AMD’s Big Navi graphics card could arrive at Computex 2020
‘Nvidia killer’ could show up in June – and probably needs to
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AMDis preparing to launch its high-endNavi graphics cardat Computex, according to the latest from the GPU grapevine.
This comes from that well-known source of graphics-related leaks Videocardz, which floated the rumored launch date on Twitter.
We were told NVIDIA will launch a new GPU in the second quarter. AMD is also expected to have Big Navi around Computex.Info from board partners.January 20, 2020
As you can see, according to details imparted by graphics cards manufacturers, AMD will launch its Big Navi GPU – otherwise known as the ‘Nvidiakiller’ – around Computex which takes place in June.
Naturally, we can’t put too much faith in a single rumor, and indeed this is only what’s ‘expected’ by said GPU makers at the moment, so even they aren’t certain. But it would appear that this is AMD’s intended launch timeframe.
Of course the other question is whether a launch might be an actual launch – where the high-end GPU is announced as imminently going on sale – or an initial reveal, ahead of the card hitting the shelves later in the year.
Concrete confirmation
What we do know is that AMD’s chief executive has justgiven us concrete confirmationthat there will be a high-end Navi graphics card released this year. And of course Computex is a suitably likely candidate for that launch.
Particularly as the other thing we’ve recently seen is another mention of theRadeon RX 5950XT in an EEC filing, which could be the product name of AMD’s incoming high-end card, and might indicate that it will be arriving sooner rather than later this year.
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Previous rumors dating way backhave pointed to a mid-2020 launch, and of course perhaps the most pressing consideration for AMD must be that it needs to get its skates on with this high-end product.
Mainly becauseNvidia’s next-gen GPUs are on the horizon, and as that Videocardz tweet mentions, an Nvidia graphics card launch is expected in Q2. If the ‘Nvidia killer’ ends up competing against thelikes of the RTX 3080rather than current Turing cards, then that’s likely a narrative which won’t end well for AMD.
Still, none of this means a Computex launch will happen, of course, because ultimately it all depends on whether or not Big Navi is ready. Naturally, if it isn’t ready, it won’t be launched – simple as.
All we can do, as ever, is watch and wait, but we can certainly expect the leaks and rumors to start coming thicker and faster for both AMD and Nvidia graphics cards as 2020 progresses.
Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for TechRadar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - ‘I Know What You Did Last Supper’ - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).
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