Multiple AMD listings suggest the “Nvidia Killer” Big Navi GPU release date is close

The new Korean RRA entry could mean the Big Navi graphics card is just a month from release

February 19, 2020 A new ATI Technologies certification has appeared in the RRA database today, suggesting more AMD GPUs are being tested pre-release.

The AMD Big Navi graphics card, the fabled ‘Nvidia Killer,’ may have recently passed its official Korean RRA certification. A second new GPU has today appeared in the Radio Research Agency database, with a model number we haven’t yet seen, and that’s usually the precursor to an imminent graphics card release.

With the RX 5600 XT having already hit the shelves we can be pretty sure this is something new, and the only things left to come from the AMD Radeon skunkworks that we’ve been waiting for are the Big Navi graphics cards sporting the Navi 2x GPUs. These could then be the cards that AMD is planning to disrupt 4K gaming with. And fingers crossed not just some boring Mac-only AMD cards…

The new model number is interesting in that the certification we assume was given to the RX 5600 XT uses a higher number than either of these latest registration documents display. That leans into the thinking that AMD’s high-end Navi GPU has been on the cards for some time, and seemingly well before it chose to create a middle-order RX 5600 XT to combat Nvidia at that competitive price point.

The entry has been surfaced by the RRA Twitter Bot, following another ATI RRA certification (via @Komachi), and in all honesty still doesn’t give us a lot of detail about what the card is aside from the timing of the certification. But with the rest of the RX 5000-series cards already registered one of these could be the ones we’ve been waiting for.

ATI RRA certification

The latest certification is interesting in that not only does it list a model name, but it also lists derivatives. I initially thought that might indicate a full range of cards based on a single GPU, but I’m not convinced that’s how those secondary model names work. It certainly doesn’t seem to be how previous RRA certifications have unfolded.

What is the AMD Big Navi release date?

One thing the multiple certifications do tell us is that the launch of these cards, whatever they turn out to be, is imminent. That means the AMD Big Navi release date could be as little as one month away. Gotta say, I still love the fact that the ATI Technologies name just won’t die…

ATI RRA certification list

 

The RX 5600 XT model number, D32501, passed certification on December 3, 2019 with a release on January 21,2020. Similarly the RX 5500 XT, presumably D18902, passed on November 27, 2019, with its release on December 12 less than a month later.

Given that AMD has already stated that it’s going to be dishing the dirt on the new Radeon RDNA 2.0 architecture on March 5, and that there’s the potential for the high-end Navi to be the first graphics card to hit our PCs sporting the new AMD GPU design.

Why’s that important? Because that’s expected to be the first Microsoft DXR compatible architecture to enable real-time ray tracing support. Fancy, eh? It’s going to be interesting seeing just how Nvidia inevitably responds to AMD’s Big Navi launch.