[Sweclockers] Radeon 380X coming late spring, almost 50% improvement over 290X

[tviceman]

mostly GameWorks title, particular Watch Dogs & Far Cry 4.

They have Battlefield 4, Tomb Raider, and Crysis 3 in their benchmark suite which are all GE titles, so they have more AMD sponsored titles. Find something worthwhile and real to complain about.

 

[Magic Carpet]

I very strongly doubt that companies which have invested a lot into their aftermarket coolers would suddenly drop them because those coolers have an even greater appeal to part of their market, which can't go reference.

I also personally feel that the only card to require a closed loop cooler was not in fact doing it wrong but was offering a very compelling product with the first two GPUs on one slot card to not take a clock speed hit in recent memory.

Yeah, like the 780 cooler Asus used for the 290x powered model, which exactly wasn't a good fit and thus the card ran extremely hot. Most aftermarket coolers vendors are using aren't exactly costly solutions. Hell, the Titan reference cooler is more expensive than those. Going water for reference is a good decision, imo. Better temps and lower noise FTW! Let alone the positive reviews on launch!

 

[garagisti]

It's a superior solution, but again the point I have argued is that, it's not the best, due to the possible issues, let alone potential case-fit issues. People may have room for one, not two. People have removed drive cages and turned front intake into exhaust, which is two problems immediately for many people (they need the cage, and front exhaust = inefficient airflow, which may compromise other cooling).

And a good reason to worry with AIO/CLC as reference: everyone argues that both CLC and Air will be available, but this is simply guessing, because all other reference (air) has been supplanted by custom solutions. Nobody changed the CLC on the 295X2, did they? And others have added water as a solution, due to greater efficiency. Custom cards, as RS alluded to, will also be delayed. Now, how motivated will AIBs be to release a custom cooling solution is is inferior to the reference cooler? I highly, highly doubt any custom air design will be cooler and quieter and offer more OC headroom than the CLC. So, my bet is that the only custom air designs are simply to appease those who can't fit the CLC cooler, and those cards won't likely receive nearly as many beneficial aftermarket tweaks as their main designs will, which will either have the reference-brand cooler or a custom-design that is still a CLC.

I would love to be wrong about this, really, I would. And it is useless to argue now, because AMD will be making up their mind however they see fit, and we'll just have to wait and see how the market and AIBs handle that situation.

Again, RussianSensation is not quoting AMD about the delays in custom cooled cards. He is just speaking of the trends that exist. AMD though once buckled the trends launching all cards at once, something which Nvidia has been doing since and persists with it, as it is a good strategy. With a suitably good/ great cooling solution for reference, they don't need to worry about sales, as a lot of people picking high end parts, would prefer a better cooling solution, which it indeed is, and could allow partners to release custom cards alongwith reference.

The reference solutions are mostly picked by system builders and OEM's, never individuals, and do you think Nvidia and AMD don't know this much?

Though one thing i agree with is that it may reduce the number of solutions on market, but people don't just willy-nilly buy whatever they first set their eyes on. Most people buy well reviewed cooling solutions. MSI/ ASUS and i don't know who else on Nvidia side, and MSI, Sapphire, and Club3d (where available) on AMD side. There are may be others i haven't mentioned but the point stands. If there is enough demand, these products will still be offered. After all it allows the partners to make a wee bit of extra cash.

note: remember the devil13 card by powercolor. they have done that for 7990 and 290X x 2. Even though there may not have been enough takers for it compared to AIO, you have a custom solution for 500W+ You worry unnecessarily

 

[garagisti]

For the *last time* I did not bash this card. I made a generic statement that if a card required a closed water loop to function, the company making it was doing it wrong. I have NEVER (I cannot stress this enough) NEVER said "the 380/390 is crap."

I hope you do understand by now that it doesn't require an AIO, but it is a conscious decision to improve reference cooling kit. I don't see you acknowledge it yet.

