RTG3rd March – Will Discuss Polaris, Fury X2, VR, DirectX 12 and More

[csbin]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/48e8rl/radeon_technologies_group_qa_is_happening_here_on/

The first reddit AMD Q&A/AMA is happening soon. Right here.
The Q&A is open to all topics dealing with anything under the Radeon Technologies Group (the Radeon division of AMD). Some big secrets could be unveiled this Thursday, so bring your best questions! Likely topics of discussion will most likely include Vulkan, FreeSync, GPUOpen, Polaris, Fury X2, VR, DirectX 12, and anything else you’re curious about.

Don’t ask about Zen. It’s still a super secret.

 

[96Firebird]

I like this move, great idea by PR. Reddit AMAs can sometimes get some good questions/responses.

Hopefully they don't dance around the questions though, and we can get some solid info about upcoming technology.

 

[caswow]

I like this move, great idea by PR. Reddit AMAs can sometimes get some good questions/responses.

Hopefully they don't dance around the questions though, and we can get some solid info about upcoming technology.

dont get your hopes up. they certainly will not answer questions we want to know :thumbsdown:

 

[el etro]

Five months to Polaris launch, PR with in-depth data may start soon.

 

[railven]

Welps considering the royal trollage the "official" AMD Subreddit got (did that ever get resolved) I don't have confidence in the moderation team to keep the thing clean.

EDIT: I see the issue was resolved.

Last AMA's I've read/seen have been a cluster-screw. GL to anyone who is gonna try to participate.

 

[tential]

Welps considering the royal trollage the "official" AMD Subreddit got (did that ever get resolved) I don't have confidence in the moderation team to keep the thing clean.

EDIT: I see the issue was resolved.

Last AMA's I've read/seen have been a cluster-screw. GL to anyone who is gonna try to participate.

I honestly just hate Reddit's style of forum

 

[poofyhairguy]

What do we really want to know from them that they will share? Seems like the best info (what price points will 2016 Polaris cards be at?) they couldn't share.

 

[Hitman928]

Technical/performance details to some extent.

 

[Kenmitch]

How they plan to deal with silly gameworks deoptimizations.

 

[xthetenth]

What do we really want to know from them that they will share? Seems like the best info (what price points will 2016 Polaris cards be at?) they couldn't share.

I'd expect that they've got a list together and ready of stuff they're prepared to share and are doing it as a sort of press release designed to get the obsessives interested.

 

[el etro]

Technical/performance details to some extent.

You got the point of my post.

How they plan to deal with silly gameworks deoptimizations.

Is the first guy question on the topic on reddit. RTG is doing it right.

 

[sm625]

Someone should ask why they are waiting for nvidia to beat them to market.

 

[Silverforce11]

Even when they demo Polaris 10 for journalists, people were looking for all kinds of reasons why it can't be that good or efficient.

Good publicity stunt, but will anyone believe something from AMD PR if it sounds good?

 

[raghu78]

Even when they demo Polaris 10 for journalists, people were looking for all kinds of reasons why it can't be that good or efficient.

Good publicity stunt, but will anyone believe something from AMD PR if it sounds good?

AMD needs execution badly. PR cannot save the company. They need to launch Polaris in the mentioned mid-2016 timeframe in high volume. Polaris better be one of ATI / AMD's best ever architectures because its going to be a hard task gaining back market share and getting back to historical levels of 35-40%.

 

[DooKey]

AMD needs execution badly. PR cannot save the company. They need to launch Polaris in the mentioned mid-2016 timeframe in high volume. Polaris better be one of ATI / AMD's best ever architectures because its going to be a hard task gaining back market share and getting back to historical levels of 35-40%.

I'm not sure they can break the view of most video card/cpu buyers that AMD is the value option. The cpu division has really pulled them down and the constant fire sales of GPUs has people waiting to buy until a fire sale happens. The last few years have been brutal and customer opinion is pretty solid now. All IMO.

 

[Silverforce11]

I'm not sure they can break the view of most video card/cpu buyers that AMD is the value option. The cpu division has really pulled them down and the constant fire sales of GPUs has people waiting to buy until a fire sale happens. The last few years have been brutal and customer opinion is pretty solid now. All IMO.

It's a perception that can change easily, as shown by the comparison of perception of R290/X vs 390/X.

In the recent quarter, AMD claimed some marketshare from NV. This means in terms of volume, they would have to sell more dGPUs than NV. I certainly did not think it would be possible because I don't perceive the 390/X to be superior than the 290/X.

