AMD's upcoming RDNA 5 flagship could target RTX 5080-level performance with better RT

[Daniel Sims]

Rumor mill: This year's Radeon 9000 series graphics cards delivered impressive performance gains from AMD in the mid-range and mainstream market segments. However, the company chose not to compete at the very high-end categories for this generation. Although Team Red is unlikely to challenge Nvidia's flagship products in the near future, a new GPU expected to launch next year may outperform the RTX 5080.

AMD is expected to introduce a new enthusiast-class graphics card in the second half of 2026. Based on the company's upcoming UDNA architecture, also known as RDNA 5, its configuration will closely resemble that of the Radeon RX 7900 XTX. Prominent leaker KeplerL2, who has a solid track record, speculated about the GPU's specifications in a series of recent posts on the AnandTech forums.

While the RX 9070 XT, the fastest GPU in the RDNA 4 generation, can outperform Nvidia's GeForce RTX 5070 Ti in certain scenarios, AMD did not attempt to rival the RTX 5080, let alone the RTX 5090. However, the next lineup is expected to resemble RDNA 3 featuring a halo product that outperforms Nvidia's 5080. The GPU won't compete with the hypothetical RTX 6090 but could trade blows with a 6080.

Similar to the 7900 XTX, the upcoming high-end AMD GPU will likely include 96 compute units and a 384-bit memory bus. A mid-range version is expected to offer 64 compute units and a 256-bit memory bus, resembling the 9070 XT. A mainstream option might be similar to the 9060 XT, with 32 compute units and a 128-bit bus.

According to sources familiar with AMD's hardware roadmap, Kepler previously estimated that UDNA will improve raster performance by approximately 20 percent over RDNA 4 and double its ray tracing capabilities. RDNA 4 already represents a significant leap in ray tracing over its predecessor.

Also check out: AMD Stagnation :: Radeon 9060 XT 8GB vs 7600 vs 7600 vs 5600 XT Benchmark

Our benchmarks show that the Radeon RX 9070 XT outperforms the 7900 XTX in ray tracing despite sitting an entire weight class below it in traditional rasterization. A UDNA-based GPU with the same configuration as the 7900 XTX could become a ray tracing powerhouse and may even address Radeon's lingering disadvantage against GeForce in path tracing.

Meanwhile, AMD's UDNA architecture is also expected to power the PlayStation 6 and the next Xbox console. A recently leaked die shot suggests that Microsoft's upcoming console includes 80 compute units, potentially outperforming the RTX 5080. With a projected price exceeding $1,000 (unlikely but that's the rumor these days), the console appears to target the pre-built PC market instead of the traditional console market.

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AMD's upcoming RDNA 5 flagship could target RTX 5080-level performance with better RT

 

[Thatsdisgusting]

Sooo, midtier card for 1000$ again, but from AMD?

 

[Aus spot]

Great try to match a last generation product when the opposition has moved 1 or 2 jumps ahead of you.

Price again will show the real winner, but AMD has shown they are as good at Nvidia when keeping profit margins high.

 

[opckieran]

Will AMD finally catch up to nVidia and Intel in terms of Ray and Path tracing?

 

[yRaz]

Sooo, midtier card for 1000$ again, but from AMD?

if it does give 5080 level of performance and does cost $1000 then that means it's about $500 cheaper than the part it's competing with. How is that a bad thing?

 

[Neatfeatguy]

9070XT is only about 15% behind a 5080 in relative performance (I don't care about RT/PT/FG/Upscaling crap because why would I want to use a feature that drops performance by 30-60% and have to rely on more software to make up the lost frames? That's just stupid.). Looks like they're thinking about a 15% bump in performance?

So, more minor gains in the next up and coming generation of GPUs from AMD? Makes me think Nvidia will be the same. Sounds utterly boring.

 

[VariableSpike]

if it does give 5080 level of performance and does cost $1000 then that means it's about $500 cheaper than the part it's competing with. How is that a bad thing?

Because its more than it should be in the first place, its like congratulating someone for making a lawnmower for 4k instead of 5k, neither should be that much in the first place (especially when you know neither AMD or Nvidia will sell you the card at MSRP) - I'm happy with my 7900 xtx, but the GPU space is not healthy for consumers at all

 

[Thatsdisgusting]

if it does give 5080 level of performance and does cost $1000 then that means it's about $500 cheaper than the part it's competing with. How is that a bad thing?

Ok, lets forget that the whole price/perf pathetic story for 40 series, 50 series and RX9000. Lets take it this way - atm, you can get 9070XT for ~800$. And that's 5070Ti tier. So 10% more performance for 20% more price is good?

P.S. I'm not even thinking about 5080's minimum price of around 1200$ for garbage like gamingpro or ventus

 

[GodisanAtheist]

I'm not sure the main article really maths on this one.

A 96CU 384-bit RDNA4 GPU (so 50% more of everything, but current gen IPC) would already be comfortably between the 4090 and 5090 (so quite a bit faster than the 5080, which is still slower than the 4090).

Assuming RDNA5/UDNA whatever it's called comes with some IPC uplift as well, you're already looking at a part that's competitive with the 5090 if not faster.

 

[umeng2002]

"With better RT." And by the time it releases, the RTX 6080 will be out.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Because its more than it should be in the first place, its like congratulating someone for making a lawnmower for 4k instead of 5k, neither should be that much in the first place (especially when you know neither AMD or Nvidia will sell you the card at MSRP) - I'm happy with my 7900 xtx, but the GPU space is not healthy for consumers at all

So, are you basing this on the actual cost of development, production, and shipping of high end computing hardware; compounded by rampant 50%+ inflation from nearly doubling the world's money supply, or are you basing this on historic prices?

