RDNA 4 will integrate more AI – and potentially be more expensive

AMD’s current generation of RDNA 3 and Radeon RX 7000 GPUs may be barely out of the gate, but Team Red is already setting its sights on its next generation, RNDA 4. Recent comments suggest AMD will take a page from Nvidia’s playbook and lean more heavily on AI. This could mark a shift away from AMD’s traditional preference of competing primarily on price and efficiency.

Still Not Sold on Hardware Ray Tracing
AMD’s video cards have historically lagged behind Nvidia’s when it came to hardware ray tracing performance. In a recent interview, head of Radeon David Wang stood by AMD’s decision, arguing that AMD’s image upscaling features “provide performance and quality that can fully compete with Nvidia’s DLSS. "He even went as far as to suggest that Nvidia’s focus on ray tracing was a feature of dubious interest to most gamers.

AMD seems intent on incorporating more AI features into its GPUs, but for different applications. One proposal floated by Wang was using RDNA4’s additional AI cores to improve in-game behavior from NPCs.

A Change in Strategy
To date, AMD has struggled to take market share away from Nvidia, despite producing multiple compelling GPUs in terms of efficiency or price to performance. Regardless of whether or not gamers value ray tracing, the numbers don’t lie: Nvidia’s Bet on ray tracing has translated into record sales and a massive install base. Wang’s comments suggest that AMD’s next generation of GPUs will at least partly focus on Nvidia's traditional strong suit, cutting edge features and overall performance – even at the expense of affordability.

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