AMD Radeon R9 300 Series MegaThread: FAQ and Resources

[uglyduckling81]

From what I understand, the R9300 series is releasing in June of this year (2015). I know Nvidia fanboys will still bash AMD for having inferior cards, even if the supposed 380 beats out the Titan X entirely. But if AMD actually does use this 3D vram stuff (sorry, I'm kinda new to techie stuff), and it works as well as we all hope, then Nvidia will kind of be out of a job until they can get their hands on it as well. This 3D vram will give a significant boost in performance across the board, and from what I've gathered will basically make 4gb of vram act as 8gb (I'm probably wrong). Please, however, don't really acknowledge what I say as fact or correct, as again I'm pretty new to all this tech stuff. But yea, 3D vram stuff...seems legit?

The new release won't be anything special. You can tell from the tone of the AMD financial report. They hope they can improve their market share. Financial reports are always a massive upbeat event trying to increase stock prices and generate interest. The best they can do is hope from this new product.
It's not a good sign for Team Red. They lost more money than ever before this quarter and haven't turned profit in a long time from what I can figure from what they said.
Unless they can pull a rabbit out of the hat and soon I'm guessing we have total monopoly of CPU and GPU sectors.
If they could get a decent CPU out the door I would be all over it just to support them and I assume many would. I haven't even considered them for a CPU in 4-5 years, that's a problem.

 

[grilledcheez]

Unless they can pull a rabbit out of the hat and soon I'm guessing we have total monopoly of CPU and GPU sectors.
If they could get a decent CPU out the door I would be all over it just to support them and I assume many would. I haven't even considered them for a CPU in 4-5 years, that's a problem.

Same here, well, kinda. I've used AMD CPUs in builds I've done for my Family to drive the price down, but for my own rig I haven't considered AMD in a long time. I've used Radeon's in the past, but my last three cards have all been Nvidia. At this point though, I want the performance of GTX970, but under $400. I think that is reasonable, I find the GPU pricing for performance is getting too high, and I want better performance than a GTX960. In the end, I'm kinda hoping AMD is downplaying the whole thing, but it's more likely they aren't and it's going to be a flop. For the most part, doesn't sound like they are really even upgrading the GPU architecture, just switching over to a better type of memory for the higher end cards. Keep my fingers crossed anyways since the new broadwell and Skylake processors should be coming out this summer, and I'm considering upgrading my rig.

 

[de5_Roy]

AMD Arctic Islands GPU family to be based on 14nm FinFET process
http://vr-zone.com/articles/amd-arctic-islands-gpu-family-based-14nm-finfet-process/90619.html

 

[renz496]

AMD Radeon R9 380/380X – Grenada Pro/Grenada XT graphics processing units featuring GCN 1.2 or GCN 1.3 architecture with up to 2816 stream processors and 512-bit interface to GDDR5 memory. Price range: $249 – $299 – $329. Since “Grenada” GPU is basically a revamped “Hawaii”, it is possible that instead of making a new GPU, AMD will simply use the old one under a new moniker.

Are you f***ing kidding me.... They couldn't even put the HBM memory with less stream processors into the 380?! Which could have still landed in a reasonable price range. ffs.

when AMD first use GDDR5 the mid range and low end did not get GDDR5 as well. only the flagship 4870 (and later 4890) have it.

 

[renz496]

From what I understand, the R9300 series is releasing in June of this year (2015). I know Nvidia fanboys will still bash AMD for having inferior cards, even if the supposed 380 beats out the Titan X entirely. But if AMD actually does use this 3D vram stuff (sorry, I'm kinda new to techie stuff), and it works as well as we all hope, then Nvidia will kind of be out of a job until they can get their hands on it as well. This 3D vram will give a significant boost in performance across the board, and from what I've gathered will basically make 4gb of vram act as 8gb (I'm probably wrong). Please, however, don't really acknowledge what I say as fact or correct, as again I'm pretty new to all this tech stuff. But yea, 3D vram stuff...seems legit?

4GB is 4GB. period. HBM will provide very big boost to bandwidth compared to current GDDR5 module but it will not going to magically turn 4GB into 8GB. that excessive bandwidth did not really help if the game itself are not bandwidth starve. right now we see current cards have no bandwidth problem even with 4K res. the way i heard about it HBM gen 1 implementation will be limited to 4GB max. then nvidia release titan X with 12 GB of VRAM and many assume that 980Ti (or what ever it name is will be) will have at least 6GB. so many take that if nvidia going to have 6GB and 12GB cards it is impossible AMD will settle with 4GB only. after that we start hearing speculation that AMD next flagship will have 8GB VRAM. the speculation actually goes as far some site making article how 8GB will be possible on current HBM gen 1 implementation. will they be right or wrong only time will tell when AMD officially launch their flagship later this year.

