Monday, May 4th 2015

AMD Radeon R9 380 Launched by PC OEM

by
btarunr
 Discuss (32 Comments)
Earlier this day, HP announced its newest line of desktop PCs, one of which comes with a curious-sounding Radeon R9 380 graphics card. HP's product pages for its new desktops aren't active, yet, leaving us to only speculate on what the R9 380 could be. One theory making rounds says that the R9 380 could either be a re-branded R9 285, or be based on its "Tonga" silicon, which physically features 2,048 stream processors based on Graphics CoreNext (GCN) 1.2 architecture, and a 384-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface. Another theory states that the R9 380 could be an OEM-only re-brand of the R9 280 or R9 280X, based on the 3+ year old "Tahiti" silicon.

The former theory sounds more plausible, because re-branding a "Tahiti" based product would be suicidal for AMD. Although based on GCN, "Tahiti" lacks a lot of architecture features introduced with "Hawaii" and "Tonga." AMD practically stopped optimizing games for "Tahiti," and some of its new features, such as FreeSync and XDMA CrossFire, can't be implemented on it. "Tonga," on the other hand, supports both these features, and one can create an SKU with all its 2,048 stream processors, and its full 384-bit GDDR5 memory interface unlocked. If the R9 380 is indeed an OEM-only product, then it's likely that the company's retail-channel products could be branded in the succeeding R9 400 series. GPU makers tend to re-brand and bump their SKUs by a series for OEMs to peddle in their "new" products at short notice.
Our most recent understanding of AMD's next-gen lineup sees re-branding across the lineup, with just one genuinely new silicon. "Tonga" could drive the pair of SKUs that directly succeed the R9 270 and R9 270X; "Grenada," which is a refined version of "Hawaii," will drive the SKUs that succeed the R9 280 and R9 280X; while the new "Fiji" silicon, with its 4,096 stream processors and a fancy 640 GB/s HBM memory interface, could drive the SKUs that succeed R9 290 and R9 290X. An extraordinary rumor doing rounds is that one "Fiji" SKU could get a fancy model name à la NVIDIA Titan.

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32 Comments on AMD Radeon R9 380 Launched by PC OEM

#2
RejZoR
Gives us the R9-390 already. Damn it.
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#3
NC37
Thought it would be a 290X rebrand for the 380s.
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#4
Chaitanya
Looks like a rebage rather than a new gpu, remember the Radeon 8000 series?
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#5
MagnuTron
NC37Thought it would be a 290X rebrand for the 380s.
That's what I am thinking too. This makes no sense.
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#6
Hiryougan
MadsMagnusThat's what I am thinking too. This makes no sense.
Yep. 270(X) was supposed to be R9 285 rebrand. R9 380(X) was supposed to be Hawaii rebrand, otherwise it won't make any sense.
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#7
64K
I don't recall what the rumors of the R9 380 were. I assumed it would be a rebadged 280x. The 380x was rumored to be a slightly more efficient 290x with higher clocks. The 380x would compete nicely with a GTX 980. As far as price goes a 290x is selling for around $350 so I wouldn't think the 380x would be much over $400 which would slam the $550 GTX 980 on price/performance.

Probably the price of the 380 should be a little more than a 280x if it is a rebadged 280x. For anyone that can wait a little while for a new card there will probably be some good sales on old stock when the 380/380x drops.
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#8
Countryside
RejZoRGives us the R9-390 already. Damn it.
Posted on Reply
#9
alwayssts
64KI don't recall what the rumors of the R9 380 were. I assumed it would be a rebadged 280x. The 380x was rumored to be a slightly more efficient 290x with higher clocks. The 380x would compete nicely with a GTX 980. As far as price goes a 290x is selling for around $350 so I wouldn't think the 380x would be much over $400 which would slam the $550 GTX 980 on price/performance.

Probably the price of the 380 should be a little more than a 280x if it is a rebadged 280x. For anyone that can wait a little while for a new card there will probably be some good sales on old stock when the 380/380x drops.
Personally, barring an update to Pitcairn, I think it *really* needs to be:

370: Sub-150w tonga (960)
370x: Full Tonga (960ti)
380: 290 redux or low-clocked full Hawaii (970)
380x: Higher-clocked 290x...something like 1100/5500 (980)
390: Probably 3584sp, but something that is going to *guaranteed* stock and overclocked apples-to-apples be faster than 980. (980ti)
390x: Titan-like.

