AMD: Speculation, Rumors, and Discussion (Archive)

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The better question is: If this R9 490 is actually a Hawaii based solution and aiming at the OEM market, does this not point to a serious Polaris problem? Because if RX480 would be widely available, it should be offering higher margins for AMD and the OEM than the rather complex Hawaii with the high boards and the high cooling requirement. Maybe it is a Tonga, but that would really be pushing it, moving a R9 380 to R9 490.
 
First time I've heard about this. So, an R9 Fury X has „an audio engine“, while R9 Fury and R9 Nano do not?
GCN 1.1 and 1.2 parts have the TrueAudio DSP. This was discontinued and is no longer included starting with GCN 4. However I don't recall 'X' having anything to do with the presence of the DSP.
With this definition, there would be no stopping from having a Hawaii-based SKU branded as a R9 490 - especially if found on a microsite for OEM products. OEM names have existed outside the rules for... ever?
FWIW, the R5 and R7 parts are already on said OEM microsite. AMD does not have an OEM R9 microsite.
 
The better question is: If this R9 490 is actually a Hawaii based solution and aiming at the OEM market, does this not point to a serious Polaris problem? Because if RX480 would be widely available, it should be offering higher margins for AMD and the OEM than the rather complex Hawaii with the high boards and the high cooling requirement. Maybe it is a Tonga, but that would really be pushing it, moving a R9 380 to R9 490.
I doubt it would be newly produced Hawaii GPUs, but either AMD or an OEM could still have some in their inventory and OEMs are always keen on rebranding to make products seem new (and AMD inventory management issues are nothing new). There is also no information on how widely available these OEM products will be.
 
The better question is: If this R9 490 is actually a Hawaii based solution and aiming at the OEM market, does this not point to a serious Polaris problem?
They'd have been binning those things for a while to have chips with that level of performance. Not sure an extra 5-10% core thanks to improved process tech and some faster ram quite fills in the gap. If that were the case there's no reason they wouldn't have released the product already. It's only a problem if they halted production, but I haven't heard anything about vendors not receiving shipments. Supply seems lacking, but they're still selling to the best of my knowledge.

GCN 1.1 and 1.2 parts have the TrueAudio DSP. This was discontinued and is no longer included starting with GCN 4. However I don't recall 'X' having anything to do with the presence of the DSP.
The DSP is no longer continued, but TrueAudio still exists as a software suite running atop shaders as I understood it. I don't recall the X ever designating TrueAudio either unless it was in one of the long model names.
 
Only Oland and Fiji would offer something for rebranding. Everything else is done better by the two Polaris chips.
 
The DSP is no longer continued, but TrueAudio still exists as a software suite running atop shaders as I understood it. I don't recall the X ever designating TrueAudio either unless it was in one of the long model names.
TrueAudio Next is an entirely new platform. It does not support the 2(?) games that actually use TrueAudio 1.
 
Do we need Polaris level of GPU to support TrueAudio Next (because afaik, the older GPU latency for audio stuff isn't good enough or something)? Are there any newer games planed with TrueAudio support (either the old one or the GPU based one)?
 
Yep, Polaris is required. You would need the CU reservation feature for example. Haven't heard of any new games planning to implement it and given the constant strive for additional graphical performance, I doubt that game developers would want to cut away some of their graphical potential just yet. Over time, maybe. But my guess is that TAN's future lies outside of gaming.
 
Yep, Polaris is required. You would need the CU reservation feature for example. Haven't heard of any new games planning to implement it and given the constant strive for additional graphical performance, I doubt that game developers would want to cut away some of their graphical potential just yet. Over time, maybe. But my guess is that TAN's future lies outside of gaming.
Was Polaris required or just some technology that came with Polaris? Also is the CU reservation specific to just Polaris or was that backported along with the HWS and scheduling units? What I recall from the presentations was ACEs latching onto an internal clock for audio scheduling. If GCN prior to Polaris had the clock I would think it's a possibility as the IP version didn't change either. Old games might not work with the new model without updates, but newer games might work with the older technology abstracted through the API.
 
How long before we see an APU that uses Low Cost HBM as system/shared memory and ditches the dedicated GPU memory entirely?
A quad core Zen + 2-3Tflop GPU using 12-16GB LC-HBM providing ~300GB/s+ bandwidth could be a mid range monster, it would completely change the entry level gaming laptop market.
 
TrueAudio Next is an entirely new platform. It does not support the 2(?) games that actually use TrueAudio 1.
I do not recall that item being discussed with AMD's leadup to Polaris or product launch. I thought it would not be straightforward to fit the narrow width and mismatched operations of the Tensilica cores into the CUs, but wasn't sure if a software fallback could be used, as little as it matters to the PC space.

It's curious what it means for the console space with upcoming hardware, since their versions of the Tensilica block weren't the equivalent of a silicon appendix. Polaris seems to appeal to some of Sony's HSA objections, but I think Trueaudio or something like it might have more use that it did in PC land.
 
Well tell ya this though, Amazon's best sellers list the rx480, rx470, rx 460 are on there finally, but they are at 22, 39, 52, 56, 84 for the rx 480 and 43, 91, 94 for the rx 470 and 99 for the rx 460.

At least they are on there now where before they weren't.
 
Is there any significance to this link?

Cards coming up at MSRP.
Sure they were snatched away really fast because they're a lot cheaper than they were everywhere during the past couple of months. But it's a sign the prices are starting to fall back to MSRP and that's a discussion we've had in this thread.

Why did the link bother you so much that you had to create an account just to protest against it?
 
Nothing wrong with creating an account to reply to your post. Maybe he's been trying for a few months to get an RX 480 at Microcenter. I've been checking on and off and saw them listed but never in stock.
 
Thing is,
are the 'reference' blower design models really worth it from a consumer gamer perspective and this applies to both AMD and Nvidia.
Neither company cards perform ideally when using blower design for gamers, but I appreciate those on a very tight budget may consider them although this then raises possibility of is a good custom 470 comparable/better than the 'reference' blower 480.
Cheers
 
are the 'reference' blower design models really worth it from a consumer gamer perspective
They do vent the hot air out of the case, and the AMD reference board is friggin tiny, compared to 3rd party (or even NV blower designs too.) Makes it way easier to manage in mini-ITX systems. So there are advantages for sure.
 
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