Just because you're able to indulge in a bit of whataboutery, and not use the exact words bad/ crap, doesn't mean you didn't try to imply as much kind sir. I was not alone in interpreting your comments to be outright negative regarding the card, so there. By the way, you do have a right to your own opinions, whether you buy something or not or whatever else have you, and if you don't want to buy an AIO, i can understand/ respect that. Then again, that is not what you were debating, but were indulging in technical nitty gritties, and there you can expect counter arguments. It is a forum after all.

 

[garagisti]

They have Battlefield 4, Tomb Raider, and Crysis 3 in their benchmark suite which are all GE titles, so they have more AMD sponsored titles. Find something worthwhile and real to complain about.

Tell me of a GE title which actually is designed to work poorly on Nvidia products. Do you want to try asking the question the other way around?

 

[96Firebird]

I can never quite keep up with which review sites are considered "unbiased" by the AT VC&G crew here... It is a forever changing list, probably whoever has results that line up with their side of the argument.

 

[garagisti]

I can never quite keep up with which review sites are considered "unbiased" by the AT VC&G crew here... It is a forever changing list, probably whoever has results that line up with their side of the argument.

[H] used to very, very good. Infact they set the benchmark proper for testing graphic cards, which even they themselves aren't able to live up to. Their methodology to measure gaming performance and what settings you could use was right up there. However, now continually seeing that they keep pegging reference cards against OC'd cards from competition, one quite sincerely has to wonder about their leanings. No? It used to be my go to site, and to be honest, i still check their benchmarks, and with information which is fairly useful extrapolate what i may expect of my purchases. Or, inform people what they should expect of cards recommended to them. Then again, i wouldn't have to extrapolate and do some work myself, if they were, well, more honest.

I think right now, i'll have to resort to some European sites, which still haven't sold out and use translator

 

[utahraptor]

[H] used to very, very good. Infact they set the benchmark proper for testing graphic cards, which even they themselves aren't able to live up to. Their methodology to measure gaming performance and what settings you could use was right up there. However, now continually seeing that they keep pegging reference cards against OC'd cards from competition, one quite sincerely has to wonder about their leanings. No? It used to be my go to site, and to be honest, i still check their benchmarks, and with information which is fairly useful extrapolate what i may expect of my purchases. Or, inform people what they should expect of cards recommended to them. Then again, i wouldn't have to extrapolate and do some work myself, if they were, well, more honest.

I think right now, i'll have to resort to some European sites, which still haven't sold out and use translator

I wish they would peg cards of equal cost in their reviews if it is possible. They should do a search for at least 3 major retailers and try to find the closest costing cards to compare and publish the search they used to make the selection. I would not mind if it was OC / stock in that scenario.

 

[Silverforce11]

They have Battlefield 4, Tomb Raider, and Crysis 3 in their benchmark suite which are all GE titles, so they have more AMD sponsored titles. Find something worthwhile and real to complain about.

So according to you, Crysis 3 is AMD biased? :/

Only Tomb Raider would quality as a true GE game, BF4/C3 are dual sponsored.

Either way they are all getting long in the tooth. It's time for new games to be covered which was my main point, the secondary point is that two Ubisoft games in a small list = automatic fail.

I actually thought they had planned on including ACU but due to all the crippling bugs they did not. Would make for lol-worthy reading, having 3 Ubi games.

 

[RampantAndroid]

I hope you do understand by now that it doesn't require an AIO, but it is a conscious decision to improve reference cooling kit. I don't see you acknowledge it yet.

Because you're speaking in absolutes. This is a leak. I made an absolute statement. When it releases, THEN you can come in here and say "it does require this, doesn't require this and has magical pixie dust inside it!"

 

[RussianSensation]

This thread reminds me of hardcore car enthusiasts who made fun of Hybrid vehicles and made fun of those who thought outside the box about hybrids. Now, LaFerrari, McLaren P1 and Porsche 918 all use internal combustion engines, augmented by hybrid powertrains to provide instantaneous torque. It takes risk and going against the status quo to innovate. If everyone just catered to what's popular today, we'd never have newer and better products. We'd still be stuck using 3.5-4 inch smartphones.

Who said that 250W TDP is the absolute maximum that flagship GPUs should abide by? If the market accepts a 300W TDP Hybrid WC style card, that means AMD is single-handidly creating a new market segment for flagship GPUs -- 300W+ with water.

