R9 380x rumor and speculation thread

[AtenRa]

Why would you need to change voltage to hit 1050?

I really thought 1000-1100 range was stock voltage easily.

Not all of the HD7950 will do 1100MHz on default voltage, but all of them can do 1GHz. My ASUS can only go up to 1050MHz with default voltage, it needs to increase the Voltage to go at 1100MHz and above.

 

[tential]

Ok that makes sense. Those cards oced so high from their stock settings my first oc attempt was straight to 1000.

 

[master_shake_]

Ok that makes sense. Those cards oced so high from their stock settings my first oc attempt was straight to 1000.

thats why the ghz edition was just an eventuality.

small clock bump with boost clocks was doable on pretty much all 7900 series cards.

 

[3DVagabond]

R9 285 and R9 380 is not a full Tonga, R9 380X is.

So,

You compare 285/380 to HD7950 GHz/280 and 380X to 7970GHz/280X

In latest games R9 380 is faster or equal to 280X

They are comparable because they have the same number of shaders. Tahiti was a flagship card though. The 384bit bus cost more and it used more power. That didn't matter for it's market position. Tonga is the 3rd chip down in the stack. Price and power usage are more critical factors.

 

[Techhog]

Not all of the HD7950 will do 1100MHz on default voltage, but all of them can do 1GHz. My ASUS can only go up to 1050MHz with default voltage, it needs to increase the Voltage to go at 1100MHz and above.

My 7950 couldn't go above 980MHz or so on stock voltage, and it didn't like being overvolted. That's part of the reason I upgraded actually.

 

[Mondozei]

So tomorrow is the day if the rumors are correct(a big if).

 

[el etro]

Reviews, where is?

 

[monstercameron]

Reviews, where is?

Allegedly the 19th.

 

[lixlax]

Btw, have they ever launched a product on sunday?

 

[RussianSensation]

With AMD barely gaining market share in the last quarter, they should try to be more aggressive. They should launch the R9 380X for $209-$219, not $249. If R9 380X is $209-219, it will be far away from R9 390/970 cars and not much more expensive than the much slower GTX960 cards. That would actually be an aggressive strategy but at $249, NV doesn't need to do anything.

MSI Gaming GTX970 = $280 with a choice of a AAA game
Asus Strix GTX970 = $280 with a choice of a AAA game
MSI Gaming R9 390 = $280
PowerColor R9 390 = $280
Prices off US newegg

At least for the US market, a $249 R9 380X seems way too expensive. It basically would need a rebate on day one.

 

[AtenRa]

With AMD barely gaining market share in the last quarter, they should try to be more aggressive.

Actually AMD increased 33% its Desktop dGPU shipments Q to Q in Q3 and they have gained a small percentage of market share.

 

[RussianSensation]

Actually AMD increased 33% its Desktop dGPU shipments Q to Q in Q3 and they have gained a small percentage of market share.

Ya, I've seen that. Keep in mind 33% increase is coming from a very low base. That means just focusing on the 33% number isn't a great barometer of the poor state of AMD's dGPU market share. Every generation since HD4800, AMD had some killer card that was an easy recommendation. If R9 380X is $209-219, there would be no argument as to what card to recommend between $190 and $240 because NV has nothing there. If 380X is $249, that's cutting it way too close to much better 390/970 cards. If AMD launches at $249 and weeks later introduces rebates, it trains the consumer to not buy at launch since they'll know that $20-30 price drops are coming so soon. If AMD launches at $219 and doesn't have any rebates or drop prices, it makes R9 380X recommendable on day 1 and AMD's AIBs don't even need rebates in the immediate future unless NV does something.

 

[AtenRa]

Ya, I've seen that. Keep in mind 33% increase is coming from a very low base. That means just focusing on the 33% number isn't a great barometer of the poor state of AMD's dGPU market share. Every generation since HD4800, AMD had some killer card that was an easy recommendation. If R9 380X is $209-219, there would be no argument as to what card to recommend between $190 and $240 because NV has nothing there. If 380X is $249, that's cutting it way too close to much better 390/970 cards. If AMD launches at $249 and weeks later introduces rebates, it trains the consumer to not buy at launch since they'll know that $20-30 price drops are coming so soon. If AMD launches at $219 and doesn't have any rebates or drop prices, it makes R9 380X recommendable on day 1 and AMD's AIBs don't even need rebates in the immediate future unless NV does something.

