The upcoming AMD Radeon RX 8800 XT GPU is rumoured to be better at handling ray tracing, delivering performance in the vicinity of an RTX 4080. The chip is also expected to be much more efficient than its predecessor.
According to leaker zhangzhonghao on the Chiphell forum, AMD’s next-gen GPUs are set to start production in mid-December. One of these is said to be Radeon RX 8800 XT, featuring the new RDNA 4 architecture. zhangzhonghao claims that this chip can deliver raster and ray tracing performance near the level of GeForce RTX 4080, possibly even 4080 Super.
Against its predecessors, RX 8800 XT is said to be 45% faster than RX 7900 XTX in ray-traced Resident Evil 4, while being 25% more efficient. It seems that AMD is catching up to Nvidia in the ray tracing department. However, Team Green has yet to unleash its RTX 50 Series, which could nullify this improvement depending on price.
Lastly, the leaker indicates that though these chips are entering mass production there are still some minor bugs that need to be fixed. Hopefully, these can be fixed before the launch to avoid disappointing customers. But regardless, those who opt for a Radeon 8000 model will have nice improvements to look for, assuming all the above is true.
Pushing RTX 4080 / RTX 4080 Super-tier of performance while taking about 260W of power is undoubtedly fantastic. That said, the new Radeon will have to fight Nvidia’s upcoming RTX 50 cards in addition to the RTX 40 lineup. In other words, the RX 8800 XT is likely to end up against the RTX 5070, a range where Nvidia targets around 220 watts of power. Not to forget that the latter will use the brand’s latest Blackwell architecture rocking its own performance and efficiency improvements.
As things currently stand, RX 8800 XT shapes up to be the fastest GPU AMD is planning to launch this generation. The brand’s renewed focus on the midrange is a gamble to grab market share rather than participating in the one-sided high-end battles it has over the past few generations. Thankfully, the chip should also feature a new upscaling technology powered by AI, possibly sharing similarities with Sony’s PSSR, which could keep it competitive.
High-end or not, AMD can still win consumer hearts and reviewer charts. All it needs is a well-balanced product with an adequate price.