AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT, RX 6850 XT, RX 6750 XT ‘RDNA 2 Refresh’ Graphics Cards Rumored For Q2 2022: Navi 21 & 22 GPUs With 18 Gbps Memory

Following yesterday's rumor, it looks like another leaker has revealed that AMD is indeed working on an RDNA 2 'Radeon RX 6000' series graphics card refresh which will launch in Q2 2022.

According to the latest rumor coming from Chiphell's 'wjm47196' it is reported that AMD's RDNA 2 refresh is coming out in Q2 2022 and will feature a brand new branding, similar to the new mobile outings. There are two GPUs that are currently mentioned, that will be updated, and these include the AMD Navi 21 and Navi 22. Now we don't know exactly as to what extent these GPUs will get updated but it could be a minor one.

https://twitter.com/greymon55/status/1483375842298191874

The AMD Navi 21 GPU currently powers the Radeon RX 6900 XT, RX 6800 XT & RX 6800 while the Navi 22 GPU powers the RX 6700 XT on the desktop platform. So if AMD was to use a similar GPU naming convention as their mobile lineup, then their replacements coming in Q2 2022 are going to be known as the Radeon RX 6950 XT, RX 6850 XT, RX 6750 XT.

From the previous rumor, we came to know that these cards would also feature 18 Gbps GDDR6 memory dies. Currently, all cards except the upcoming RX 6500 XT & the flagship RX 6900 XT LC, features 16 Gbps memory dies. The bump to 18 Gbps might offer higher bandwidth and increase performance by 2-5% but that doesn't indicate a huge difference with the refreshed series. AMD seems to not be considering Navi 23 GPUs for the upgrade as they are more mainstream offerings and were released recently compared to the higher-end variants which have been out for over a year now.

It would've been worthwhile if AMD has given its existing desktop GPUs the 6nm treatment and managed to get more performance efficiency out of them but that isn't happening, however, there have been several rumors of such a lineup launching later this year. It looks like this soft refresh is going to be a very silent release and will only come specifically via AIB cards. There would also be a small price difference and the TGP numbers are expected to go up slightly with the addition of the faster memory chips. These GPUs will likely compete with Intel's high-end ARC Alchemist GPUs that are launching in a few months. The following table shows all the RDNA 2 graphics cards that AMD is currently offering: