 4 cards within weeks of the leak, as well as the technology reaching web browsers. I think whether this is clever or a step too far depends on how much you trust code nobody fully reviewed. It's a fine technical demo, but I don't think we really needed DLSS 5 on Intel integrated graphics.

According to the latest Steam Hardware and Software Survey update, in August, AMD's Radeon RX 9070 XT, the flagship of the RDNA 4 family, became the company's most popular discrete graphics card. With a share of 1.46% among surveyed Steam gamers, the Radeon RX 9070 XT ranks 24th in the graphics card popularity and market share list. From an immeasurable market share in April, Steam is seeing growth to about 1.33% in May, 1.35% in June, 1.40% in July, and finally reaching 1.46% in August. Currently, this places AMD's top RDNA 4 card just above NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 3080 and below the GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER.

In comparison, NVIDIA's current GeForce RTX 50-Series "Blackwell" generation shows a strong presence, with the GeForce RTX 5070 ranking third on the list with a 3.77% share, the GeForce RTX 5060 at 3.16%, and the RTX 5060 Ti at 2.55% among gamers. NVIDIA's discrete GPUs appear to have significantly higher market penetration with the current "Blackwell" family, as even the high-end GeForce RTX 5080 holds a 1.71% share. It's worth noting that AMD still commands a large percentage of integrated graphics solutions, but when focusing on discrete GPUs, the second-best RDNA 4 share is the Radeon RX 9060 XT with a 0.80% share.

A modder has ported DLSS 5 Neural Rendering onto an AMD GPU for the first time, less than a week after the tech started spreading to older NVIDIA cards. Developer danielblnc released a tool called DLSS-NR for AMD, which allows AMD's RDNA 4 GPUs to run NVIDIA's neural rendering model in supported games. The setup works by dropping a small installer and NVIDIA's own nvngx_dlssnr.dll file into a game's bin folder, then toggling neural rendering through an FSR 3 or FSR 4 profile. It has been tested on Cyberpunk 2077 and GTA V: Enhanced so far, with older AMD GPUs reportedly not supported. Anti-cheat games will block the DLL entirely, so this is single-player territory only for now.

According to tests by YouTuber Ancient Gameplays, performance is still the bottleneck. Early builds tanked Cyberpunk 2077 from over 80 FPS down to around 11-12 FPS at 1080p on the Radeon RX 9070 XT. The modder's latest Alpha v0.2.7 update has clawed back roughly 12%, pushing it to about 30 FPS, still a steep cost for a card that handles native rendering well. The reason this works at all is quite straightforward. DLSS 5 runs on FP8 math, and AMD's RDNA 4 architecture, which powers the RX 9000 series, has native FP8 support, just like NVIDIA's RTX 50-series and 40-series cards.

According to a well-known leaker, Kepler_L2, AMD is reportedly targeting clock speeds ranging from 3.1 GHz to 3.5 GHz for RDNA 5. The leaker claims to have gained access to AMD's internal materials. This suggests that AMD's new silicon will not only feature significant microarchitectural changes but also offer a raw frequency boost of approximately 4-14% over the factory-rated Radeon RX 9070 XT GPU. The current out-of-the-box boost frequency for this top RDNA 4 GPU SKU is 2.97 GHz, indicating that AMD is planning a substantial increase in clock speeds.

However, it is unclear whether these clock speeds are intended for integrated graphics, dedicated graphics, desktop, or mobile platforms, leaving some questions unanswered. Additionally, RDNA 5 does not appear to be launching soon, with a supposed release date likely in mid-to-late 2027. As of now, we are less than a year away from the launch, it seems. As the launch date approaches, more details will emerge, allowing us to form a clearer picture of what to expect.

Today marks the day we see AMD's next-generation RDNA 5 GPU IP inside working silicon, but not in the form you might expect. Thanks to SemiAnalysis's die annotation of the Exynos 2700 SoC from Samsung, we see AMD's new GPU IP shine in a mobile form with the Xclipse 970 GPU. As earlier leaks reported, AMD and Samsung co-developed the Xclipse 970 GPU using AMD RDNA technology and adapted it for mobile. However, the GPU IP has now been upgraded to the latest RDNA 5, making this SoC technically the first RDNA 5-equipped chip that will be shipping. Built on Samsung Foundry's SF2 node, Samsung has designed this SoC with a unique 10-CPU core configuration and a strong GPU to compete with Qualcomm Snapdragon Elite SoCs.

