Tuesday, March 15th 2016

AMD Unveils the Radeon Pro Duo Graphics Card

AMD unveiled its latest flagship graphics card, the Radeon Pro Duo. The card is designed for "creators who game, and gamers who create," as the tagline goes. It is a dual-GPU graphics card based on a pair of 28 nm "Fiji" chips, the same ones which drive the R9 Fury X and the R9 Nano. AMD is positioning this card in the gray-area between consumer graphics cards, and FirePro workstation products, as a new "workstation-class" product. Perhaps this allows the company to get away with things such as three 8-pin PCIe power connectors.

The Radeon Pro Duo features two "Fiji" GPUs in their maximum core configuration - 4,096 stream processors, 256 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, each; with 4 GB of HBM memory, each. The card hence packs a total of 8 GB HBM memory, and 16 TFLOP/s total single-precision floating-point performance. The card features a liquid-cooling solution designed by Cooler Master, with a thick 120 mm x 120 mm radiator that's similar to the one that ships with the R9 Fury X. The card's display output configuration is similar to the R9 Fury X, too, with three DisplayPort 1.2a and one HDMI 1.4a connectors. AMD is going ahead and claiming the title of "World's Fastest Graphics Card." The Radeon R9 Pro Duo is expected to be priced at US $1,499.
Add your own comment

87 Comments on AMD Unveils the Radeon Pro Duo Graphics Card

#3
badtaylorx
I miss the days when that price fetched you an Asus custom PCB'd Ares or MARS card...
Posted on Reply
#4
Lord Potato
So, it's only got 4Gb of effective HBM RAM as it's another single card crossfire solution? Info above isn't clear on whether it works this way...

edit - found it. Yup, 4Gb effective at $1500. There really isn't any consumer value to this product, hence the professional level marketing.
Posted on Reply
#5
geon2k2
No normal person would pay so much on a graphics card. Not when you can get bleeding edge technology and performance with 1/3rd of the money and very good performance with 1/5th.

But then again, I though no sane person will pay 1000$ for a phone ... and yet people stay in the queue to buy them.

So yes, I guess, in the end, this will also sell like hot cakes, as in the GPU market, for now, it is indeed something special.
Posted on Reply
#6
Grings
I really don't like these Coolermaster all in ones they keep using
Posted on Reply
#7
bogami
Very nice looking. Installation of liquid cooling for card is praise worthy but I do not know if the same radiator will sufficient for 2 processors. I drool saliva of the mouth.:clap:Wf course, I would have preferred block colleng unit and poth pump out on radiator.
Posted on Reply
#8
Fabio Bologna
Lord PotatoSo, it's only got 4Gb of effective HBM RAM as it's another single card crossfire solution? Info above isn't clear on whether it works this way...

edit - found it. Yup, 4Gb effective at $1500. There really isn't any consumer value to this product, hence the professional level marketing.
Actually if you have DX12, they said it would be possible to effectively use all the RAM of each gpu indipendently even in crossfire or sli situations so... guess it's not really that much of an issue...

BTW that PCB and cooler combo looks f-ing bananas!!! *-*
Posted on Reply
#9
Hiryougan
Prima.Vera1500$???

Two words: F.Y.
? Remember that R9 295X2 had the same price at launch, and Titan Z was twice as pricey.
Dual gpu cards are always extra expensive. Also it seems amd are promoting this card as semi professional, probably like Titans used to be.
Posted on Reply
#10
Absolution
Interesting change in card layout during the Fury X2 to Radeon Pro Duo transition:



The original Fury X2 (bottom) was perhaps intended to be air cooled, but had to sacrifice performance? So instead they went to increase power, performance and slap an AIO on it.
Posted on Reply
#11
the54thvoid
Super Intoxicated Moderator
AbsolutionInteresting change in card layout during the Fury X2 to Radeon Pro Duo transition:



The original Fury X2 (bottom) was perhaps intended to be air cooled, but had to sacrifice performance? So instead they went to increase power, performance and slap an AIO on it.
That's quite a board redesign...... I'd love to know the design history of what was shown (now obviously defunct and not fit for purpose) and what it is now.

