AMD HBM Supply Problem Might Be Solved

[Raytsou]

 

With our exclusive report that AMD would be making just 30,000 units of its HBM-powered Radeon R9 Fury X, the news that it is receiving help from United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) in the form of the company entering volume production of TSVs (Through Silicon Vias) which is used in the production of HBM (High Bandwidth Memory).

 

AMD has already acknowledged the supply issues of the R9 Fury X, but with the release of the air-cooled Fury and the imminent release of the R9 Nano, these HBM supply issues are only going to get worse. UMC had kept AMD at bay until July 20, where it entered volume production of TSVs, which means the bottleneck that AMD is experiencing, should be gone.

 

 

So AMD might have some timely help, which should solve Fiji's biggest problem: low production volumes. This is great news, and we should see more Fiji GPUs on the market, along with the R9 Nano. Hopefully we'll see a drop in the GPU prices, giving AMD the edge to dominate the market of 1440p and 4K.

 

Original Article

[Arcanekitten]

So AMD might have some timely help, which should solve Fiji's biggest problem: low production volumes. This is great news, and we should see more Fiji GPUs on the market, along with the R9 Nano. Hopefully we'll see a drop in the GPU prices, giving AMD the edge to dominate the market of 1440p and 4K.

 

Original Article

hopefully

[Fred Castellum]

This is indeed good news. 

[SurvivorNVL]

Now there just needs to be some good Freesync monitors with refresh-ranges of 1 - 120/144 like with G-Sync.  Hopefully they're coming *_*

[DIV1D3]

In AMD we kinda trust...

[iamdarkyoshi]

I have always been an amd fanboy, I don't know why... If amd can match nvidia that would be neat. I don't want them to try to beat nvidia though. That would start a shitwar. I personally wouldn't mind if amd stopped making CPUs though...

[Aytex]

AMD getting better= better prices for us= more comptetition=more better prices= more competition= better gpu's

[Shakaza]

Great. Still, what reason would I have to choose the Fury X over the 980 Ti? They perform almost the same.

 

AMD needs to make compelling options for consumers, but right now there isn't anything they do that NVIDIA can't. If they want to succeed, they need to do something that differentiates them from the competition, but I'm not seeing anything like that.

[Curufinwe_wins]

Are we sure that hbm is the only limitation... Also hynix can't keep up? Or hynix's suppliers can't keep up... It's just odd.

Also I doubt the yields on the fury x gpus themselves are very good otherwise they wouldn't be doing two cut downs of them.

[Raytsou]

Great. Still, what reason would I have to choose the Fury X over the 980 Ti? They perform almost the same.

 

AMD needs to make compelling options for consumers, but right now there isn't anything they do that NVIDIA can't. If they want to succeed, they need to do something that differentiates them from the competition, but I'm not seeing anything like that.

That's why I said, "Hopefully we'll see a drop in the GPU prices, giving AMD the edge to dominate the market of 1440p and 4K."

I said that because currently, there's no reason to get a Fury X over a 980ti, unless you are crossfiring in 4k, which is a VERY niche market. But if there's a drop in price or a better stock for availability, then people will have more incentive to buy the Fury X and other Fiji GPUs.

[Raytsou]

Are we sure that hbm is the only limitation... Also hynix can't keep up? Or hynix's suppliers can't keep up... It's just odd.

Also I doubt the yields on the fury x gpus themselves are very good otherwise they wouldn't be doing two cut downs of them.

HBM isn't the only limitation. There's also the 4GB problem, along with performance only matching and more often then not, losing to the 980ti. But the news here is that they'll have a more ready supply, which could lower costs, raise availability, and lead to more sales.

[Curufinwe_wins]

HBM isn't the only limitation. There's also the 4GB problem, along with performance only matching and more often then not, losing to the 980ti. But the news here is that they'll have a more ready supply, which could lower costs, raise availability, and lead to more sales.

It won't lower cost. It would be a fiasco for amd(and it's retailers) to lower prices less than a month after release below msrp.

I meant limitations to sales volume. I know full well what the card's issues are.

[Raytsou]

Now there just needs to be some good Freesync monitors with refresh-ranges of 1 - 120/144 like with G-Sync.  Hopefully they're coming *_*

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236466

 

Hopefully more will come

[Shakaza]

That's why I said, "Hopefully we'll see a drop in the GPU prices, giving AMD the edge to dominate the market of 1440p and 4K."

I said that because currently, there's no reason to get a Fury X over a 980ti, unless you are crossfiring in 4k, which is a VERY niche market. But if there's a drop in price or a better stock for availability, then people will have more incentive to buy the Fury X and other Fiji GPUs.

