AMD: Speculation, Rumors, and Discussion (Archive)

[Ext3h]

Uhm, the card shown without radiator on the the E3 conference was the RX 470, not the 480. So are we sure that thing shown on the picture is even the 480?

 

[Triskaine]

Both have the same serial number on the PCB. There is probably no separate board for the 470.

 

[xEx]

Well if you hear what he says he's saying that the board is a complete overkill for a 150W card so it really doesn't matter if it 470 or 480 the thing is that it appears that the board its pretty good quality and the cards will deliver a good OC even in the reference ones.

 

[Jawed]

 

[AnomalousEntity]

They had convervative rasterization since 2000 (HierarchicalZ) but surely tile-deferred and coarse grained pixel shading would be nice.

 

[Grall]

That is a disappointingly - nay, may I say ludicrously - small heatsink. And what on earth is its basic design? An extruded alu base with a copper slug set into it, connected to what on the other side, solid alu fins? No, that couldn't work with a 150W heat load... Must at least be some pipes tacked onto there somewhere.

 

[BRiT]

That is a disappointingly - nay, may I say ludicrously - small heatsink. And what on earth is its basic design? An extruded alu base with a copper slug set into it, connected to what on the other side, solid alu fins? No, that couldn't work with a 150W heat load... Must at least be some pipes tacked onto there somewhere.

Or it's not a genuine 150W heat load?

 

[lanek]

Or it's not a genuine 150W heat load?

And a 200$ gpu ?

 

[Grall]

Or it's not a genuine 150W heat load?

It better not be, because CPU coolers are as you well know way way bigger for a smaller heat load... Is that really 480 GPU and not like, 460? I'm like...boggled as hell.

 

[pharma]

Not exactly sure if true, but will be very interesting to say the least!

Updated Info: I got some more info to share Saturday, I just gotta get my brother to "ok" what i written out. In the mean time, I just wanted to update on a few things i did learn today from my bro and his partners in Seattle. Like i said for my 470 update and Vega 10 update I will be able to share tomorrow after my brother looks over what i written, I already have it typed out and will be posting it here and 3 other sites im affiliated with. In the mean time, here are a few updates i can share tonight to clear things up on the 1500mhz guarantee Rx 480 cards i mentioned before.

Update info on the Rx 480 -----------------------------
Earlier here today i posted some info on two different AIB vendors releasing $300 dollar 1500mhz Rx 480 Editions. There is some clarity i wanted to update on what exactly this means. Its quite simple, There will be some "superclocked" editions (< not the exact name) released with a bios option set at 1500mhz, its as simple as that. As for how many others vendors will release these Rx 480's that have the bios option switch to 1500mhz is unknown outside of the two companies that i am aware of. I cannot share which companies are releasing this but honestly I am told that all 6+8 pin Rx 480's are said to get this 1500mhz mark with software, Let me just quote what they said...this is a C/P from my email that was forwarded to me by my brother just a few hours ago.

This particular $300 Rx 480 OC Edition will have toggle with two bios options - Standard bios of 1266mhz and Extreme bios of 1500mhz - All 6+8 pin models will be able to reach the 1500mhz mark - the only difference is some editions will have a overclock bios setting that will be set at the 1500mhz mark - while other cards will have to be done manually although today its easy to do manually by just a few clicks of a button with software - While running at 1570mhz - the OC edition runs at 72c with 99% gpu load with 65% fan - one impressive feat to say the least - This bodes well for AMD's new Polaris cards as it shows these cards are capable of even more than this impressive 1570mhz mark - In fact, in a closed box setup, we were able to "easily" obtain 1600mhz while running Battlefield 4 for over an hour with zero crashes or artifacts all while keeping below the 75c mark while using 99% gpu load - Even more impressive is the fact that the voltage usage leaves room for even a bit further tweaking to further our overclock past 1600mhz - One has to wonder what AMD has with the entire lineup of Vega right now - we can only imagine pure bliss in terms of performance at the top enthusiast level - AMD really does have something special on their hands. The Rx 480 while running 1500mhz is on par with the stock 1070 in-game, it even beats it on some games at this clock, anything more and the 480 begins to put some distance between the two cards. Keep in mind this is Dx12 games, this is where GCN 4 truly shows off.

Earlier my brother and I were talking and I mentioned to him about how i felt about what AMD is doing and my brother said i literally took the words out of his mouth in what i am about to say below...

