AMD's Flagship Fiji / Fiji XT GPU w/ HBM will not be in the 300 Series, but rather a Titan-esque card!

[Misanthrope]

With the improvements under the new APIs, with DX12 and VULKAN, you could probably see single card performance for those niche scenarios comfortably in the playable range.

DX12 is at most 15 or 20% improvements but that is far too much it's closer to 10% So it's the difference between a step up in the card lineup, not nearly enough. It helps, but not enough not to be outpaced fairly quickly.

[HalGameGuru]

That is going to be very up in the air for a while. Current gen scenarios are hindered under DX11, future instances of titles made specifically for DX12 or V with a focus on multimonitor or hi res support can make more pointed use and flex more muscles more strongly in pursuit of playable framerates in those less mainstream scenarios.

 

I do not say it will be easy, but I do think it will happen, in those instances where such use is a focus.

[dragosudeki]

I'm not too keen on these upcoming cards. I think it will be best that we just wait for DX12 and windows 10 to get closer to release, so we can get some hardware that fully supports DX12. If the 300 series doesn't completely support DX12, it stops them from being the "future-proofing" card because DX12 just sounds so promising. Hope they can get the 8GB HBM sorted out at that point too.

[Opcode]

I'm not too keen on these upcoming cards. I think it will be best that we just wait for DX12 and windows 10 to get closer to release, so we can get some hardware that fully supports DX12. If the 300 series doesn't completely support DX12, it stops them from being the "future-proofing" card because DX12 just sounds so promising. Hope they can get the 8GB HBM sorted out at that point too.

AMD's GCN architecture is the only graphics architecture that does fully support DirectX 12.

 

[Notional]

AMD's GCN architecture is the only graphics architecture that does fully support DirectX 12.

 

Come on, Maxwell is newer than GCN, but they emulate a lot.

 

Looks like AMD is pretty set when it comes to DX12 and Vulkan.

[MrDynamicMan]

390X and 390 is a Hawaii Rebrand with higher core clocks and memory clocks (and 8GB of VRAM):

Wow. Fuck AMD at this point. I'm sorry, but you just don't rebrand an entire series. Just fuck off. AMD wants to stop being known as the cheaper option while not even bothering to refresh their lineup. I used to try and advocate for them, getting behind 3xx series, but no. Sorry enough.

[Sam Z Man]

Wow. Fuck AMD at this point. I'm sorry, but you just don't rebrand an entire series. Just fuck off. AMD wants to stop being known as the cheaper option while not even bothering to refresh their lineup. I used to try and advocate for them, getting behind 3xx series, but no. Sorry enough.

Its not a complete refresh there will be new PCBs and and the god card as well.

[BiG StroOnZ]

Its not a complete refresh there will be new PCBs and and the god card as well.

 

Exactly they cant just abandon Tonga and Hawaii silicon. I'm sure there will be cut down versions of the "God" card making an appearance as well. 

[Machu]

I just hope there will be a card priced around the 970 and perform better. That is kind of what the 390X (290X) is looking to be, but the 290X is slightly worse in some benchmarks (a few are better than the 970, though). I'm not interested in the Fiji XT unless it comes at a price of $400 or less, but it doesn't look like that is going to happen.

[Enferk]

I was just thinking that where's amd super cool big le god graphic card

[BiG StroOnZ]

The 780 basically was the Titan but with less memory and no DP. That's very different from just re-releasing the 680 with a new name, which is what AMD are essentially doing here.

 

But they did just re-release the 680 with a new name. The 770. And the 760 was basically a 670. So NVIDIA has done refreshes before. I bet my bottom dollar Maxwell becomes a refresh (1000 series) until Pascal is released.

 

The point I'm trying to make here is their God card will be their new silicon, and I'm sure the God card will have cut-down offerings as well. So while it may seem like AMD only has refreshes to bring to the table this 300 series. They are going to have an entirely new tier of cards that they never had before (for single GPU) in the $700-1000 range. Which is the range they should be focusing on if they want to compete with NVIDIA. Mid range chips are cool and all and most people can afford those. But it isn't a representation of your ability to manufacture beastly products. Which AMD doesn't really do. They have done dual-GPU cards before but they have never released a balls to the wall single GPU before. So by them releasing say an $850 Titan like card, and then per say a $750 Titan like card. They now have created a new price bracket that they never had before. This is good for profit margins. If you sell "X" amount of top tier cards you can make equally as much money if you sell many lower tier cards. So by them having an entirely different tier of cards. It's like adding a whole new form of income coming their way, meanwhile the lower tier products still are selling just fine (because they already compete with the competitors products and now as a refresh even better with binned chips with higher clockspeeds).

