AMD Radeon R9 300 series

[Jorge-Vieira]

Estou muito curioso para ver a arquitura e engenharia destes avanços no produto final, não deixa de ser um mistério por enquanto.
Penso que o processo de fabrico além de ser menor, não vai deixar de produzir um chip bem grande, provavelmente maior que o Hawai presente na R9 290X.
Outra coisa que me está a parecer, é que a diminuição de uma coisa é compensada por outra, neste caso um bus de memória como nunca se viu.
Outro aspecto também a ter em conta é se a AMD faz o trabalho de casa em condições com os coolers destas graficas.

[Jorge-Vieira]

Simulação de benchmarks entre AMD "Fiji" e nVidia Titan X.

inutes ago by Usman Pirzada Simulated benchmarks are somewhat of a custom, so once again we have with us the latest in sim. benches, straight from DG Lee over at IYD.KR. The benchmarks simulate the leaked specs of the GM200 GPU against the leaked specs of the AMD Fiji XT GPU. It is worth noting that the relative performance of AMD’s flagship was calculated using HBM specifications.
Nvidia’s GM200 and AMD’s FIJI XT go head to head in virtual benchmark system

Lets start with the Geforce GTX Titan X first (customary warning: this is a placeholder name; no idea what the GM200 based GPU is called). Based on the GM200, Maxwell Core, the GTX Titan X is thought to be fabricated on the 28nm node with a die size of approximately ~550mm^2. It allegedly features 3072 CUDA Cores in approximately 24 SMMs. On the mathematical side of things, fabrication process doesn’t matter, since the only thing it is used for, is the accommodation of more cores in one die. However, architecture matters a lot. The default equation system of this VGA Calculator was based on Kepler architecture, so we see DG Lee multiplying the CUDA Count and TMUs with 1.35 to get approximate scaling for the Maxwell architecture. Without any further ado, here are the resulting benchmarks:

Ver a noticia completa:
http://wccftech.com/nvidia-gtx-titan-x-gpu-amd-fiji-xt-gpu-benchmarks

[Jorge-Vieira]

SK Hynix begins shipping its next-gen 8GHz GDDR5 HBM memory

It wasn't long ago that we teased that AMD could be using SK Hynix's next-gen memory on its next-gen Radeon R9 390X GPU, but this new memory is now shipping from SK Hynix in the form of 8GHz GDDR5, in 4Gb single sticks.

As it stands, AMD's best GPU; the Radeon R9 290X, has its memory frequency hitting around 5-6GHz, while NVIDIA's enjoys things a little higher, at 7GHz. SK Hynix's new chips increase the frequency up to 8GHz, in 4Gb chips, which should see some deliriously fast GPUs on offer for the next-gen.

With AMD's Radeon R9 390X rumored to have a 4096-bit bus, this memory shipping could indicate we're closer to seeing a next-gen GPU not only from AMD, but NVIDIA. AMD's R9 290X has a 512-bit memory bus, but this new HBM RAM could really kick things up a notch, especially with AMD partnering up with SK Hynix before the rumors of the next-gen GPUs even began.

Link da noticia:
http://www.tweaktown.com/news/41165/...ory/index.html

[Jorge-Vieira]

Mysterious AMD Radeon MXM GPUs, Litho XT and Strato PRO Surface Amidst Shipping Data

auba is an absolutely amazing service. Though it was designed to help managers and businesses deal with shipping information, it has proven to be the most authentic and most reliable source of silicon leaks in the past. Because once again, something very interesting has popped up in the same site and from the looks of it, AMD is preparing new MXM based GPUs.

An AMD MXM GPU.

Strato PRO GPU and Litho XT GPU Indicate New AMD MXM Series

Anyone wanting to check out the entries themselves can search Litho XT and Strato PRO on Zauba.com but for the sake of convenience I have attached screen shots of the same below. Take a good look at the entry, the nomenclature is undoubtedly that of AMD which favors the XT and PRO nomenclature in GPUs. I had a talk with Hassan about this and he pointed out correctly that Litho and Strato are probably shorts for Lithosphere and Stratosphere. So does that mean AMD is naming the new lineup on geo spheres of Earth?

