AMD 300 series rebrands

[Real_PhillBert]

Yeah I saw that too. I wonder if he's being honest and not just hyping. He seems like a cool dude so I'm on the fence.

I feel the same way. I'm not sure but hey, more GPUs cant hurt. 

[mr moose]

Guys, what if AMD is just trolling everyone and they have poured a ton into R&D into actually good CPU's and even better GPU's, but they're only just milking their old stuff right now?

 

 

I hope that's the case.

 

It would be a bit like dumb and dumber too,  spending 20 years in a hospital for a practical joke.

[Guest Kloaked]

It would be a bit like dumb and dumber too,  spending 20 years in a hospital for a practical joke.

 

 

 

 

 

[TheSLSAMG]

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).

Shit is the biggest over-estimation of the GTX 960 to R9 285 performance gap I've seen.

 

The numbers I saw put the R9 280 at about 5-15% faster depending on title (airing on the lower side), and the R9 285 a little less than that. Also, R9 285's TDP is only 10W lower than the R9 280. But nope, sensationalists gonna sensationalize.

[ComradeHX]

Shit is the biggest over-estimation of the GTX 960 to R9 285 performance gap I've seen.

 

The numbers I saw put the R9 280 at about 5-15% faster depending on title (airing on the lower side), and the R9 285 a little less than that. Also, R9 285's TDP is only 10W lower than the R9 280. But nope, sensationalists gonna sensationalize.

Shit is when Nvidia held out to the next year to release Gtx 960 yet didn't offer any more than expected better tdp.

Unlike GTX 970 which made AMD drop price significantly; 960 did almost nothing to similar-range cards due to its uninteresting performance.

At least 2GB means 2GB, right?

Sensationalist ~40W:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-radeon-r9-285-tonga,3925-11.html

The Gigabyte R9 285 WindForce OC and its 176 W for gaming comes in almost 40 W lower than a moderately overclocked AMD Radeon R9 280 reference graphics card, which also provides slightly lower performance on average.

Not sure where you get the 10W from.

[Guest]

 

^I liked this bit.

What the fff

[imthewalrus]

AMD also used oldest architecture in bottom end chips（according to link in op, they are oem only）； I don't see the difference.

Stop the war about architecture, tsmc hasn't released any upgrades from 28 nm since Fermi, so any architectural upgrades have been null, this is the reason why amd hasn't invested heavy into Rd and do rebrands, unlike nvidia which just has money to burn.

The only time I expect to see a full new line of cards is when tsmc releases a 16 nm node process for nvidia and amd.

[dre92]

*sigh..

well... I guess I'm stuck with my 7950 for another year...

<_<

[ComradeHX]

Stop the war about architecture, tsmc hasn't released any upgrades from 28 nm since Fermi, so any architectural upgrades have been null, this is the reason why amd hasn't invested heavy into Rd and do rebrands, unlike nvidia which just has money to burn.

The only time I expect to see a full new line of cards is when tsmc releases a 16 nm node process for nvidia and amd.

That's the point.

Tell that to the other guy.

[Kobz360]

I'm pretty surprised that Pitcairn is still in the x70 bracket. It makes me question whether this is legit or not.. are they really going to keep the card in essentially the same price bracket over 3 generations (7870-270/X-370), I was thinking Tonga (or the R9 280ish) equivalent would become the 370... anyway I guess we'll see

[ivan134]

Not all of the R9 300 series will be direct rebrands. For example the 380X is a variant of the Hawaii used in the 290X, except improved so that it will compete with the GTX 980 instead of 970.

 

Also the Tonga chip that debuted with the R9 285 will make a reappearance in one or more forms.

 

And every card in the series should be updated to the latest GCN level and support Freesync.

 

Its not like rebrands matter a whole lot anyway. The GTX 700 and R9 200 series were mostly rebrands, yet both sold well.

The 290x does compete with the 980 (and the 290 with the 970). AMD just needs to get their drivers to function properly across ALL games. There are a few that show where the cards actually stand relative to each other when drivers function as well as they should

 

Far Cry 4 is 1080p and the other 2 are 1440p.

[ivan134]

 

You meant physical though, and I'm talking about drivers. We're both right. Improving Hawaii won't matter if the drivers are still wonky. Bad drivers is what is causing the huge disparity between the 980 and the 290x.

[Brainless906]

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.

 

 

I agree with both of these. AMD has had a bumpy financial period for quite a while now and they have nowhere near the R&D dollars Nvidia has so they'll have to pick and choose the fights they go in for. If they can win the top end with brand new cards then that's an overall win in general as both Luke and Linus said on the last WAN show just having the "WORLDS FASTEST CARD" under your belt will likely push sales for cards below it as its very much a brand image kind of thing. Plus people seem to be blowing maxwells performance a bit out of proportion once again, despite being extremely old in comparison and less power efficient the AMD cards still hold up in most price brackets. Even against the efficient beast that is the 980 the r9 290x is only 5-10 frames behind (specifically at UHD resolutions) while in general being a much cheaper card. 

That said I'm also hoping these refreshes are in the nature of the R9 285 where we'll get slightly better performance, efficiency, and the new features while also being extremely competitive in price. 