[othertomperson]

But they did just re-release the 680 with a new name. The 770. And the 760 was basically a 670. So NVIDIA has done refreshes before. I bet my bottom dollar Maxwell becomes a refresh (1000 series) until Pascal is released.

 

The point I'm trying to make here is their God card will be their new silicon, and I'm sure the God card will have cut-down offerings as well. So while it may seem like AMD only has refreshes to bring to the table this 300 series. They are going to have an entirely new tier of cards that they never had before (for single GPU) in the $700-1000 range. Which is the range they should be focusing on if they want to compete with NVIDIA. Mid range chips are cool and all and most people can afford those. But it isn't a representation of your ability to manufacture beastly products. Which AMD doesn't really do. They have done dual-GPU cards before but they have never released a balls to the wall single GPU before. So by them releasing say an $850 Titan like card, and then per say a $750 Titan like card. They now have created a new price bracket that they never had before. This is good for profit margins. If you sell "X" amount of top tier cards you can make equally as much money if you sell many lower tier cards. So by them having an entirely different tier of cards. It's like adding a whole new form of income coming their way, meanwhile the lower tier products still are selling just fine (because they already compete with the competitors products and now as a refresh even better with binned chips with higher clockspeeds).

 

I'm the first to complain about rebrands from either Nvidia or AMD, I really am, but there's a difference between rebranding the 680 as the 770 and rebranding it as the 780, which is what AMD are (rumoured) to be doing here. Do you really not see why this worries me, to have only one new card and for it to be priced like a Titan? Nvidia have often had a former top tier card rebranded as a second-tier a generation later. I don't think they've ever kept the same top tier card for multiple generations. There comes a point when you may as well not bother. Just keep it as the 290X. If there isn't going to be anything new in the 300 series at all -- not even at the very top levels -- then why the hell bother renaming it? I fear AMD's GPUs becoming like their FX CPUs, where every "new" product is just an overclock of something years old.

 

Even ignoring the consumer and thinking about this from a business standpoint: the Titan is really more of a cheerleader than a product. It's a mascot. It's the thing that Nvidia put a lot of attention on, it performs like an absolute beast and it has a ridiculous price tag to match and it draws people's attention long enough for them to buy one of their more sensible products. It's like an F1 car in that respect, except it is commercially available (though always with a very low demand). It does not make sense for Nvidia or AMD to focus their strategy on selling cards like this!

[HalGameGuru]

I think it far more likely the rebrands are dropped a peg in the naming scheme, 290x drops to, at best, the 390, maybe 380x, and new silicon takes top tier. That is my hope at least.

[Briggsy]

AMD's GCN architecture is the only graphics architecture that does fully support DirectX 12.

Not a surprise. GCN architecture was incredibly advanced when it first hit the market, and there are features that are just starting to get used in game engines, all these years later (asynchronous shader engine support, as an example).

[Agosto]

AMD should definitely put more effort on drivers. That's one of the main reasons why the majority of people buy Nvidia instead

[BiG StroOnZ]

I'm the first to complain about rebrands from either Nvidia or AMD, I really am, but there's a difference between rebranding the 680 as the 770 and rebranding it as the 780, which is what AMD are (rumoured) to be doing here. Do you really not see why this worries me, to have only one new card and for it to be priced like a Titan? Nvidia have often had a former top tier card rebranded as a second-tier a generation later. I don't think they've ever kept the same top tier card for multiple generations. There comes a point when you may as well not bother. Just keep it as the 290X. If there isn't going to be anything new in the 300 series at all -- not even at the very top levels -- then why the hell bother renaming it? I fear AMD's GPUs becoming like their FX CPUs, where every "new" product is just an overclock of something years old.

 

Even ignoring the consumer and thinking about this from a business standpoint: the Titan is really more of a cheerleader than a product. It's a mascot. It's the thing that Nvidia put a lot of attention on, it performs like an absolute beast and it has a ridiculous price tag to match and it draws people's attention long enough for them to buy one of their more sensible products. It's like an F1 car in that respect, except it is commercially available (though always with a very low demand). It does not make sense for Nvidia or AMD to focus their strategy on selling cards like this!

 

But it won't be priced like a Titan it will be almost $200 cheaper than the Titan. Which puts it in a price bracket where people who couldn't afford a Titan could actually afford AMD's version. Also if they offer another version cut down or maybe Air cooled for $700-750 now they have another price bracket. These cards will be considered their top tier. They won't be in the same price brackets as the Titan but quite a bit cheaper. They've never kept the same card for multiple generations because they have the money to be able to do that. Instead what they do is release small die chips as high end cards like the 980 and the 970. These are mid-range chips. There is no other way to cut it. The 680 and 670 were mid range chips. The 780 and 780 Ti were their big brothers. Just like GM200 is the big brother to the much smaller GM204 (980 and 970). So NVIDIA strategy is not only different than AMD's because they make more money but they also can get away with releasing mid range chips as high end cards. So AMD's strategy has to look different from a company that has majority market share.

