AMD’s flagship RDNA 3 GPU Navi 31 is said to have a small graphics chip, but there’s a reason

Several reasons, in fact: smaller burning nodes and an MCM design that removes some elements, among others.

The flagship of AMD Radeon RX 7000 graphics cards, under RNDA3 architecture, should revolve around the Navi 31 GPU. In any case, for the current range, Navi 21, alias Big Navi, equips the Radeon RX 6900 XT, RX 6800 XT and RX 6800. This Navi 31 GPU would however have a smaller GCD (Graphics Complex Die) surface than Navi 21: 350 mm² approximately according to Greymon55.

Compared to Navi 21?

For comparison, the current Navi 21 GPU has an area of ​​520 mm². At first glance, this would therefore be a reduction in area of ​​approximately 33%.

In order to clearly visualize this difference, the site VideoCardz offers the image below. Only, you will notice, the Navi 21 and 31 GPUs have different designs which make the analogy difficult.

A rather risky comparison

Already, the etching process used is not the same: 7 nm for the first, 5 nm and 6 nm for the second. Next, the design of the Navi 31 GPU, and arguably Navi 32 as well, involves an MCM (Multi-Chip-Module) design rather than a monolithic one.

AMD has been using this type of design for several years for its Ryzen processors. But, so far, the company hasn’t applied it to consumer graphics cards. The first cGPUs to benefit from this are the Instinct MI200 Series accelerators. Moreover, AMD speaks rather of “multi-die GPU”.

Navi 31 and Navi 32 should associate an interconnected GCD with MCDs (Memory Complex Die), up to six in the case of Navi 31. However, each GCD has a surface of 40 mm². If we take the whole, it therefore gives 590 mm²an area finally greater than that of the Navi 21 monolithic GPU.

Moreover, as a journalist from 3DCenter in a tweet, Navi 21 without Infinity Cache and memory controllers has a surface of 375 mm². Finally, the Kepler_L2 account points out that the RDNA3 architecture does without certain elements (XGMI, GDS, etc.).

In short, all these particularities, associated with smaller engraving finenesses, effectively lead to a GPU with rather contained dimensions. Finally, let’s make two things clear. First, the Navi 33 GPU should retain a monolithic design. Then, AMD is suspected by some to prepare an even more powerful GPU than Navi 31.

Source : VideoCardz