[UPDATE - Will Not Sell Outside China] AMD Quietly Launches 370X

[HKZeroFive]

PCWorld: The new Radeon R9 370X appears based around the same graphics processor as the older Radeon R9 270X, packing the same 1,280 stream processors, 80 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and either 2GB or 4GB of memory with a 256-bit bus. TechPowerUp was the first to report on the launch, spotting a Sapphire Vapor-X variant overclocked to 1,200MHz. (Pictured above courtesy of TechPowerUp.)

When I reached out to AMD to confirm the launch, it confirmed that the specs that TechPowerUp reported for the card are accurate. A representative’s comment also revealed why the launch was so low-key: “The R9 370X is regionalized product which is today limited to the China market,” she said.

AnandTech: As for the R9 370X itself, the SKU is the refresh successor to the R9 270X. This means we’re looking at a fully-enabled Pitcairn GPU with all 1280 stream processors enabled. This marks the fourth such desktop SKU for the full Pitcairn configuration, following the original Radeon HD 7870 and the R9 270 & 270X, both of the latter being fully enabled parts.

At this time we don’t have official AMD specifications for the R9 370X SKU (nor do we expect to get them). Furthermore based on information released by TechPowerUp, the first card released is a factory overclocked Sapphire model, so we have limited information available on clockspeeds. However based on the 5.6Gbps memory speed, it would appear that this is closer to a straight re-badge than was the case with the release of the 200 series, as AMD reworked their board designs to improve memory clockspeeds for that refresh.

This card, from what I've read, is a straight up rebadge with a few tweaks. Expect it to perform marginally better than its 270X predecessor with DX12 and Freesync support (along with the newer technologies that the 270X doesn't support), but still remains to have GCN 1.0. This aims to be the competitor to the new GTX 950, so they need to price this well. If they do, I expect them to sell reasonably well in a country like China, given the economics, pricing and the popularity of the F2P market.

On a side note: Yes, it's a rebadge. Stop complaining about it, I've already heard enough.

PCWorld: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2976945/components-graphics/amd-quietly-launches-new-radeon-r9-370x-graphics-card-but-not-in-the-usyet.html

AnandTech: http://www.anandtech.com/show/9571/amd-quietly-releases-radeon-r9-370x-chinaonly-for-now

UPDATE

https://www.twitter.com/Thracks/status/636958891989798912

Robert Hallock of AMD has stated that the 370X will not launch outside of China.

[SurvivorNVL]

Ehh.

[Norman_the_Owl]

At this point, AMD is just standing on the edge of the grave nvidia has dug for them

 

Stuff like this isn't going to turn them around and move them away

[Bim Job]

I want it.

[Overkilled]

I want it.

Go home, you're drunk

[Tim Drake]

Go home, you're drunk

Fixed

[OAcesync]

If only that sexy cooler was on a better card 

[REX.exe]

Go home, your drunk

You must be drunk because that use of 'your' is completely wrong!

 

Kappa

[Notional]

At this point, AMD is just standing on the edge of the grave nvidia has dug for them

 

Stuff like this isn't going to turn them around and move them away

 

For China it might.

 

However using obsolete architecture is not good. Full Freesync and DX12 support should be mandatory on all AMD products.

[spwath]

For China it might.

 

However using obsolete architecture is not good. Full Freesync and DX12 support should be mandatory on all AMD products.

yeah, this is based on the 200 series, and they are based on the 7000 series.

 

All in all, AMD hasnt made a worthwhile new thing since 2012

[Briggsy]

Go home, yore drunk

 

fixed

[Notional]

yeah, this is based on the 200 series, and they are based on the 7000 series.

 

All in all, AMD hasnt made a worthwhile new thing since 2012

 

Fury series of cards and the 285 are quite impressive honestly. And looking at DX12, they are much better than their nvidia equals.

[Overkilled]

You must be drunk because that use of 'your' is completely wrong!

 

Kappa

grammmer goes out the window when it's 3 AM in the morning and im out of Pringles!

[spwath]

Fury series of cards and the 285 are quite impressive honestly. And looking at DX12, they are much better than their nvidia equals.

Yeah i guess.

 

I mean, i like AMD, and plan to get my next GPU from them, possibly CPU (zen?????)

But other than a few new products, many of them are old.

[REX.exe]

grammmer goes out the window when it's 3 AM in the morning and im out of Pringles!

True...so true

 

Perhaps a workout can fix it?

[Notional]

Yeah i guess.

 

I mean, i like AMD, and plan to get my next GPU from them, possibly CPU (zen?????)

But other than a few new products, many of them are old.

 

Indeed, but they still hold up value, which is the most important. But we will see entirely new lines of cards next year from AMD (3 confirmed so far), probably because they all go 14/16nm FF, so that's cool. 2016 will on all acounts be an amazing year for PC gamers and hardware enthusiasts (ZEN might launch, 14/16nm FF cards from AMD and NVidia, DDR4 for AMD systems, VR headsets, lots of DX12 games and so on. Can't wait).