 

Renaming it is crucial, because it is different. In many ways. All of the rebranded cards will have more VRAM. All of the rebranded cards will have higher clock speeds on both memory and core. Which usually means to be able to do this they are offering binned chips. Which most of the time translates to better overclocks. Who knows what other tweaks they have done to the architecture. Perhaps all of the 300 series will support Freesync, this wouldn't be possible unless they revised or changed something.

 

Yeah this mascot you claim to be, sold out everywhere on release and wasn't able to be purchased from anywhere no matter where you looked. It was completely sold out for weeks on end. And as soon as it came back in stock, it sold out completely again. So this is quite a popular mascot. In the sense that it makes you tons of money. The people who bought all those Titan X's were not thinking about getting a more sensible product. They wanted that one. The best, the fastest, the greatest. AMD doesn't have one of those, never did. They need one, to not only have a flagship God like product for the cheer leading as you call it, but also so they can sell them and make tons of money off of it for those who cannot afford a Titan X because it's just a little too much money. Honestly, I was holding out on a 980 Ti for $700 but realistically if a $850 AMD Fiji destroys it, I'm honestly making the switch to the red team.

[othertomperson]

But it won't be priced like a Titan it will be almost $200 cheaper than the Titan. Which puts it in a price bracket where people who couldn't afford a Titan could actually afford AMD's version. Also if they offer another version cut down or maybe Air cooled for $700-750 now they have another price bracket. These cards will be considered their top tier. They won't be in the same price brackets as the Titan but quite a bit cheaper. They've never kept the same card for multiple generations because they have the money to be able to do that. Instead what they do is release small die chips as high end cards like the 980 and the 970. These are mid-range chips. There is no other way to cut it. The 680 and 670 were mid range chips. The 780 and 780 Ti were their big brothers. Just like GM200 is the big brother to the much smaller GM204 (980 and 970). So NVIDIA strategy is not only different than AMD's because they make more money but they also can get away with releasing mid range chips as high end cards. So AMD's strategy has to look different from a company that has majority market share.

 

Renaming it is crucial, because it is different. In many ways. All of the rebranded cards will have more VRAM. All of the rebranded cards will have higher clock speeds on both memory and core. Which usually means to be able to do this they are offering binned chips. Which most of the time translates to better overclocks. Who knows what other tweaks they have done to the architecture. Perhaps all of the 300 series will support Freesync, this wouldn't be possible unless they revised or changed something.

 

Yeah this mascot you claim to be, sold out everywhere on release and wasn't able to be purchased from anywhere no matter where you looked. It was completely sold out for weeks on end. And as soon as it came back in stock, it sold out completely again. So this is quite a popular mascot. In the sense that it makes you tons of money. The people who bought all those Titan X's were not thinking about getting a more sensible product. They wanted that one. The best, the fastest, the greatest. AMD doesn't have one of those, never did. They need one, to not only have a flagship God like product for the cheer leading as you call it, but also so they can sell them and make tons of money off of it for those who cannot afford a Titan X because it's just a little too much money.

 

No, it's going to be AMD's equivalent of a Titan, do keep up. It's going to be its own echelon of expensive above and beyond the £400 expected for the 290X.

 

Also AMD have said the 390X is only going to have 4GB vram. That literally makes it a 290X -- except you can actually get 8GB 290Xs, so in some ways it's a downgrade of a current gen product. You're coming back to my earlier point about their FX CPUs -- what you're describing as the 390X is reminding me of the 9590. An insanely high factory overclock, totally worthy of a new model number. Your top tier product should be something new!

 

Any why did the Titan X sell out? Did millions upon millions rush out to buy one? No, supply was deliberately low. You just cannot make the assumption that everyone with a PC has the best part of a grand to spend just on the GPU and expect it to end well.

[BiG StroOnZ]

No, it's going to be AMD's equivalent of a Titan, do keep up. It's going to be its own echelon of expensive above and beyond the £400 expected for the 290X.

 

Also AMD have said the 390X is only going to have 4GB vram. That literally makes it a 290X -- except you can actually get 8GB 290Xs, so in some ways it's a downgrade of a current gen product.

 

Any why did the Titan X sell out? Did millions upon millions rush out to buy one? No, supply was deliberately low. You just cannot make the assumption that everyone with a PC has the best part of a grand to spend just on the GPU and expect it to end well.