 

[de5_Roy]

italian site **its and giggles has a new leak of r9 390x having 8GB HBM memory

AMD Radeon R9 390X with ''Fiji XT'' will use Dual Link Interposer to Stack 8-Hi-Hi HBM on a Single GPU
http://wccftech.com/amd-radeon-r9-390x-fiji-xt-8-hi-8gb-hbm/

edit:
Fiji XT PCB to end up significantly smaller than Radeon 290X
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/graphics/37645-fiji-xt-pcb-to-end-up-significantly-smaller-than-radeon-290x

 

[loki1944]

Any news on a 395X2 kinda thing? I'm totally buying one if it comes out.

 

[de5_Roy]

Any news on a 395X2 kinda thing? I'm totally buying one if it comes out.

according to the latest leak, the dual gpu card is being called fiji-vr/ another leak suggested that fiji-vr is being slightly delayed. as always, take it with a grain of salt.

 

[loki1944]

Any news on a 395X2 kinda thing? I'm totally buying one if it comes out.

according to the latest leak, the dual gpu card is being called fiji-vr/ another leak suggested that fiji-vr is being slightly delayed. as always, take it with a grain of salt.

Thanks, just nice to hear anything at this point; seems like it's taking forever.

 

[ern88]

I would love to see more info on AMD's new r9 3xx GPU's. I just hope that it's a worthy upgrade to my HD7950. 1f they are not atleast 35% faster then the 7950. Then ill be pissed!!!!

 

[-Fran-]

italian site **its and giggles has a new leak of r9 390x having 8GB HBM memory

AMD Radeon R9 390X with ''Fiji XT'' will use Dual Link Interposer to Stack 8-Hi-Hi HBM on a Single GPU
http://wccftech.com/amd-radeon-r9-390x-fiji-xt-8-hi-8gb-hbm/

edit:
Fiji XT PCB to end up significantly smaller than Radeon 290X
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/graphics/37645-fiji-xt-pcb-to-end-up-significantly-smaller-than-radeon-290x

I really hope the "size" leak turns out to be true. If they manage to put GTX980 performance into a GTX750ti package, AMD will have a great advantage in terms of "places where you can make a gaming rig". Meaning, even if it's a more power hungry card, making an HTPC that doubles as a high end gaming box is not out of the picture.

That can be a nice middle ground for AMD. Specially since they haven't put a card that replaces the 7700 family for HTPC.

Cheers!

 

[smeezekitty]

I would love to see more info on AMD's new r9 3xx GPU's. I just hope that it's a worthy upgrade to my HD7950. 1f they are not atleast 35% faster then the 7950. Then ill be pissed!!!!

I would sure hope so since the 290X is already much faster than 35%

 

[de5_Roy]

I really hope the "size" leak turns out to be true. If they manage to put GTX980 performance into a GTX750ti package, AMD will have a great advantage in terms of "places where you can make a gaming rig". Meaning, even if it's a more power hungry card, making an HTPC that doubles as a high end gaming box is not out of the picture.

That can be a nice middle ground for AMD. Specially since they haven't put a card that replaces the 7700 family for HTPC.

Cheers!

i agree. i've had it reading about nvidia's gtx 750/ti cards "suitable for prebuilt pcs" due to "efficiency" and other stuff. smaller size with a good powertune technology, will allow amd go places no other high end card has gone before (especially amd's). i'm talking about lower X and Y sizes. i am pretty sure both amd and nvidia will be offering smaller but high performance cards when both switch to finfet and newer HBM memories.

edit: now amd needs some bling for the high end cards like nvidia's nvtttylkthxbai cooler. i suggest red heatsink fins with golden fan and blades, white backlight led for the blower fan, red radeon logo led on the shroud. sorta liek iron man. 😗
edit2: with dark metallic gray shroud.
and an onboard midi chip playing "iron man" on startup. 😛

edit3:
AMD Fiji, The World's First GPU To Feature Stacked HBM - Officially Confirmed
http://wccftech.com/fiji-gpu-world-feature-stacked-hbm-officially-confirmed/

 

[ern88]

I would love to see more info on AMD's new r9 3xx GPU's. I just hope that it's a worthy upgrade to my HD7950. 1f they are not atleast 35% faster then the 7950. Then ill be pissed!!!!

I would sure hope so since the 290X is already much faster than 35%

I was actually comparing the HD7950 to the R9 280X. As I was told by a buddy that the R9 280X was the replacement of the HD7950!!!!

 

[-Fran-]

I would love to see more info on AMD's new r9 3xx GPU's. I just hope that it's a worthy upgrade to my HD7950. 1f they are not atleast 35% faster then the 7950. Then ill be pissed!!!!

I would sure hope so since the 290X is already much faster than 35%

I was actually comparing the HD7950 to the R9 280X. As I was told by a buddy that the R9 280X was the replacement of the HD7950!!!!

