Cheapest "GCN 1.2" card? "Newest" AMD card $100 or less?

[EliteRetard]

Are all lower end AMD cards severely outdated? Found out Windows 10 don't play nice with a 4850, and I'd like to buy something newer than a 5770 that's been rebranded half a dozen times into an Rx series. Problem is I have lost track of all the rebrands and don't know if there are any "new" low end cards ($100 or less).

 

[Red Hawk]

The R7-260 and 260X are based on the Bonaire chip, a "GCN 1.1" chip that came out in 2013. It floats around the $100 range. This does NOT include the Radeon R7-265, which is based on the GCN 1.0 Pitcairn chip that came out in 2012. The least expensive "GCN 1.2" chip is Tonga, from 2014, used in the R9-285 and R9-380, which floats around the $200 range.

Edit: Yes, AMD's cards are fairly outdated compared to Nvidia's product stack on whole -- but not entirely. Nvidia has a nearly complete product stack of Maxwell 2-based chips, but they actually haven't released a card in the $100 range. That should be the Geforce 950, which is expected to come out sometime in the next month or so. For now, Nvidia's offering is the Maxwell 1-based Geforce 750 series -- but the GCN 1.1 based Radeon 260 cards are actually a bit more "modern". They support Direct3D Feature Level 12.0, while Maxwell 1 based Geforce cards only support Direct3D Feature Level 11.0. Maxwell 2-based Geforce cards like the 950 support Direct3D level 12.1.

 

[LTC8K6]

Are all lower end AMD cards severely outdated? Found out Windows 10 don't play nice with a 4850, and I'd like to buy something newer than a 5770 that's been rebranded half a dozen times into an Rx series. Problem is I have lost track of all the rebrands and don't know if there are any "new" low end cards ($100 or less).

R7-240 and up are all DX12 cards. All should work with W10.

R7-360 looks right up your alley. Should be a performance jump, DX12, and about $100.

If you can, wait and see what the NV GTX950 looks like and costs.

 

[EliteRetard]

Thanks for the input.

Wish I could wait longer (jump from DDR3 to HBM would be awesome), but the need is now. I'd like to get a card that's "new" enough to fully support the basic functions of thew new OS so it's not left in the dust a year later with no support for new software. Seeing the 4850 get dropped is a bit disappointing but not terribly surprising. Normally I'd just go buy a new card and be fine. But when everything is nearly as ancient as the current card it's scary.

Rest of the system aint to bad, 2500k (not OC) 8GB and an SSD...4850 from an old system since it didn't need more. Everything worked great on Win 7, but now on 10 is a crash fest. Figure start with an obvious problem part and then try to work out the rest.

 

[Hitman928]

Just to answer your original question, cheapest GCN 1.2 card is the 285 for $155 after $20 MIR. The 380 = 285 with 10% oc.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131595&cm_re=285-_-14-131-595-_-Product

 

[EliteRetard]

I wonder if it's possible to swing 50% more cash at the problem. I guess I'll have to bring this information with me and see what they think.

 

[LTC8K6]

But now you are into GTX950 territory, and very close to 960 territory, and they will support a lot more new features than the R9-285.

 

[EliteRetard]

Yeah we'll see, there are some reasons I'm looking at AMD first.

 

[Azix]

AMD has a lot of options below $200 and 285 is the most up to date of them. It should do well with a 2500K.

What you need from AMD for windows 10 is a 7000 series card. I think each chip tops out a 1 rebrand/refresh. You would be better off with GCN for windows 10 anywhere under a 960.

The R7-260 and 260X are based on the Bonaire chip, a "GCN 1.1" chip that came out in 2013. It floats around the $100 range. This does NOT include the Radeon R7-265, which is based on the GCN 1.0 Pitcairn chip that came out in 2012. The least expensive "GCN 1.2" chip is Tonga, from 2014, used in the R9-285 and R9-380, which floats around the $200 range.

Edit: Yes, AMD's cards are fairly outdated compared to Nvidia's product stack on whole -- but not entirely. Nvidia has a nearly complete product stack of Maxwell 2-based chips, but they actually haven't released a card in the $100 range. That should be the Geforce 950, which is expected to come out sometime in the next month or so. For now, Nvidia's offering is the Maxwell 1-based Geforce 750 series -- but the GCN 1.1 based Radeon 260 cards are actually a bit more "modern". They support Direct3D Feature Level 12.0, while Maxwell 1 based Geforce cards only support Direct3D Feature Level 11.0. Maxwell 2-based Geforce cards like the 950 support Direct3D level 12.1.

slightly true in terms of release date. But feature-wise not true. Like you said, below the 960, nvidia is "outdated".

 

[NTMBK]

Well, the rest of your system is certainly powerful enough to drive a 285/380X, if you can save up the budget for it.

 

[EliteRetard]

Was hoping to see the GTX 950 under $140, at $160+ I don't think it's a go.
Might have to stick with a 260/360. Now to find a new one under $100 without a rebate.

 

[Seba]

Just use the integrated graphics.

 

[Shmee]

Maybe consider a used 290 or 280x. The latter is only GCN 1.0 though IIRC

 

[Seba]

Why buy such an expensive card if he only needs Windows 10 support? He made no mention of gaming or any other special requirement.