Why is this amazing? Because it means we can have High end (780 style card), Ultra High End (780Ti) and 300W WC monsters Uber High end cards. Just imagine the possibilities of taking the efficiency of Pascal/Volta on 14nm and scaling them to 300-350W!

Just like there is a market for $1000+ IEMs and custom in-ear monitors, why shouldn't GPU makers drop the status quo and create 300W single-chip flagship cards? With Hybrid WC they would solve the noise and temperature issues, finally allowing them to move well past the 250W historical 'limits'. For that reason I hope and I really want for NV to adopt Hybrid WC too and give us 300-350W Pascal/Volta.

Everyone wins -- those who want 180-200W cards will get them, those who want 250W cards max will get them and those who want performance above all will buy 300-350W cards. With R9 290X and 780Ti approaching 300W, and after-market solutions easily coping with such power consumption loads, it was only a matter of time before either AMD or NV made an official 300W card.

Think about this: If Intel only made 77-88W i7s for 10 years, and suddenly they made the world's first ever 140W 6-core CPU, would you guys also complain? If Intel sold me a 250W CPU that performed amazing, and I could actually afford it, I would take it and pair it with a Swiftech H240-X.

Also, it's interesting to read about how some people don't want to sell their case or their air cooler but how hard is it? I know I can probably sell my Thermalright Silver Arrow for $40 in less than a week if necessary. That cooler has more than paid for itself after 4 years of usage, which means since I bought it for $70, my cost of ownership was only $30 over 4 years. I don't know why it's SUCH a big deal for PC gamers to resell parts just because a change is coming for the GPU industry.

Silverstone even sells 600W Gold-rated 50A on 12V rail SFX (miniITX) PSU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-109-_-Product

With Hybrid WC, you can now fit a 300-350W GPU inside a small case, and it will be quiet.

Seriously, all I hear are excuses -- can't fit my HDDs, can't fit radiators, can't use 2x120 mm rads as intakes, etc.

$70 NZXT case - easily accommodates 3x 120mm rads.

1x 120mm at the top for the CPU
1x 120mm x 2 for dual-300W Hybrid WC cards

There are 2 slots for 2x1TB SSDs in RAID

But where to fit the mechanical HDDs? The PSU bay:

Who here needs more than 2x8TB hard drives?

See, the engineers who make cases and PSUs have already thought about everything for you! They even made a $70 (!) case that gives you the option of dropping in 3x120mm rads (in fact that S340 can fit 1x280mm rad at the front and 1x140mm at the top); and should you desire a miniITX system, well you can just buy a 600W SFX style PSU.

If you are the type who has 8-10 1TB old school slow HDDs taking up 2 of your HDD drive cages, it's YOU who is behind the times, not the PC industry. Sooner or later a single 60TB drive will be available but don't tell me you'll still be rocking 10x 6TB drives instead?

Sure, there are small cases that aren't readily suitable for a Hybrid WC card such as the Silverstone Raven RVZ01/02, but now we are talking < 1% of the entire PC market. Remarkably, even that case can fit an after-market open air cooled flagship card. And since GPU makers will want to cater to nearly every consumer, at least 1 AIB will make an after-market open air 300W TDP card based on AMD's R9 300 series.

To me being a PC enthusiast isn't about who spends the most $ on hardware, or who upgrades most often, or about saying NO to something new & radical because it's completely different to the last 20 years of PC hardware. It's about finding solutions to 'problems' and always learning about new PC hardware because it's interesting. If I have to adopt to newer market trends in terms of hardware options, so be it. If it wasn't for change, the PC industry would have been dead by now. Worst case that happens is the AIO solution fails to gain market traction, but at least someone tried.

 

[garagisti]

Because you're speaking in absolutes. This is a leak. I made an absolute statement. When it releases, THEN you can come in here and say "it does require this, doesn't require this and has magical pixie dust inside it!"

How about this for an absolute. You don't need AIO water cooling for cards even above 300W. You can even cool a 500W Dual 290X card on air as powercolor did with the devil 13, and you certainly don't need water cooling for the 300W or less specified here. So what i'm saying is not without any basis, or logic but, on the other hand... can't say the same for you.