 

EDIT: also all this fanboyism "lel Nvidia hardly even rebrands compared to the AMDs they are the bestersestert" bullshit is getting real annoying. Video card rebranding has been around for a long f*ckin time and both teams do it. a lot. 

[ItsAFeature]

Rebranding the 290X as a 380X is actually pretty clever. It's a great card with the proper cooling solution and it would allow AMD to basically sell the same hardware for a much better price than they're currently getting for it. That card is not a good deal for AMD at ~$300. Much the same reason Nvidia decided not to rebadge Kepler cards as 900 cards I imagine. Imagine a 970 that is really a 780ti but selling at $330. Those aren't good margins.

 

TL;DR: 290X->380X at $400-450 (overclocked 290X much like 680->770) is highly competitive against the 980, especially if they come in a tad cheaper and very much so at 4K. That leaves the 390 and 390X free to stomp all over the 980 while being competitive with the Titan X while undercutting it significantly. We've seen it before. It will happen again. And Nvidia fans will still buy Nvidia and AMD fans will buy AMD. Then Nvidia might release a $700-800 card and we all win. Except AMD. They always get shafted.

 

EDIT: tldr is longer than post. I is expert at internets.

[harrynowl]

I agree with both of these. AMD has had a bumpy financial period for quite a while now and they have nowhere near the R&D dollars Nvidia has so they'll have to pick and choose the fights they go in for. If they can win the top end with brand new cards then that's an overall win in general as both Luke and Linus said on the last WAN show just having the "WORLDS FASTEST CARD" under your belt will likely push sales for cards below it as its very much a brand image kind of thing. Plus people seem to be blowing maxwells performance a bit out of proportion once again, despite being extremely old in comparison and less power efficient the AMD cards still hold up in most price brackets. Even against the efficient beast that is the 980 the r9 290x is only 5-10 frames behind (specifically at UHD resolutions) while in general being a much cheaper card. 

That said I'm also hoping these refreshes are in the nature of the R9 285 where we'll get slightly better performance, efficiency, and the new features while also being extremely competitive in price. 

 

EDIT: also all this fanboyism "lel Nvidia hardly even rebrands compared to the AMDs they are the bestersestert" bullshit is getting real annoying. Video card rebranding has been around for a long f*ckin time and both teams do it. a lot. 

Very true, and even when don't necessarily rebrand things but they still use the same chips a lot of the time (e.g. GTX760 wasn't present in the 600 series but it was still a die-harvested GK104- so it's still nothing new).

 

Both companies rebrand as much as each other when it comes to refresh generations

[Gibbons]

If they are rebranding gpus I would guess they are going to upgrade the older cards to support Freesync/vsr. Wouldn't make much sense to launch new brands without the new features.

[MEC-777]

There's nothing wrong with continuing to use a tried and true architecture, even if it's 3+ years old. Yeah efficiency isn't stellar, but honestly most gamers care more about frame rates and in-game performance than saving a few dollars a year on the energy bill. I'm not saying that as an excuse for AMD's lower power efficiency, but more so just telling it like it is.

 

Many of us have it in our heads that graphics cards (or anything, really) MUST be upgraded and updated with BRAND NEW silicon every X number of years or the company is considered "slacking" or "behind the times". Many also feel entitled - that the companies owe us new hardware at regular intervals. But that isn't the case either, nor is it necessary. We're so spoiled with what's available at any given time, it's ridiculous.

 

In reality, the GPUs that can still stick-it-out and hang with the best of them and still remain relevant years later should be recognized for what they really are; very good GPUs. Not "it's old and therefore is junk/should be replaced".

 

So, complain all you want about re-branding, but the bottom line is; do they still perform competitively within their price-range? The answer is yes, whether you like it or not.

[BonSie]

I'm wondering if this will be their lineup:

In chip order atleast.

 

370 Trinidad Pro

370X Trinidad XT

 

375 Tonga Pro

375X Tonga XT

 

380 Cut down hawai successor

380X hawai successor

 

390 Fiji Pro

390X Fiji

[patrickjp93]

What has been around for almost 5 years?

Other than half of AMD's cards from the 270X on down?

[Nielips]

I wish there was a way to jump to useful informative comments, so I don't have to scroll through pages of useless arguments. 

[Lord Baal]

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.

This only they're still leading price to performance by a lot at least in AUD. So basically all they need is a new high end card though I guess directX12 support on all 300series cards might have been nice.

[NAP51DMustang]

ITT, people complaining about 3 year old architecture even though they are doing so on a system that uses 30+ year old architecture (x86)

[harrynowl]

This only they're still leading price to performance by a lot at least in AUD. So basically all they need is a new high end card though I guess directX12 support on all 300series cards might have been nice.

To my knowledge all GCN cards are getting DX12, and they lead quite a bit in the UK too particularly in the £100-200 bracket (they usually do, 7950 vs 660ti was a no brainer for me)

[anticeon]

look like AMD lost their way ...

nVIDIA will still rule with their overpriced card ....

[Thony]

7970 again and again and again....