AMD unveils new 7-nanometer next-generation Radeon VII GPU

Today at CES AMD unveiled its next-generation GPU, the Radeon VII (pronounced seven), the world’s first GPU with a 7nm process. This news is particularly intriguing for Mac users, given the outright lack of support for competing Nvidia cards in macOS Mojave. It’s highly likely that macOS will gain future compatibility with AMD’s just-announced hardware in future releases.

Set for February 7th retailer availability, the Radeon VII boasts the following specs:

• 7nm technology process
• 3840 stream processors
• 16 GB memory
• 1 TB/s memory bandwidth
• AMD FreeSync2 HDR technology

The second-generation Vega architecture found in the Radeon VII provides greater performance than previous offerings, such as the popular RX Vega 64 that we’ve often covered here on 9to5Mac. The Radeon VII is better equipped to handle 4K gaming, boasting frame rates higher than 60FPS at 4K resolution, and is seen as a direct competitor to the Nvidia RTX 2080.

AMD notes that its new GPU provides 2X more memory, 2.1X more memory bandwidth, up to 29 percent higher gaming performance on average, and up to 36 percent higher performance on average in demanding content creation applications compared to the fastest consumer card it previously offered, the Radeon RX Vega 64.

“AMD Radeon VII is the highest-performance gaming graphics card we ever created,” said Scott Herkelman, corporate vice president and general manager, Radeon Technologies Group at AMD. “It is designed for gamers, creators and enthusiasts who demand ultra-high quality visuals, uncompromising performance and immersive gaming experiences.”

AMD’s Radeon VII will retail for $699 once it launches early next month. Rest assured that we will be going hands-on with the GPU on Mac as soon as it’s feasible. We’ll presumably have to wait on Apple to add Radeon VII support in its macOS software, which will likely happen first within upcoming beta releases of macOS Mojave.

The Radeon VII hardware could appear directly in future Mac hardware, such as the Mac Pro or iMac Pro refresh. That said, the Radeon VII should make for quite the powerful eGPU setup. I’m especially looking forward to slapping one of these cards in my Razer Core X eGPU chassis, and connecting it to my 2018 Mac mini or other Thunderbolt equipped Mac.

What are your thoughts on the Radeon VII? Are you excited about its eGPU potential? Sound off in the comments with your thoughts.