AMD 300 series rebrands

[TheElt]

 

AMD Radeon R9 300 series finally make an appearance in Catalyst 15.3 Beta

Like always, there are some good and some bad news. The good news is that we finally have DeviceID confirmation for some of these cards. The bad news is that most of them are rebrands.

 

So it looks like a fair few of the 300 series cards might be re-brands, the mobile lineup even moreso. Thoughts?

 

Source:

http://videocardz.com/55289/amd-radeon-rx-300-series-rebrands-spotted-in-drivers

[spartaman64]

repost?

[Victorious Secret]

AMD doesn't exactly have a lot of spare change for RD across the board, so this isn't a shocker. 

[harrynowl]

AMD doesn't exactly have a lot of spare change for RD across the board, so this isn't a shocker. 

One could also argue it isn't really necessary for AMD to update their entire lineup either, currently they're competitive in most price brackets so a little refresh and maybe a price shift would keep things fine.

[TheElt]

repost?

Don't think so, made sure before I posted

[ComradeHX]

So it looks like a fair few of the 300 series cards might be re-brands, the mobile lineup even moreso. Thoughts?

 

Source:

http://videocardz.com/55289/amd-radeon-rx-300-series-rebrands-spotted-in-drivers

They are not exactly re-brands since they should all support freesync now.

There was also a downgrade in bus width(384 or R9 280/280x to 256 of 285/375?).

It's not like Nvidia made much new stuff either; Maxwell existed before 900 series and the GTX 960 was shit in performance compared to AMD's closest competitors(such as R9 285; which is cheaper, performs better across the board and has very acceptable tdp, plus freesync).

[Guest Kloaked]

They are not exactly re-brands since they should all support freesync now.

There was also a downgrade in bus width(384 or R9 280/280x to 256 of 285/375?).

It's not like Nvidia made much new stuff either; Maxwell existed before 900 series and the GTX 960 was shit in performance compared to AMD's closest competitors(such as R9 285; which is cheaper, performs better across the board and has very acceptable tdp, plus freesync).

 

Maxwell was still new to the desktop video card market on the 900-series launch.

AMD's been refreshing/re-branding the same stuff for an ass ton longer.

[ComradeHX]

Maxwell was still new to the desktop video card market on the 900-series launch.

AMD's been refreshing/re-branding the same stuff for an ass ton longer.

750/750ti was out well before 900 series.

Meanwhile rest of 700 series were Kepler; which is rebrand.

And somewhere after 750ti and before 900 series, AMD started releasing newer GCN architecture cards in mid-high end market, R9 285.

Face it, they both rebranded for a long, comparable time.

[AlwaysFSX]

750/750ti was out well before 900 series.

Meanwhile rest of 700 series were Kepler; which is rebrand.

It also doesn't use the revised manufacturing process either. Nor has it been around for almost 5 years.

[maazster]

They might be Tonga variants of the chips sort of like how the R9 285 is to the R9 280 and 7950, so a lower tdp and support for newer technologies.

[ComradeHX]

It also doesn't use the revised manufacturing process either. Nor has it been around for almost 5 years.

What has been around for almost 5 years?

[Guest Kloaked]

750/750ti was out well before 900 series.

Meanwhile rest of 700 series were Kepler; which is rebrand.

And somewhere after 750ti and before 900 series, AMD started releasing newer GCN architecture cards in mid-high end market, R9 285.

Face it, they both rebranded for a long, comparable time.

 

Mate, all of the Maxwell cards came out the same year. They're not rebrands. Kepler AFAIK was rebranded/refreshed twice, and I expect the same for Maxwell.

[Sauron]

My thoughts are that it's all pointless speculation until the cards are out. I hope it's not true. But I'm not going to assume it is based on a free interpretation of some deviceid numbers which could mean anything, including that amd put a placeholder in the beta that it will substitute when the full driver launches with the cards.

[Fetzie]

Maxwell was still new to the desktop video card market on the 900-series launch.

AMD's been refreshing/re-branding the same stuff for an ass ton longer.

Both companies have been rebranding cards for donkeys' years. Remember the 8800GTX -> 9800GTX rebrand? Didn't nVidia also rebrand for the FX6000 series cards (that's like 15 years ago)? The 9800GTX was rebranded for the GTX 200 series too IIRC.

[ComradeHX]

Mate, all of the Maxwell cards came out the same year. They're not rebrands. Kepler AFAIK was rebranded/refreshed twice, and I expect the same for Maxwell.

I just checked, Fermi was also somewhere in 700 series.

So Nvidia rebranded fermi for 4 years.

Point stands, Nvidia rebrands just like AMD.

4 vs. almost 5 isn't much different.