I still doubt that the price will go down. As @Curufinwe_wins said, the yields can't be that good if they have to make two cut-down versions of it. Also, they are using new technologies to allow the memory to be close to the GPU die. I heard something about an interposer, which I recall @patrickjp93 saying is expensive. They can't be making much on each GPU even at the price it's at.

[TrigrH]

HBM isn't the only limitation. There's also the 4GB problem, along with performance only matching and more often then not, losing to the 980ti. But the news here is that they'll have a more ready supply, which could lower costs, raise availability, and lead to more sales.

There is ZERO problem as this 4gb limit does not exist. All they have to do is either double the stack height (which they are doing right now) or double the density, either way you get 4x2gb stacks of HBM.

[SurvivorNVL]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236466

 

Hopefully more will come

But the variable refresh range for those isn't all that good.  It's 35hz to 90hz for Freesync instead of 1 - 144 like G-sync :c

[Raytsou]

It won't lower cost. It would be a fiasco for amd(and it's retailers) to lower prices less than a month after release below msrp.

I meant limitations to sales volume. I know full well what the card's issues are.

What I'm saying is that a better supply of HBM would allow the Fiji cards to be sold more, which means that margins COULD be lower, therefore lower price. A lower price point would definitely allow it to dominate over the 980ti. 

As to the limitations of sales volume, the most apparent one is HBM availability. I'm not too sure, so we'll have to see.

[wolfgang]

Sweet. Now we can get some more manufacturers building fury cards. I really want to see what the nano can do also.

[Raytsou]

I still doubt that the price will go down. As @Curufinwe_wins said, the yields can't be that good if they have to make two cut-down versions of it. Also, they are using new technologies to allow the memory to be close to the GPU die. I heard something about an interposer, which I recall @patrickjp93 saying is expensive. They can't be making much on each GPU even at the price it's at.

Well, we can still hope.

Besides, a 20$ drop should be able to justify a 0~5 fps difference in games against a 980ti, coupled with occasional sales to drop it another ~30$, and AMD could have a winner on our hands.

If it wasn't for the 980ti releasing, we'd be seeing Fury X dominating the 1440p and 4K market at 850$, the original price point. The 980ti releasing was bad news for AMD, but in the end, it benefits the consumer the most. If we see a price drop, or even just an air cooled Fury X coming out (not the Fury), then we'd have even more competition, which is still good for us consumers.

[patrickjp93]

I still doubt that the price will go down. As @Curufinwe_wins said, the yields can't be that good if they have to make two cut-down versions of it. Also, they are using new technologies to allow the memory to be close to the GPU die. I heard something about an interposer, which I recall @patrickjp93 saying is expensive. They can't be making much on each GPU even at the price it's at.

The Nano isn't cut down. It has lower clock rates than Fury X though.

[Raytsou]

But the variable refresh range for those isn't all that good.  It's 35hz to 90hz for Freesync instead of 1 - 144 like G-sync :c

Well then, we'll probably see better ones in the future. I remember FRTC is limited to 35~90fps, don't know if that has anything to do with FreeSync.

[Shakaza]

The Nano isn't cut down. It has lower clock rates than Fury X though.

Same difference.

 

No, but seriously, what I meant was that there's a cut-down version in the form of the Fury, and the Nano that's binned a bit lower, assuming the rumors are right.. Regardless, I can't imagine the yields are very good.

[Takata]

Now there just needs to be some good Freesync monitors with refresh-ranges of 1 - 120/144 like with G-Sync.  Hopefully they're coming *_*

What's wrong with the BenQ XL2730Z ?

[Shakaza]

Well, we can still hope.

Besides, a 20$ drop should be able to justify a 0~5 fps difference in games against a 980ti, coupled with occasional sales to drop it another ~30$, and AMD could have a winner on our hands.

If it wasn't for the 980ti releasing, we'd be seeing Fury X dominating the 1440p and 4K market at 850$, the original price point. The 980ti releasing was bad news for AMD, but in the end, it benefits the consumer the most. If we see a price drop, or even just an air cooled Fury X coming out (not the Fury), then we'd have even more competition, which is still good for us consumers.

I certainly hope the price goes down, but I can't say I think $50 is enough of a differentiation between the 980 Ti and the Fury X. If we're looking at raw performance, sure, but NVIDIA hasn't gotten 75% market share (on dedicated GPUs) on performance alone.

[SurvivorNVL]

What's wrong with the BenQ XL2730Z ?

Refresh range is 40 - 144hz, so it is better than most other Freesync monitors when it comes to variable-sync, but it is only a TN panel.