AMD RDNA 2 Powered Radeon RX 6000 Refresh Rumored For Desktop, Could Feature Faster 18 Gbps GDDR6 Memory Dies

AMD might be preparing a refresh of its Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards powered by the RDNA 2 architecture.

The AMD Radeon RX 6000 series lineup has received a soft refresh on the mobility and desktops platform already. We got to see the new Radeon RX 6000M XT, Radeon RX 6000S, and 6nm GPUs announced for both platforms at CES 2022. Now it looks like AMD is also planning to launch brand new desktop refreshes of its existing RX 6000 lineup.

https://twitter.com/greymon55/status/1482986493266128899

According to Greymon55 (via Videocardz), it is reported that AMD could be preparing a new version of the Radeon RX 6000 series based on the RDNA 2 architecture. There are no details mentioned aside from that these new graphics cards might feature 18 Gbps 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.

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: