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AMD will take the wraps off the newest Radeon RX 6000 GPU on March 3

 

AMD’s Radeon RX 6000 family is growing! The GPU maker announced that it will add a new graphics card utilizing the underlying RDNA 2 microarchitecture at an event scheduled for 11 a.m. ET on March 3. Folks on the West Coast will have to tune in at 8 a.m. PT for AMD’s announcement.

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“On March 3rd, the journey continues for #RDNA2,” AMD wrote in a tweet from its Radeon account. “Join us at 11AM US Eastern as we reveal the latest addition to the @AMD Radeon RX 6000 graphics family.”

While AMD has put up a page on its website announcing the March 3 presentation, the company has not given us any clues as to what new cards to expect. To date, AMD’s Radeon RX 6900 XT, Radeon RX 6800 XT, and Radeon 6800 are the only cards in the Radeon RX 6000 family. Prior to today’s announcement, there were rumors that AMD would release a more affordable Radeon RX 6700 XT card with 12GB of video memory to better compete against Nvidia’s midrange and entry-level GeForce RTX cards.

Whatever AMD announces at the event, the new GPU will be powered by the same RDNA 2 microarchitecture that powers the company’s high-end PC graphics cards, as well as the graphics experience on the latest consoles, such as Microsoft’s Xbox Series X and Sony’s PlayStation 5. AMD’s latest card will have to compete against rival Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3000 series, all of which are based on the competing Ampere architecture.

AMD Radeon RX 6000
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Team Red gamers excited for AMD’s latest wares will likely have to pre-order early, especially if they want to be among the first on the block to rock the GPU. Graphics cards have been affected by shortages in the semiconductor industry, and GPUs from Nvidia and AMD have been hit especially hard. Graphics cards have been quickly selling out as soon as retailers replenish their stock with what little inventory they get in, and gamers have been frustrated by the fact that they now have to compete against scalpers and cryptocurrency miners to snag a GPU.

Nvidia predicted late last year that shortages of its cards would likely persist through the first quarter of this year, while AMD more recently predicted that the situation may last at least through the first half of the year.

Chuong Nguyen
Silicon Valley-based technology reporter and Giants baseball fan who splits his time between Northern California and Southern…
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