AMD Polaris Rumors and Discussion

Amazingly enough, yes. I just asked AMD to confirm it, and they did. I'd be lying if I said I fully understood why.
I read somewhere that GF's 12LP is a carbon copy of Samsung's 14LPP, hence the dual-sourcing making sense.
 
I read somewhere that GF's 12LP is a carbon copy of Samsung's 14LPP, hence the dual-sourcing making sense.
I'm pretty sure it was GF's 14LP, not 12LP, that was carbon copy of 14LPP. But some of the tweaked processes like 11LP might be close if not the same?
 
I imagine it would still be a collaboration between the two evolutions of the 14 nm Samsung node, if less formal.
 
GF's marketing for 12nm gives 84nm for contacted gate pitch and 64nm for metal pitch, same as for its 14nm LPP.
https://blog.globalfoundries.com/gfs-12lp-process-behind-covers/

Samsung's marketing for its 14nm LPP has it at 78nm CPP, which is a notable difference.
https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/14_nm_lithography_process
However, AMD at one point gave Zen's CPP as 78nm.
https://hexus.net/tech/news/cpu/102274-amd-ryzens-x86-core-10pc-compact-intels/
Samsung's 11nm differs from GF's 12nm in that the former chose to use the 10nm node's metal pitches (while also having an option for CPP at 84nm like GF).
So there's kind of an odd mix to the marketing of the respective processes, where there's potentially some room to more closely match but not with what they give as their public offerings.

As for what AMD gains, it is curious. One possible interpretation is that if AMD expects its 14nm CPUs or Rome's 14nm IO die to eat into allocations, nudging Polaris to 12nm and Samsung may give more flexibility.
I don't see any projections that Polaris is going to set the world on fire at this stage, so perhaps it can hold the fort and fulfill some amount of WSA capacity in this scenario until it is replaced.

There could be a pipe-cleaning use for second-sourcing to Samsung, or perhaps this is throwing a bone to Samsung, since AMD mentioned working with them as a possible second source for Zen during its ramp.
Also, this can serve as leverage for WSA negotiations. AMD's position is likely stronger if it can meet certain product obligations without GF.
 
I don't see any projections that Polaris is going to set the world on fire at this stage, so perhaps it can hold the fort and fulfill some amount of WSA capacity in this scenario until it is replaced.
The only scenario I see Polaris 30 setting the world on fire is if AMD manages to drive its price down to less than $200.
Especially after seeing rumors/leaks on the upcoming GTX/RTX 2060.

And miners are starting to get rid of their immense stock of RX480/470/580/70 cards. There are lots of those being sold for $100 on ebay right now.
 
AMD Radeon RX 560 XT: Another Polaris offshoot close to the RX 570
March 18. 2019
Barely two years after the launch of Polaris 20 , AMD launches another offshoot for the Asian market. The Radeon RX 560 XT is a slightly trimmed RX 570 designed to bridge the gap between the RX 560 and the RX 570.
...
As TechPowerUp has learned , the Radeon RX 560 XT is not equipped with the Polaris 20 GPU or the otherwise identical Polaris 30 manufactured in the 12 nm process, but with the "original" GPU, the Polaris 10 The calculation kernel is technically identical as well, but it uses an early version of the 14 nm process at Globalfoundries.
https://www.computerbase.de/2019-03/amd-radeon-rx-560-xt-polaris-gpu/
 
I find nonsense that the 590 is still more expensive than the better-in*every-single-aspect GTX 1660....
 
Let's see if RX 590 prices drop after today (the last day of the 3-game-bundle) edit: Damn, it's over already. I was sure it said april 6th, but was april 1st). And it has 8 GByte instead of the 1660's 6.

edit: Anyway, to further my point, I've seen first discounts for RX590 to 199 EUR, ~20 EUR below 1660.
 
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