Thursday, May 7th 2015
AMD Fiji XT Reference PCB as Short as GTX 970 Reference, R9 295X2 Performance
AMD's upcoming Radeon R9 390X graphics cards will ship in two SKUs - an air-cooled one, with a moderately long reference design board (though not as long as the R9 290X), and a new Water-Cooled Edition (WCE) SKU, which will feature a very compact PCB - one that could be no bigger than that of the GeForce GTX 970 reference. This is possible because of AMD's HBM implementation. The 8 GB of memory on this card is present on the GPU package, as bare 3D-stacked DRAM dies, surrounding the GPU die, with an IHS covering everything; rather than the GPU package being surrounded by memory chips. Below is a mock-up of the card by ChipHell. It's not a picture. The radiator is off-proportions, the Radeon logo is misaligned, and the PCIe I/O is misaligned, etc. It should still give you a good idea of what the card looks like, particularly its length. Other specs on hand so far, include 4,096 GCN 1.2 stream processors, 256 TMUs, 128 ROPs, and a 4096-bit wide HBM interface, which at 1.25 GHz memory clock, will offer memory bandwidth of 640 GB/s.
While Fiji package will be bigger than that of, say, "Hawaii," overall the setup is more space-efficient, and conserves PCB real-estate. The PCB hence only has the GPU package and the VRM. AMD is doing away with the DVI connector on its reference PCB. It will only feature three DisplayPort 1.2a and one HDMI 2.0a. The WCE variant will feature a pump+block covering the GPU package, which will come factory-fitted to a 120 x 120 mm radiator. The air-cooled R9 390X will be longer, but only to house a heatsink and lateral blower. The single-GPU card could offer performance comparable to the dual-GPU R9 295X2, which is faster than the GeForce GTX TITAN-X. AMD CEO Lisa Su, speaking at the Investor Day event, in New York, on 6th May, hinted that the product could launch on the sidelines of either Computex 2015 (early-June) or E3 (mid-June).
Image Courtesy: ChipHell. Many Thanks to GhostRyder for the tip.
While Fiji package will be bigger than that of, say, "Hawaii," overall the setup is more space-efficient, and conserves PCB real-estate. The PCB hence only has the GPU package and the VRM. AMD is doing away with the DVI connector on its reference PCB. It will only feature three DisplayPort 1.2a and one HDMI 2.0a. The WCE variant will feature a pump+block covering the GPU package, which will come factory-fitted to a 120 x 120 mm radiator. The air-cooled R9 390X will be longer, but only to house a heatsink and lateral blower. The single-GPU card could offer performance comparable to the dual-GPU R9 295X2, which is faster than the GeForce GTX TITAN-X. AMD CEO Lisa Su, speaking at the Investor Day event, in New York, on 6th May, hinted that the product could launch on the sidelines of either Computex 2015 (early-June) or E3 (mid-June).
103 Comments on AMD Fiji XT Reference PCB as Short as GTX 970 Reference, R9 295X2 Performance
if so, the those that buy a titan x is screwed by nvidia...
Well at least one credible person has held it in his hands.
No word on solid performance or release date in Q2
We pretty much all need this to be a competitor for Titan X to bring more realistic pricing back to the market.
Where's the info at, c'mon AMD, throw us a frickin' bone!
Remember the days when AMD were releasing a new driver every month?
Patience, young grasshopper.
Last year was great? Yeah, especially the first quarter of this year was great (one beta driver), and now Project CARS. But of course, NVIDIA paid everyone.
Young? Lol, I wish. Not as old as some but at 41, well, I suppose I have more cash now!
Besides, techies don't do patience :)
The drivers have been great for a long time now dude...If they weren't most of us would not be buying their products no matter how cheap they are...Right, I am getting beyond impatient just from curiosity. I already told myself I would not invest yet but this waiting game is starting to get on my nerves because we really need something. They must really be working on something for the card or they are waiting on the HBM memory to kick up production.I think that comes down to new cases versus old. Even small cases now though would at least have two 120mm spots to mount a AIO or two in this day even on the cheap but I know there are many cases who are limited still.
