PC gamers have been eagerly awaiting AMD's response to Nvidia's RTX series GPUs. The Red Team did receive the Radeon RX 5700 and 5700 XT cards, which are both fantastic values for their respective costs, but they lack any form of ray tracing (like all of AMD's other GPUs). This lack of specific competition has effectively allowed Nvidia to dominate this side of the market and set its own rules (and outlandish prices).
Fortunately, things could be about to change if recent rumors prove accurate. Chiphell leaker Wjm47196 claims to have inside information on AMD's upcoming Radeon hardware products.
Wjm47196's Chiphell posts are in Chinese, but WCCFTech has broken things down nicely. According to the outlet and the leaker, AMD plans to preview its upcoming RDNA 2 GPU line-up at CES next year, and – among other features – the cards are expected to have hardware-accelerated ray tracing functionality and improved power efficiency.
They'll run on an "optimized" 7nm+ process node, and AMD wants the line-up to include "enthusiast-grade" desktop graphics options. It remains to be seen how competitive or compelling these offerings will be for high-end hardware fans, of course.
If you're wondering why Wjm47196's claims should be taken seriously at all, you need only look at the individual's track record. They've consistently provided accurate leaks about other AMD products in the past, including the Radeon VII, and the RX 590. With that said, all rumors should be viewed with some degree of skepticism until they're completely proven.
Fortunately, we won't have to wait long to find out what AMD has up its sleeve. CES 2020 is just a couple months away (it runs from January 7-10), so stay tuned for our coverage. We will reach out to AMD for comment on this story, but we do not expect to receive a response.