7970 Ghz >~ 280X > 7950 >~ 280.

Cheers!

 

[ern88]

I would love to see more info on AMD's new r9 3xx GPU's. I just hope that it's a worthy upgrade to my HD7950. 1f they are not atleast 35% faster then the 7950. Then ill be pissed!!!!

I would sure hope so since the 290X is already much faster than 35%

I was actually comparing the HD7950 to the R9 280X. As I was told by a buddy that the R9 280X was the replacement of the HD7950!!!!

7970 Ghz >~ 280X > 7950 >~ 280.

Cheers!

Thank you sir!!!

 

[de5_Roy]

AMD announces it is sponsoring the first ever E3 conference for PC
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/pc-gamer-amd-pc-gaming-e3,29021.html
http://www.tweaktown.com/news/44872/amd-announces-sponsoring-first-e3-conference-pc/index.html
wonder what's gonna happen there 😗

 

[thor220]

I really hope the "size" leak turns out to be true. If they manage to put GTX980 performance into a GTX750ti package, AMD will have a great advantage in terms of "places where you can make a gaming rig". Meaning, even if it's a more power hungry card, making an HTPC that doubles as a high end gaming box is not out of the picture.

That can be a nice middle ground for AMD. Specially since they haven't put a card that replaces the 7700 family for HTPC.

Cheers!

i agree. i've had it reading about nvidia's gtx 750/ti cards "suitable for prebuilt pcs" due to "efficiency" and other stuff. smaller size with a good powertune technology, will allow amd go places no other high end card has gone before (especially amd's). i'm talking about lower X and Y sizes. i am pretty sure both amd and nvidia will be offering smaller but high performance cards when both switch to finfet and newer HBM memories.

edit: now amd needs some bling for the high end cards like nvidia's nvtttylkthxbai cooler. i suggest red heatsink fins with golden fan and blades, white backlight led for the blower fan, red radeon logo led on the shroud. sorta liek iron man. 😗
edit2: with dark metallic gray shroud.
and an onboard midi chip playing "iron man" on startup. 😛

edit3:
AMD Fiji, The World's First GPU To Feature Stacked HBM - Officially Confirmed
http://wccftech.com/fiji-gpu-world-feature-stacked-hbm-officially-confirmed/

Those leaked specs seem too crazy. If they are true that would place the 390X well above the even the Titan. Even releasing at $600 would mean that a card $400 cheaper would be demolishing the Titan, this not even taking the new memory standard/size into account.

 

[de5_Roy]

HP outs new AMD R9 380 and two other unannounced Radeons in new systems
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2917629/hp-outs-new-amd-r9-380-and-two-other-unannounced-radeons-in-new-systems.html

edit:
AMD Fiji XT Reference PCB as Short as GTX 970 Reference, R9 295X2 Performance
http://www.techpowerup.com/212332/amd-fiji-xt-reference-pcb-as-short-as-gtx-970-reference-r9-295x2-performance.html
the LCS part will make fitment trickier in small cases.
edit2: wccftech is calling the leaked image fake.
http://wccftech.com/fake-render-amd-radeon-r9-390x-internet/

 

[Tyrvidar]

4gb should be the new midrange, 6-8gb their new top end out of the gates.

 

[tom7792]

browsing the web seeing all the new amd cards are basically 200 series, i was planning to wait for them for next month, does that mean theres no point getting them ? whats an alternative ? get the 980ti ?

 

[renz496]

Wait for pascal? Well seriously if the only new card from AMD were 390X and 390 that will be a bit underwhelming. Good for people that looking for buying new flagship but for those of us that usually only getting mid range cards knowing that the lower card will only a rebrand of current line up is not really exciting. And right now AMD still have no card csn compete with 750 Ti in terms of performance/watt. This segment was used to be dominated by AMD because of their card efficiency.

 

[renz496]

Wait for pascal? Well seriously if the only new card from AMD were 390X and 390 that will be a bit underwhelming. Good for people that looking for buying new flagship but for those of us that usually only getting mid range cards knowing that the lower card will only a rebrand of current line up is not really exciting. And right now AMD still have no card csn compete with 750 Ti in terms of performance/watt. This segment was used to be dominated by AMD because of their card efficiency.

 

[thor220]

browsing the web seeing all the new amd cards are basically 200 series, i was planning to wait for them for next month, does that mean theres no point getting them ? whats an alternative ? get the 980ti ?

That's all speculation. AMD hasn't confirmed any of it and it's not based on anything solid.

 

[aviconus]

Pretty much everything at this point is still speculation, other than the official announcement of HBM. One would think, 3 weeks before the (rumored) release, official specs and models would start releasing. Keeping my fingers crossed that 300 series isn't a dud.