AMD To Potentially Skip RDNA 4 For Rumored Zen 6 CPUs

AMD could be skipping RDNA 4 for its upcoming Zen 6 «Medusa» client CPUs in favor of an integrated RDNA 5 GPU. The RDNA 5 architecture was last referenced in the leaked FTC documents from September 2023, revealing that Microsoft plans to use a Zen 6 APU from AMD for its next-gen Xbox console.

In May 2022, AMD's company roadmap claimed that Zen 5 CPUs would be released sometime in late 2024. Some rumors suggest AMD will release its Zen 5 Granite Ridge processors as early as April, while others claim volume production will instead ramp up in Q3 2024. Granite Ridge is rumored to be the Ryzen 9000 series of desktop CPUs for gaming and productivity, but AMD has yet to reveal any official details.

As reported by Videocardz.com, Twitter user and tech insider Everest claims the Zen 6 Medusa client CPU architecture will use an RDNA 5 iGPU instead of RDNA 4, noting that the company will skip the architecture. It's rumored that AMD will use 2.5D interconnects instead of a multi-die design found in Ryzen 8000G series APUs. This would greatly increase the bandwidth speed between chiplets, with one of the chiplets featuring a new RDNA 5 tile and GDDR7 memory. The new Zen 6 client architecture from AMD is also rumored to use a smaller process node, such as 2nm or 3nm. Speculation currently points toward a release in 2025 or 2026 for Zen6 as well.

RDNA 5 will also be featured in the Zen 6 APU for the next-gen Xbox console, which could launch in 2028, according to Microsoft's leaked documents. The console's Zen 6 APU will feature a balance of «big» and «little» CPU cores with an RDNA 5 GPU co-designed or licensed by AMD.

The switch to RDNA 5 was expected by some enthusiasts in the PC gaming community, but others are disappointed with RDNA 4 potentially being a stopgap until RDNA 5 arrives. Some only consider RDNA 4 to be a slight upgrade to the existing RDNA 3 GPU, which is present on AMD graphics cards like the Radeon RX 7800 XT. At the very least, Zen 6 could be an enticing CPU