AMD Radeon R9 300 Series MegaThread: FAQ and Resources

[jimmysmitty]

The biggest problem I see with Fury X2 is that by the time t comes out we will see Polaris and Arctic Islands and normally with a new generation the top end single GPU is as powerful (or close to) as two of the previous generations. For example a 980Ti is about as powerful as a 295X2. I would expect to see this especially with a die shrink that will give them more thermal headroom and die space for more SPUs/TMUs/ROPs etc.

Which would you rather buy? A single GPU or a power hunbgry dual GPU that might have bugs and issues in games yet both perform the same?

Uh a 980TI *isn't* faster than a 295x2 unless you're talking specific cases where crossfire doesn't work, or games have a *heavy* NV bias (gamesworks titles for example). Where the 295X2 is working as intended it's still the fastest single card on the market. That's also it's weakness as it's hit and miss whereas a 980ti, whilst overall slower, is consistent and free of the issues of dual gpus.

See what Eggz said, I said about as powerful not more.

And if I look at both I consider the power requirements as well which is what I was getting at. A 295X2 needs almost a 1000W PSU while you can do two 980Tis on a 850W PSU.

As well you hit my other point, a single GPU has less issues than a dual GPU setup due to CF support or even bugs, not to mention that SLI and CFX still have frame pacing issues compared to a single GPU.

 

[nikoli707]

if you take the top 10 played games right now and do side by side gaming with a 980ti and a 295x2.... there is absolutely no question that the 980ti experience would be superior, regardless of benchmarks. plenty of competition level bf4 players will attest to that.

 

[fudgecakes99]

not to mention the other issues with running dual gpu setups.

 

[cdrkf]

Ok so I had a fresh look at benchmarks and it seems the 980ti is closer than I remembered. For the record I agree with all of you that dual GPU is a pain and the 980ti is *much* more power efficient (as is AMD's own Fury range of course).

 

[prtskg]

2 nanos make FuryX2. AMD postponed launch of x2 to Q2 2016 and decreased price of nano. Makes me think that chips reserved for x2 are going for nano instead. Much better decision I think. May be VR will help multi gpu setup but still it'll a niche category.

 

[renz496]

And ultimately game dev and their game engines are moving further away from multi gpu tech. I think nvidia also aware about this. The last time they were serious about dual gpu was 690. Titan Z? Lol they price the card at 3 k as if to encourage people not to buy the card :lol:

 

[prtskg]

http://seekingalpha.com/article/3820126-advanced-micro-devices-amd-ceo-lisa-su-q4-2015-results-earnings-call-transcript?part=single

 

[renz496]

Hmm nothing unusual for AMD?

 

[turkey3_scratch]

And ultimately game dev and their game engines are moving further away from multi gpu tech. I think nvidia also aware about this. The last time they were serious about dual gpu was 690. Titan Z? Lol they price the card at 3 k as if to encourage people not to buy the card :lol:

They might as well have priced it at $5000. The people who bought it would have paid that for it.

And I would have expected AMD's revenue to increase. They haven't released a predominant GPU or CPU architecture in years (well, we have Fury, but that's just a small thing in the grand scheme targeted toward a small market segment).

Also, Oculus announced that 99% of PCs are not VR ready. It's incredible how little portion high-end is we enthusiasts don't realize.

 

[fudgecakes99]

Though considering that dx12 made of mostly black magic is more suitable for dual gpu set ups. So maybe it 's more feasible if the dual gpu card is set up with dx 12 for games with dx 12. Though that still doesn't exactly fix the micro stutter and lack of driver support for older games. Nope black magic won't cut it time to move on to some sacrifices in a big volcano.

 

[renz496]

And ultimately game dev and their game engines are moving further away from multi gpu tech. I think nvidia also aware about this. The last time they were serious about dual gpu was 690. Titan Z? Lol they price the card at 3 k as if to encourage people not to buy the card :lol:

They might as well have priced it at $5000. The people who bought it would have paid that for it.

And I would have expected AMD's revenue to increase. They haven't released a predominant GPU or CPU architecture in years (well, we have Fury, but that's just a small thing in the grand scheme targeted toward a small market segment).

Also, Oculus announced that 99% of PCs are not VR ready. It's incredible how little portion high-end is we enthusiasts don't realize.

i imagine the sales of titan z is low. if not nvidia will not discount the card down to 1800 (from 3k) to boutique system that use titan z in their prebuilt machine.

about oculus yeah they are right about that. but 99% of gamer in this world might not really interested with oculus either.

 

[renz496]

Though considering that dx12 made of mostly black magic is more suitable for dual gpu set ups. So maybe it 's more feasible if the dual gpu card is set up with dx 12 for games with dx 12. Though that still doesn't exactly fix the micro stutter and lack of driver support for older games. Nope black magic won't cut it time to move on to some sacrifices in a big volcano.

might be even worse with DX12 since the one that decides to support multi gpu rest in the hands of game developer entirely.

 

[wh3resmycar]

And ultimately game dev and their game engines are moving further away from multi gpu tech . I think nvidia also aware about this. The last time they were serious about dual gpu was 690. Titan Z? Lol they price the card at 3 k as if to encourage people not to buy the card :lol:

not really. multi GPU configs will be handled by dx12 with much more efficiency. so no, the devs are not moving away from MULTI GPU setups.