 

It's going to be AMD's equivalent of a Titan but it will cost $800-850 not $1000-1200. So it's an entirely new price bracket. Where you can get Titan X performance for much less money.

 

AMD never said that, not once. The article you are going to link after I say this has absolutely no grounds to claim AMD said that it will have 4GB of memory. All they did was put together an article which details the exact same information as Hynix did months upon months ago. Which absolutely does not mean that you are limited to 4GB of memory because you can add more stacks and voila you have more memory! Fiji will have 8GB of memory. I know it will. It would be an absolute catastrophy for AMD to think they could release a top tier card with 4GB of memory. They aren't that stupid. So don't believe everything you hear. Also here's a link saying that Fiji will have 8GB of HBM: 

 

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/355737-r9-390x-achieves-8gb-hbm-with-dual-link-interposer-not-hbm2/

 

Saying supply was deliberately low is just nonsense, and doesn't even matter. How many did they produce? 100,000? Do the math on 100,000 alone: 100,000 units x $1000 = $100,000,000. Okay that's too many units you say. Okay lets cut it down to only 50,000 units. 50,000 x $1000 = $50,000,000. Still too many units you say. Okay fine, let's be entirely reasonable here. 10,000 units they had initially. 10,000 units x $1,000 = 10,000,000. Okay Stroonz still too many units you have here. Okay fine, let's cut it down to 5,000 units. 5,000 units x $1000 = 5,000,000. See how much money is to be made on God tier products? Everybody doesn't need to rush out to buy one. That's not the point of them. You just need to sell a few thousand units to make millions of dollars.

[Paragon_X]

I am getting confused with all these leaks, am holding my horses for when the official launch of those products will come.

[ThomasD]

I'm going to learn how to write my posts in the form of bad machine translation Chinese.

 

Boom!  Instant credibility.

[mr195]

They should call it "Fart". If its terrible, what did you expect, you bought a Fart. If its amazing, a Fart beat Nvidia's Titan!

This is probably the most genius thing I've ever seen in my life.

[othertomperson]

It's going to be AMD's equivalent of a Titan but it will cost $800-850 not $1000-1200. So it's an entirely new price bracket. Where you can get Titan X performance for much less money.

 

AMD never said that, not once. The article you are going to link after I say this has absolutely no grounds to claim AMD said that it will have 4GB of memory. All they did was put together an article which details the exact same information as Hynix did months upon months ago. Which absolutely does not mean that you are limited to 4GB of memory because you can add more stacks and voila you have more memory! Fiji will have 8GB of memory. I know it will. It would be an absolute catastrophy for AMD to think they could release a top tier card with 4GB of memory. They aren't that stupid. So don't believe everything you hear. Also here's a link saying that Fiji will have 8GB of HBM: 

 

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/355737-r9-390x-achieves-8gb-hbm-with-dual-link-interposer-not-hbm2/

 

Saying supply was deliberately low is just nonsense, and doesn't even matter. How many did they produce? 100,000? Do the math on 100,000 alone: 100,000 units x $1000 = $100,000,000. Okay that's too many units you say. Okay lets cut it down to only 50,000 units. 50,000 x $1000 = $50,000,000. Still too many units you say. Okay fine, let's be entirely reasonable here. 10,000 units they had initially. 10,000 units x $1,000 = 10,000,000. Okay Stroonz still too many units you have here. Okay fine, let's cut it down to 5,000 units. 5,000 units x $1000 = 5,000,000. See how much money is to be made on God tier products? Everybody doesn't need to rush out to buy one. That's not the point of them. You just need to sell a few thousand units to make millions of dollars.

 

I do love the lengths people will go through to defend AMD both when they are shitty to consumers and when their business practice is self-destructive. The Fanboy's Ego is such a delicate creature.

[Notional]

I do love the lengths people will go through to defend AMD both when they are shitty to consumers and when their business practice is self-destructive. The Fanboy's Ego is such a delicate creature.

 

Now @BiG StroOnZ is an AMD fanboy? This is tragicomically. When everyone one is an extremist (fanboy) in your eyes, maybe YOU are the extremist (fanboy). He has an EVGA 780 :lol: 

[Sintezza]

rumors rumors rumors

 

still nothing officialy, still clickbait.

[othertomperson]

Now @BiG StroOnZ is an AMD fanboy? This is tragicomically. When everyone one is an extremist (fanboy) in your eyes, maybe YOU are the extremist (fanboy). He has an EVGA 780 :lol: 

 

Yes, I'm such an extremist for thinking that a brand new series of GPUs should probably have at least one new product in it, what an outlandish position to hold.

 

Also how biased of me criticising both AMD and Nvidia in this thread. I am such a fanboy... of whom, exactly? Intel, perhaps? IBM? Do enlighten me...