AMD Files Trademark For Radeon Vega II Logo As It Preps 7nm GPUs
At some point next year, AMD is expected to release a new round of graphics cards based on its upcoming Navi GPU architecture. Before that happens, however, AMD may also launch a fresh batch of Radeon RX Vega cards. If so, these are likely to be billed as Vega II, if a new trademark filing for an updated Vega logo is any indication.
"The mark consists of two triangles, joined at one corner, so that a leg of each triangle appears to form the side of a letter 'V'. The left side of the design is a single dark triangle. The right side of the design is composed of a smaller triangle and four alternating light and dark horizontal stripes," the trademark's description reads.
It seems pretty clear that the logo is supposed to designate "Vega II," as indicated by the pair of stripes on the right side. Taking things a step further, Vega II is very likely to consist of a 7nm Vega refresh, though we'll have to wait and see if any consumer cards are planned.
This wouldn't be a big leap for AMD. Launched last month, the company's Radeon Instinct MI60 accelerator for HPC and datacenter applications sports a 7nm GPU built on an "enhanced" Vega architecture with 64 compute units, 4,096 stream processors, 32GB of HBM2 (with ECC), and 1TB/sec of memory bandwidth.
So, there's little doubt that the Vega II branding will also apply to 7nm Vega GPUs. However, that doesn't necessarily mean we'll see Radeon RX Vega II variants for gaming. In addition to its Radeon RX Vega 64 and 56 products, AMD also offers a line of professional graphics cards, the Radeon Pro series.
Here's the thing—Navi is expected to launch in the second half of 2019. It's not clear if AMD is content to ride out another six months (or more) with its current Polaris and Vega products for consumers, or if Vega II might be a sort of stopgap solution until Navi arrives. Time will tell, but unless the trademark application is a bunch of bologna, Vega II is coming one way or the other.
