Video Cards & GPUs News - Page 306

During Computex 2015, we delivered the world exclusive news that AMD would be calling its HBM-powered next-gen video card the Radeon R9 Fury X, something that SKHynix just confirmed through a press release.

SKHynix said that the new HBM1 used on the Radeon R9 Fury X is made on their advanced 20nm-class DRAM process technology, offering a 1024-bit memory interface, with 128GB/sec. Not only that, but it will consume over 50% less power than traditional GDDR5 used on today's video cards. Thanks to four chips being stacked on top of one another, that 1024-bit interface turns into 4096-bit on the Radeon R9 Fury X, with 512GB/sec of memory bandwidth being made available.

In the press release, SKHynix said: "AMD announced the Radeon R9 Fury X, the world's first video card with HBM technology in Los Angeles on June 16th. The AMD Radeon R9 Fury X video card utilizes 4GB HBM1 to achieve up to 512GB/second memory bandwidth performance while reducing memory subsystem power by up to 85%".

It's now the week of the launch of AMD's new video cards, with the rebranded Radeon R9 390X now being teased from SAPPHIRE in the form of the SAPPHIRE Radeon R9 390X Tri-X OC.

SAPPHIRE's Radeon R9 390X Tri-X OC will rock the Grenada XT (Hawaii XT) GPU, which will include 2816 stream processors, 176 TMUs, and 64 ROPS. We should see 8GB of GDDR5 clocked at 6100MHz on its 512-bit memory bus, while the Core is clocked at 1055MHz. SAPPHIRE has rated the Radeon R9 390X Tri-X OC with a 375W TDP, consuming its power through two 8-pin PCIe power connectors. Where this card is different to other cards, is its Tri-X cooler which sports triple fans and a huge aluminum heat sink array with 10mm copper heat pipes.

But it's the news of the Radeon R9 Fury X that has me excited, based on the Fiji XT core and running that sure-to-be delicious High Bandwidth Memory. We should also expect the Fury, another HBM-powered card that will sport the Fiji Pro GPU. Both of these new cards are expected to be unveiled at the PC Gamer Show hosted by AMD on June 16 during E3 this week.

We were the world exclusive on posting the first images of the Radeon R9 390X, but the leaks continue with ASUS and now MSI. The MSI Radeon 300 series has been leaked, headlined by the Radeon R9 390X Gaming 8G.

The MSI Radeon R9 390X Gaming 8G is based on the Grenada XT (Hawaii XT) GPU, which means we're getting a rebadged Radeon R9 290X. This has us seeing 2816 stream processors, 176 TMUs, and 64 ROPS. MSI has clocked its card at 1100MHz, using 8GB of GDDR5 sitting at 6.1GHz on a 512-bit memory bus. This card features the always impressive Twin Frozr V cooling technology that MSI is known for.

Under that we have the Radeon R9 280 Gaming which uses the Tonga Pro GPU, with 1792 stream processors, 112 TMUs and 32 ROPs. The GPU is clocked at 1GHz, while the memory sits at 5.7GHz for the 4GB part, or 5.5GHz for the 2GB version. Then we have the Pitcairn XT-based Radeon R7 370 which has 1280 stream processors, 80 TMUs and 32 ROPs. This is pretty much the Radeon HD 7870 with 4GB of VRAM, a clock speed of 1070MHz on the 4GB model while its just 1050MHz on the 2GB model.

We had a world exclusive when we outed the name of AMD's new Radeon R9 Fury X, which has been 'confirmed' with the official marketing material for AMD's Fiji-based product. We are to expect this to be AMD's best GPU yet, aimed at the ultra enthusiasts and those who want to run 4K and beyond.

The new Fiji GPU will measure in at around 560mm2 making it the biggest GPU that the company has ever produced, where inside we'll have 64 Compute Units each featuring 64 stream processors. This brings us to a total of 4096 stream cores, 128 raster operation units, and 256 texture mapping units.

But it's going to be the High Bandwidth Memory that sits next to the GPU die that is going to make the Radeon R9 Fury X special. The GPU and HBM have allotted space on an interposer die which measures at around 1000mm2, and while this chip is far larger than any other previous GPU released, HBM saves countless space on the PCB that would normally have GDDR5 chips sprawled throughout.

Exclusive: According to our industry sources, AMD is going to have just 30,000 units of its HBM-based Radeon Fury and Fury X video cards. This is not many at all, considering that the only other cards that AMD will be releasing will be rebrands of its Hawaii-based Radeon 200 series cards.

