AMD's New RDNA4 Architecture Promises Significant Improvements in Ray Tracing

According to the latest leaks from insider Kepler_L2, known for accurate AMD product forecasts, the company has made significant changes to its new RDNA4 graphics processor architecture, especially in terms of ray tracing hardware acceleration. Unlike the previous version, RDNA3, which only improved upon RDNA2 architecture, RDNA4 will feature an entirely new block for ray tracing.

However, despite the anticipated performance improvements, AMD has canceled plans for the large Navi4 chips. This means that any innovations related to RDNA4 RT will only be available in mid-range to high-end models, forcing enthusiasts to wait for the next generation, RDNA5.

Rumors suggest that the PlayStation 5 Pro will use RT acceleration based on RDNA4. In particular, the PS5 Pro is expected to handle shaders for traversing an 8-level volume hierarchy (BVH8), while current RT solutions are limited to a 4-level hierarchy. This could theoretically double the throughput per processing cycle.