AMD's Radeon Pro Duo Deeply Discounted on Expected Vega Onslaught

[Kanan]

You can't but help raise an eyebrow whenever they say that pro users may be more demanding but they are not stupid it was much cheaper just two furys and put them in crossfire than throw money at this card. It was overpriced on arrival and still the case with the price cut as there are much better options with an $800 budget.

A lot of people did that, but the people (and professional users) that wanted a more premium solution and had more money around simply bought the way more efficient Radeon Pro Duo.

:facepalm: No, just no. You don't know anything and don't have a clue. "Pro" is a throwback from their old naming scheme where it was Pro (Mainstream) < XT(Enthusiast) < XTX (High-end). They stopped using it with the 2900 series and used it internally until Fiji.

You're so sure, but yet you're so wrong. The "Pro" in its name is centered around the Fire GL line of AMD GPU cards, meaning professional, hence why it's enabled it's Radeon Pro suit of drivers and not only the regular ones. Also AMD strictly and clearly stated that it's a card both for creators and gamers, underlining the meaning of its *professional* use. Gaming is just a bonus on this card and always was.

 

[Totally]

A lot of people did that, but the people (and professional users) that wanted a more premium solution and had more money around simply bought the way more efficient Radeon Pro Duo.

You're so sure, but yet you're so wrong. The "Pro" in its name is centered around the Fire GL line of AMD GPU cards, meaning professional, hence why it's enabled it's Radeon Pro suit of drivers and not only the regular ones. Also AMD strictly and clearly stated that it's a card both for creators and gamers, underlining the meaning of its *professional* use. Gaming is just a bonus on this card and always was.

When downloading for any of the Pro WX or FirePro cards, am provided with:

Radeon Pro Software Crimson ReLive Edition 16.yadayadayada <- professional drivers

When trying to download drivers for the Radeon Pro Duo they provide

Crimson ReLive Edition 17.yadayadayada <- generic consumer drivers i.e. generic not pro drivers.

Radeon Pro Duo is classified with consumer cards not with the real pro (FirePro/Pro) cards but with the consumer cards.

So the 'made for creators' is marketing bull, it just simply Crossfire on a stick and that's all it is nothing more nothing less.

 

[Kanan]

When downloading for any of the Pro WX or FirePro cards, am provided with:

Radeon Pro Software Crimson ReLive Edition 16.yadayadayada <- professional drivers

When trying to download drivers for the Radeon Pro Duo they provide

Crimson ReLive Edition 17.yadayadayada <- generic consumer drivers i.e. generic not pro drivers.

Radeon Pro Duo is classified with consumer cards not with the real pro (FirePro/Pro) cards but with the consumer cards.

So the 'made for creators' is marketing bull, it just simply Crossfire on a stick and that's all it is nothing more nothing less.

Nah, I already seen Pro Software working on it numerous times.
http://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-art...n-Pro-Duo-Workstation-Driver-for-Windows.aspx

Took me 15 seconds. Your talk is totally bull.

Here another proof:
http://www2.ati.com/drivers/firepro/release-notes_16.20.1009.pdf

I hope the stupid "it's pro, it's not pro" debate is now finished.

 

[the54thvoid]

Nah, I already seen Pro Software working on it numerous times.
http://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-art...n-Pro-Duo-Workstation-Driver-for-Windows.aspx

Took me 15 seconds. Your talk is totally bull.

Here another proof:
http://www2.ati.com/drivers/firepro/release-notes_16.20.1009.pdf

I hope the stupid "it's pro, it's not pro" debate is now finished.

No it's not. They made a dual GPU for a gaming market that was losing interest in a dual config. They sold it as a VR developer tool when we all know VR development tools seem to be getting a far higher targeted memory amount.
Fiji was hamstrung by its 4gb HBM experiment going into the future.
People can defend it as pro as much as you want. The same way, people defend Titan as a pseudo professional card. They're not. The fact dedicated software is written for it is a joke because that should be made available to a Fury crossfire set up.
Firepro is Pro. That's the argument over.

 

[Kanan]

No it's not. They made a dual GPU for a gaming market that was losing interest in a dual config. They sold it as a VR developer tool when we all know VR development tools seem to be getting a far higher targeted memory amount.
Fiji was hamstrung by its 4gb HBM experiment going into the future.
People can defend it as pro as much as you want. The same way, people defend Titan as a pseudo professional card. They're not. The fact dedicated software is written for it is a joke because that should be made available to a Fury crossfire set up.
Firepro is Pro. That's the argument over.

I'd rather go with what amd stated than to believe your empty words, unless you have a proof for that?

Anyway it's usable as a pro gpu as I've already proven so your point is moot. It is indeed a pro and gaming card at the same time. The debate is over whether you accept it or not.

 

[the54thvoid]

I'd rather go with what amd stated than to believe your empty words, unless you have a proof for that?

Anyway it's usable as a pro gpu as I've already proven so your point is moot. It is indeed a pro and gaming card at the same time. The debate is over whether you accept it or not.

Empty words. Okay. You believe what AMD tells you, it's okay. But a crossfired nano with dedicated software isn't a pro card. It's a gaming card marketed to a different audience to justify the price. Just like Titan cards.

 

[Imsochobo]

Pro duo is a firepro card for the most part as there is really no difference to begin with, quadro vs gtx, firepro vs radeon.
Very very similar.

In short and generalized.:
less failure rate, better quality control, usually older tech than gamers use. so it's tested.
More memory
3x Cost for same hardware

Driver Guarantee and support!, this is what costs money, not the quadro hardware, that's JUST consumer hardware for the most part.

there are other subtle differences yeah, but it's not like designers couldn't use a gtx...