Here's the 500W card being cooled by air.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814131584

Mind a reference 290x is supposed to be whatever TDP, this is one with 8gb of ram (4 extra gb should take about 30-40W by themselves), so closer to 300W than a regular 290x.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/sapphire-vapor-x-r9-290x-8gb,3977-5.html
Do you see any water cooler on it? Just check the temps, noise levels on it.

 

[_UP_]

This thread reminds me of hardcore car enthusiasts who made fun of Hybrid vehicles and made fun of those who thought outside the box about hybrids. Now, LaFerrari, McLaren P1 and Porsche 918 all use internal combustion engines, augmented by hybrid powertrains to provide instantaneous torque. It takes risk and going against the status quo to innovate. If everyone just catered to what's popular today, we'd never have newer and better products. We'd still be stuck using 3.5-4 inch smartphones.

Who said that 250W TDP is the absolute maximum that flagship GPUs should abide by? If the market accepts a 300W TDP Hybrid WC style card, that means AMD is single-handidly creating a new market segment for flagship GPUs -- 300W+ with water.

Why is this amazing? Because it means we can have High end (780 style card), Ultra High End (780Ti) and 300W WC monsters Uber High end cards. Just imagine the possibilities of taking the efficiency of Pascal/Volta on 14nm and scaling them to 300-350W!

Just like there is a market for $1000+ IEMs and custom in-ear monitors, why shouldn't GPU makers drop the status quo and create 300W single-chip flagship cards? With Hybrid WC they would solve the noise and temperature issues, finally allowing them to move well past the 250W historical 'limits'. For that reason I hope and I really want for NV to adopt Hybrid WC too and give us 300-350W Pascal/Volta.

Everyone wins -- those who want 180-200W cards will get them, those who want 250W cards max will get them and those who want performance above all will buy 300-350W cards. With R9 290X and 780Ti approaching 300W, and after-market solutions easily coping with such power consumption loads, it was only a matter of time before either AMD or NV made an official 300W card.

Think about this: If Intel only made 77-88W i7s for 10 years, and suddenly they made the world's first ever 140W 6-core CPU, would you guys also complain? If Intel sold me a 250W CPU that performed amazing, and I could actually afford it, I would take it and pair it with a Swiftech H240-X.

Also, it's interesting to read about how some people don't want to sell their case or their air cooler but how hard is it? I know I can probably sell my Thermalright Silver Arrow for $40 in less than a week if necessary. That cooler has more than paid for itself after 4 years of usage, which means since I bought it for $70, my cost of ownership was only $30 over 4 years. I don't know why it's SUCH a big deal for PC gamers to resell parts just because a change is coming for the GPU industry.

Silverstone even sells 600W Gold-rated 50A on 12V rail SFX (miniITX) PSU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-109-_-Product

With Hybrid WC, you can now fit a 300-350W GPU inside a small case, and it will be quiet.

Seriously, all I hear are excuses -- can't fit my HDDs, can't fit radiators, can't use 2x120 mm rads as intakes, etc.

$70 NZXT case - easily accommodates 3x 120mm rads.

1x 120mm at the top for the CPU
1x 120mm x 2 for dual-300W Hybrid WC cards

There are 2 slots for 2x1TB SSDs in RAID

But where to fit the mechanical HDDs? The PSU bay:

Who here needs more than 2x8TB hard drives?

See, the engineers who make cases and PSUs have already thought about everything for you! They even made a $70 (!) case that gives you the option of dropping in 3x120mm rads (in fact that S340 can fit 1x280mm rad at the front and 1x140mm at the top); and should you desire a miniITX system, well you can just buy a 600W SFX style PSU.

If you are the type who has 8-10 1TB old school slow HDDs taking up 2 of your HDD drive cages, it's YOU who is behind the times, not the PC industry. Sooner or later a single 60TB drive will be available but don't tell me you'll still be rocking 10x 6TB drives instead?

