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AMD dropped a surprise today with the first image of the Radeon RX 6000 alias Big Navi, which will give Nvidia’s Ampere a run for its money for the best gaming graphics card. The chipmaker recently announced a keynote for Big Navi on October 28 at 10 a.m. PT and what better way to build up hype than to drop a small teaser before the event.
Big Navi likely exploits AMD’s RDNA (Radeon DNA) 2 microarchitecture. If you’ve been following the console scene, RDNA 2 powers the GPUs that will land inside Microsoft’s Xbox Series X and Sony’s PlaySation 5. However, the next-generation Radeon RX 6000 series will show RDNA 2’s true power. Bearing in mind AMD’s close relationship with TSMC, the foundry should continue to provide Big Navi on the 7nm FinFET process node for Team Red’s next wave of graphics cards. It’s pretty much a given that Big Navi retains support for the fast PCIe 4.0 interface as well.
On an aesthetic level, the Radeon RX 6000, which is probably the reference edition, is definitely easy on the eyes. It seems AMD opted for a black and silver theme with some red highlights. The graphic card’s profile reminds us a bit of Nvidia’s last-gen Founders Edition shroud, especially the placement of the dual 8-pin PCIe connectors and the Radeon logo, which could have LED backlighting.
Take a first look at the design of the new Radeon RX 6000 series. Our upcoming @AMD #RDNA2 graphics cards will feature a brand new cooler design, and you can study every angle yourself on our Fortnite Creative Island. 8651-9841-1639. pic.twitter.com/KGQAOXDivZSeptember 14, 2020
Remaining faithful to its informal codename, the Radeon RX 6000 looks to be a big graphics card, although images can be deceptive. Be that as it may, the graphics card features a triple-fan cooling solution, insinuating that it has hefty cooling requirements. Furthermore, common sense tells that AMD wouldn’t implement three fans into the cooling solution unless they were necessarily required.
The graphics card draws power through two 8-pin PCIe power connectors. The PCIe slot delivers up to 75W and each 8-pin PCIe power connector can supply up to 150W, meaning the Radeon RX 6000 could pull up to 375W. It doesn’t mean that Big Navi is a power hog, though. It’s just that the juice is there if the graphics card requires it.
At first, we couldn’t see the Radeon RX 6000’s video outputs. However, tech analyst Anshel Sag has kindly provided a Youtube video of every pixel of the graphics card.
Apparently, AMD has equipped the Radeon RX 6000 with one HDMI port, two DisplayPort outputs and the previously rumored USB-C port that’s said to be present on certain Navi 21-based models. Given the lack of the lightning bolt symbol, it’s safe to assume that it’s a normal USB-C port and not a Thunderbolt 3 interface. The first though that comes to mind is that the port is there to accommodate USB-C monitors that are becoming ever so popular these days.
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