AMD Navi PCB Leaks – Confirms Memory Configuration

Images of a new AMD-made PCB have appeared online, showcasing what seems to be AMD’s first Navi GPU offering, a reference design which will likely be used to create AMD’s own Navi graphics cards as well as its workstation/enterprise variants. 

For starters, this PCB confirmed that AMD plans to utilise GDDR6 memory, with the PCB having space for eight modules, suggesting that this graphics card will offer 8GB of total VRAM over a 256-bit memory bus, making this GPU similar to an RX 580, albeit with GDDR6 memory. 

On the Nvidia side, their Turing-powered RTX 2070 and RTX 2080 graphics cards offer 8GB of GDDR6 memory over a 256-bit memory bus, though it is worth noting that AMD prior graphics card generations tended to get less usable bandwidth from their memory, mostly due to Nvidia’s strong bandwidth saving and compression features.  

In terms of power, this graphics card also ships with space for dual 8-pin power connectors, though it is worth noting that AMD doesn’t need to use these mounting positions. Even so, this gives AMD’s Navi GPU a maximum TDP of around 300W, assuming that they decide to use dual 8-pin power inputs. AMD could easily use an 8-pin 6-pin power configuration, leaving the extra pins for their AIB partners to utilise. 

What is also visible is a triangle of holes which seem to indicate that this PCB supports a blower-style fan, which is not necessarily a bad thing. AMD’s reference PCBs are often used for workstation cards and consumer GPUs, so space for a blower fan is not a guarantee that AMD’s reference gaming design will use one.