an imminent launch almost confirmed

The appearance of the Radeon RX 8600 and RX 8800 in the source code of AMD software suggests that these two graphics cards are about to appear on the market, to the delight of gamers; the possibility that they will be made official at CES 2025 grows day by day.

The development of new generations of graphics cards often takes place in the shadows, fueling rumors and speculation for months. It is in this context that the appearance of Radeon RX 8600 et RX 8800 in the source code of ROCm, AMD’s software platform dedicated to high-performance computing, practically confirms the existence of these two models based on the RDNA 4 architecture and allows us to glimpse the potential characteristics of these cards.

ROCm: an open window on the future of AMD GPUs

ROCm, acronym for Radeon Open Compute Platformis as its name suggests a software platform developed by AMD to harness the power of its GPUs in high performance computing, artificial intelligence and machine learning. Open source and directly accessible on GitHub, the ROCm code is therefore a mine of information regularly offering an overview of projects in progress at AMD.

The appearance of the names “RX 8600” and “RX 8800” in the ROCm source code is a strong sign of the progress in the development of these cards. References to these models, associated with the mention of thearchitecture Navi 4X (RDNA 4)leave little room for doubt as to their existence and their upcoming integration into the ROCm ecosystem, and therefore their imminent addition to the manufacturer’s catalog. This discovery allows us to confirm the rumors and leaks that have been circulating for several months, and to state with more certainty that the launch of these cards is close.

Also read: The Radeon RX 8800 XT would combine energy efficiency and raw power, enough to dethrone the RTX 4080?

FP8: a major asset for AI and performance?

Analysis of the ROCm code also reveals a crucial element: the support of format FP8 (8-bit Floating Point) for the RX 8600 and RX 8800. Digital data format used to accelerate artificial intelligence calculations, FP8 allows more information to be processed in parallel while reducing energy consumption. The integration of FP8 into the RX 8600 and RX 8800 therefore suggests that AMD wants to advance the artificial intelligence capabilities of its consumer graphics cards. This characteristic represents a major asset for AMD, which still aims to compete with NVIDIA in the field of AI, and more specifically inupscaling assisted by artificial intelligence. In practice, this could result in a future improvement in AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) technology, intended as a reminder to increase the definition of games while preserving visual quality.

The appearance of the RX 8600 and RX 8800 in the ROCm source code in any case reinforces the probability of an official announcement of these two cards during CES 2025 which will be held in early January. Coincidence (or not), AMD has confirmed that a press conference will be held during this event…