Thursday, September 19th 2013

AMD "Hawaii" R9 290X GPU Specifications Revealed

Here are the first set of specifications for AMD's next high-end GPU silicon, on which the company will no doubt carve out several SKUs from. Codenamed "Hawaii," and slated for unveiling on the 26th in, well, Hawaii, the 28 nm chip is what AMD will take NVIDIA's GK110 silicon head-on with. It is based on AMD's second-generation Graphics CoreNext micro-architecture.

With an estimated die-area of 430 mm² (18% bigger than "Tahiti,") the chip physically features 2,816 stream processors (SPs) spread across 44 clusters with 64 SPs each (a 37.5% increase over "Tahiti"). The chip features four independent raster engines, compared to two independent ones on "Tahiti." This could translate into double the geometry processing muscle as "Tahiti," with four independent tessellation units. The memory interface of the chip is expected to be 384-bit wide, based on the GDDR5 specification. Given the way TMUs are arranged on chips based on this architecture, one can deduce 176 TMUs on the chip. The ROP count could be 32 or 48. The chip will feature hardware support for DirectX 11.2, including the much hyped shared resources (mega-texture) feature.
Source: 3DCenter.org
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97 Comments on AMD "Hawaii" R9 290X GPU Specifications Revealed

#27
buggalugs
My next card is nearly ready!! It will perform in between 780 and titan with better efficiency and of course much cheaper. I just hope they wack a good cooler on it.
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#28
RCoon
buggalugsMy next card is nearly ready!! It will perform in between 780 and titan with better efficiency and of course much cheaper. I just hope they wack a good cooler on it.
I think it will likely be on par with the 780 but at a lower price. I'm also hoping they use a cooler not too different from the 7990, because I personally quite liked that stock cooler.
They'll probably employ some kind of boost to certain specifications so they can claim top single gpu performance spot again. Then NVidia will spontaneously increase base clocks on their cards, and the clock war and Ghz edition malarchy will begin.
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#29
HumanSmoke
RCoonI think it will likely be on par with the 780 but at a lower price... They'll probably employ some kind of boost to certain specifications so they can claim top single gpu performance spot again
So the card will be on par with the 780...but surpass the Titan ??? :confused:
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#30
jigar2speed
HumanSmokeSo the card will be on par with the 780...but surpass the Titan ??? :confused:
You should remember after surpassing 780 there is not much left to over take Titan.
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#31
SIGSEGV
jigar2speedYou should remember after surpassing 780 there is not much left to over take Titan.
then might be nvidia would bring the ultra beyond supaaaah titan card out... :laugh:
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#32
jigar2speed
SIGSEGVthen might be nvidia would bring the ultra beyond supaaaah titan card out... :laugh:
That's competition my friend and it is always good for customers :)
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#33
Slomo4shO
RCoonI'm also hoping they use a cooler not too different from the 7990, because I personally quite liked that stock cooler.
Beyond looking nice, the 7990s run hot and are loud.
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#34
RCoon
Slomo4shOBeyond looking nice, the 7990s run hot and are loud.
Loud, only because its two hot GPU's. With any luck, this one will run a lot cooler because of the single GPU, so the cooler wouldnt need to be run so loud.
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#35
Casecutter
The 430 mm² is more than I thought (lately), while 2,816 stream processors is over the top! So yes huge efficiencies is die area! What's this part going to pack in terms of transistors, GFlops, and need tessellation?

Remember they undoubtedly included the obligatory frontend changes that Bonaire received in the number of geometry engines and command processors (ACEs). Also, there will assuredly be "Hawaii release drivers", that could bump them more than just what they could write for the original GCN architecture. Not the latest Catalyst 13.9 driver, basically certified for Windows 8.1

As to the cooler they won't need anything like a 7990, heck if the held the power why reinvent the wheel? Release with a 7970 version and the partners will build their own just as did with most everything GTX770/780 gets.


Edit:
I'm hoping we see again a $550 MSRP that would be the right move. Like the 4870 gave us against the GTX260, 270/280, that's the formula the worked, and what I hope AMD does again. Given the prices' they're selling 7950 and 7970's I don't like that AMD would consider a $600 price for a 28Nm part that's only 18% decrease in candidates from the wafer. Heck, if they can harvest 3 distinct derivatives from each wafer they'd probably easily make up for the die increase.
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#36
Akrian
Do want. But at 450-499 price point + waterblocks. :)
Then I would eventually get quadfire build again.
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#37
Prima.Vera
m1dg3t48 ROPs with 512bit and i'd start touching myself
Neh.

64 ROPs/ 512bit if you want to start the party.
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#38
Casecutter
After reading the translated version of the article at 3dcenter.org... this might not be as concrete (yes nothing ever is) as btarunr has us supposing. I'd suggest you read that article, as they offer "two assumptions" and saying it comes from a "seemingly informed user"; although who knows how those word translated-out from the original German text is unknown.
Wonder what the W1zzard’s take on that article is? I suppose he could be busy?