But the 390 is very well received and often recommended on social media and forums for builds, especially over the 970.

Now, importantly, the $300+ segment improved in the latest data, GPUs like the 390 and 970 are the most popular with gamers.

Basically, AMD needs Polaris to be a strong performer in the low-end and the mid-range, and they will claw back marketshare no problems. It's these segments that drive volumes.

 

[DarkKnightDude]

Someone should ask why they are waiting for nvidia to beat them to market.

It takes time I'd imagine to make cards. People might complain about a paper launch as well.

 

[Pariah]

Looks like a total waste of time. Any specific details about upcoming products are not going to be revealed to the public for the first time in a forum AMA. Price, release date, realworld performance, product lineup with specifications. None of these are going to revealed. So what's the point?

 

[Silverforce11]

Looks like a total waste of time. Any specific details about upcoming products are not going to be revealed to the public for the first time in a forum AMA. Price, release date, realworld performance, product lineup with specifications. None of these are going to revealed. So what's the point?

And even if they discuss performance, who would believe it right?

Good publicity, I guess they should, since they are paid for PR work. Get social, mix it up with gamers.

 

[Pariah]

And even if they discuss performance, who would believe it right?

Good publicity, I guess they should, since they are paid for PR work. Get social, mix it up with gamers.

Real world performance. In this popular game X, using X settings at X resolution this polaris based board with these specifications recorded this many fps compared to this fiji based board that achieved this many. You can either believe the numbers or not, but there is little wiggle room under those conditions to meaningfully massage the numbers outside of just plain faking them.

 

[provost]

Sure, and Nvidia will send over its pricing and performance chart per sku to AMD, promptly too... I don't expect AMD to share this info, nor would I expect Nvidia to do so.

Anyway, this can be useful to understand AMD's strategy (at least for those of us who are not in the know, as much as some others), vis-a-vis dx12, vulkan and Microsoft. I will probably check it at some point just to listen in....

 

[topmounter]

It would be nice if AMD had something to say that would put some pressure on Nvidia to respond. We need better GPU wars!

 

[3DVagabond]

I'm not sure they can break the view of most video card/cpu buyers that AMD is the value option. The cpu division has really pulled them down and the constant fire sales of GPUs has people waiting to buy until a fire sale happens. The last few years have been brutal and customer opinion is pretty solid now. All IMO.

I agree with everything you say here. The only thing I would like to add is , just because something is hard doesn't mean that it can't be done and can't be done right away. It just depends on whether or not you have the product and the know how on selling it.

One of the main steps of selling is "overcoming objections". If you can't do it, then you are in the wrong business. First, of course, you have to identify them. I honestly don't think AMD has been very good at identifying the public's objections to their products.

 

[xthetenth]

It's a perception that can change easily, as shown by the comparison of perception of R290/X vs 390/X.

In the recent quarter, AMD claimed some marketshare from NV. This means in terms of volume, they would have to sell more dGPUs than NV. I certainly did not think it would be possible because I don't perceive the 390/X to be superior than the 290/X.

But the 390 is very well received and often recommended on social media and forums for builds, especially over the 970.

Now, importantly, the $300+ segment improved in the latest data, GPUs like the 390 and 970 are the most popular with gamers.

Basically, AMD needs Polaris to be a strong performer in the low-end and the mid-range, and they will claw back marketshare no problems. It's these segments that drive volumes.

The funniest thing is that the 290(X) also seemed to have its image improve with the 390(X) launch. Having a big public bunch of reviews that start with saying that this 390 is basically the same as the 290 followed by a heaping of benchmarks showing the same sort of performance that had made the 290 the bargain of the half decade did a lot for its image.

I'm kind of amazed that rebranding worked as well as it did.

 

[Paul98]

The funniest thing is that the 290(X) also seemed to have its image improve with the 390(X) launch. Having a big public bunch of reviews that start with saying that this 390 is basically the same as the 290 followed by a heaping of benchmarks showing the same sort of performance that had made the 290 the bargain of the half decade did a lot for its image.

I'm kind of amazed that rebranding worked as well as it did.

Considering many of the review sites were still using reference 290s it shouldn't be that surprising. The reference cooler really hurt its sales and perception. You put something that runs much cooler, higher speeds, and doesn't throttle, and is quiet. You are going to get better results.