On the CPU front, Samsung uses Arm's off-the-shelf CPU core IP, which includes C2-Ultra and C2-Pro. This setup features a single C2-Ultra big core running at 4.24 GHz, one C2-Ultra running at 3.36 GHz, four C2-Pro cores running at 3.74 GHz, and four C2-Pro cores running at 2.88 GHz, making a total of 10 CPU cores. On the GPU side, the Xclipse 970 packs eight GPU WGPs, each containing two Compute Units. This results in 16 CUs on the GPU front if everything remains the same with RDNA 5 and no changes to the WGP/CU ratio have been made by AMD since the last-generation RDNA 4.

PowerColor, in collaboration with AMD and Focus Entertainment, today announced the PowerColor Hellhound AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT 16 GB GDDR6 Resonance Edition, a special edition graphics card that brings the world of Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy to life. Blending striking, game-inspired aesthetics with the exceptional performance of AMD RDNA 4 architecture, the Resonance Edition is an immersive companion for every step of the journey, and every Resonance Edition includes a full game code and an exclusive themed mousepad, so the hardware built for the adventure and the adventure itself arrive in one box.

A World Worth Fighting For
Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy is the next chapter in Focus Entertainment's acclaimed A Plague Tale saga, a series celebrated by players and critics alike for its unforgettable storytelling and breathtaking world. Following Sophia on a journey where survival is the only path forward and mysterious secrets lie hidden beneath the island's depths; the game has captured the imagination of a passionate community of story-driven gamers. With the Resonance Edition, PowerColor invites that community to carry the adventure from the screen into the heart of their build.

AMD's long-rumored RDNA 4m architecture is reportedly nearing its final launch as the company has started pushing firmware binaries to the Linux Firmware repository. According to Phoronix, AMD's RDNA 4m GPU IP, also known as GFX 1170, has been added to the Linux Firmware repository, indicating that AMD is seriously preparing for the launch of this GPU IP. Typically, AMD publishes firmware binaries to the Linux Binaries repository at the launch date or shortly afterward. In some recent releases, the company has even begun pushing these firmware patches slightly ahead of the launch, suggesting that the first wave of products containing RDNA 4m IP is imminent.

Regarding the positioning of RDNA 4m, we know that this GPU IP sits between RDNA 3.5 (GFX1150) and RDNA 4 (GFX1200). This means it is not a true RDNA 4, as it borrows some elements, but not exactly a true RDNA 3.5 either, as it has some upgrades. Some expected capabilities include support for INT8 data types and native FSR 4 technology. However, since AMD announced that older RDNA generations are now getting FSR 4 upscaling, the true purpose of RDNA 4m remains unclear.

AMD has updated its documentation page for the late-July launch of the Radeon RX 9050 graphics cards, which include two models: one with 4 GB and another with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory. Both cards feature 1,024 Streaming Processors across 16 Compute Units and can boost up to a 2.6 GHz clock speed. However, the lower-end GPU has only 4 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 64-bit bus, resulting in a memory bandwidth of 144 GB/s, which is significantly lower than the 8 GB version. The 8 GB version of the Radeon RX 9050 uses 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 288 GB/s, doubling the throughput.

Another difference lies in the Infinity Cache within each GPU die. The 8 GB edition has 32 MB of Infinity Cache, while the 4 GB edition has only 16 MB. Initially, the listing for the 4 GB edition did not reveal the difference in Infinity Cache size, but AMD's documentation confirms it. Naturally, this will result in some performance differences, as larger cache buffers tend to improve performance significantly.