Sure, there are small cases that aren't readily suitable for a Hybrid WC card such as the Silverstone Raven RVZ01/02, but now we are talking < 1% of the entire PC market. Remarkably, even that case can fit an after-market open air cooled flagship card. And since GPU makers will want to cater to nearly every consumer, at least 1 AIB will make an after-market open air 300W TDP card based on AMD's R9 300 series.

To me being a PC enthusiast isn't about who spends the most $ on hardware, or who upgrades most often, or about saying NO to something new & radical because it's completely different to the last 20 years of PC hardware. It's about finding solutions to 'problems' and always learning about new PC hardware because it's interesting. If I have to adopt to newer market trends in terms of hardware options, so be it. If it wasn't for change, the PC industry would have been dead by now. Worst case that happens is the AIO solution fails to gain market traction, but at least someone tried.

Great post!
I've read through the entire thread, and I have to say, it makes me think "haters gonna hate".
People were complaining about the AMD ref cooler. Quite rightfully so - had the ref 7970 and it was loud and hot. So, AMD thought about it, and decided that designing a new cooler will not be good enough, so they went to a company making *cooling solutions* and asked for a partnership. They came up with a *solution*. A great one by the 295x2 reviews. PowerColor's Devil 13 "runs too hot and under heavy stress is just too and loud".

Now, how motivated will AIBs be to release a custom cooling solution is is inferior to the reference cooler? I highly, highly doubt any custom air design will be cooler and quieter and offer more OC headroom than the CLC.

In fact, one of the main arguments here is that the cooler is going to be too good. It will be so good, that there will be no other options. That just makes no sense. If it's that good, well, it is just that. That good!
Innovation comes with a cost. For example, electricity, which we all love, comes with a cost of having to have these giant electricity factories that burn fossil fuels and create a lot of waste which we all know as power plants. But that is the price of progress. We can say "what we have is enough" or we can try and push forward. Even the great NV ref design gets loud and throttles at if OC'd (as has been shown here before). So why settle for that? And for noise levels?
As for the open air - saying AMD should offer an air ref design is like saying NV and AMD should offer an open air design as well as a blower style cooler. It makes no sense They are giving you an option, and as an AIB you can do whatever you like.
As for the better ones and the long delay, I thing RS was suggesting that the better ones (i.e. Classies, Lightnings and the like) show up late. The 980 Classy came out recently, and the K|ngp|n edition is coming out next week I believe. If you want to have the proper design, and not recycle a designed used for another card, you have to adjust it. There's no way around it.
I do hope the card will come out with these spec, or even better ones. I would love to have one (or two).

 

[RampantAndroid]

In fact, one of the main arguments here is that the cooler is going to be too good.

As for the open air - saying AMD should offer an air ref design is like saying NV and AMD should offer an open air design as well as a blower style cooler.

Wat? When has any of this been said? I've simply argued for a simple heatsink cooler. I've questioned what would happen if AMD shipped the default cooler as a closed water loop. I have never said it'd be "too good" - quite the contrary, I think closed loop systems are a terrible solution.

 

[_UP_]

Wat? When has any of this been said? I've simply argued for a simple heatsink cooler. I've questioned what would happen if AMD shipped the default cooler as a closed water loop. I have never said it'd be "too good" - quite the contrary, I think closed loop systems are a terrible solution.

Well, I quoted it. Post 470.

 

[PPB]

If there's a demand for a good blower, AIBs will cover it. Anyone remember His iTurbo blower coolers? About as effective as open air designs, but heat = out the case. It was ugly as heck though.

Found it: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7950-review-benchmark,3207-11.html
Silent blower that cools really well. 62C mining load temps.

Its a semi blower style cooler, some air still gets vented inside the case. And by my testings with a 7950 it has 80-85% the cooling capacity of a good open air design. They did good on reviews cause those cards came out with less shipping voltage out of the box.


This isnt intended to bash HIS, i loved that iceq card, but to paint a more clearer picture regarding that particular cooling solution. They absolutely are a great OEM that tends to give you sturdier and better built cards that the over hyped gigabyte, asus and evga brands. That iceq model sported really robust vrm cooling and a perimetric thick plate to prevent the card from sagging, without the need for a dreaded backplate to achieve the same goal.

