AMD and Nvidia may release new graphics cards in September, ahead of the PS5 and Xbox Series X.

It is already known that Nvidia plans to include the Ampere next-generation graphics architecture in future GeForce graphics cards, and AMD has long been rumored to be developing a powerful Navi graphics card based on the RDNA architecture. It has been rumored for some time that AMD is developing a powerful Navi graphics card based on the RDNA architecture. However, Digitimes reported that the next generation of GPUs will arrive in September and that graphics card giants expect to reduce the prices of their current cards before the new GPUs are released.

Although the Digitimes report did not mention explicit sources, Digitimes often has solid insight into chip and graphics card structures and production lines. As such, one should be skeptical of such claims, but note that they are consistent with other rumors and leaks about new Nvidia and AMD GPUs due in late 2020.

No next-generation graphics cards have been named.

We would not be surprised if Nvidia announces one or two high-end Ampere GeForce graphics cards around September.

We expect such GPUs to be the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 3080, and potentially the RTX 3070 as well. This depends on Nvidia's previous naming conventions and how they approached the release of the current generation of Turing graphics cards.

So far, the Ampere graphics card is expected to provide a modest performance improvement over the previous generation of Turing, as well as improved ray tracing performance. However, they are not expected to have the same impact as Turing graphics cards, which were the first desktop graphics cards to include real-time ray tracing capabilities running on a single GPU.

As for AMD, rumors have been circulating for some time that the company will release a high-end Navi Radeon graphics card to compete with Nvidia's premium GeForce RTX GPUs. [The company has powerful Radeon RX 5700 XT, Radeon 5700, and Radeon RX 5500 graphics cards, but these cannot compete with top-end GeForce RTX cards. Therefore, in August or September, AMD plans to announce an Nvidia-killing Radeon graphics card.

To compete with the best GeForce RTX cards, AMD will have to really harness the power of the new RDNA architecture, which also powers the graphics chips at the heart of the PS5 and Xbox Series X.

Nvidia's cards have built-in hardware support for ray tracing, but AMD's Navi Radeon cards do not. This means that the next Navi GPU will either have to offer something special in terms of graphics capabilities or bring enormous power at a competitive price that will blow Nvidia's graphics cards out of the water.

If Digitimes' sources and predictions are correct, the new GeForce and Radeon graphics cards could arrive about two months earlier than the estimated November launch of the PS5 and Xbox Series X.

Now, these graphics cards probably won't be cheap and will likely cost about the same as the next generation consoles. But for those weighing whether to pay for the power and flexibility of a gaming PC against the short lifespan and closed system of a console, the new graphics cards will prove attractive.

It is worth noting that since the new consoles will use hardware derived from AMD processors and graphics chips, an AMD-based PC will be able to run next-generation games designed for the new consoles rather well. And while the PS5 will likely feature console-specific games, Microsoft has promised to bring first-party games to Windows 10 PCs, helping to make the PC an attractive alternative to the Xbox Series X.

In any case, Whether you are a PC fan or are waiting for the next generation of gaming consoles, the second half of 2020 should be a very interesting time for the gaming world.