RX 490: What is a dual GPU?

[Alir]

1) RX 490 is rumoured to be a dual GPU. Has this been confirmed?

 

2) What exactly is a dual GPU? 

 

3) Why is this a bad thing? Loads of people be complaining non-stop. 

 

4) Does a dual GPU require crossfire support (on the driver/ software level) or is the crossfire dealt on a hardware level? My main reason for asking this is because I will either get a 480 or a 490. I will be using Linux and I hear that Linux support for Crossfire is nil. 

 

5) Does Crossfire work on Linux? I presume that Windows will be fine with it?

[EunSoo]

1. Almost nothing is confirmed about the rx490

2. There are two GPU chips on the PCB

3. They tend to not work properly

4. I'm not sure about this but I think it is dealt on the actual PCB of the GPU, not the motherboard. And of course, the drivers help out a lot

5. Last time I checked it did not

[shadowbyte]

it's two GPUs on one card

take the 295x2 for example

it's just two full 290x cards on one PCB

yes, it requires crossfire support

not sure about linux though, but I assume the drivers would allow it.

[Kobathor]

1. No. It was a single rumor with a bad source.

 

2. A dual-GPU is exactly what it sounds like. Two GPU's on a single PCB.

 

3. Answer 3 combines 3 and 4, because yes, it does require crossfire support for both GPU's to work, and it's a very bad thing. That means that, in lots of games (even AAA titles!) the card might only perform half what it would perform in other things.

 

5. i dunno.

 

The RX 490 will probably be a cut-down version of Vega 10, rather than two Polaris 10 XT chips.

[pagani123]

dual gpu card just means it has two gpu die's on a pcb

[FIXXX]

The most recent dual gpu from AMD was the R9 295 X2 and it was a monster. Kept getting strong results even though it used an old architecture. 

But - expensive as hell.

[AlwaysFSX]

9 minutes ago, Alir said:

2) What exactly is a dual GPU? 

Single GPU:

 

 

Dual GPU:

 

[Droidbot]

5 minutes ago, AlwaysFSX said:

snip

 

I really wanted you to post a picture of a trash bin for dual-GPU

[AlwaysFSX]

2 minutes ago, Droidbot said:

I really wanted you to post a picture of a trash bin for dual-GPU

grats

[i_build_nanosuits]

[App4that]

If you're using Linux you want Nvidia. 

[DocSwag]

Literally just think of dual GPU cards as two GPUs mashed onto one pcb. Because that's literally what it is.

[i_build_nanosuits]

getting good at this!

 

 

[AlTech]

27 minutes ago, Alir said:

1) RX 490 is rumoured to be a dual GPU. Has this been confirmed?

No. And there are other rumours that RX 490 will be a cut down VEGA part.

27 minutes ago, Alir said:

2) What exactly is a dual GPU? 

A dual GPU is when 2 video cards of the same model and VRAM capacity are put together on the same PCB and connect with each other.

27 minutes ago, Alir said:

3) Why is this a bad thing? Loads of people be complaining non-stop. 

With multiple GPUs, you will never get perfect scaling. So if you have a dual GPU, it would be slower than a single GPU which has the same specs as both GPUs combined.

27 minutes ago, Alir said:

4) Does a dual GPU require crossfire support (on the driver/ software level) or is the crossfire dealt on a hardware level?

Yes, to function effectively and use both GPUs, it requires game level crossfire support.

27 minutes ago, Alir said:

My main reason for asking this is because I will either get a 480 or a 490. I will be using Linux and I hear that Linux support for Crossfire is nil. 

If you want to buy a GPU today then I'd recommend going for the RX 480.

27 minutes ago, Alir said:

5) Does Crossfire work on Linux? I presume that Windows will be fine with it?

Actually they both suck. Crossfire and SLI don't work too well on many games.

[App4that]

2 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

 

Actually they both suck. Crossfire and SLI don't work too well on many games.

My 980ti's say hi.

 

Actually they swore at you, did not say nice things.

[App4that]

The reason people think multi card set ups don't work is one of two reasons.

 

1) They don't own one.

2) They try and play games at launch.

 

My SLI set up runs great, even in games like Deus Ex. People need to chill.

 

But AMD doesn't have the best performance in Linux, that's Nvidia. AMD is getting better though.

[Alir]

This sounds scary. Hopefully it won't be a dual gpu.

6 minutes ago, App4that said:

The reason people think multi card set ups don't work is one of two reasons.

 

1) They don't own one.

2) They try and play games at launch.

 

My SLI set up runs great, even in games like Deus Ex. People need to chill.

 

But AMD doesn't have the best performance in Linux, that's Nvidia. AMD is getting better though.

Last I heard AMD support for open source drivers or open source drivers support for AMD is better than Nvidia? At least the RX 480 and future releases are/will be?

[App4that]

Just now, Alir said:

This sounds scary. Hopefully it won't be a dual gpu.

Last I heard AMD support for open source drivers or open source drivers support for AMD is better than Nvidia? At least the RX 480 and future releases are/will be?

The drivers have been open source for Nvidia for ever. I haven't tested within the past few months but Nvidia has a huge lead in Linux support, because of who uses Linux. Like a 960 beating a Fury X kinda lead. AMD wants you using Windows 10, because you need Windows 10 to use DX12.