AMD RDNA 4 info leak confirms RT performance is getting boosted but could fall short of a major hardware redesign

A respected leaker has given more details about the changes AMD is going to implement for ray tracing in its next-gen RDNA 4 GPU architecture, and while some of the updates look like they will significantly boost some aspects of the algorithms, the leak also suggests that we're not going to see a comprehensive overhaul of the ray tracing units.

The leaker in question is Kepler_L2 on X (via Wccftech), who has a sterling reputation for providing accurate predictions on forthcoming GPUs, as well as dropping the occasional document snippet, as in this case.

It has to be said that the heavily redacted 'features description' isn't especially informative, as there's virtually no indication as to what exactly has been changed. However, the main one that points to a healthy boost in at least one aspect of ray tracing is the 'Double Intersect Ray Tracing Engine.'

The name implies one of two things: AMD's RT units in RDNA 4 will either be double in number to those in RDNA 3 or they're simply capable of processing twice as many ray-triangle intersection calculations. Ultimately, it doesn't really matter how the gains are achieved, just as long as the ray tracing performance is a lot better.

Not that it's really bad in RDNA 3—far from it—it's just that Nvidia's current RTX 40-series are notably better at it than AMD's GPUs, so a big improvement is not only expected, it's pretty much required.

Some of the new RT features coming with gfx12/RDNA4. Most if not all of these should be in the PS5 Pro too