The HBM-based cards will have short supply thanks to the limited supply of High Bandwidth Memory itself, which isn't AMD's fault exactly, but it's going to hurt them. Limited stock of a super hot new, next-gen card is going to look quite bad, if our source is correct. The Radeon R9 390X is going to be rocking 8GB of GDDR5, but is just a rebrand and slight overclock of the Radeon R9 290X that launched in late 2013.

AMD could have more than 30,000 units of its HBM-based cards, but with yield issues popping their head up this early, we could be in for some trouble if the rumors are true. The issues could subside moving into 2016, as the yields of HBM improve, but with HBM2 right around the corner... well, things could get messy.

We know that the shift over to 16nm is going to be an incredible one, but AMD is really aiming for some super jumps in power efficiency.

During an interview with Tom's Hardware, AMD said that the move to 16nm FinFET will have a possible 2x energy efficiency improvement over previous generation GPUs. 16nm is going to be a large jump for both NVIDIA and AMD, but we are going to see HBM2 used at the same time. NVIDIA's use of HBM2 will be the first time they will use High Bandwidth Memory, but it'll be AMD's second time, since Fury X will be powered by the next generation RAM.

We've teased that the Radeon R9 490X (which we guess might change now, and possibly to Fury X II) could have up to 1.2TB/sec memory bandwidth (1200GB/sec) up from the 336GB/sec that is found even on the super-fast GeForce GTX 980 Ti.

We have been posting AMD Radeon news all week, but as we get closer to the announcement next week, the details become more clear. VideoCardz.com has posted some 3DMark FireStrike results, showing that the Radeon Fury X can keep up with the Titan X from NVIDIA.

As you can see, the Fury X scores 7873 while the Titan X is just a tiny bit better with 7989. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti is only a little bit behind Fury X with 7781, but it's the CrossFire performance that we should be looking at. Two of the HBM-powered Fury X cards in CrossFire push out an incredible 13,925 - but still ultimately lose out to Titan X in SLI with 13,964.

The Radeon Fury X will feature 4GB of High Bandwidth Memory on a 4096-bit memory bus, the first video card to ever be released with HBM. The CrossFire scaling on Fury is is pretty damn good, sitting at around 176% - but most dual GPU setups in synthetic benchmarks always push 150-180% scaling. It'll be interesting to see the CrossFire scaling on more mature drivers, in actual games.

It feels like I'm reporting on the next-gen AMD hardware everyday now, which we pretty much are, but the latest we have on the Radeon Fury X is in the form of some new photos. We have previously reported that Fury X is around 50% faster than the R9 290X, and it beats the Titan X in a single OpenCL benchmark.

The new shots show off the liquid cooling on Fury X, the backplate, and the red LED Radeon logo on the card. In the above shots, we can see the Radeon logo lit up beautifully, and in the second shot, we can see it in more detail. Above the glowing Radeon logo is a dual BIOS switch, so you can overclock until your card fails, and then switch over to the good BIOS.

AMD will reportedly have a 300W TDP on the Radeon Fury X, with the card powered by two 8-pin PCIe power connectors. All of this will arrive in a much smaller card than we've ever received for a flagship GPU. Around the back of the Fury X, we have some tubing coming out of it for its watercooling, as well as a matte black PCB and backplate.

A trailer for the PC Gaming Show being held at E3 2015 has been unleashed, showing off a bunch of the oldeer, but huge fan favorite games from the last two decades.

The YouTube teaser also shows off some AMD hardware being installed, with some Radeon video cards and AMD CPUs being installed into a PC. AMD is sponsoring the show alongside PC Gamer, with special guests including Twitch, Digital Storm, Cliff "CliffyB" Bleszinski, Cloud Imperium Games (the developer behind Star Citizen), Tripwire Interactive, and many more.

The PC Gaming Show kicks off on June 16, 2015 with a livestream being made available on AMD's Twitch channel on the day.

The leaks of AMD's upcoming GPUs continues, with a full line up of SAPPHIRE products leaked. VideoCardz.com has picked it up, where SAPPHIRE is expected to have many cards to offer consumers.

Starting with the Hawaii XT-based Radeon R9 390X Tri-X OC 8GB, followed by the Hawaii PRO-based Radeon R9 390 Nitro 8GB. The R9 390X is expected to feature a new Tri-X cooler, with a factory overclock that is sure to impress. The R9 390 Nitro is a new brand for SAPPHIRE, which will also feature 8GB of VRAM and the Tri-X cooler, but the Hawaii PRO core.

Under these two flagship cards we have the Radeon R9 380 Nitro, Radeon R9 380 ITX, Radeon R7 Nitro, Radeon R7 370 and Radeon R7 360. SAPPHIRE will use a mix of its Dual-X and stock cooling on these cards. We should expect to see SAPPHIRE unveil these cards in the coming weeks.