AMD is gearing up to introduce its next-generation RDNA 4 GPU architecture, featuring a new and enhanced ray tracing engine. These advancements are expected to benefit both the Radeon RX 8000 series graphics cards and Sony’s upcoming PlayStation 5 Pro console.
Improved Ray Tracing Features
The enhanced ray tracing capabilities of RDNA 4 will include several new features:
- Double Ray Tracing Intersect Engine
- RT Instance Node Transform
- 64B RT Node
- Ray Tracing Tri-Pair Optimization
- BVH Footprint Improvement
- RT support for OBB and Instance Node Intersection
These improvements aim to bring AMD closer to NVIDIA in terms of ray tracing performance. While AMD introduced ray tracing with its RDNA 2 GPUs in 2020, NVIDIA had already set the pace with its Turing GPUs back in 2018. Despite AMD’s advancements, NVIDIA’s current Ada GPUs still outperform AMD’s RDNA 3 GPUs.
Benefits for PS5 Pro
The PlayStation 5 Pro is set to leverage these ray tracing enhancements, promising a significant performance boost over the standard PS5. This is crucial as Sony and Microsoft continue to compete fiercely in the console market. The PS5 Pro will feature custom RDNA GPU elements, including BVH8 traversal, which is a step up from the BVH4 traversal supported by current RDNA GPUs.
Release Timeline
According to reports, AMD’s RDNA 4 GPUs are expected to debut in early 2025. The flagship Navi 48 GPU might be unveiled at CES 2025, with the Navi 44 GPU following in Q2 2025. This timeline places AMD in a strong position to compete with NVIDIA’s next-gen GeForce RTX 50 series GPUs, which are also slated for release around the same period.