Anything else just doesn't make any sense imho.
Posted on Reply
#10
Captain_Tom
The new rumors state that all R7 and up GPU's will be new designs, and that is why the release was delayed to June. AMD was gonna rebadge most of the cards but Maxwell made them realize that they need to apply their best architecture to ALL of their cards if they want to compete.
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#11
stulda
Captain_TomThe new rumors state that all R7 and up GPU's will be new designs, and that is why the release was delayed to June. AMD was gonna rebadge most of the cards but Maxwell made them realize that they need to apply their best architecture to ALL of their cards if they want to compete.
Source please?
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#12
RejZoR
I think R9-380 are just R9-290 with Tonga optimizations on board. R9-390 will be a whole new beast.
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#13
Casecutter
Please this a lot about nothing... sure nice to be aware that HP perhaps is"on-board". Although suggesting anything about what "this is or means" is just opinion, and ends-ups driving speculation and crap about "what’s in name"... no significance in that. It comes across more like click bait.

Now if this said the PSU was XXX Watts we could theorize something, but this is just saying a name "R9 380" which is not any revelation. How is that furthering any smart conversations? Stupid stuff like this over the next month will start taking "a life of its own", creating a bunch of heightened suspense... from zilch!
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#15
Casecutter
TheGuruStudOEMs are always rebrands lol
Perhaps, the one thing is if this is/was an OEM number, what numbers will AMD use for retail parts?
This might be tell-tale if a true OEM part number that AMD has enacted something like a R9 385 for retail part?
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#16
rav
AMD's new GCN Architecture is optimised to run using DX12 with AMD APU's or CPU's. Since HP is likely putting this R9 380 on an Intel mainboard, the massive benefits that Asynchronous Shaders and Asynchronous Compute Engines will be nullified.

Intel CPU's are garbage when running DX12. Everyone buying a Radeon dGPU and NOT using an AMD CPU to drive it will be wasting their money.
Posted on Reply
#17
TheGuruStud
ravAMD's new GCN Architecture is optimised to run using DX12 with AMD APU's or CPU's. Since HP is likely putting this R9 380 on an Intel mainboard, the massive benefits that Asynchronous Shaders and Asynchronous Compute Engines will be nullified.

Intel CPU's are garbage when running DX12. Everyone buying a Radeon dGPU and NOT using an AMD CPU to drive it will be wasting their money.
Posted on Reply
#19
TheinsanegamerN
ravAMD's new GCN Architecture is optimised to run using DX12 with AMD APU's or CPU's. Since HP is likely putting this R9 380 on an Intel mainboard, the massive benefits that Asynchronous Shaders and Asynchronous Compute Engines will be nullified.

Intel CPU's are garbage when running DX12. Everyone buying a Radeon dGPU and NOT using an AMD CPU to drive it will be wasting their money.
Thank you for the daily dose of Kool-Aid! Now, please come back when you've figured out what on earth you are talking about.
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#21
the54thvoid
Super Intoxicated Moderator
CasecutterHere Guru 3D provides the actaul HP verbage that's got everyone stirring the pot.
www.guru3d.com/news-story/radeon-r9-380-surfaces-in-hp-press-release.html

Short and sweet with no overt sensationalizing.
But it requires sensationalism. They're announcing a new GPU. It's bound to cause a stir.
The comments on Guru suggesting the 380 is to go up against the 980 though are misguided. The 380 will be a rebrand, made so that HP aren't releasing a new PC with a last gen (290x) graphics option. Maybe in that scenarios, the OEM 380 is in fact a 290?
Posted on Reply
#22
Casecutter
the54thvoidBut it requires sensationalism. They're announcing a new GPU. It's bound to cause a stir.
The comments on Guru suggesting the 380 is to go up against the 980 though are misguided. The 380 will be a rebrand, made so that HP aren't releasing a new PC with a last gen (290x) graphics option. Maybe in that scenarios, the OEM 380 is in fact a 290?
But he just paraphrased what HP said, "For performance, customers have the choice of up to NVIDIA GTX 980 or AMD Radeon R9 380 discrete graphics". That doesn't read as they're implied as similar, actually with HP's choice of words one might come away with just the opposite.

Honestly, AMD would have to find some "real secret sauce" (improvement) from a re-spun Hawaii Pro part to be positioned akin to the 980.
Posted on Reply
#24
Xaser04
This is the first time I have heard the rumour that the 380 could be a 285 or even 280x rebrand...

And.. LOL at Intel CPU's being trash in DX12...
Posted on Reply
#25
Renald
I just think that they will allow OEM builder to rebrand their 290X with 380, but that's all. Nvidia did the same with 500M and 600M series.
The constructor could use an official chip or a rebranding, because nVidia considers that performance are identical.

If that so, we can expect a very good R9 390X :) (a real one :p )
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