 

[Red Hawk]

The Radeon 260X remains the most up to date card in its price bracket, as Nvidia released the GTX 950 at a significantly higher price.

 

[burninatortech4]

Try to find a decent priced 260x (Bonaire XT). The r7 360 has less shaders (Bonaire Pro).

 

[LTC8K6]

Well, the rest of your system is certainly powerful enough to drive a 285/380X, if you can save up the budget for it.

It's too bad there is no 380X, just the crippled 380...

 

[SPBHM]

260X is a decent card, closest thing to "new" on this price range from AMD (it's the 7790 from Q1 2013 with higher clocks),

and yes, skip the 360, it the same GPU but with less SPs active (but if you are not gaming much it's not a big deal, but in that case you could simply go with a r7 240 or something)...

 

[MarkJohnson]

Sorry to revive an old thread, but I to was looking for such an inexpensive GCN 1.2 video card with no luck. I found this chart with which rebrands matched to each architecture. It is for OS X compatibility, but shows all the cards. It seems HD 7000 series starts GCN.

AMD5000Controller.kext
[TH]Graphics Card[/TH] [TH]OOB[/TH] [TH]min. OSX[/TH] [TH]DevID[/TH] [TH]Reference Port Layout[/TH] [TH]Framebuffer[/TH] [TH]Known Issues[/TH]
HD 5770 Yes 10.6.8 0x68B8 2x DVI, HDMI, DP Vervet none
HD 5770 Mac Edition Yes 10.6.8 0x68B8 2x mDP, DVI Hoolock none
HD 5850 Yes 10.6.8 0x6899 2x DVI, HDMI, DP Uakari none
HD 5870 Yes 10.6.8 0x6898 2x DVI, HDMI, DP Uakari none
HD 5870 Mac Edition Yes 10.6.8 0x6898 2x mDP, DVI Langur none
HD 5870 Eyefinity 6 Yes 10.6.8 0x6898 6x mDP, DVI Zonalis unconfirmed

AMD6000Controller.kext
[TH]Graphics Card[/TH] [TH]OOB[/TH] [TH]min. OSX[/TH] [TH]DevID[/TH] [TH]Reference Port Layout[/TH] [TH]Framebuffer[/TH] [TH]Known Issues[/TH]
HD 6790 No ? 0x673E ? ? DevID missing
HD 6850 No ? 0x6739 ? ? DevID missing
HD 6870 Yes ? 0x6738 2x mDP, HDMI, 2x DVI Duckweed 2nd DVI non-functional
HD 69x0 No ? - - - very buggy, not usable at all

AMD7000Controller.kext (GCN 1.0 architecture)
[TH]Graphics Card[/TH] [TH]OOB[/TH] [TH]min. OSX[/TH] [TH]DevID[/TH] [TH]Reference Port Layout[/TH] [TH]Framebuffer[/TH] [TH]Known Issues[/TH]
HD 7750 Yes 10.8.3 0x683F ? ? Black screen issue since 10.10.3
HD 7770 / R7 250X Yes 10.8.3 0x683D 2x mDP, HDMI, DVI Dashimaki Black screen issue since 10.10.3
HD 7850 Yes 10.8.3 0x6819 ? ? none
HD 7870 / R9 270X Yes 10.8.3 0x6810 2x mDP, HDMI, DVI Futomaki none
R9 270 / R7 370 No 10.8.3 0x6811 ? ? DevID missing
HD 7950 / R9 280 Yes 10.8.3 0x679A 2x mDP, HDMI, DVI Hamachi none
HD 7970 / R9 280X Yes 10.8.3 0x6798 2x mDP, HDMI, DVI Hamachi none

AMD8000Controller.kext (GCN 1.1 architecture)
[TH]Graphics Card[/TH] [TH]OOB[/TH] [TH]min. OSX[/TH] [TH]DevID[/TH] [TH]Reference Port Layout[/TH] [TH]Framebuffer[/TH] [TH]Known Issues[/TH]
HD 7790 / R7 260 Yes 10.10? 0x665C none none Buggy multi screen support, buggy DP
R7 260X / R7 360 No 10.10? 0x6658 none none “
R9 290 / R9 390 No 10.10? 0x67B1 none none “
R9 290X / R9 390X Yes 10.10? 0x67B0 none none “

AMD9000Controller.kext (GCN 1.2 architecture)
[TH]Graphics Card[/TH] [TH]OOB[/TH] [TH]min. OSX[/TH] [TH]DevID[/TH] [TH]Reference Port Layout[/TH] [TH]Framebuffer[/TH] [TH]Known Issues[/TH]
R9 285 / R9 380 Yes 10.10 0x6939 none none Works in 10.10, Black screen in 10.11
R9 380X No 10.10 0x6938 none none "
Fury / Fury X No ? ? ? ? No drivers yet

From what I can tell, none have full DX12 support, but AMD seems to have the best as they have the Asynchonous mode and Nvidia doesn't yet. Nvidia has more graphics options than AMD, but Asynchonous mode give a huge boost in performance.

Anyway, I dug out my old HD 7750 for GCN 1.0. I think I'll wait it out and save up for the next gen cards which, I assume, will have full DX12 support.

 

[tential]

If you're looking for super cheap GPUs with full features you might as well forget it. Both AMD and Nvidia are staying away from the ~$100 market. Expect more rebrands if you're looking that cheap.

Minimum will be ~200.