Yes im not implying they did much better than NV, but they did increased their market share vs NV. Their 380 to Fury X hardware is fine, what they luck is new sub $150 hardware and Laptop GPUs.
As for the 380X price, at $249 it plays alone, if they will decrease the price they will also have to decrease the 380 and 390 etc. Now they have covered any market from $200 to $650.
Also the GTX960 price if falling to bellow $200 mark, where it should had been from the first place.

I just wonder how good it would be 2x 380X 4GB CF for $500. Would it be close or faster to GTX980Ti ??

 

[Mondozei]

I wouldn't mind them postponing the launch to get better supply.

The major problem for AMD in recent years have been disastrious product launches. Remember the epic fail of the 290/290X? The mess of the reference coolers, the shockingly bad supply(yes mining didn't help but what excuse did AMD have to have so few on launch day? None).

Then we had the initial rev 1 coil whine issues for Fury X(I'm more forgiving of the supply issues for Fury due to HBM being brand new).

So getting the 380X right wouldn't change the perception of AMD's incompetence on GPU launches completely, but it would at least go some way towards mending what is clearly a problem for them.

 

[RussianSensation]

I wouldn't mind them postponing the launch to get better supply..

Technically speaking, AMD isn't postponing anything if they don't launch. Why? Because AMD never announced R9 380X's launch date. That means the Nov 15th launch is a rumor until AMD launches anything.

"New report from HardwareBattle suggest Radeon R9 380X is ready for launch."

Seems NA retailers are raising prices for some cards. R9 380 4GB is $190-200 now. I cannot wait until this generation is done already. What a boring GPU generation, hampered by so many poorly optimized console-to-PC ports with not a single true next gen PC game in sight since Crysis 3. Honestly even if R9 380X was $149, I wouldn't be impressed because R9 280 sold for that much years ago and R9 280 OC is going to be pretty close in performance to an R9 380X.

 

[tential]

I wouldn't mind them postponing the launch to get better supply.

The major problem for AMD in recent years have been disastrious product launches. Remember the epic fail of the 290/290X? The mess of the reference coolers, the shockingly bad supply(yes mining didn't help but what excuse did AMD have to have so few on launch day? None).

Then we had the initial rev 1 coil whine issues for Fury X(I'm more forgiving of the supply issues for Fury due to HBM being brand new).

So getting the 380X right wouldn't change the perception of AMD's incompetence on GPU launches completely, but it would at least go some way towards mending what is clearly a problem for them.

Both of those cards I did not buy because I was unable to buy them within a month of release and I gave up.

 

[Rannar]

So... where is it?

 

[monstercameron]

What is the possibility of a 16ff 380x surprise? Timing wise it almost makes sense, especially how it got held back over its cut down sibling.
Is this card desperation or strategy?

 

[Headfoot]

well there is precedent from the 4770 style pipe cleaner part, but at the same time, they were a lot more competitive and aggressive then and I just don't see it happening with today's AMD. I would love to be surprised though because it has been one hell of a wait for 16/14nm GPUs to come along

 

[RussianSensation]

Both of those cards I did not buy because I was unable to buy them within a month of release and I gave up.

That's the best thing that happened to you. R9 290 or similar (970/390) was the best stop-gap card this generation for a long time. I can't imagine anyone sitting there for years waiting for this mythical R9 380X card when there have been SO many deals on R9 280/280X/290/970/390. I still remember for probably 3-4 months NCIX Canada had countless after-market R9 290 cards for $280-320 CDN.

Today, that's about what a GTX960 4GB or an R9 380 4GB cost.

PC builders looking for price/performance need to learn how to recognize undervalued vs. overvalued/overpriced GPUs and gauge when it's a better time to buy vs. waiting. A lot of people keep saying that you cannot really time the market, but that's not true at all. Sometimes when certain products have tarnished reputations but are great products underneath, you need to be able to recognize it. $280 HD7970Ghz prior to $450 GTX770 4GB's launch, $200-250 R9 290 for the last 10 months before they basically sold out.

We've also seen R9 280X for as low as $160 and the market was flooded with so many great after-market 290 cards. Why would anyone wait for 6-12 months for some R9 380X/960Ti card is beyond my understanding. I mean if someone cannot save an extra $50 towards a GTX970/R9 390 in 6-12 months, how are they gaming on the PC? Pirating games is my only conclusion.

What is the possibility of a 16ff 380x surprise? Timing wise it almost makes sense, especially how it got held back over its cut down sibling.

I doubt it. Makes no sense to shrink the 380X. The card that would benefit more from shrinking is R9 390/390X since at least then you'd have a competitive next gen low-to-mid-range product, which means you could re-use it in R9 400 series. 380X is too weak.

Is this card desperation or strategy?

