AMD to introduce its Radeon R9 300-series lineup at Computex

[Vesku]

Yea, lousy options right now.

980 too expensive

970 too questionable for the price

290 might be a good fit if snaggable at around $250
no freesync, no hdmi 2.0, poor power/hest vs the 970


Really is just a good time to wait.

290 supports freesync, it has actually stayed a solid gaming card as the price has adjusted to better slot in under the 970. The power thing is way over stated by many, imo, only an issue if someone has something less than a decent quality 500-550W power supply or pays >$0.40 per KWh for electricity and games 30+ hours a week. It's not much different from 780/780 Ti requirements, basically, providing similar performance and those weren't constantly slammed.

If you remove the branding it's as if you could still get a 780 OC for $270 AR retail or a 780 Ti for $300 AR, but with 4GB of VRAM. Given the discovery of the 970 spec quirks these are reasonable products for the price. It is time for a product refresh and if I wasn't already set on riding out my 7950 to the next node I'd be annoyed at having to wait longer to see the final 28nm GPU offerings settle in. However that doesn't change the fact the 290 and 290X provide solid gaming performance for the dollar. Yet some very repetitive forum posters are constantly attacking these particular AMD SKUs.

 

[loccothan]

How about an official post from someone at AMD?
http://devgurus.amd.com/message/1306991#1306837

Here, Amit @ AMD makes it sound like all APUs and dGPUs released in 2015 will support HEVC decoding and encoding. I don't think it would be possible to release a simple rebrand with HEVC decoding/encoding support.

Anyhow, from a speculation standpoint, I believe AMD is waiting to release their complete 300 lineup, including some chips from the following list: Bermuda, Fiji, Maui, Treasure Island, Tonga2, etc... all including features more advanced than Tonga brought.

Yes, I think they will have Brand New R3xx series + Cheaper R2xx to clean up warehouse ;-)

Hudy know what he's doing, so must be FreeSync Ready + other stuff (GCN 1.2+ ) in all R3xx Line of GPU's.
But we have to wait for something more now ;-)

 

[blastingcap]

290 supports freesync, it has actually stayed a solid gaming card as the price has adjusted to better slot in under the 970. The power thing is way over stated by many, imo, only an issue if someone has something less than a decent quality 500-550W power supply or pays >$0.40 per KWh for electricity and games 30+ hours a week.

96.3% of statistics are made up.

The 290 is like the 4890. It's a great card for the price for the time but if you can afford to wait, the 39x series is coming out soon, and if you can limp through 2015, the next-node cards should offer better perf/price and release less heat, which is an issue for some of us who live in hotter climates. Even if you are absolutely in love with 290 you could just wait for 39x to release and that might further reduce the prices for 290's.

 

[Silverforce11]

Even with new stuff I don't think the R290/X at ~$225-250 will be beat on perf/price. But the downside is the added power. The difference is large enough for it to be a factor, whether some of you downplay it or not, the consumers have made their mind.

 

[StinkyPinky]

Has it even been confirmed that the 390's are coming out in June? For all we know it could be just the announcement and it may be July/August.

 

[Vesku]

Even with new stuff I don't think the R290/X at ~$225-250 will be beat on perf/price. But the downside is the added power. The difference is large enough for it to be a factor, whether some of you downplay it or not, the consumers have made their mind.

What people are buying doesn't change the actual performance and other metrics. The 290(X) is pretty much AMD's version of 780OC(Ti) in terms of performance and power draw. I just don't see how when citing purely power and performance those metrics are bad when it comes to the 290(X) but at the same time not an issue for the 780(Ti). In relation to the 390X, I'm wondering if we will see this continue where 250-300W is "too much power draw" for it yet perfectly acceptable when it comes to Titan X.

 

[Silverforce11]

What people are buying doesn't change the actual performance and other metrics. The 290(X) is pretty much AMD's version of 780OC(Ti) in terms of performance and power draw. I just don't see how when citing purely power and performance those metrics are bad when it comes to the 290(X) but at the same time not an issue for the 780(Ti). In relation to the 390X, I'm wondering if we will see this continue where 250-300W is "too much power draw" for it yet perfectly acceptable when it comes to Titan X.