[SuperCookie78]

I wish they would release the r9 380x because that would be the only chip that we havent see before. it would most likely use a tonga XT chip which is differnet then the r9 280x Tahiti XT.

[TheConverter]

For China it might.

 

However using obsolete architecture is not good. Full Freesync and DX12 support should be mandatory on all AMD products.

I like how AMD made the world smallest Mini-ITX card and didn't put HDMI 2.0 on it... yeah AMD is going full retard now.

[othertomperson]

 

At this point, AMD is just standing on the edge of the grave nvidia has dug for them

 

Nvidia dug for them? What about Intel? Seems to me a succession of awful decisions and terrible marketing has led to AMD being where they are now, not Nvidia doing well.

 

Fury series of cards and the 285 are quite impressive honestly. And looking at DX12, they are much better than their nvidia equals.

 

Source? The only Directx 12 benchmark that exists has shown Nvidia and AMD performing equally. If you don't bother to look at the numbers you can be fooled into thinking AMD does better due to AMD's Directx 11 performance being nothing short of appalling meaning the difference between Dx 11 and Dx 12 is bigger for AMD than Nvidia. 

 

The 285/380 is no more impressive than the 960. Neither is as good as the 280X which what those cards should have at least rivalled.

 

Still. At least the 370X is equal in every way to the 270X, and not a downgrade like the 370 was from its last gen counterpart.

[Misanthrope]

Probably a shameless relabeling of the 270x and no improvements at all

[carolkarine]

Yeah i guess.

I mean, i like AMD, and plan to get my next GPU from them, possibly CPU (zen?????)

But other than a few new products, many of them are old.

It used to be that a gpu architecture lasted at most two cycles per process node. AMD planned 28nm in the same way, and then it overstayed its welcome. I'll bet my ass there's a lot of products that got axed due to skipping 20nm, and I'll bet Fiji and Tonga were two of four chips for a release planned on 20nm. Then when 20nm fell through, development resources had to be shunted around to make the planned chips work on 28nm (I bet HBM was an absolute must to make Fiji work) and Nvidia isn't immune to this either. Maxwell probably was slated for 20nm, and they adapted their chips by cutting Doyle precision performance as opposed to adopting new memory tech.

(That was all speculation. @patrickjp93 - does all that seem feasible?)

[EllieThePurpleFuzzy]

Blah blah blah.

there was a little person inside/a side of me that cheered on for AMD, put in a bad position, maybe AMD could do something that would capture the imagination, do something even if not groundbreaking, just be at least interesting.

 

that person now resembles what the pizza you ate 7-9 months ago would look like today.

If it wouldn't cause a monopoly, ....i hate to say it but more of this and if zen is a dissapointment, then i'd be happy to see AMD not just fall into their grave but crash and burn into it.

 

I'm wondering why the heck haven't they rebadged the R9 280 (7950)

[themaniac]

Blah blah blah.

there was a little person inside/a side of me that cheered on for AMD, put in a bad position, maybe AMD could do something that would capture the imagination, do something even if not groundbreaking, just be at least interesting.

 

that person now resembles what the pizza you ate 7-9 months ago would look like today.

If it wouldn't cause a monopoly, ....i hate to say it but more of this and if zen is a dissapointment, then i'd be happy to see AMD not just fall into their grave but crash and burn into it.

 

I'm wondering why the heck haven't they rebadged the R9 280 (7950)

they did with the 380

[Notional]

I like how AMD made the world smallest Mini-ITX card and didn't put HDMI 2.0 on it... yeah AMD is going full retard now.

 

A lot of people are let down by that and I get that. It seems like a really dumb decision. I don't know why they made it, I just know that HDCP 2.2 is a steaming pile of donkey manure. Really wish the vastly superior DisplayPort became an industry standard, like right now.

 

Source? The only Directx 12 benchmark that exists has shown Nvidia and AMD performing equally. If you don't bother to look at the numbers you can be fooled into thinking AMD does better due to AMD's Directx 11 performance being nothing short of appalling meaning the difference between Dx 11 and Dx 12 is bigger for AMD than Nvidia. 

 

The 285/380 is no more impressive than the 960. Neither is as good as the 280X which what those cards should have at least rivalled.

 

Still. At least the 370X is equal in every way to the 270X, and not a downgrade like the 370 was from its last gen counterpart.

 

You forget that those AMD cards equalling the nvidia cards are cheaper, and thus not direct competitors. Sure the best that AMD can make was just marginally better than the best NVidia can make, but the latter is quite a bit more expensive. I'm comparing DX12 to DX12 here, not DX11.

 

285 had better tessellation performance and used less electricity, which means less heat. It also had all the new technologies fully supported, but yes it was never the fastest card out there.

[EllieThePurpleFuzzy]

they did with the 380

 

But isn't the 380 a redone 285?