Radeon R9 390X and R9 390 to Feature Faster Memory, Core Over Predecessors

[fullinfusion]

Well isn't this a nice how dee do wake up..

A re-brand, great! Wtf is AMD doing over there besides a shitty rebrand on there 3 series.. And twice the memory plus higher clocks lol what a joke... Fu%k both my 290 and 290x both run the same clocks at stock.

So AMD, have you cooled this rebranded bastard down? Being built straight down to the last transistor, identical, I pretty much have no doubt in my mind these will be just as hot as there older brothers...

 

[Deleted member 138597]

If this is supposed to be Hawaii, then we are again running with the old, shitty problem of high power consumption, leakage, and consequently high temps for which 290X was condemned for. Well that's just sh*t. I really thought AMD would bring to this new 390/X lineup some brand new chip, at least crippled Fiji, but IT DIDN'T.

I don't know how AMD's gonna sue people to buy their 300 series, because every SKU is rebrand, and more importantly, they have the same inherent overheating problem and high power consumption as 200 series (and 7000 series). I think they just gave Nvidia more space in the market, and no way it would make sense to "upgrade" to 300 series, unless someone is looking for more vRAM, because clock speeds doesn't impress. Get an aftermarket cooler or the stock could do well enough, do few tweaks and you are at the new cards' level, and maybe better. The BIOS is just new, and the more vRAM, but nothing else.

Boooo AMD! You let us down.

 

[moproblems99]

Hmmmm...so now what to do. My 6850s are just not cutting it anymore but I don't see a reason to buy something this generation. I was hoping AMD would trim power consumption / heat from the 390/X. My ambient temps are around 28C and I don't feel like having a 300 watt heater next to me.

I was going to buy a 970 but I don't like being lied too (I know it still performs excellent and overall is an excellent card but they knew it wouldn't sell as well if they advertised it as 3.5gb and they tried to blow smoke up our asses as a miscommunication between departments - bs).

 

[btarunr]

I'd rather buy potentially broken and flawed GTX 970 then. At least it's still faster now even if that 3,5GB memory thing proves to be problematic in the future and lastly, it still costs freaking less.

All my games run just fine.

If the price/performance is right who cares if its a re-brand

AMD had the opportunity to make Grenada to be a chip with GCN 1.2, and some new stuff, such as HDMI 2.0. Most of the R&D was already done (GCN 1.2 on Tonga, HDMI 2.0 on Fiji). The resulting chip wouldn't have been much different from Hawaii. But nooo. AMD's investment in Grenada is all of firing up a BIOS editor and changing one tiny little string.

 

[mirakul]

So, in your tiny mind HBM suddenly allows more than 1GB of data on a 1GB VRAM size? Or it will swap textures SO fast that it can do the same with half the framebuffer? That is some pretty awesome interlacing then

Are you retarded or just plain stupid? 4GB = 4GB. Except when its a 970 you are talking about...

4 oranges is different from 4 apples. HBM is different from a 7-years-old tech called GDDR5.

4 GB of HBM, with a proper scheduler from driver, can do the same thing 12 GB of GDDR5 able to do at 4k.

Back to the topic, AMD did the same rebrand scheme in 2xx series. It's not a good move, but still is the only choice for them now. Money does make people do shit things

 

[Deleted member 138597]

I don't get it, what is wrong with AMD? Are they running short of funds, are their engineers and R&D have nothing in their brains (or maybe living under rocks), or is there a traitor in AMD suggesting how it should plan its step, to get it destroyed?

I feel bad for AMD, I am not a fanboy of AMD, neither of nvidia, but I really want it to trample nvidia for few years. I don't think HBM would do any good to AMD anyway, since nvidia's new arsenal, aka Pascal is coming with HBM v2, that would shatter anything of AMD's built fame over Fiji XT. Shrinking lithographies doesn't do the talking, you need better GPU architecture.

 

[64K]

Hmmmm...so now what to do. My 6850s are just not cutting it anymore but I don't see a reason to buy something this generation. I was hoping AMD would trim power consumption / heat from the 390/X. My ambient temps are around 28C and I don't feel like having a 300 watt heater next to me.

I was going to buy a 970 but I don't like being lied too (I know it still performs excellent and overall is an excellent card but they knew it wouldn't sell as well if they advertised it as 3.5gb and they tried to blow smoke up our asses as a miscommunication between departments - bs).

