Radeon GPUs have evolved through several microarchitectures, each introducing significant advancements:

Fixed-Pipeline (Early 2000s): Early Radeon GPUs used fixed-function pipelines, supporting basic 3D rendering.

TeraScale (2007): Introduced a unified shader model, replacing fixed-function hardware with programmable shaders, first used in the Xbox 360 and later in Radeon HD 2000 series.

Graphics Core Next (GCN, 2012): Enhanced compute capabilities for high-end cards, improving performance and efficiency.

RDNA (2019–Present): The current architecture (RDNA 4 as of 2025) focuses on gaming performance, power efficiency, and AI integration, powering the RX 9000 Series with features like ray tracing accelerators and AI-driven upscaling.