Radeon (/ˈreɪdiɒn/) is a brand of computer products, including graphics processing units (GPUs), random-access memory (RAM), RAM disk software, and solid-state drives, produced by Radeon Technologies Group, a division of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). The brand was launched on April 1, 2000, by ATI Technologies, which was acquired by AMD in 2006 for US$5.4 billion.
History
Radeon originated as ATI Technologies' consumer-facing GPU brand, succeeding the earlier Rage line. The first Radeon GPU, based on the R100 architecture, was introduced in 2000 and was ATI's first fully DirectX 7-compliant graphics processor. It introduced HyperZ technology for improved bandwidth and fill-rate efficiency.
Following AMD's acquisition of ATI in 2006, the brand continued under AMD's ownership. In August 2010, AMD announced it would phase out the "ATI" co-branding, renaming "ATI Radeon" to simply "Radeon" under the AMD corporate identity. Products up to and including the HD 5000 series were branded as ATI Radeon, while the HD 6000 series and beyond adopted the AMD Radeon branding. On September 11, 2015, AMD's GPU business was split into a separate unit known as the Radeon Technologies Group.
Microarchitectures
Radeon GPUs have evolved through four major microarchitecture families:
Fixed-Pipeline Family (2000–2005): The R100 through R500 series used fixed-function pipelines with programmable pixel and vertex shaders. Notable products include the Radeon 9700 Pro (R300), which was a market-leading GPU that outperformed NVIDIA's competing GeForce4 and GeForce FX series.
TeraScale Family (2007–2010): Introduced a unified shader model using VLIW (Very Long Instruction Word) architectures. This included the R600, R700, Evergreen, and Northern Islands series.
Graphics Core Next (GCN) Family (2012–2019): Shifted to a scalar compute-oriented architecture optimized for parallel processing and GPGPU workloads. GCN spanned multiple generations (Southern Islands, Sea Islands, Volcanic Islands, Arctic Islands/Polaris, and Vega) and was used in the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles.
RDNA Family (2019–present): A ground-up redesign focused on gaming performance and power efficiency. RDNA 1 debuted with the Radeon RX 5000 series (Navi). RDNA 2 (RX 6000 series) introduced ray tracing accelerators and Infinity Cache. RDNA 3 (RX 7000 series) adopted a chiplet design. RDNA 4 (RX 9000 series, announced February 2025) features 3rd-generation ray tracing accelerators and 2nd-generation AI accelerators, manufactured on a 4nm process.
Product Lines
Desktop Graphics: Current generations include the Radeon RX 9000 Series (RDNA 4), RX 7000 Series (RDNA 3), and RX 6000 Series (RDNA 2). The RX 9070 XT and RX 9070, launched in March 2025, are the flagship models of the RX 9000 Series, featuring up to 64 compute units, 16GB of GDDR6 memory, and support for PCIe 5.0 and DisplayPort 2.1a.
Mobile Graphics: Radeon RX graphics for laptops are available in M-Series (performance) and S-Series (efficiency) variants, based on the RDNA architecture.
Professional Graphics: The Radeon Pro line (successor to FirePro) targets professional workstation and content creation applications.
Embedded GPUs: AMD produces embedded Radeon GPUs for medical, entertainment, and display devices, ranging from the E2400 to the E9550.
Other Products: The Radeon brand has also been applied to DDR3 RAM modules (2011), the Radeon RAMDisk software (2012), and the Radeon R7 Series SSDs (2014).
Key Technologies
- AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR): An upscaling technology, with FSR 4 (introduced with RDNA 4) using machine learning-based upscaling.
- AMD HYPR-RX: A suite of performance-enhancing features including Radeon Super Resolution, AMD Fluid Motion Frames (AFMF), Radeon Anti-Lag, and Radeon Boost.
- AMD Infinity Cache: A large last-level cache designed to reduce memory bandwidth requirements and power consumption.
- AMD Radiance Display Engine: Supports DisplayPort 2.1a and HDMI 2.1b for high-resolution and high-refresh-rate displays.
- AMD Noise Suppression: AI-based background audio noise reduction.
Third-Party Manufacturing
AMD does not distribute Radeon cards directly to consumers. Instead, it sells Radeon GPUs to third-party manufacturers, including ASRock, Asus, Gigabyte, PowerColor, Sapphire, XFX, and others, who build and sell Radeon-based video cards to OEM and retail channels.
Software and Drivers
AMD provides proprietary graphics drivers under the Radeon Software brand (formerly Catalyst) for Microsoft Windows and Linux. Free and open-source drivers for Radeon hardware are also available as part of the Linux kernel's amdgpu and radeon DRM modules, with user-space components in Mesa 3D.