Because the 780ti is EOL. AMD isn't competing versus it anymore since December last year.

 

[Vesku]

Because the 780ti is EOL. AMD isn't competing versus it anymore since December last year.

In relation to the 390X, I'm wondering if we will see this continue where 250-300W is "too much power draw" for it yet perfectly acceptable when it comes to Titan X.

 

[Silverforce11]

In relation to the 390X, I'm wondering if we will see this continue where 250-300W is "too much power draw" for it yet perfectly acceptable when it comes to Titan X.

It will come down to how well it performs for the given power use. Power use by itself is pretty useless, as is efficiency in fact. Performance, efficiency & power needs to go together, along with price obviously (unless you just don't care about $, then in that case, congrats, you've won at life!).

 

[S.H.O.D.A.N.]

Maxwell is on a rampage. June is very late.

Each day is a financial disaster the longer they hold back 390X.

The 390X is a flagship, a product with little impact on general finances compared to the mid/low range offering that make up the bulk of sales, at least for the first 6 to 9 months of shelf life. Sure, the margins might be significantly higher, but the volume of sales is likewise significantly lower.

As for the rumor, pretty much the only way this kind of decision could possibly happen in such a short time frame is is if GF found massive amounts of spare capacity and all lower tier products were binned from the high end chip. Which sounds almost as improbable as the idea of just straight up engineering new chips, because you just can't put a locked down high end chip in a low end part and retain any sort of meaningful margin. The chip might be borked, but it still cost you as much to produce as the one that's fully unlocked and powering the flagship.

AMD would have to be getting those dies at ridiculously low prices and ridiculously high volume for this to work.

 

[Silverforce11]

The 390X is a flagship, a product with little impact on general finances compared to the mid/low range offering that make up the bulk of sales, at least for the first 6 to 9 months of shelf life. Sure, the margins might be significantly higher, but the volume of sales is likewise significantly lower.

How many 970/980 did NV sell within a few months of release? There were press releases regarding this success.

You seriously underestimate the impact of high end products. Have a look at recent NV & AMD financials. High-end is where the bulk of revenue & profits are, along with HPC products.

Maxwell and in particular the 970/980 single-handedly caused a massive marketshare movement away from AMD to NV. Both 970/980 are no means low end or even mid-range at where its perf & price sits since release to now and its able to have a massive impact on marketshare %.

Prior to the 970/980 release, AMD even had a small gain in marketshare with R290/X and thats against 780/ti competitors.

 

[james1701]

There are other features too that would need new chips. Features like PLP Eyefinity that can only be had with hardware changes. We have seen that with the 285 launch. Even a rebranded 290X can't do that without some intervention on the hardware level.

 

[TemjinGold]

This rumor makes me wonder if the issue isn't that AMD has been churning 3xx cards out for a few months only to find a significantly higher defect rate than hoped. Enough so that if they churned another 3 months, they would have enough defective cards to cut down and have become the rest of their new lineup.

 

[OatisCampbell]

lols


It really is going to suck for everyone if AMD goes under. Folks had any sense they'd be encouraging anyone and everyone to buy something from them if it'd possibly meet their needs for a reasonable length of time.

No thanks.

I have an IceQ 290 in my box because with the games included nothing could touch that level of performance at that price after selling the free games.

Would have bought a NVIDIA (or anyone else's) card that was in the same situation because I don't have enough money to just throw it away to "help people".

Have an intel 4690 because AMD didn't have anything that remotely competed with it for $200..

Only buy on price/ performance.

I also don't think it will matter if any company goes out of business because there are a lot more people who don't have a lot of money to spare like me than guys that can buy the $$600-$1000 parts. Whoever is left still has to sell parts to stay in business.

If Ferrari was the last car company on Earth, odds are good they wouldn't just make $100,000+ cars and stay the size they are. They would sell cheaper cars because most people can barely afford cars.