 

[Shehriazad]

How about this for an absolute. You don't need AIO water cooling for cards even above 300W. You can even cool a 500W Dual 290X card on air as powercolor did with the devil 13, and you certainly don't need water cooling for the 300W or less specified here. So what i'm saying is not without any basis, or logic but, on the other hand... can't say the same for you.

Here's the 500W card being cooled by air.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814131584

Mind a reference 290x is supposed to be whatever TDP, this is one with 8gb of ram (4 extra gb should take about 30-40W by themselves), so closer to 300W than a regular 290x.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/sapphire-vapor-x-r9-290x-8gb,3977-5.html
Do you see any water cooler on it? Just check the temps, noise levels on it.

Just to say something about that air cooled 290X2...not everyone is comfortable with the idea of a TRIPLE SLOT, 310MM LENGTH, 2.5 KILOGRAM heavy behemoth that should've been called PCI-Bus breaker...which btw reaches almost unholy noise levels...nearing 65db(A) is really something not many want to have anywhere near their rig.

Sure you don't "Need" water cooling for that card..but it sure is a lot less trouble to just do that. Also...to a lot of gamers water cooling was always this mysterious enthusiast thing that many would not dare to touch...if they get some easy to use right out-of-the box solution at a decent price..I can see it sell well just for that reason.

 

[RussianSensation]

...if they get some easy to use right out-of-the box solution at a decent price..I can see it sell well just for that reason.

Yup, custom WC and water-blocks is not as seamless as a warrantied AIO CLC solution. Also, some mentioned that an AIO can fail but you can easily replace the fan on your card. It's actually not that easy to just replace a single fan on your card. It's not like MSI or XFX or NV sell stand-alone fans for you to buy.

After-market coolers like the Accelero Xtreme III or IV or IV (280X) cost $60-90.

Corsair H50 is $50. IMO, if you have the money to buy a $500+ flagship card like the R9 300 series, then even if the AIO fails beyond 3 years, surely you'd want to spend $50 to replace the cooler than to throw the card out. But how is that different had you bought a Reference 780Ti or HD7970 or 290X card and the fan completely failed? You'd also be out $50 or so for an after-market cooler.

 

[_UP_]

Just to say something about that air cooled 290X2...not everyone is comfortable with the idea of a TRIPLE SLOT, 310MM LENGTH, 2.5 KILOGRAM heavy behemoth that should've been called PCI-Bus breaker...which btw reaches almost unholy noise levels...nearing 65db(A) is really something not many want to have anywhere near their rig.

Sure you don't "Need" water cooling for that card..but it sure is a lot less trouble to just do that. Also...to a lot of gamers water cooling was always this mysterious enthusiast thing that many would not dare to touch...if they get some easy to use right out-of-the box solution at a decent price..I can see it sell well just for that reason.

Just to add to what RS said, the R9 295x2 air version is that that card is a 500W card, whereas the 300 something is a 300W card, so something like the TRI-X cooler would work just fine (or any good version of the 290x).

 

[garagisti]

Just to say something about that air cooled 290X2...not everyone is comfortable with the idea of a TRIPLE SLOT, 310MM LENGTH, 2.5 KILOGRAM heavy behemoth that should've been called PCI-Bus breaker...which btw reaches almost unholy noise levels...nearing 65db(A) is really something not many want to have anywhere near their rig.

Sure you don't "Need" water cooling for that card..but it sure is a lot less trouble to just do that. Also...to a lot of gamers water cooling was always this mysterious enthusiast thing that many would not dare to touch...if they get some easy to use right out-of-the box solution at a decent price..I can see it sell well just for that reason.

LOL, but my friend, that "PCIE Bus Breaker" was just to emphasise what is possible these days. The 500W card on stock settings is adequately cool in a reasonably well ventilated case. It was merely to make a point to "oh my god 300W, the sky is falling!" crowd.

Yes, i understand and agree that there's a reason why AMD went with AIO, as outlined by you. They already wanted to do so with 7XXX cards. I think 7970/ 7950 and 7990 (most decidedly i remember this one) were supposed to be cooled by AIO, but then it was not done for some reasons.