[TheElt]

My thoughts are that it's all pointless speculation until the cards are out. I hope it's not true. But I'm not going to assume it is based on a free interpretation of some deviceid numbers which could mean anything, including that amd put a placeholder in the beta that it will substitute when the full driver launches with the cards.

It is all speculation, and I do hope AMD come out with something good in the 300 series, but re-branding the 370 and below seems like a thing they would do.

 

I just checked, Fermi was also somewhere in 700 series.

So Nvidia rebranded fermi for 4 years.

Point stands, Nvidia rebrands just like AMD.

4 vs. almost 5 isn't much different.

Only Fermi card in the 700 series was the 128-Bit DDR3 730 according to Wikipedia, so that's one bottom end card from the green team

[Ostwind]

 

^I liked this bit.

[AlwaysFSX]

What has been around for almost 5 years?

Most of the architecture for the "new" AMD cards. You know what I'm talking about so don't act like you don't.

[ComradeHX]

It is all speculation, and I do hope AMD come out with something good in the 300 series, but re-branding the 370 and below seems like a thing they would do.

It's not rebranding if they do something different(such as freesync support).

Maybe 380/x is a bit of rebranding; but there was no reason for AMD to release everything in a new architecture since Nvidia clearly failed to produce anything competitive(below 970) by doing that.

 

Most of the architecture for the "new" AMD cards. You know what I'm talking about so don't act like you don't.

You need to post something specific.

Because from the link in OP:

"Pitcairn was launched in 2012 with Radeon HD 7870" - not 4.(2012)

"AMD Radeon R9 360: Tobago (Bonaire)" - also not 4.(released in 2012)

So do you mean all the low-end cards(many of them not even sold outside OEM) are almost 5 years old?

[Guest Kloaked]

Both companies have been rebranding cards for donkeys' years. Remember the 8800GTX -> 9800GTX rebrand? Didn't nVidia also rebrand for the FX6000 series cards (that's like 15 years ago)? The 9800GTX was rebranded for the GTX 200 series too IIRC.

 

The topic is more about recent times, but yes I think you're right.

 

I just checked, Fermi was also somewhere in 700 series.

So Nvidia rebranded fermi for 4 years.

Point stands, Nvidia rebrands just like AMD.

4 vs. almost 5 isn't much different.

 

The fermi cards were only the two lowest-end cards in the 700-series. AMD's had more rebrands/refreshes in comparison.

 

This isn't necessarily a bad thing because they've still been able to keep up with/sometimes beat Nvidia in terms of graphics performance. 

[Mister Snow]

Maxwell was still new to the desktop video card market on the 900-series launch.

AMD's been refreshing/re-branding the same stuff for an ass ton longer.

 

Why is that a problem if it stays competitive? If it supports freesync, DirectX 12 and other new tech why would you care what architecture it's using...

[Guest Kloaked]

Why is that a problem if it stays competitive? If it supports freesync, DirectX 12 and other new tech why would you care what architecture it's using...

 

Didn't say it was a bad thing.

 

See my last post.

[Suika]

It's not like Nvidia made much new stuff either; Maxwell existed before 900 series and the GTX 960 was shit in performance compared to AMD's closest competitors(such as R9 285; which is cheaper, performs better across the board and has very acceptable tdp, plus freesync).

If "better across the board" means "in some games," then you're right.

 

 

And if by "cheaper," you mean a single card with an ugly cooler and a brand I don't trust as much as Gigabyte or EVGA, then yea, you're right.

 

 

And if by "acceptable TDP," you mean "almost double the 960's," then yea, you're right.

 

 

[ComradeHX]

The fermi cards were only the two lowest-end cards in the 700-series. AMD's had more rebrands/refreshes in comparison.

 

This isn't necessarily a bad thing because they've still been able to keep up/sometimes beat Nvidia a majority of the time in terms of graphics performance.

From the link in OP: the 300 series also does not have any 4-year-old stuff unless it's the extreme low end.

 

If "better across the board" means "in some games," then you're right.

 

Nice cherrypicked graphs(try looking at graphs for 4k).

Also, anyone can do that:

Where Gtx 960 is better at is almost exclusively Nvidia-biased games(such as farcry4, which is also ubisoft so it's a poor benchmark).

 

And if by "cheaper," you mean a single card with an ugly cooler and a brand I don't trust as much as Gigabyte or EVGA, then yea, you're right.

Whether you trust the brand is completely irrelevant.

EVGA does not even make a 285.

 

And if by "acceptable TDP," you mean "almost double the 960's," then yea, you're right.

 

Yep, acceptable TDP.

Which means almost everything under R9 290x.

Not sure where you pulled "almost double" from...

Oh wow it's 5 degrees cooler; so cool...

 

[Guest Kloaked]

From the link in OP: the 300 series also does not have any 4-year-old stuff unless it's the extreme low end.

 

I don't think you're understanding the topic, but ight.