AMD could have a secret weapon to make gaming laptops better

AMD could be about to introduce new graphics cards for laptops, at least going by the rumor mill which predicts revamped RDNA 2 GPUs are waiting in the wings.

The possible refresh of RX 6000 mobile GPUs might be based on TSMC’s 6nm process, and could be named as the RX 6000S series. VideoCardz cites hardware leaker Disclosuzen on Twitter as the source for details on these purported new graphics solutions (though note that as PC Gamer, which spotted this, observes, the leaker’s Twitter account has been suspended).

Backing this up, another well-known hardware leaker on Twitter, Greymon55, has previously theorized (a few months back) that AMD has a 6nm-based refresh of the 6000 mobile series inbound, though they believed it would be kick off with the RX 6900M, whereas this fresh leak claims it’ll be the RX 6800S.

The charge could be led by that RX 6800S, and apparently there may be other revamped laptop GPUs in line with that, as you might expect; but not the whole range. Greymon55 has previously guessed that we could see up to four models in the new ‘S’ series. Heavy salt with all this, it goes without saying.

As for rumored specs, apparently the RX 6800S will keep the same core count (2,560) and bus as the existing 6800M, but due to dropping to 6nm (from 7nm with the existing GPU), the 6800S should be capable of higher clock speeds for better performance.

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Analysis: How much of a boost might the drop to 6nm bring?

The RX 6800S (the ‘S’ stands for Super, right?) could obviously be a useful boost for AMD’s laptop GPU line-up, and on 6nm rather than 7nm, as we observed above, it could potentially ramp up clocks nicely; and the other big plus would be improved power-efficiency, too. Of course, when it comes to laptop hardware which is packed into a tight chassis – where heat and the space for adequate cooling solutions becomes a trickier balancing act – more efficiency is a major boon.

That said, there’s little info on the potential spec yet, so we shouldn’t build up any expectations on the performance front. We’ve also heard arguments pushing the idea that 6nm may not offer much in terms of extra oomph or efficiency (but even if any performance gains were minimal, dropping to 6nm would still improve availability of GPUs – always an issue these days – simply because there’ll be more chips from a single wafer).

We’ll just have to see how things pan out, but if these new laptop graphics cards are indeed real, we’ll likely witness more spillage on them soon enough.

Meanwhile, Nvidia is rumored to have new RTX 3000 Ti GPUs for laptops ready to launch at CES 2022, just around the corner at the start of January, with an RTX 3070 Ti mobile version recently being spotted in leaked product details of an Acer laptop.

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