Since AMD didn't announce anything, everything we heard about R9 380X were just rumors. A random 3rd party site can just make up an article that Pascal is launching in January 2016.

Think about this, right now people are buying GTX950/960 over much faster R9 280X. I mean really people are paying $150 for a 950 when a $200 R9 280X is 50% faster. Do you think the same gamers would care for a $249 R9 380X that's what 5-10% faster than the R9 280X?

 

[tential]

I've followed your advice on both gpu purchases and have not felt remotely ripped off. I bought into the market both times at the most optimal time possible it feels like.

But that doesn't mean it was good for amd haha. Amd could get a lot more money from me if they had a good product at launch that is available for me. Instead, I end up waiting, and getting a very very good deal!!! Sucks for amd but great for me I guess.
_____________
For everyone else, I think the 380x is still a good release if it's almost at or at the r9 290 level of performance. It can capitalize on holiday season dales then and quite frankly, even if an older chip is faster than the 950/960,people prefer new.

I would actually trade my 290 for the 380x if it was the same speed or if the 380x was only 5% slower. Especially so I can crossfire at a lower power consumption whole having access to 4k vsr and freesync.

So depending on the speeds, I'll be looking to try to trade lol.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Think about this, right now people are buying GTX950/960 over much faster R9 280X.

The 280X is pretty much gone. Which is sad, it was a real deal for the price. Pretty much invalidated the existence of the 285.

 

[RussianSensation]

The 280X is pretty much gone. Which is sad, it was a real deal for the price. Pretty much invalidated the existence of the 285.

And what was the media's stance on 280X vs. GTX960/285 since January 2015? To them 280X's raw performance didn't matter, 3GB of VRAM didn't matter. Instead, they were too caught up in discussing GCN 1.0 vs. GCN 1.1/1.2 rather than focusing on actual #s.

Remember the good old days when reviewers would tell us it's actually better to buy an HD5850/5870 over the newer HD6850/6870 until prices on the latter subside; and that we should always prefer a card with more VRAM if it's barely more expensive to be on the safe side? Today it seems price/perf is almost irrelevant, VRAM is almost irrelevant (unless when it comes to 4GB HBM not being enough for 4K) and perf/watt rules all metrics. ()

 

[tviceman]

Technically speaking, AMD isn't postponing anything if they don't launch. Why? Because AMD never announced R9 380X's launch date. That means the Nov 15th launch is a rumor until AMD launches anything.

"New report from HardwareBattle suggest Radeon R9 380X is ready for launch."

Seems NA retailers are raising prices for some cards. R9 380 4GB is $190-200 now. I cannot wait until this generation is done already. What a boring GPU generation, hampered by so many poorly optimized console-to-PC ports with not a single true next gen PC game in sight since Crysis 3. Honestly even if R9 380X was $149, I wouldn't be impressed because R9 280 sold for that much years ago and R9 280 OC is going to be pretty close in performance to an R9 380X.

Prices of Nvidia GPU's are going down, so maybe it's a sign that we'll get fin-fet video cards in Q1. Several 980 TI's going for $599 (in the U.S.A. )with a game and some have additional mail-in rebates on top of that. It's uncharacteristic of Nvidia to drop prices by any amount on their high end so soon after release unless they're under extreme pressure (which I do not believe that to be the case). Also 980's are going for $450-470 after MIR plus a game, and 4gb 960's starting at $170 after MIR.

Either AIB's have excessive stock or Nvidia is starting to clear inventories 3-4 months ahead of a new launch. If it's the latter, a 380X launch might go down as being worse than the R9 285 launch was.

 

[tential]

Prices of Nvidia GPU's are going down, so maybe it's a sign that we'll get fin-fet video cards in Q1. Several 980 TI's going for $599 (in the U.S.A. )with a game and some have additional mail-in rebates on top of that. It's uncharacteristic of Nvidia to drop prices by any amount on their high end so soon after release unless they're under extreme pressure (which I do not believe that to be the case). Also 980's are going for $450-470 after MIR plus a game, and 4gb 960's starting at $170 after MIR.

Either AIB's have excessive stock or Nvidia is starting to clear inventories 3-4 months ahead of a new launch. If it's the latter, a 380X launch might go down as being worse than the R9 285 launch was.

Either way it's a good sign when nvidia is willing to drop prices like this. I don't expect anything new until q2 though. Rumors to be in q1 though.

I think also nvidia is just intelligent enough to realize just how hard it will be to sell last gens gpus after people see the nodeshrink gpus. If it's truly the performance leap some people believe it to be, they'll be hard pressed to sell any remaining 970 or higher cards after their new gpus launch.