 

[renz496]

i say yes after looking the trend. a pattern that i've start to see more and more even before anandtech coming up with their article (look at Current State of Multi GPU and AFR section)

http://anandtech.com/show/9874/amd-dual-fiji-gemini-video-card-delayed-to-2016

 

[wh3resmycar]

i say yes after looking the trend. a pattern that i've start to see more and more even before anandtech coming up with their article (look at Current State of Multi GPU and AFR section)

http://anandtech.com/show/9874/amd-dual-fiji-gemini-video-card-delayed-to-2016

* there are no dx12 AAA title out yet so too early to say
* VR (check out the VR section of the article you posted).


multi GPU setups are here to stay.

 

[renz496]

I know. Gpu maker WILL find a reason/create a reason why you will need multi gpu. Right now 4k is one of them and soon VR will be part of it. But game dev? They might choose to not dealing with multi gpu if given the choice because multi gpu brings in other complication that did not exist with single gpu setup only. Batman AK dev publically say they will not going to support SLI/CF for the game because it will introduce more problem to the game. And UE4 dev mention that for those that want to use all UE4 feature might want to avoild SLI/CF because there a feature that is less 'friendly' with multi gpu.

 

[fudgecakes99]

Regarding vr i don't think thats going to be an issue when the next line of next gen gpu's drop. Currently with my single card setup i can max most games at 60fps with frames to spare. I'm assuming that if i drop some settings i'd be able to meet the 90hz refresh rate. Wait does the oculus render each eye as essentially two different monitors because thats 2160p. Which is pretty insane to expect out of a consumer. How the heck would they expect that thing to sell?

 

[renz496]

Well it is regarded as enthusiasts gear. They try to provide best possible experience so they will not going to settle with 'just work'. If that best experience need expensive hardware to run then so be it. When they kickstart the project i kind of remember they talk about 'by gamer for gamer'. That's why there were big backlash when FB acquire Oculus. Because they afraid VR will turn into gimmick because of FB interference with the device development.

 

[fudgecakes99]

No doubt fb will probably try and put in some extra fb connectivity, into more vr games. I don't think vr's gonna take off. What they expect a consumer to have something that can render 4k which is already really taxing on a 980 ti of all things and thats a steep buy n price to begin with at 700 ish dollars, and then on top of that run games at 90fps, a 2160p so 4k at 90 fps? that's not ridiculous beyond ridiculous. No single card on the market can handle that. I'd be hard pressed to say even two 980ti's could. Heck even three if we count the diminishing returns.

Market wise, you can't expect a niche market of people. On top of a niche market of people to afford this. It's not accessible for the average consumer or the enthusiast, and it sure wont be at least for another couple years. On top of a fee that rivals the very equipment you need to run the thing.
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2160x1200 nvm i thought it was 4k. so 1200p manageable.

 

[cdrkf]

No doubt fb will probably try and put in some extra fb connectivity, into more vr games. I don't think vr's gonna take off. What they expect a consumer to have something that can render 4k which is already really taxing on a 980 ti of all things and thats a steep buy n price to begin with at 700 ish dollars, and then on top of that run games at 90fps, a 2160p so 4k at 90 fps? that's not ridiculous beyond ridiculous. No single card on the market can handle that. I'd be hard pressed to say even two 980ti's could. Heck even three if we count the diminishing returns.

Market wise, you can't expect a niche market of people. On top of a niche market of people to afford this. It's not accessible for the average consumer or the enthusiast, and it sure wont be at least for another couple years. On top of a fee that rivals the very equipment you need to run the thing.
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2160x1200 nvm i thought it was 4k. so 1200p manageable.

I think the Occulus and Vive are going to be niche. What I think *could* be a bit more 'mainstream' is the PS VR.

Now I know quite a few people are sceptical about it's capabilities given the requirements on the PC side, however the bits I've seen suggest Sony know what they are doing. Now PS4 on it's own isn't going to be able to push VR at good enough quality and fps- however Sony are supplying their VR headset with a mysterious second box that plugs into the PS4- I'm guessing that has either a second GPU or even another PS4 soc in it to run one eye, whilst the base console runs the other.

If Sony can keep the price sensible it could be a winner.

 

[renz496]

Yeah i was also thinking something similar. If there is platform that able to push VR to the mainstream it might be PS4. Nintendo NX might also adopt something similar to VR. Haha i would be laughing if console are the one able to push VR towards mass adoption. That would insult those PCMR folks :lol:

 

[AaronG67]

Hey guys, R9 380 Nitro here. Just wondering how you would, with the 16.1 crimson software, change your fan speed?
I've heard that it's under the global overdrive settings, but I only have options for my core clock, power limit and memory clock. Cheers.

 

[fudgecakes99]

sony vr with an attachment for the main console? Do i smell some sega 32x?

 

[jerdle]

Hey guys, R9 380 Nitro here. Just wondering how you would, with the 16.1 crimson software, change your fan speed?
I've heard that it's under the global overdrive settings, but I only have options for my core clock, power limit and memory clock. Cheers.

That's what you download msi afterburner for

 

[cdrkf]

@fudgecakes that's exactly what I'm thinking. Other articles have already pointed out dual gpu for driving individual eyes negated most of the sync / pacing issues of typical dual gpu configurations so it would make sense. It would effectively give ps4 dual 7870 cards, which is a pretty powerful imo.