I’d have to think with so fewer employee’s AMD’s keeping tightlipped is more manageable. As was Hawaii a calm strategy is paramount, nobody in these write-ups or forums have anything. AMD doesn’t need something taking a life of it’s own, as they realized some something like Bulldozer. Even the supposed contacts need to know that with less folks in the mix, the chance of being found as a source of a leak is much higher odds than it was years back. Less AIB contacts are willing to divulge information past what that is pretty much given, and I’m sure AMD has kept the pool same and need to know. While nobody wants to be the source that was privy to some piece of counter information to see where and who talks. We should "Keep Calm and Carry On."... as "Loose Lips Sink Ships!"That's the kind of "drumming" that doesn't enhance the topic. I say AMD doesn't need to best TitanX, it just needs to once again ostracize it. As they’ve in the past like what 4870 did to the GTX 280 back in June 2008, or Hawaii did with the GTX780 and Titan, it’s the shear performance to dollar that gamers savor most. Even those looking to scratch the itch for potential 4k on a single card this round (with 28nm) is a pipe dream, for other than the early adopter that are always willing to push to the edge.
Think of Titan kinda of naming
It's also a resort in Fiji.
Sulis (Celtic goddess of hot springs) is still free.
Pretty sure the name cant be subject to copyright as the name is in common use.
Naming the card after an Nvidia-themed range of SKU's would just reinforce the perception that AMD is a follower, not a leader...although that hasn't deterred them in the past (i.e. when AMD blatantly copied Intel's naming processor convention such as: family-four digit proc code- "K" unlocked). I think Nvidia would be more perturbed if AMD copied some of their other traits - like
designing an air cooler that didn't instantly turn into an internet meme, orturning a profit:roll:Edited to appease scorpion_amd13
.One company learned after a shockingly bad FX 5800U ( I even posted a video of it on these very forums not so long ago) while one company parlayed the HD6990's cruddy cooler into the equally derided reference 7970...7990...and (hopefully) finally the reference 290/290X.
One company seemingly learns from its own mistakes, and one company learns nothing from history - or is blissfully ignorant of public opinion.
Sure, nVidia has learned a lot when it comes to cooling high-end GPUs in a more or less silent manner. But that's pretty much because they had to. They rarely (if ever) allow their partners to mount their own custom coolers on high-end cards (see: the Titans), so of course they need to come up with something that can handle the heat (pun intended).
Now don't get me wrong, I wholeheartedly agree with everything you've said about the stock coolers for the 6990/7970/7990/290/290X. They really were piss-poor. But, at least when it came to the single-GPU models, you'd get tons of models fitted with custom coolers from every AMD partner under the sun soon after launch day. The 290/290X custom boards were particularly well done, my personal favorites being Sapphire's TriX and Vapor-X models. I never ever heard anyone complain about them, and I know quite a lot of people that bought such beasts.
On the other hand, AMD has shown that they get why a proper stock cooler is important with the 295X2. That thing stayed both cool and quiet. And if the rumors pan out (which they should), you'll get water-cooled 390X boards at launch day. A bit later on you'll be able to buy custom air cooled versions. It all comes down to options, really. And right now, AMD offers the largest number of options. With nVidia, you get the stock cooler and that's it. If you want something more, you'd better be prepared to dive deep into ye olde wallet to get a water cooling setup going. Personally, I like AMD's approach a lot more because I don't have a compulsion to buy a new card the instant it is released.
Just for the record and not particularly OT, both IHV's have similar attitudes towards their cards. GTX Titan range might be gaming cards but they are also heavily used in prosumer workloads (3D rendering for example) - as their prices attest. AMD's nearest analogue is closer to FirePro than Radeon given the relative framebuffers. Both Nvidia and AMD don't allow deviation from reference on those SKUs. The 290/290X and lower (along with previous Radeons) are analogous to Nvidia's numeral based nomenclature - both of which feature non-reference variations. Even the GTX 480. Both GPU vendors tend to frown upon deviation from reference for dual-GPU models.
The only real difference in reference/non-reference cooling is that Nvidia has a tendency to allow both non-reference cooling, and non-reference clocks on launch day (thus ensuring multiple graphics reviews per site at launch), while AMD keep PC Partner happy by withholding vendor cooling/clocks for weeks/months - ensuring a single review per site- unless the site is blessed with enough hardware for a CrossfireX review also.
Anyhow, since the subject seems to have morphed from humour to a sales pitch for PC Partner's commercial brand rather than OEM business I have edited my original post. ;)