Tuesday, December 24th 2013
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AMD Preps Radeon R9 260 and Radeon R9 255 to Woo Pre-built Buyers?
AMD is rolling out two new Radeon SKUs to bolster its lineup below the $179.99 price-point held by the Radeon R9 270. The names of these SKUs might confuse the heck out of you, the TechPowerUp reader, and our hearts go out to the target buyers of these products, but bear with us - Radeon R9 255 and Radeon R9 260. Not to be confused with similar-sounding Radeon R7 250 and Radeon R7 260, the two SKUs are positioned in the Radeon R9 series, and could offer either higher performance levels than what the R7 260X manages, or it could also be a sly marketing move by AMD to make the lower-mainstream part of its lineup look more appealing to buyers of pre-built mainstream desktops that are "gaming ready."
There are two pieces of evidence to support the existence of the two. First, AMD updated its website to show R9 255 and R9 260 in the Radeon R9 section of its OEM products page. Second, on close inspection of the driver information (.inf) file of Catalyst 13.12 WHQL, we sniffed out three curious looking device IDs, which point at products going by those names. Selling an SKU named "Radeon R9 260" could work well for AMD's "Never Settle for anything less than AMD Radeon R9 Series graphics" marketing campaign.The extract from the driver information file (which you can find by simply making the installer extract to the temporary "AMD" folder), lists of these entries:
The product page also lists out specifications of the two.
Radeon R9 255
There are two pieces of evidence to support the existence of the two. First, AMD updated its website to show R9 255 and R9 260 in the Radeon R9 section of its OEM products page. Second, on close inspection of the driver information (.inf) file of Catalyst 13.12 WHQL, we sniffed out three curious looking device IDs, which point at products going by those names. Selling an SKU named "Radeon R9 260" could work well for AMD's "Never Settle for anything less than AMD Radeon R9 Series graphics" marketing campaign.The extract from the driver information file (which you can find by simply making the installer extract to the temporary "AMD" folder), lists of these entries:
1002&DEV_665C&SUBSYS_29321462Descriptor "%AMD665C.2%" is linked to R9 255, and "%AMD665C.4%" with R9 260. Device IDs of the two also point at R9 255 being based on the "Cape Verde" silicon, and R9 260 being based on "Bonaire."
"%AMD665C.2%" = ati2mtag_R505, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_665C&SUBSYS_29341462
"%AMD665C.3%" = ati2mtag_R505, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_665C&SUBSYS_8770148C
"%AMD665C.4%" = ati2mtag_R505, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_665C&SUBSYS_9260148C
"%AMD665C.5%" = ati2mtag_R505, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_665C
The product page also lists out specifications of the two.
Radeon R9 255
- 28 nm "Cape Verde" silicon (derived from the device ID)
- 512 stream processors, 32 TMUs
- 128-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface
- 930 MHz core clock
- Up to 2 GB standard memory amount, with 6.50 GHz memory clock
- 104 GB/s memory bandwidth
- Draws power from a single 6-pin PCIe connector
- 28 nm "Bonaire" silicon (derived from the device ID)
- 896 stream processors, 56 TMUs
- 128-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface
- 1100 MHz core clock
- Up to 2 GB standard memory amount, with 6.50 GHz memory clock
- 104 GB/s memory bandwidth
- Draws power from a single 6-pin PCIe connector
10 Comments on AMD Preps Radeon R9 260 and Radeon R9 255 to Woo Pre-built Buyers?
EDIT: wait... it sais R9 260 and R9 255. one of us is wrong mate.
EDIT2: it is R9. Forgive me while i go and kill myself in a quite dark corner. I'm done with these.
If the new HD7750 will be called R9 255, many many people will get mad.
From highest performance to lowest:
R9 290X
R9 290
R9 280X
R9 270X
R9 270
R7 260X
R9 260 (OEM)
R7 260
R9 255 (OEM)
R7 250
R7 240 (OEM)
R7 240
R5 240 (OEM)
R5 235X (OEM)
R5 235 (OEM)
R5 230 (OEM)
R5 220 (OEM)
and they have little difference among them, so you always say why dont add more $ to get better card
so what you want, what you browse and what you bring home may different