Monday, September 14th 2015
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AMD Readies Radeon R9 380X, XFX Ready with Card
AMD is readying a new SKU to take advantage of the vast pricing gap between the GeForce GTX 960 and GTX 970, and to bolster its sub-$300 lineup, with the Radeon R9 380X. This SKU will be based on the 28 nm "Tonga" silicon, which implements the latest Graphics CoreNext 1.2 architecture. The R9 380X could max out the specifications of the "Tonga" silicon, offering 2,048 stream processors spread across 32 compute units, 128 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and a 384-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding either 3 GB or 6 GB of memory.
Another equally plausible theory pins the R9 380X as a chip with 2,048 stream processors, but the same 256-bit GDDR5 memory interface of the R9 380, with 4 GB of memory, letting AMD keep the costs low. XFX appears to be ready with a "Double Dissipation" card based on the R9 380X. The card's new-generation Double Dissipation cooler features an aluminium fin-stack heatsink with four 8 mm thick nickel-plated copper heat pipes, and a pair of 100 mm spinners, which are easily detachable, letting you clean the heatsink underneath. Mass-production of the R9 380X is reportedly underway, so a launch is to be expected rather soon.
Source:
Expreview
Another equally plausible theory pins the R9 380X as a chip with 2,048 stream processors, but the same 256-bit GDDR5 memory interface of the R9 380, with 4 GB of memory, letting AMD keep the costs low. XFX appears to be ready with a "Double Dissipation" card based on the R9 380X. The card's new-generation Double Dissipation cooler features an aluminium fin-stack heatsink with four 8 mm thick nickel-plated copper heat pipes, and a pair of 100 mm spinners, which are easily detachable, letting you clean the heatsink underneath. Mass-production of the R9 380X is reportedly underway, so a launch is to be expected rather soon.
42 Comments on AMD Readies Radeon R9 380X, XFX Ready with Card
And yeah... 6GB is useless... 4GB is okay for everything now, especially in the middle tier.
I'm guessing its going to be 4gb + 256bit.
i.imgur.com/up0q6nM.gif
If we peek up at the Hilberts chart for the useless R9 380. OC at 1.1GHZ. And stock 990MHz. Additional shader cluster and more speed... it demolishes the old grandpa 280X. And how well additional 100MHz gained boost.
For longevity purposes, AMD scored well with the 300 series for VRAM. nVidia has no counter. However, if the card has the muscle or not...that remains to be seen. Already seen that the 960 4GB vs 960 2GB means almost nothing. The GPU is just crippled by the the 128bit.
However, at 256bit and up, now it has some headroom.
Course all of this is moot with the new GPU lines coming next year. But at the very least, if you had to buy this year, I wouldn't go less than 6-8GB. Unless you planned to buy again within mere months. But not all of us have disposable income to constantly buy new GPUs. For the 2-5yr buyers, 300s are attractive as the nVidia cards will show their age very fast. Especially all those 970s. I imagine those will be in e-waste bins very quickly with their performance stuttering problems when pushed past 3.5GB.
Actually voltage is not enough... judging from my experience clocking my old 7970... the Vbios is! I can top out different stable max at the same voltage. Just changing the video bios. The stock runs only at 1050 no matter what. I put some from 280X, and bam 1150Mhz rock stable. The atombios source has some magic there, that helps clocking. Especially when overclocking and calculating different ratios. The dog is buried there actually.
The XFX cooler though is pretty cool and different. Its similar to their recent design but with a new color scheme which I appreciate.
This is Full Tonga , NEW CORE!!!! ;)
www.techpowerup.com/gpudb/2609/radeon-r9-285.html
arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/08/directx-12-tested-an-early-win-for-amd-and-disappointment-for-nvidia/
Btw Tonga is near of fiji, if not believe me see the map. : b
Clock for clock the 380 was the same* as the 285.
* 4GB memory VS 2GB and perhaps a more refined memory timing for the 380 allowed very minor performance improvements.
Perhaps this will be a better performing card than the 285 was compared to the 280, as it was almost even except the tahiti core was able to reach higher clock speeds.
This card has no performance figures, it has no actual specifications verified by AMD, and yet people are still willing to either crucify or worship it.
If it's a 970 without the memory crippling, it'll be a decent option. It's come late to the the party, but it's not like it arrived early and dropped a deuce in the punch bowl. If it doesn't compete with the 970 then we've got a late comer than didn't bring their own beer to a party.
Either way, AMD is late to the game and competing with both an old process node and impending massive improvements due to an upcoming die shrink. Call me crazy, but I think AMD could have released something half baked 4 months ago, and had more of a chance than what they've got now. Early adopters aren't going to shell out more money for a middle-high tier card. Late adopters are still scooping up 290s because the price to performance is huge. Nvidia stole the compulsive upgraders months ago. Who is really going to rush out and buy a 380x? Even if it's a great card, it's just not going to move.
And no you're not crazy, it was for what even reason... crazy for AMD to hold off till July to drop the entire 300 Series. They should've started in late April releasing a 390, then 2-3 weeks the 380, early June the 390x while Pitcairn stuff camouflaged under Fiji. Or was it that they had to wait for the special-sauce 300 Series drivers...
It seems all the 300 series and Fury (not just Nano) was like AMD didn't want to have reviews. AMD needs to find some "mojo", because what they've been doing hasn't had much if any. Let's hope they do a proper release with this, it appears a good niche is carved-out... They should be able to take full advantage as its a never been seen "full spec" part should not have any reason to hide it away. With a 380 4Gb at $220, while most 390 8Gb are $310 with some kind of rebate; I would see the top end price for a nice custom like the XFX as Black Edition with 4Gb/256-bit not sensible above $280. I figure MSRP $250-260 for most generic OC with AIB coolers. If they pull a 6Gb/348-bit perhaps your price might have traction.