It's been rumored for a while now that AMD won't replace its flagship RDNA 3 GPUs with RDNA 4, opting to go after the midrange and entry-level markets. AMD has yet to confirm this, of course, but each new leak about AMD's next-generation GPUs seems to signal AMD will likely abandon the high-end GPU market with RDNA 4. The latest rumor bolsters this notion is that the company won't use GDDR7 for RDNA 4. Instead, it will go with slower 18Gb/s GDDR6 memory, which it currently uses in some of its existing GPUs.
The source of this latest rumor is one of the more reliable sources in the tech-leaking world: Kepler on X. This account has been correct in the past when it comes to hardware leaks, and given the rumors swirling around AMD, using less expensive GDDR6 instead of expensive GDDR7 does makes sense. After all, if you're going after these price-sensitive markets with midrange and entry-level GPUs, sometimes even a cost of $20 can swing a buyer in one direction or another. It's also likely that buyers in these markets will be less concerned about the type of memory their GPU uses and just want good performance for a reasonable price.
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It's also possible AMD has made some advancements with its GPU Infinity Cache, which can boost memory bandwidth. So, it's theoretically possible it can get by just fine without using blazing-fast GDDR7 memory. Also, given the narrower memory buses used for midrange GPUs, it might be an odd pairing if AMD were to follow in Nvidia's (alleged) footsteps and use something like 32Gb/s GDDR7.
If AMD does use 18Gb/s GDDR6 memory, that is just a tad bit slower than the fastest memory it uses currently, which is 20Gb/s GDDR6 in the RX 7900 XTX/XT series. As Videocardz notes, it already uses 18Gb/s modules on its Radeon RX 7900 GRE and 7700 XT, while the 7800 XT uses 19.5Gb/s memory. AMD is reportedly targeting the Radeon 7900 GRE for the performance ceiling of RDNA 4, with that card costing $549 and offering 16GB of memory for 1440p gaming. The company might be able to offer that same level of performance at around $350 or so, which could be a compelling value.