Perhaps first card was indeed dual Nano but with the Radeon Pro VR shift perhaps they wanted more power, so needed to redesign the board?
Posted on Reply
#12
Prima.Vera
Hiryougan? Remember that R9 295X2 had the same price at launch, and Titan Z was twice as pricey.
Dual gpu cards are always extra expensive. Also it seems amd are promoting this card as semi professional, probably like Titans used to be.
Agree. For those I have 2xFY and 3xFY to say about them. :)

I just want the prices to go back to sane and normal level like theer were a couple of years back when I bought my brand new ATI 4870X2 for 600$.
Cheers!
Posted on Reply
#13
Ubersonic
TBH I would have preferred a dual Nano card with 90% of the performance and 50% of the power draw/heat.
Posted on Reply
#14
crsh1976
Very weird product; gamers who create, and creators who game, are a very strange use case to throw something at - a high-end video card that sits somewhere between 500 and 1k probably already does the job adequately, what's the incentive to get a 1.5k card that won't really do a better job?
Posted on Reply
#15
PP Mguire
Prima.VeraAgree. For those I have 2xFY and 3xFY to say about them. :)

I just want the prices to go back to sane and normal level like theer were a couple of years back when I bought my brand new ATI 4870X2 for 600$.
Cheers!
That'll never happen unless something drastic happens.
Posted on Reply
#16
cdawall
where the hell are my stars
AbsolutionInteresting change in card layout during the Fury X2 to Radeon Pro Duo transition:



The original Fury X2 (bottom) was perhaps intended to be air cooled, but had to sacrifice performance? So instead they went to increase power, performance and slap an AIO on it.
Knowing amd in a couple months they will announce the air cooled fury x2 and we will just have two dual gpu skus
Posted on Reply
#17
EarthDog
I wonder how that single 120mm AIO is going to cool this monster down......
Posted on Reply
#18
GhostRyder
EarthDogI wonder how that single 120mm AIO is going to cool this monster down......
Well, this should be similar to the 295X2 with a little less power consumption so it should be just fine. I guess we will have to see how the VRM and HBM cooling change that.

Well it looks fine, name is a little funky but at least we finally get a dual GPU card this round.
Posted on Reply
#19
EarthDog
It wasn't really fine on the 295x2 (have you ever played a game on one of those with that cooler? The rad was almost hot to the touch!

.... and these have the same power use.
Posted on Reply
#20
PP Mguire
EarthDogIt wasn't really fine on the 295x2 (have you ever played a game on one of those with that cooler? The rad was almost hot to the touch!

.... and these have the same power use.
I have no problems with mine. Radiators are going to be hot or warm to the touch because of how much heat they are dissipating. Temps on the GPUs are fine though.
Posted on Reply
#21
newtekie1
Semi-Retired Folder
Asetek lawsuit in 3...2...1...
PP MguireI have no problems with mine. Radiators are going to be hot or warm to the touch because of how much heat they are dissipating. Temps on the GPUs are fine though.
The regular Fury X with a little voltage increase was already running the VRMs at 95°C with that single thin rad configuration. I don't see how the same rad is going to comfortably cool two Fury X cards unless they are really lowering the voltage/clocks. Either that, or that fan is going to sound like a vacuum cleaner like the 295x2 did.
Posted on Reply
#22
Octavean
I thought the new AMD cards were actually going to include HDMI 2.0,.....?
Posted on Reply
#23
PP Mguire
newtekie1Asetek lawsuit in 3...2...1...



The regular Fury X with a little voltage increase was already running the VRMs at 95°C with that single thin rad configuration. I don't see how the same rad is going to comfortably cool two Fury X cards unless they are really lowering the voltage/clocks.
I'd be willing to bet the deal with that is flow and not so much the cooling capacity of the radiator. 95c on VRM isn't that bad though.
Posted on Reply
#24
GhostRyder
newtekie1Asetek lawsuit in 3...2...1...



The regular Fury X with a little voltage increase was already running the VRMs at 95°C with that single thin rad configuration. I don't see how the same rad is going to comfortably cool two Fury X cards unless they are really lowering the voltage/clocks. Either that, or that fan is going to sound like a vacuum cleaner like the 295x2 did.
Difference is though (on the pictures we have so far) the VRM is cooled by a water block so it should be running cooler.
EarthDogIt wasn't really fine on the 295x2 (have you ever played a game on one of those with that cooler? The rad was almost hot to the touch!

.... and these have the same power use.
I don't own one, however one of the few people I know who bought these at one point second hand when showing them under stress the radiators were warm but not out of the ordinary (Least to me). As long as the temps stayed fine I am cool with it.
OctaveanI thought the new AMD cards were actually going to include HDMI 2.0,.....?
Polaris+
Posted on Reply
#25
PP Mguire
GhostRyderDifference is though (on the pictures we have so far) the VRM is cooled by a water block so it should be running cooler.


I don't own one, however one of the few people I know who bought these at one point second hand when showing them under stress the radiators were warm but not out of the ordinary (Least to me). As long as the temps stayed fine I am cool with it.


Polaris+
This. My rad gets hot to the touch but my GPUs never go over 50c even with a volt mod. It's just a lot of heat being put off.
Posted on Reply
Add your own comment
Nov 19th, 2024 23:22 EST change timezone

New Forum Posts

Popular Reviews

Controversial News Posts