AMD Radeon R9 300 Series MegaThread: FAQ and Resources

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As Bossyfins said, it's in the link that was on the top of my previous post. Look at the cheapest build on the left hand side and scroll down. It lists a r9 370 with 4GB of DDR5 as the GPU. It also lists 5-7 business days for shipping just like every other model with older GPUs. Here is the link again.

http://www.dell.com/us/p/alienware-area51-r2/pd?ref=PD_OC&ndlvid=15a1-11bae8
 
Yeah I still don't see it. Maybe it's only in the US? I'm in Canada so I'll look at the US store.
EDIT: I don't know what you guys are seeing but I can't find it lol.
EDIT #2: Oh your link brought me to a page with it, which is weird because I went on the US store and Canadian and still couldn't find it. I see it now though. Thanks :)
 


You may be looking at something different than I am but I didn't see the 380x anywhere. I see the r9 370 on the base model Area 51 desktop for $1,899.99. I looked at some of the other GPU options and I don't see any other 300 series cards listed but you can get their flagship desktop with a r9 370 or two of them in crossfire right now.
 


On the second build from the left click choose options under where it lists a 980 as the GPU. The bottom GPU option on that build is "Dual AMD Radeon™ R9 370 with 8GB Total (2x 4GB) GDDR5 – Crossfire™ Enabled."
 
Well now we know the 300 series from top to bottom are just rebrands. With one yet unnamed card with the Fiji chip using HBM to release to compete with the Titan X.
This is very disappointing.
I guess all they can do is price aggressively against the generally superior Nvidia range.
 


Well which current card would the 4GB R9 370 Alienware is currently selling be a rebrand of? You would think it would be the 280 but that's a 3GB card. As far as I know 4GB doesn't kick in until you get to the 290.
 
It's true they have upped the memory across the board but that doesn't necessarily mean much or anything at all.
For instance the 390x is confirmed to just be a 290x with 8Gb of memory. That already exists and is shown to have no improvement in performance. If the chipset can only process a certain amount at a time, more memory does nothing but sound nice when advertising.
The 290x was released in 2013 and is being re released in 2015 under a new name. AMD clearly have some huge problems with their engineering team unable to come up with anything new.
Say hello to the first review of the 390x.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/sapphire-vapor-x-r9-290x-8gb,3977.html
 


Look at what they did to the R9 285 - they used many new technologies and the 285 ended up being more of a tech demo rather than an all-out, guns a-blazing killer graphics card. Perhaps they are working similar efficiencies into the 390X? And if they are, perhaps that could help the core work with faster memory? I mean, the 285 felt like the technologies used in it could have done so much more. What if AMD is using this to help bump up their flagship card?
I do agree, though, that 8GB is a bit much. There are improvements when increasing the RAM buffer but if the Hawaii XT is sold for over $550 I'm not buying until I see benchmarks that prove they are worth it. I'm most likely going to wait for Fiji, if Fiji isn't coming out alongside Hawaii XT.
 
From rumored MSRP the 390x will be nearing the 900$ mark. Which makes no sense even if it has HBM. AMD is already losing money, and increasing the price closer to the titan x will prove more benefit to the titan x as it has 12 gigs of vram, and because games like witcher are using hairworks.[ This is where AMD is screwed really. THey ave to lower the price, but it already costs a lot to make.
 
I personally have hope for the 300 series myself. I don't think they would have waited this long just to release the same old card as the 200 series. I think HBM is going to be a great jump for it in both performance and power draw. If AMD can match the power draw of Nvidia cards and perform better for a similar price, that is all they need. I am assuming that once they release the 390X the 980Ti will be released soon after and try to beat it in performance.

I do worry a lot about the price.
 


I think Nvidia's already kicked the process of releasing the 980 Ti into action... the specs they have released etc tell me the 980 Ti will come sooner rather than later. AMD, on the other hand, has hinted at a Fiji XT card via email to Red Team members, but has not been so specific. Nvidia probably wants to try and steal AMD's HBM thunder with a beast of a card, which the 980 Ti likely will be.

I hope it won't be $900, though. It needs to be $750 for the flagship card. If they can reasonably release models at $450-600, that would do a lot to replace the spot that the R9 290X used to occupy before the 980. That spot has been empty ever since.
 


Lol, they certainly aren't waiting for the right time. They clearly have had trouble coming up with anything that can compete. After 18 months of no new products they have decided they have to do something. So they release 100% rebrands under a new product title and add some memory to the cards so they can justify the decision.
It seems pretty obvious to me that they have had yield issues with the new chip type which is why they are only releasing one new card in the high end to meet the relatively small demand of high priced products.
This new card is going to have a unique name like the Titan does to ensure it's recognised as a unique product. The 390x and below, all rebrands.
Oh and the 980ti is confirmed to be released on the 2nd June 2015 to pip AMD at the post.
What people are probably hoping for most of all from AMD is some new drivers including some Crossfire profiles for games released in the last 6 months.
To me it seems ridiculous that AMD could not only be behind hardware wise but they also drop the ball on the software side. If it were up to me I would be making a huge effort to keep my drivers up to date with profiles for new games added as soon as possible so at least you keep good PR with what you have.
AMD almost come across to me as giving up entirely. No one can argue Nvidia are just doing it better right now. I really hope AMD pick up their game before we have a 1 horse race. An Intel/Nvidia only world is a sad place to be but that's where we are headed at the moment.
 
Was eye balling and GTX 970.. but I'll wait until the 300 series hit the market. They should have released last month not next month. Everyone with a decent PC who wants to have Ultra and 60+ frames on Witcher 3 at all times will be upgrading right about now.
 


That's a good point. The forums here are flooded with people upgrading their PCs for Witcher 3. AMD did kind of miss the boat by not having their new cards available when so many people were looking to upgrade.
 
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