Rumor: AMD Updating R9 280 with Efficient Tonga GPU

Status
Not open for further replies.

Treynolds416

Honorable
Jul 5, 2013
30
0
10,530
I don't understand why they wouldn't call it something new? It's not like the 280/280X's respective positions in the graphics card market are in danger, AMD is dominating pretty hard now. Things like this always end up confusing your average consumer, for no real reason. The only thing that I can think of is that the 20nm process is delayed and they just want to fill the space with a new product, but that still doesn't really explain the brand new gpu (not to mention, what happened to hawaii?). I don't really understand what the point of this is, but I'm certainly not going to complain if it works the way it should
 

zhunt99

Reputable
Mar 10, 2014
79
0
4,640
"AMD" and "efficient" usually don't go together.

Yeah, especially when you consider the HD 5000 and 6000 series only trumped their Nvidia counterparts in power efficiency for that generation.
 

InvalidError

Titan
Moderator
Ironic, isn't it? Manufacturers have so little new technology to launch that they re-brand old architectures once or twice between genuinely new launches and then, because not enough time passed since the last dummy-launch, they end up reusing old (or old-looking) model numbers to slip new products in the market because it is too soon to launch an entirely new line.
 

InvalidError

Titan
Moderator

My guess is because they do not want people to quit buying the old version.

If they branded it the R9-281(X), tons of people would now consider the R9-280(X) completely obsolete even though it should perform practically the same.

Yes, it seems silly and unnecessarily confusing. If they are so concerned with people shunning all the stock of 280-based products out there, they could have released the new chips as 281 and tacked a significant premium on it for the time being so card manufacturers and retailers can flush their old inventory.
 
AMD is dominating pretty hard now.

AMD only has a tiny bit over 4% more market share than Nvidia. Don't know that I would call that dominating. Note that AMD's market share includes the integrated GPU on it's A-series CPUs, so when it comes down to actual discrete GPUs, Nvidia probably has more market share than AMD. If anything, Intel is dominating by having 63% of the market share due to all of the pcs out there with it's integrated graphics.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2014/02/19/pc-gpu-market-bounces-back-with-nvidia-up-and-amd-down/
 
Under ATI, they used to change the last number, like 280 to 285, to note a manufacturing change. Miss those days. Now they change the chip completely, change the architecture, etc, and note it where?
 

dragonsqrrl

Distinguished
Nov 19, 2009
1,280
0
19,290


Last time the Discrete Market share was 62% for Nvidia and 38% for AMD.
Last time I checked, which was sometime in Q1, Nvidia had a 65% share of the discrete grahics market, AMD was 35%. When you look at the professional GPU market Nvidia was at ~79% while AMD was ~20%.

As of Q1 AMD still technically maintains a slight advantage in the overall GPU market compared to Nvidia when you include iGPUs, but in that case Intel is far and away dominating everything with ~66% market share. Nvidia was at 16.6%, AMD was at 16.7%.
 

Zepid

Honorable
Jan 14, 2014
80
0
10,630
22nm*

TSMC isn't ready for 22nm processes yet, they were delayed into next year for delivery as the yields are incredibly low right now. So I seriously doubt anyone will be shipping 20nm, not in any meaningful capacity, you won't see any improvements in performance or power management this year at 22nm - straight from the horses mouth.
 

InvalidError

Titan
Moderator

Not much point in "waiting for R300" when half the models will simply be rebadged R200s so you need to check chip models down to revision numbers if you want to make sure you got an actual R300-generation chip of any model.
 

Endangered species

Honorable
Feb 13, 2014
83
0
10,640
Why even make a article about AMD when everyone here loves to bash on it? Nvidia die hard fans i suppose... Waiting for the ASUS STRIX R9 280 iv seen what a hd 7950 could do so i cant wait to get my hands on it.
 

somebodyspecial

Honorable
Sep 20, 2012
1,459
0
11,310


To take it a step further, NV owns 65% discrete, while AMD has 35. The money is made on discrete, so I don't really count APU's and those are useless for gamers unless you like 1366x768 with details down. They might become useful at 20nm maybe for 1080p but even then I doubt it and you'll still be jacking around settings on a per game basis. I prefer a gpu I can set it at max and forget it for my chosen res. Integrated stuff is a few die shrinks away from that even for 1080p (my real guess here is 14nm with a large cache like IRIS or 10nm for Intel as I doubt they even catch AMD APU with broadwell in the gpu dept). That may be ok for some (casual), but for the serious gamers the same people that buy them keep buying them for the same reason (better game visuals and speed).

As more casual realize the gpu potential (now that you can actually game semi-ok on APU) I think you're going to see them move to discrete in at least some numbers. I'm not saying all obviously, but I expect discrete growth as they want more power and see what they're missing or the pain in the neck of trying to get this or that game to run without fps going to crap. They will find it is easier to just go discrete and get way better visuals and less screwing with settings. We've already seen some growth which is why NV's revenue records came during PC slowdown of ~12%. This quarter will be an anomaly due to AMD stocking to much and bitcoin etc dying for gpus vs. asics (wow, just as I predicted, party over in june). We'll have to see how much it hurts NV since nobody was really buying their cards for mining. I also think many of us are waiting on 20nm at this point but maybe that's just me. The mining crap will hurt AMD more than NV for sure, but I really hope it isn't the 30-40% rumors are claiming as that would be a HUGE hit for AMD to take.
 

RazberyBandit

Distinguished
Dec 25, 2008
2,303
0
19,960
"report does indicate that they will still come with
the same 2 GB of GDDR5 memory"
2gb!!!!!!!
The 280 and 280X (as well as their 7950 & 7970 siblings) have 3GB of VRAM. MSI actually has a 6GB version of the 280X. If these new Tonga-equipped cards are only going to have 2GB of VRAM, that would be a mistake and a big step backwards.
 

Deus Gladiorum

Distinguished
Um... could ya please not do that, AMD? You could call it the R9 285X or maybe the R9 280XT... or hell, you could call it the R9 280X-Super-Boosted-1000-Arcade-Retro-Extreme-Megaton-Edition-Turbo-99 for all I care but could you please do something so that consumers don't have to stand there scratching their heads wondering if their purchasing the right version of their GPU?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.