The 4080/5080 are high end GPUs, not midrange. The only thing higher are the halo tier 4090/5090, which are absolutely monstrous processors that will never be cheap.

Will AMD finally catch up to nVidia and Intel in terms of Ray and Path tracing?

Depends on if nvidia falls asleep at the wheel for a second generation and pulls another blackwell. If they do, there's a good chance AMD closes the gap.

Historically, nvidia doesnt do two band generations in a row, but they've also never had such a dominant position before, so who knows.

Ok, lets forget that the whole price/perf pathetic story for 40 series, 50 series and RX9000. Lets take it this way - atm, you can get 9070XT for ~800$. And that's 5070Ti tier. So 10% more performance for 20% more price is good?

P.S. I'm not even thinking about 5080's minimum price of around 1200$ for garbage like gamingpro or ventus

Techpowerup has the 5080 at 20% faster than the 9070xt. That percentage gets far worse when you start enabling RT.

So it would be 20% faster for 20% more (more like 30% given you can now find 9070xts for closer to $720) which wouldnt be a good deal for those who have a rDNA4 chip, but would provide an upgrade path for 7900 series users or those of us still on rDNA 1/2 who want a flagship.

That being said, I doubt that will happen. If AMD's core configs are accurate, the $1000 chip will most likely be the 96CU 384 bit card, which would kick the 5080's arse. The 64CU model with a 20% IPC improvement would put it right in line with the 5080, and that's the core config of the current 9070xt. So you're more likely to see a 10070xt at a price more comaprable to the 5070ti now while providing 5080 performance.

 

[PaladinNH]

Well yeah, their current 9070 XT already trades blows with the 5070 Ti, so I'd hope the next generation will beat a 5080 that's only 10% better.

Sorry. I loved my 6800 XT, and the 7900 XT was a nice alternative to the 4070s (once it came down to a reasonable $650).

But AMD's losing big time this gen. DLSS 4 is awesome, and NV has two good to great high end options in the 5070 and 5070 Ti. That 9070 XT needed to be no higher than $650 and it's just now getting to $700-750. At that price the 5070 Ti's a no brainer (just bought one for $750).

Of course, if the 9070s didn't exist, the 5070s would be priced as ridiculously as the 5080 and 5090, so, thank you AMD. AMD's the only reason we're now getting 4080-level cards (5070 Ti) for $750.

 

[Watzupken]

"With better RT." And by the time it releases, the RTX 6080 will be out.

Yes, but that is assuming Nvidia produces proper hardware improvements rather than doubling down on frame generation shenanigans and creative marketing like RTX 5070 = RTX 4090. The fact that Nvidia is only going after the AI hardware segment may mean that gaming GPU will get deprioritised.

 

[VaRmeNsI]

Did no one read the article?

It said compete with 6080...

 

[opckieran]

Depends on if nvidia falls asleep at the wheel for a second generation and pulls another blackwell. If they do, there's a good chance AMD closes the gap.

Historically, nvidia doesnt do two band generations in a row, but they've also never had such a dominant position before, so who knows.

Honestly I can see them doing it again. They’re making far more money and performance gains in AI; I see no scenario where they put AI on hold to care about gaming again.

 

[daffy duck]

Cough BS cough.

If a 50% CU core increase, on 384 bit bus and using probably GDDR7 doesn't improve performance more than 15-20% over 9070XT, AMD should give it away. The numbers the leaker claim are ludicrous in the extreme. I bet $1000 Navi 51 with 96CU's will beat 4090, including in RT. AMD have more hardware RT improvements to come. The target for 10090XT would be 6080 at least.

 

[Squid Surprise]

Did no one read the article?

It said compete with 6080...

But not match or exceed…

If it matches the 5080, that means it will be about the same as Nvidia’s 6070 or 6070Ti at best… so basically the same as the 9070XT does now against the 5000 series…

So… not really news at all… pricing will be the deciding factor - which we won’t get for another year…

 

[godrilla]

Because its more than it should be in the first place, its like congratulating someone for making a lawnmower for 4k instead of 5k, neither should be that much in the first place (especially when you know neither AMD or Nvidia will sell you the card at MSRP) - I'm happy with my 7900 xtx, but the GPU space is not healthy for consumers at all

It's true AMD was like we aren't competing at the high end only to allow prices to swell out of control and then conveniently come back as the hero. The $999 is just a rumored placeholder msrp pricing also who knows what the actual pricing will be like. The cheapest 9070xt is about 17% over MSRP.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Honestly I can see them doing it again. They’re making far more money and performance gains in AI; I see no scenario where they put AI on hold to care about gaming again.

That would be the best outcome, if AMD was able to compete and take some significant marketshare. Maybe FSR4 would finally gain some traction too.

 

[WhiteLeaff]

You clearly have no idea what you're talking about if you think 96CU UDNA = 5080 XD.

 

[ScottSoapbox]

Since most people misread this article:

“the next lineup is expected to resemble RDNA 3 featuring a halo product that outperforms Nvidia's 5080…

UDNA will improve raster performance by approximately 20 percent over RDNA 4 and double its ray tracing capabilities.”

So faster than a 5080 which could easily match a 6080 if Nvidia repeats its pitiful generational improvements.

If true, A) it may force Nvidia to compete more and B) ray tracing may become less of a performance hit.

 

[Squid Surprise]

So faster than a 5080 which could easily match a 6080 if Nvidia repeats its pitiful generational improvements.

If true, A) it may force Nvidia to compete more and B) ray tracing may become less of a performance hit.

Nvidia is using a new node for the 6000 series so the 6080 will easily outperform the 5080 ….

“Trade blows with” tends to mean “wins one benchmark” when AMD compares itself to more expensive Nvidia cards.

Again, all of this is meaningless conjecture until we get actual hardware and a price…