I want to see what the Ruby Tech Demo will look like this time.
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#39
mrwizard200
Sounds promising. I have $300 ready but it seems like that won't be enough. Is the 7970 still worth it?
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#40
fullinfusion
Vanguard Beta Tester
I have a buyer for both my 7970's so hurry up AMD and get these new cards out :rockout:
Posted on Reply
#41
Hilux SSRG
Prima.VeraNeh.

64 ROPs/ 512bit if you want to start the party.
That's what I'm waiting for!
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#42
manofthem
WCG-TPU Team All-Star!
fullinfusionI have a buyer for both my 7970's so hurry up AMD and get these new cards out :rockout:
I like your thinking! :respect:

I don't have buyers, but I'd love to trade in the 7970s if the card is beast!
Posted on Reply
#43
HumanSmoke
jigar2speedYou should remember after surpassing 780 there is not much left to over take Titan.
I assume English isn't your native language. "on par" means "equal to".
Therefore, if RCoon's assumption is that the 290X is equal to the 780, how can it have greater performance than the Titan which is around 8% faster than the 780?
Quite simply it can't. It is contradictory. There is no outright performance metric for reference SKU's where the 780 exceeds the Titan.
Posted on Reply
#44
RCoon
HumanSmokeI assume English isn't your native language. "on par" means "equal to".
Therefore, if RCoon's assumption is that the 290X is equal to the 780, how can it have greater performance than the Titan which is around 8% faster than the 780?
Quite simply it can't. It is contradictory. There is no outright performance metric for reference SKU's where the 780 exceeds the Titan.
I apologise for the mixup, I should have said on par with the Titan, but as the 780 is a sparrow's fart away from the Titan that was the first thing that came to mind.
Though in honesty if its like 1-3% slower than a Titan, faster than a 780, and equal or cheaper than the 780, then it's going to be a no brainer in terms of price/performance when compared to NVidia's offerings.
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#45
radrok
Can't wait to see the R9 290X Lightning :O
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#46
ensabrenoir
must say this is one area where amd never disappoints.....true it must surpass nvidia or its meaningless.... nvidia will drop prices though.......
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#47
yogurt_21
RophLooking forward to seeing what the 97xx / 98xx are like :)
one would hope they hit the 200-400$ price point with awesome bang for buck just like the original 9700 and 9800's.
Posted on Reply
#48
HumanSmoke
RCoonThough in honesty if its like 1-3% slower than a Titan, faster than a 780, and equal or cheaper than the 780, then it's going to be a no brainer in terms of price/performance when compared to NVidia's offerings.
Sounds like a likely scenario. AMD certainly aren't going to release a card that isn't competitive in performance. The only real issues are what price tag AMD put on the card, availability, and whether the GPU is a relatively clean sheet design built with 28nm in mind, or whether it is something of a kludge based on Tahiti because the GPU cadence is out of step with the (20nm) process node- and presumably GDDR6 - also assuming that AMD and Nvidia look to boost bandwidth via memory frequency rather than add to the die area with added memory controllers.

Worst case scenario, the 290X and 780 trade blows and AMD tag it at $599. Nvidia would likely see the extra $50 for the 780 justified based on brand, its tenuous relationship to Titan (and presumably a Titan Ultra), and the fact that vendor designed and OC'ed 780's would be competing with a reference design 290X.

Best case scenario, the salvage part (Hawaii Pro) offers 85-90% of the performance of the 290X at a considerable cost saving. This part should be key to any real shakeup since Nvidia don't have an analogue - it should be daylight between it and the GTX 770 -as with the 780, which either leaves AMD without competition in a higher volume market, or necessitates the introduction of a Titan Ultra, with the Titan and 780 both moving down in the pricing hierarchy. Kind of depends whether Nvidia feel the need to commit that much resource...and how far way Maxwell is.
yogurt_21one would hope they hit the 200-400$ price point with awesome bang for buck just like the original 9700 and 9800's.
That's not going to happen. a 425-440mm^2 on 28nm -even with fantastic yields, wouldn't make it viable. There is also the no small difference that Rory Read wasn't running thing back in the days of R300...and Rory only offers the LOW LOW PRICE! if the product is seriously outgunned by the competition.

Just a note: The 9700 PRO and 9800 PRO both launched at $450. The 9800 XT launched at $499
Posted on Reply
#49
fullinfusion
Vanguard Beta Tester
manofthemI like your thinking! :respect:

I don't have buyers, but I'd love to trade in the 7970s if the card is beast!
I know one thing, Im sitting at W1zzards front door waiting for the mail man to show up and run away with the package :D

I have a local guy that's into the tec but don't mind waiting to upgrade. He just likes buying from me as I always sold him top notch hardware and isn't into upgrading as often as I do. He had one of my 7970's and just loved it over his 8800gtx's in sli on my old platform. He keeps sending me a friendly reminder that he has the cookie jar full of cash for when I want to upgrade.

It's all going to determine the performance of the new top end cards performance and the cost. You know I never use one gpu :laugh: one just makes the case look so bare :D
Posted on Reply
#50
Nordic
fullinfusionYou know I never use one gpu :laugh: one just makes the case look so bare :D
Get smaller case. :p
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