After heavy criticism for its announcement of an announcement earlier this month, AMD has followed through with the release of a first look at its next-generation RX 6000-series graphics card(s). It's decidedly different from any first-party AMD cards we've seen before, incorporating a triple-fan cooler and dual-8pin connectors.
AMD has typically had rather lacklustre first-party reference cards, still using noisy and inefficient blower coolers are recently as its first-generation RDNA RX 5700 and 5700 XT in 2019. The RX 6000-series in 2020 is looking to change that, it seems. This new card is a chonky boi, with a large internal heatsink under the shroud and three large fans which should help keep this card both cool and quiet. That'll be important, especially if the rumors are true that third-party AMD RX 6000 cards won't be coming until much later this year or possibly even in early 2021.
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/KGQAOXDivZ
— Radeon RX (@Radeon) September 14, 2020
It's not clear if what we're looking at in these images is Navi 21, I.E. Big Navi, or whether it'll be something a little further down the product stack. Still, dual-8pin connectors means it could draw as much as 375W at a time if needed, so this could be the super powerful, top-tier AMD GPU we've been waiting for. Maybe not. We shall see.
If you want to take a closer look at this design, you can do so inside Fortnite on AMD's Creative Island: 8651-9841-1639. Like the reveal of the name of this generation, AMD is using the game to promote its next-generation graphics cards and may well continue to do so with additional releases in the coming weeks.