 

[garagisti]

Just to add to what RS said, the R9 295x2 air version is that that card is a 500W card, whereas the 300 something is a 300W card, so something like the TRI-X cooler would work just fine (or any good version of the 290x).

I think you just misread his post. He did mention it as a dual card... as it is not denoted to be 295x2 but rather a dual card by manufacturer. He also suggests that AIO is a good thing only.

 

[_UP_]

I think you just misread his post. He did mention it as a dual card... as it is not denoted to be 295x2 but rather a dual card by manufacturer. He also suggests that AIO is a good thing only.

Oh, I did read it correctly
I mis-named the card on purpose to emphasise the point you made - it had a *much* higher power consumption.

 

[raghu78]

this thread seems to revolve more around the AIO cooling than on the perf of R9 380X or R9 390X (whatever it is named). If the leaked benchmarks are any indication this chip will be a powerhouse and will legitimately share the single GPU crown with GM200. Thats something AMD have been unable to do so far. At high res 4k and multi monitor AMD will further strengthen their leadership position which they had. XDMA CF scales better than SLI. What we need now is better CF support from developers who are signed up with Gameworks. Farcry 4 and AC Unity were disappointing as they did not support CF. Hardocp gave Ubisoft a tongue lashing that they definitely deserved.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2015/01/07/far_cry_4_video_card_performance_review/9#.VNWP3p2UcZk

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2014..._performance_video_card_review/7#.VNWQM52UcZk

AMD gaming evolved titles like Alien Isolation, Civilization Beyond Earth and Dragon Age Inquisition have worked very well on Nvidia cards. Thats something which Nvidia and Gameworks licensees should learn from.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2014..._video_card_performance_review/8#.VNWQYZ2UcZk
Anyway I am also hoping that AMD surprise everybody with 6GB HBM on R9 390X(4096 sp) and 4GB HBM on R9 380X (3072 sp). Two of these flagship GPUs are going to be very powerful for 4k and it would be disappointing if AMD is VRAM limited. I still have hope as GF's latest presentation showed a GPU + DRAM on interposer with 6 memory stacks. (video at 9:00)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=po29B53bpic

GF would want to tout their advanced manufacturing and packaging capabilities and since AMD is the customer who is driving such advanced manufacturing and packaging requirements for their leading edge GPUs and CPUs I am sure its possible.

 

[3DVagabond]

AMD gaming evolved titles like Alien Isolation, Civilization Beyond Earth and Dragon Age Inquisition have worked very well on Nvidia cards. Thats something which Nvidia and Gameworks licensees should learn from.

None of this is by accident. As long as people continue to view it as not a problem because they buy nVidia it'll never change. Remember the outcry though when Tomb Raider 1st came out and nVidia hadn't had a chance to optimize for TressFX (AMD did release the source for TressFX after the game was released)? Yet nVidia does this continuously and it's OK with certain people (Except they never release the source.). You can say, "Imagine the mess if both companies did it.", but until they do those who only buy nVidia don't see a problem because they don't have one.

 

[raghu78]

None of this is by accident. As long as people continue to view it as not a problem because they buy nVidia it'll never change. Remember the outcry though when Tomb Raider 1st came out and nVidia hadn't had a chance to optimize for TressFX (AMD did release the source for TressFX after the game was released)? Yet nVidia does this continuously and it's OK with certain people (Except they never release the source.). You can say, "Imagine the mess if both companies did it.", but until they do those who only buy nVidia don't see a problem because they don't have one.

I agree that its not by accident. Gameworks continues to be a black box for AMD and Gameworks titles continue to perform badly on AMD GPUs with poor or non existent CF support. Gamers should vote with their wallets and not buy such games and the press also should play a role by criticizing the developers and Nvidia and help drive a change in their attitude. The press could also start off by not including Gameworks titles in their benchmarking suite if its proven that the developer has not optimized their games to work well with both GPU vendors. FC4 and AC Unity lack of CF support after 3 months from launch is a good example. I know its a tall ask but something needs to happen otherwise the status quo will not change.