If your 6850s aren't cutting it then that's a good reason to upgrade. An XFX 290x is $270 at Newegg with rebate if you can buy there or wait for the prices to dip even more when 390x arrives in stores. It may be many months before we will see Arctic Islands and if you're gaming at 1080p 60 Hz then that would be overkill anyway so yeah a 290x/390x would be a possible upgrade.

I don't get it, what is wrong with AMD? Are they running short of funds, are their engineers and R&D have nothing in their brains (or maybe living under rocks), or is there a traitor in AMD suggesting how it should plan its step, to get it destroyed?

I feel bad for AMD, I am not a fanboy of AMD, neither of nvidia, but I really want it to trample nvidia for few years. I don't think HBM would do any good to AMD anyway, since nvidia's new arsenal, aka Pascal is coming with HBM v2, that would shatter anything of AMD's built fame over Fiji XT. Shrinking lithographies doesn't do the talking, you need better GPU architecture.

Things are tight at AMD right now. They lost over $400 million last year and another $170 million the first quarter this year even with the console market to themselves.

 

[ZoneDymo]

So, in your tiny mind HBM suddenly allows more than 1GB of data on a 1GB VRAM size? Or it will swap textures SO fast that it can do the same with half the framebuffer? That is some pretty awesome interlacing then

Are you retarded or just plain stupid? 4GB = 4GB. Except when its a 970 you are talking about...

Keep from becoming personal next time.

 

[rruff]

That 8GB Memory is delicious, if you look at the most new games, I think 4GB is just inadequate. This sure will make the product future proof too.

4GB is only inadequate if the card has high processing power and these don't. Sure, now you will be able to run the best textures and AA and not have any frame buffer issues, but it will only be at 15fps.

For CF it's nice, but isn't DX12 going to allow frames to be split between cards? So soon even the advantage in CF will be nil.

No doubt 8GB will be a big selling point for the masses who don't know any better. I guess success depends on how many in that category are in the market for a $350-$400 card.

 

[Deleted member 138597]

Things are tight at AMD right now. They lost over $400 million last year and another $170 million the first quarter this year even with the console market to themselves.

They could arrange a partnership with the big companies like Samsung and hire workforce, if that makes sense.

 

[moproblems99]

If your 6850s aren't cutting it then that's a good reason to upgrade. An XFX 290x is $270 at Newegg with rebate if you can buy there or wait for the prices to dip even more when 390x arrives in stores. It may be many months before we will see Arctic Islands and if you're gaming at 1080p 60 Hz then that would be overkill anyway so yeah a 290x/390x would be a possible upgrade.

I see how my statement was confusing. I do need to upgrade, you are correct. However, when I built my brother's computer with a 290, the heat was ridiculous. I don't really have the budget to buy new this year and next year when the real cards come out. I don't really like buying cards on ebay...like I said decisions. I suppose since it would only be a year or less I could probably deal with a 290X.

Edit: I also should have said the cards on offer really aren't that compelling. I also don't think that the 290X is overkill for 1080. Minimum frames really aren't that good for games like BF4, and TW3.

 

[v12dock]

Sure, the price/performance will be right....by 2016 or right before Arctic Islands comes out. I don't think prices will change much since there is no competition for Nvidia this generation. For people looking to upgrade, it's best to look out for some good 290/290X deals because I'm sure they will be aplenty.

We still don't know Fiji's performance. If Fiji can take on 980 TI and Titan X and they price the 3xx cards accordingly then how is no competition.

 

[Vayra86]

4 oranges is different from 4 apples. HBM is different from a 7-years-old tech called GDDR5.

4 GB of HBM, with a proper scheduler from driver, can do the same thing 12 GB of GDDR5 able to do at 4k.

Back to the topic, AMD did the same rebrand scheme in 2xx series. It's not a good move, but still is the only choice for them now. Money does make people do shit things

No, you can schedule all you want, but it won't alleviate VRAM minimum requirements. To lower those further, the ball needs to move to game developers. You overestimate HBM. As long as GDDR5 is still on the market, which it will be for at least half a decade still, games will not be built around HBM properties.

 

[DarkOCean]

290/290x both already had 6ghz memory chips but clocked lower so this IS just a clock bump rebrand, nothing changed phisically, just double density chips wich is pontless on a card featuring this level of performance.

 

[mirakul]

No, you can schedule all you want, but it won't alleviate VRAM minimum requirements. To lower those further, the ball needs to move to game developers. You overestimate HBM. As long as GDDR5 is still on the market, which it will be for at least half a decade still, games will not be built around HBM properties.

