back to article AMD details new low-bucks, high-oomph graphics cards

AMD has announced more details on some members of the two new series of Radeon graphics cards it introduced as last month came to a close – the R7 and R9 lines – each based around the company's Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture and Mantle low-level API optimizations, and introducing AMD TrueAudio technology. The cards aren …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. ecofeco Silver badge

    Nice

    Very nice.

  2. mafoo
    Boffin

    Rebranding

    Its worth noting that all except the 290 are rebraded 7000 series cards.

    the 280x for example is a 7970 with a slightly lower power draw.

    1. Gordan

      Re: Rebranding

      That's what I was just thinking. All the GPUs released are straight relabeling of the 7xxx series GPUs - for the 2nd generation in a row. The only new addition is the R290 - and that is as yet unreleased. Worse, the R290 only just roughly matches the shader count of the Nvidia Titan - and Titan has been out for months.

      I was really looking forward to AMD finally coming up with a worthwhile improvement, but they have really dropped the ball. Again. The only real benefit from the re-relabeling is that the prices are being pushed down slightly.

      1. kthxbye

        Re: Rebranding

        Spoken like a clueless Nvidiot. The slower than expected release of 20nm tech is the reason why there are no big changes (from either side) on the hardware front, yet only AMD have managed to spice up the their current offerings. You can't get much more out of the current 28nm tech but you can out of software - go read up on Mantle. AMD GCN tech is in a really good position right now. If DICE show us the adoption of Mantle is worth it, AMD will eat away at Nvidia sales and there's not much they can do about it.

  3. William Donelson

    Must compete with Intel on-board graphics. Crap now, but already 20x better than when they started.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Eh?

      "Must compete with Intel on-board graphics"

      You mean like the AMD integrated stuff they do now, or the Fusion APU's? Either of which are way better than average CPU + Intel on-board.

  4. sibster

    Looks good

    But as a blender user they are useless unless they can finaly get Cylces to use them for rendering

  5. JDX Gold badge

    Out of the (render) loop

    What's the current state of play with AMD Vs nVidia for consumer GPUs? Are they pretty level again or is nVidia still the Intel of the market and AMD is... the AMD of the market?

    1. Piro Silver badge

      Re: Out of the (render) loop

      NVIDIA has the very top end sewed up right now, since the 7xx series launched (Titan and 780).

      Below that, you trade blows all over depending on budget.

      Both have driver issues, with NVIDIA recently having some particularly egregious ones resulting in stability issues on older cards.

      1. This post has been deleted by its author

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Out of the (render) loop

        "Both have driver issues, with NVIDIA recently having some particularly egregious ones resulting in stability issues on older cards."

        Do you have a link please? Google doesn't throw up any obvious complaints that fit my problems.

        The last couple of years I have had various Nvidia graphics cards with driver problems on XP. Some driver issues were ok - then the next one had the problem. It seemed as if 250, 275, 520, 570, 660 graphics cards had the problem - but 260, 280 were ok)

        The Futuremark 3DMark06 test ran ok. On 3DMark03 they would run the WW2 plane battle - then crash on starting the "Return to Proxycon" . Then in September a new driver issue seemed to fix the problem for the GTX570.

        Yesterday the problem reappeared on the latest drivers. The Nvidia portal site sulked when asked to show the legacy drivers - and there seemed no way to get a simple page of available driver downloads. Fortunately Windows Restore successfully rolled back the latest install.

        On W7 3DMark03 won't even run - but 3DMark06 has no problems. However that may be a different problem to the XP one.

        This instability is making it very difficult to maintain users' game PCs.

  6. Rabbit80

    I wonder how nVidia will respond?

    Hoping they drop the price of the 760 - I fancy a second one for SLI !!

  7. BrentRBrian

    Linux

    It is consistently easier to get good results with AMD on Linux.

    Intel insists on using graphics chips that don't support Linux.

    Nvidia drivers are never on par, performance or feature wise, with their Windows counterpart.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. John 172

      Re: Linux

      @BrentRBrian "Intel insists on using graphics chips that don't support Linux"

      Is that the same Intel that open source their Linux GPU drivers? If you want a driver just code one up, that's the Linux way...

  8. phil dude

    gflops..?

    I notice they specified a gflops rating.... anyone if any benchmarks are used to test that?

    Under Linux I would hope we could run LINPACK, but as I have commented before NVIDIA's CUDA has the GPGPU sewn up...

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Nvidia gonna squeal...

    ...like the little piggies they R.

    1. poopypants

      Re: Nvidia gonna squeal...

      Don't you have homework to do? If not, go clean your room.

  10. GothBoy

    Confusing for the general consumer...

    I currently have a 6970HD and was waiting to see what the newer generation of AMD cards brought to the table before planning an upgrade.

    From what it seems I might as well stick with the 6970HD as it seems that only the 79xxHD and upcoming R9 290 & 290X will offer a dramatic improvement. There does appear to be an increase in power draw.

    It's starting to feel like there's been very little movement at the high end of Radeon cards for several years. Unless I'm missing something.

    1. poopypants

      Re: Confusing for the general consumer...

      I have two PCs. The one I use for gaming has an NVIDIA Titan, while the other has an AMD HD 5970.

      The former lets me have all my game settings at Ultra, while the latter keeps me warm and toasty in winter.

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like