 

[Kanan]

Empty words. Okay. You believe what AMD tells you, it's okay. But a crossfired nano with dedicated software isn't a pro card. It's a gaming card marketed to a different audience to justify the price. Just like Titan cards.

That's your opinion. And then again I see you constantly nagging about AMD on (almost) every AMD topic there is on TPU, so I'm sorry if I'll have to take your opinion with a grain of salt. Also 8 GB of Ram is entry level for professional graphics hardware, it's suited enough, and this is HBM, I guess that's more useful than the usual jack of the trade GDDR5 memory.

 

[the54thvoid]

That's your opinion. And then again I see you constantly nagging about AMD on (almost) every AMD topic there is on TPU.

Need to stop you there. You're obviously following the doctrine of post truth. I've consistently and openly said I'm postponing my upgrade for both Zen and Vega. I've consistently said Vega should be better than a 1080, in fact it should equal a 'ti' version. If it's not, I'll be disappointed. I've said I'm tired of Nvidia pricing and Vega has to work.
I have a very balanced approach to both (or all three vendors) and if I state doubt, only a person biased themselves would see that as 'nagging'.
I haven't bought my next awesome cooler because the company hasn't yet disclosed AM4 mounting brackets.
The only thing I nag AMD for are the facts. Iffy PR and 'just release it already'. Unlike @Knoxx29 I will happily buy AMD.
But hey, you have your grain of salt in your post truth world. It's going to come in handy. Me, I'll stick to my unbiased view where I WANT AMD to make a good solid product so we don't have to pay unrealistic prices for Intel and Nvidia products.

Edit: not a dig at you @Knoxx29 !

 

[FireFox]

I've consistently said Vega should be better than a 1080, in fact it should equal a 'ti' version.

Vega has to work.

I'll stick to my unbiased view where I WANT AMD to make a good solid product

 

[Kanan]

Need to stop you there. You're obviously following the doctrine of post truth. I've consistently and openly said I'm postponing my upgrade for both Zen and Vega. I've consistently said Vega should be better than a 1080, in fact it should equal a 'ti' version. If it's not, I'll be disappointed. I've said I'm tired of Nvidia pricing and Vega has to work.
I have a very balanced approach to both (or all three vendors) and if I state doubt, only a person biased themselves would see that as 'nagging'.
I haven't bought my next awesome cooler because the company hasn't yet disclosed AM4 mounting brackets.
The only thing I nag AMD for are the facts. Iffy PR and 'just release it already'. Unlike @Knoxx29 I will happily buy AMD.
But hey, you have your grain of salt in your post truth world. It's going to come in handy. Me, I'll stick to my unbiased view where I WANT AMD to make a good solid product so we don't have to pay unrealistic prices for Intel and Nvidia products.

Edit: not a dig at you @Knoxx29 !

Fair enough. Maybe I overdid It a little. But I'm not biased. I nag at anyone who produces shit. And why should I be anyway, I own a Intel setup since over 3 years and I'm back to nvidia too. It's just that I want amd to be succesful and I want people to give them a chance. I want balance in the market like anyone should want, if they don't want bad pricing (nvidia) and only small advancements like Intel did in the last 5 years.

 

[the54thvoid]

Fair enough. Maybe I overdid It a little. But I'm not biased. I nag at anyone who produces shit. And why should I be anyway, I own a Intel setup since over 3 years and I'm back to nvidia too. It's just that I want amd to be succesful and I want people to give them a chance. I want balance in the market like anyone should want, if they don't want bad pricing (nvidia) and only small advancements like Intel did in the last 5 years.

And in good spirit, I'll concede that a *ahem*gaming card that gets 'pro' software support would be classed as a 'productivity' tool. I still say that the memory isn't ECC and it is two nano chips on a PCB but AMD give it 'pro' software. It's 'pro' light but simply because AMD can sell it that way. Exactly as Nvidia say because the Titan range always has more memory some how makes it 'pro' as well.

Screw them both frankly.

 

[Kanan]

And in good spirit, I'll concede that a *ahem*gaming card that gets 'pro' software support would be classed as a 'productivity' tool. I still say that the memory isn't ECC and it is two nano chips on a PCB but AMD give it 'pro' software. It's 'pro' light but simply because AMD can sell it that way. Exactly as Nvidia say because the Titan range always has more memory some how makes it 'pro' as well.

Screw them both frankly.

Well both are only usable for single precision tasks, other than that they are okay-ish for "Pro" usage I'd say. However, yeah, both are mainly gaming oriented probably, the Titan just since Maxwell, the first one was actually DP capable.

 

[Relayer]

I see a lot of posts that states this card is for Pro gamers and so on.
This is not true. All Pro gamers are using top single cards in order to reduce input delay and micro stuttering as much as possible.
As for the Professional use; neh, there are better FireGL or Quatro cards dedicated for that purpose.

They aren't referring to gamers

People say it's for pro users, not pro gamers, and I'm sure it has its points with the right workloads.

Exactly. I used to do a lot of modeling (Cinema 4D) and always used consumer cards. For the most part they work fine. You would run across the occasional bug though and AMD/nVidia wouldn't offer any support running pro apps with gaming cards. Since this card can use firepro drivers though you do actually get support for pro apps as well.

Hm? I thought this card was equivalent to nvidia quadro line.

If I am correct, why are gaming benchmarks here?

This card can run both Radeon drivers and Firepro drivers so it can work equally well with both workloads. Ideally suited for game designers who need to use apps that are optimized for firepro drivers like 3D Max, but will need to run the game build as well and test it with Radeon drivers and even crossfire.

It is in reality what the Titan was supposed to be. At least what was touted by Titan supporters on forums. nVidia never actually claimed it to be a pro card. That's just the way some people justified the price.