AMD is having a banner year, but for all the announcements and product launches, we haven’t heard much about upcoming Radeon GPUs. AMD even pushed out its RDNA 4 launch from October to early 2025, possibly to clean out its stock of high-end RDNA 3 GPUs. It looks like the company plans to announce it at CES, which takes place Jan. 7-10. AMD still isn’t dropping many clues, but one appeared in the code for the ROCm library, suggesting that AMD will soon release Radeon RX 8800 and RX 8600 series GPUs.
ROCm is a software stack with drivers and various tools for developers. An eagle-eyed X user tipped off VideoCardz that the ROCm’s code has new information about the GPUs. As VideoCardz points out, the code now includes a reference to “gfx12_rx8600,” and gfx12_rx8800 / Navi 44. The code also indicates that the RX 8600 is GFX 1200, and the RX 8800 is GFX 1201 / Navi 48.
So, is this confirmation? Sort of. Almost. AMD has yet to confirm the products through the usual channels, but we’d say the appearance of the products in the ROCm code makes for something very close to confirmation. Unfortunately, none of this helps move speculation about the GPUs’ specs out of the world of rumor. We hope to see more hints as the end of the year approaches.
What we do know is that AMD isn’t likely to battle it out with Nvidia for the top GPU in the PC gaming segment—at least, not at the outset. The company made that clear this fall, when Jack Huynh, a senior vice president and general manager of AMD’s Computing and Graphics Business Group, told Tom’s Hardware he was prioritizing scale (over fighting for king of the hill) because he’s focused on attracting developers at the moment. And the fact that the code didn’t include an RX 8900 makes a top-tier GPU even more unlikely.
Huynh’s comments make sense and don’t seem to rule out the possibility of an RX8900 or some future high-end GPU down the line, which is worth noting. Ceding the top GPU slot to Nvidia temporarily to focus on scale is one thing. Leaving it to Nvidia long-term would be another. By the way, AMD announced yesterday that Jack Huynh will be at the press conference at CES.