AMD has released its first Adrenalin Edition August driver, version 26.8.1 WHQL. This driver introduces support for the newly announced Radeon RX 9050 4 GB edition GPU. While the previous 26.7.1 WHQL driver supported the Radeon RX 9050 8 GB edition GPU, this August release focuses on the 4 GB edition, which is reportedly exclusive to OEMs. This entry-level RDNA 4 GPU is expected to be priced at $279, and this driver release will help gamers who purchased an OEM-branded PC with this GPU to enjoy basic gaming. Additionally, the driver provides game-ready support for "Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy," "STAR WARS Zero Company," and "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Open Beta Early Access," allowing Radeon gamers to enjoy everything from day-one releases to early access gameplay on their favorite shooter games.

However, AMD noted an issue in this driver release. Games like Cyberpunk 2077 recommend a minimum of 6 GB of VRAM, and when the Radeon RX 9050 4 GB is used, a warning appears on systems with 4 GB VRAM. Users are advised to set graphics-intensive features to low or turn them off entirely. For a full list of bug fixes and known issues, check out the changelog below.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Software Adrenalin 26.8.1 WHQL

AMD's mysterious RDNA 4m integrated graphics have reappeared after a few months of silence, as the GPU has officially been merged into the Mesa 26.3 open-source driver stack. Running under the GFX1171 GPU target, this RDNA 4m is neither a true RDNA 4 design nor a simple RDNA 3 GPU IP. It sits just above RDNA 3.5, with supposed capabilities to support INT8 data types and native FSR 4 technology. However, since AMD announced that older RDNA generations are now getting FSR 4 upscaling, the true purpose of RDNA 4m remains unclear.

As readers may recall, AMD plans to keep its RDNA 3.5 iGPU in use until 2029, meaning most consumers buying laptops in the coming years will experience the same integrated graphics capabilities as those found in today's Ryzen AI 300 and 400 series processors. This suggests that the RDNA 4m, despite its limitations, will be a welcome addition to integrated graphics. "Redstone" features such as ML-based upscaling and rendering technologies rely on the RDNA 4 IP to function effectively. With RDNA 4m support now merged into the Mesa open-source graphics driver, the RADV and RadeonSI drivers are being updated for RDNA 4m.

Late last month, reports indicated that AMD was preparing to increase the prices of its graphics cards by about 10% in July due to ongoing memory shortages. However, according to the latest update from Chinese Board Channels, AMD will implement at least a 10% price hike in August, delaying the increase by about a month. This development affects AMD, which secures GPU dies from its manufacturer TSMC and makes agreements with GDDR6 memory makers like SK hynix, Micron, and Samsung. AMD negotiates rates and quantities for GDDR6 memory and bundles it with a GPU die to form a GPU kit, which is later shipped to its add-in board (AIB) partners.

AMD has now notified its AIB partners that the price increase will be at least 10%, indicating a baseline double-digit percentage increase, although the higher end of the estimate is unknown. Logically, SKUs with more VRAM are expected to carry higher premiums exceeding 10%, such as AMD's current best RDNA 4-based Radeon RX 9070 XT 16 GB. For SKUs with less VRAM, especially entry-level, OEM-exclusive ones like the Radeon RX 9050 4 GB edition, the price increase will likely be only 10%, as these graphics cards require fewer GDDR6 chips.

AMD quietly announced its latest entry-level RDNA 4 GPU, the Radeon RX 9050. The GPU is available in 4 GB and 8 GB editions; however, only the 8 GB edition will be sold as a standalone, discrete graphics card, while the 4 GB edition is exclusive to OEMs. According to Wccftech's Hassan Mujtaba, AMD confirmed that the 4 GB version exists, but it is intended solely for OEMs and system integrators to include in their low-end PC configurations. For gamers, the 8 GB edition will be marketed as the entry-level RDNA 4 GPU and is expected to be priced at $279, making it the most affordable card AMD currently offers. There appear to be no Made by AMD (MBA) designs, as add-in board partners are handling the launch.

We previously reported that the 4 GB model is a scaled-down version of the Radeon RX 9050 8 GB, with differences only in memory configuration. Both cards feature 1,024 Streaming Processors across 16 Compute Units and can boost up to a 2.6 GHz clock speed. However, the lower-end GPU includes only 4 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 64-bit bus, resulting in a memory bandwidth of 144 GB/s, which is significantly lower than the 8 GB version. The 8 GB version of the Radeon RX 9050 uses 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 288 GB/s, double the throughput.