Today, AMD announced details about RDNA 4 and the forthcoming Radeon RX 9000-series GPUs. As part of its presentation, AMD revealed new details about the Navi 48 GPU die, which could be one of the densest GPUs we've ever seen.
Navi 48, the GPU die that AMD's RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 cards build upon, has officially been confirmed to be 357 mm². This is quite a bit smaller than the 390 mm² estimate that floated around the internet after AMD showed off Navi 48 to outlets at CES 2025. It is also smaller than the GB203 die used by Nvidia in the RTX 5080 and RTX 5070 Ti, with which Navi 48 directly competes.
Not only is the die smaller than Nvidia's, but it is also significantly denser. Navi 48 contains 53.9 billion transistors, compared to the 45.6 billion within GB203. After some simple division, Navi 48 shows up with 150M transistors per mm² versus GB203's 120M transistors per mm². AMD's latest offering upstages Nvidia with a GPU die that is 25% denser than their competitors. Even looking up to Blackwell's consumer peak, the GB202 used in the RTX 5090, AMD outshines its 123MTr/mm² density.
Obviously, this is not a fair comparison on power, efficiency, or any other metric, as the 5090 likely sits comfortably ahead of RDNA 4 in all metrics. Still, it is worth noting that Nvidia did not seem to prioritize transistor density as highly as AMD has in its current generation. And of course we do need to mention that transistor counts are generally considered to be approximate and that there are different ways of counting, so it's possible that factors into the figures we've derived from AMD's and Nvidia's official specs.
Looking one generation back to see how much RDNA 4 improved in density over RDNA 3 becomes difficult. While Navi 48 is a monolithic die, with its cache on the die with the graphics compute, RDNA 3's Navi 31 was not. Navi 31's GCD also sits at 150M transistors per square millimeter, but without accounting for sharing space with the cache on the same die. Accurately comparing Navi 48 and Navi 31's transistor density is an apples-to-oranges game. Still, credit should go to RDNA 4 for matching the transistor density of its predecessor while also fitting its 64MB L3 cache on the die. AMD's decision to abandon RDNA 3's chiplet-style design for a return to a monolithic die does not seem to have sacrificed density or efficiency.
Navi 48 is coming out of the gate swinging fresh out of its release announcement. With the best transistor density in class, as well as a major investment in improving ray tracing and FSR 4 performance, AMD appears to be attacking Nvidia's upper-midrange products with a zeal we haven't seen from the company's GPU division in quite some time.
If the RX 9070 XT can hit its MSRP of $599 at its March launch (nothing short of a miracle based on current GPU stock), AMD will be impossible to ignore for new GPU buyers. For a deeper dive into the architecture of Navi 48 and RDNA 4, be sure to read our deep dive into all we know about the new generation. Ultimately, though, it comes down to performance. Whatever the claimed transistor density, the faster chip will still be faster. Check back next week for the full reviews.