...we both are very curious and intrigued at how AMD is targeting these new cards, Its as if they are not even trying to target Nvidia at all but rather setting a new lineup of cards and a completely new lineup of performance targets. In other words, AMD's cards are not really targeting Nvidia's nor any of AMD's previous cards but rather...setting a completely new standard of graphic cards with a whole new identity and vision. I really feel this way and my brother agrees as he said we must be brothers as we had this exact same thoughts in mind. My brother and I are both in the Gaming/Hardware Industry, I work for a game company in Chicago but my brother has been in the industry longer than myself working in a big software/hardware company in Seattle. Anyways, I am very excited at what AMD is doing here. I think they are doing a remarkable job and they should be commended by both Nvidia and AMD fans alike. Forget all the petty fanboy trolling...we are all on the same team here, green or red, we are gamers and computer enthusiasts...we should be excited to see AMD step in new waters. I am, my bro and his colleagues are...so should you.

PS I'll have more info on the Rx 460, Rx 470 and Vega 10 (Rx 490) on saturday as my brother was out for the night so i could only get a few things answered. And yes Rx 490 is the smallest chip of Vega lineup confirmed., I'll explain more tomorrow, its something my brother told me but i gotta be careful with NDA,etc so i gotta check to see how much i can post when i get more time to talk with him, when i do, i'll post it for any interested for that info.

https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=29645736&postcount=4042

 

[Infinisearch]

I wonder what the power consumption at 1500mhz is? Perf/watt will be reduced right?

 

[Psycho]

Interesting how Sapphire Italia links those leaks/rumours (sapphire would naturally be one of those with 1500mhz cards): https://twitter.com/SapphireItalia

I wonder what the power consumption at 1500mhz is? Perf/watt will be reduced right?

Yes, and with AMD marketing focus on power efficiency it could make sense to go for the performance/watt sweet spot for the reference, and then let the partner cards go high.

 

[Alexko]

I wonder what the power consumption at 1500mhz is? Perf/watt will be reduced right?

If you need additional voltage, yes; otherwise, not necessarily, maybe just a bit due to less-than-perfect performance scaling.

 

[3dilettante]

6+8 means doubling the power budget for a 18% overclock. 6+6 was skipped over for some reason.
I suppose we'll see with benchmarks where the efficiency gains go with that rather big step up in delivery.

 

[itsmydamnation]

This is what you gain by hitting the market segment first. they can focus on perf per watt because there is no competition in absolute perf in that market segment. Then if NV release a higher performing card in that segment custom cards can take over for absolute perf (and forum fanboys will have awesome cherry picking wars) . NV haven't really taken that path with GP104 i think because they wanted to get its performance as far away from 28nm as possible to increase the number of people who would upgrade from a maxwell.

 

[lanek]

6+8 means doubling the power budget for a 18% overclock. 6+6 was skipped over for some reason.
I suppose we'll see with benchmarks where the efficiency gains go with that rather big step up in delivery.

Well do we really speak perf/watts with "home OC" gpu's.. or even partner one.... I dont remember someone doing perf/wattts numbers in thoses cases.

If someone aiming at perf/watts, he will buy a stock gpu, and dont overclock it.

 

[Razor1]

That is a disappointingly - nay, may I say ludicrously - small heatsink. And what on earth is its basic design? An extruded alu base with a copper slug set into it, connected to what on the other side, solid alu fins? No, that couldn't work with a 150W heat load... Must at least be some pipes tacked onto there somewhere.

A 150 watt load doesn't need a very large heat sink, that size in the pic looks big enough, we can't really see the fin design but since its a two slot design, the heat sink will be pretty deep should be enough to keep it cool up to 150 watts. Also look at the 970 its a 150 watt design and it didn't have pipes....

 

[Infinisearch]

If you need additional voltage, yes; otherwise, not necessarily, maybe just a bit due to less-than-perfect performance scaling.

Isn't the growth of power consumption non linear with clock speed? If so wouldn't that mean if clock is increased enough that perf/watt would go down? I don't really remember my semiconductors but I remember when Cell came out there was a graph of power consumption vs clock... I'm going off that.

 

[Razor1]

frequency and power usage is linear theoretically, only when you need to use more voltage you get an exponential increase, that is if the temperature of silicon doesn't increase too, otherwise you end up loosing resistance and then you need to compensate for that.

 

[hoom]

1500Mhz would be sweet but not if it needs 6+8 power.
Anyway I have to clear it with my brother but I was talking with my brothers' brothers' brother & we agreed that with 1.21 jigowatts AMD is creating a new class of card that will pull 88Mph & some of the AIB cards will come with a flux capacitor.