First, 'VRAM minimum requirement' is just a generic term. Shadow of mordor is a stupid game with 6GB requirements, but you still can start game with a 2GB card.

Second, games is not build around HBM or GDDR5. It's the driver which controls how the VRAM is used. The ball doesn't need to and never be moved to devs.

Finally, do you really understand how a graphic card works before posting stuff here?

 

[moproblems99]

290/290x both already had 6ghz memory chips but clocked lower so this IS just a clock bump rebrand, nothing changed phisically, just double density chips wich is pontless on a card featuring this level of performance.

This

 

[Steevo]

Most likely a few small tweaks that don't change the actual working of the die, but save power and allow for more stable memory and core speeds, much like the decoupling caps from the 1800 to the 1900.

That was the card purchase thst taught me to not be on the leading edge of cards until the numbers were in.

 

[GLD]

I am down for a R9 3xx card. Give me a card with DX12, a faster core and newer/faster memory, and lower power consumption AMD. Windows 10 with DX12 and a DX12 capable AMD gpu...2015 is looking good for my gaming computer.

 

[Exceededgoku]

So I'm confused, are these the cards that were seen in "benchmarks" outperforming the Titan X?

And are now appearing to just be a rebrand plus some extra RAM, core speed?

Or am I at a complete loss?

 

[INSTG8R]

I guess if I can get away with Win10 next month when it comes out I can wait until there are actually DX12 games and a 2nd gen of DX12 cards to go with it...

So I'm confused, are these the cards that were seen in "benchmarks" outperforming the Titan X?

And are now appearing to just be a rebrand plus some extra RAM, core speed?

Or am I at a complete loss?

No that is "Fury" the Fiji XT chip, totally different card.

 

[dwade]

So they have the time and money to give 290x 8GB of VRAM, but not their 2015 flagship Fury X. LOL.

 

[mirakul]

So they have the time and money to give 290x 8GB of VRAM, but not their 2015 flagship Fury X. LOL.

8GB of DDR5.
4GB of HBM.

 

[rruff]

No that is "Fury" the Fiji XT chip, totally different card.

Yes, hopefully AMD will have a good performer at the high end and these rebadges will still cover all the performance bases... but damn! It'd be nice to get a little extra *something* new in the lower tiers. And no, slightly higher clocks and more (useless!) vram for more money doesn't cut it.

Second, games is not build around HBM or GDDR5. It's the driver which controls how the VRAM is used. The ball doesn't need to and never be moved to devs.
Finally, do you really understand how a graphic card works before posting stuff here?

I don't know that much, but I think vayra86 is talking about frame buffer size limitations. The frame needs to fit in the space allocated. Doesn't matter how fast the vram is.

 

[mirakul]

I don't know that much, but I think vayra86 is talking about frame buffer size limitations. The frame needs to fit in the space allocated. Doesn't matter how fast the vram is.

It would be best if all stuff need in one frame are stored in VRAM (read>done). If not, GPU have to wait until all data for the frame is ready. (read>wait>read>done). The wait part, when the VRAM need to get new stuff from RAM, is irrelevant with PCIe 3.0 speed, and the delay was mostly caused by the additional read part.

However, with HBM the speed of this read part is 9 times smaller than that of GDDR5 at same clock. In FuryX and TitanX case, this ratio reduce to 0.6 times smaller due to different clock. Some simple math from here show that with good scheduler from driver, 4GB capacity is not that big issue with frames of 4GB-8GB zone. At 8GB-12GB zone, the difference will be more clear, but the GPU also suffers here, which make the delay of memory less significant. In short, 4GB of HBM on FuryX can keep up with 12GB of TitanX in 4GB-8GB zone, and is superior in sub 4GB area.

 

[happita]

We still don't know Fiji's performance. If Fiji can take on 980 TI and Titan X and they price the 3xx cards accordingly then how is no competition.

That is but just one card. The whole 3XX line is pretty much the same exact cards from last generation. How much more performance does an extra 50MHz on core realistically give you in games? The OC headroom I fear will be close to nil. Factor on top of that the 290/290X were BOTH overheating beasts that needed to be tamed by AIB partners ASAP because reviews were bashing the crap out of AMD's reference boards. When the 390/390X come out, please compare the prices with current 290/290X and tell me if that is competition.