 

[DownTheSky]

If Ferrari was the last car company on Earth, odds are good they wouldn't just make $100,000+ cars and stay the size they are. They would sell cheaper cars because most people can barely afford cars.

Odds are they wouldn't want to link the low-cost models to Ferrari name so they'd brobably release them as another brand, something like Ceappari. SUVs would be Jaffari and old people cars Babbari.

 

[stahlhart]

Threads merged. Please check to see if the discussion you're starting is already taking place before starting a duplicate one.
-- stahlhart

 

[Vesku]

This rumor makes me wonder if the issue isn't that AMD has been churning 3xx cards out for a few months only to find a significantly higher defect rate than hoped. Enough so that if they churned another 3 months, they would have enough defective cards to cut down and have become the rest of their new lineup.

If it is as large as is rumored they might be able to get 3-4 SKUs out of it rather than 2. Something like 390X, 390, 380X, 380.

 

[Kuiva maa]

Maxwell and in particular the 970/980 single-handedly caused a massive marketshare movement away from AMD to NV. Both 970/980 are no means low end or even mid-range at where its perf & price sits since release to now and its able to have a massive impact on marketshare %.

Not exactly. The market share shift begun before GM204 cards were out. They did affect the outcome but the main culprit is the abundance of 2nd hand/refurbished radeons after mining craze died out. When your competitor introduces a new and improved product ,lowering your prices can help you in the short or mid term. AMD has done that before. When you compete against yourself then it is hopeless. Besides the R9 285 (which is a pretty uncompetitive product) and the R9 295x2 (which occupies an extremely small niche) every radeon out there can be had for much cheaper vs new and in great supply. AMD needs to totally replace their range of cards ASAP else they will keep bleeding %.

 

[Silverforce11]

Not exactly. The market share shift begun before GM204 cards were out.

You need to have a look at the marketshare data prior to Maxwell and post Maxwell, then you'll see. AMD actually got a gain on NV in the months prior to Maxwell's release. This was speculated to be one of the original reasons NV priced the 970 so well at $330.

 

[Kuiva maa]

You need to have a look at the marketshare data prior to Maxwell and post Maxwell, then you'll see. AMD actually got a gain on NV in the months prior to Maxwell's release. This was speculated to be one of the original reasons NV priced the 970 so well at $330.

The huge market share loss first appeared during 2014, Q3. GM204 debuted then but only at the very end of it, it had 12-14 days worth of sales only. Unfortunately for AMD ,900 series is not what triggered their market share decline.

 

[el etro]

What AMD needs to get dGPU market share again: GCN2.


They need to forget [GCN1.x]. GCN1.x is done for now.

Profanity isn't allowed in the technical forums.
-- stahlhart

 

[3DVagabond]

You need to have a look at the marketshare data prior to Maxwell and post Maxwell, then you'll see. AMD actually got a gain on NV in the months prior to Maxwell's release. This was speculated to be one of the original reasons NV priced the 970 so well at $330.

^^^THIS^^^

nVidia was starting to bleed market share.

 

[AnandThenMan]

What AMD needs to get dGPU market share again: GCN2.


They need to forget [GCN1.x]. GCN1.x is done for now.

Maybe it's just me but perf/price is what matters not a number denoting the architecture.

 

[ShintaiDK]

You need to have a look at the marketshare data prior to Maxwell and post Maxwell, then you'll see. AMD actually got a gain on NV in the months prior to Maxwell's release. This was speculated to be one of the original reasons NV priced the 970 so well at $330.

You need to look at the trend. Nothing out of the ordinary was changed before Q3.

AMD was losing marketshare very slowly in the overall trend, until Q3. Then it collapsed for them. And we know this continued in Q4. And most likely will in Q1. AMD just havent anything to counter with.

 

[3DVagabond]

You need to look at the trend. Nothing out of the ordinary was changed before Q3.

AMD was losing marketshare very slowly in the overall trend, until Q3. Then it collapsed for them. And we know this continued in Q4. And most likely will in Q1. AMD just havent anything to counter with.

Did you just look at the graph and ignore it?