Noticia completa:
http://wccftech.com/amd-radeon-mxm-gpus-litho-xt-strato-pro/#ixzz3JoCQc0te

Não sei se estas graficas vão pertencer ás R9 ou R7 300, mas cá fica a noticia, sendo que eu considero isto apenas um leak ou rumor.

[Jorge-Vieira]

AMD: Our GCN architecture is ideal for virtual reality gaming

Advanced Micro Devices said that architectural peculiarities of the graphics core next (GCN) architecture make it very efficient for rendering virtual reality games. Apparently, asynchronous compute engines (ACEs) of AMD Radeon graphics processing units provide unique capabilities for low-latency VR rendering.
“It has been something of a well-kept secret that the GCN Architecture is a low-latency powerhouse, which is ideal for VR,” said Robert Hallock, global technical marketing lead at AMD, in an interview with Wccftech. “Contemporary AMD Radeon hardware already supports low-latency VR rendering through ‘asynchronous timewarp.’ Asynchronous timewarp is a technique that can be exposed in AMD Radeon hardware via the Asynchronous Compute Engines (ACE), which can schedule and execute compute and display operations independently of the graphics queue.”
Modern AMD Radeon graphics processors – Hawaii (Radeon R9 290) and Tonga (Radeon R9 285) – feature eight ACE units, whereas AMD’s previous-generation Tahiti GPU (Radeon R9 280) sports only two ACE units, which means that those planning to use graphics cards for VR gaming eventually should prefer the latest Radeon graphics products.

“The ACE is a fundamental architectural building block of AMD Radeon GPUs utilizing the graphics core next architecture,” said Mr. Hallock. “We have also been demonstrating Alien: Isolation, an AMD Gaming Evolved title, on the Oculus Rift DK2 at select shows and events. It runs like a dream, and people have loved it!”

Noticia completa:
http://www.kitguru.net/components/gr...eality-gaming/

[Jorge-Vieira]

SK Hynix Begins HBM Production in Q1 2015 – Could Feature in AMD R9 390X/380X Fiji GPU

SK Hynix has officially listed HBM memory for Graphic Cards on its official catalog for Q1 2015. This is huge news, because this means that HBM memory is now readily available for GPU manufacturers such as Nvidia and AMD to utilize in their GPUs. Looks like the specs I speculated in my analysis a long time ago appear to have been true after all; regardless of the amount of flames I got for em. So far the highest SK Hynix will go for GPU HBM is a 4-Hi HBM Stack (4 Memory stacks plus 1 logic stack).

A screenshot from the public catalog which can be found here.

HBM memory for next gen GPUs and AMD Pirate Islands gets listing at SK Hynix

Basically this memory is available for use both for AMD and Nvidia, however I would be willing to wager that it will appear first in Pirate Islands, specifically Fiji. On the off chance it doesn’t appear in Pirates Islands, it will probably then debut in an Nvidia GPUs. In my opinion, the chances of that happening (Green Debut) are very slim because if you recall the leak about AMD’s Fiji GPU that occurred a while back, the frequency listed was 1Ghz, which nets you 128 GB/s of bandwidth on an HBM (as opposed to an insanely low amount on GDDR5 ) – ergo, everything fits snuggly. The chips are created on the JESD235 standard and were developed in collaboration with JEDEC and AMD.

Noticia completa:
http://wccftech.com/sk-hynix-begins-hbm-production-q1-2015-feature-amd-r9-390x380x-fiji-gpu

[Winjer]

Apenas em Q1 de 2015?
Isso significa que só no Q2 é que vamos ver gráficas com HBM.

Das duas uma, ou a AMD tem modelos sem HBM prontos para o inicio de 2015, ou então ainda vamos ter de esperar quase meio ano pelas Fiji

[Jorge-Vieira]

Também pode acontecer mais um adiamento para Abril ou Março de 2015... muito estranho.

[Winjer]

Está visto que a AMD não consegue competir com as GTX 980 e 970, mesmo com cortes de preço nas R9 290.
A AMD não se pode dar ao luxo de estar meio ano sem nada cá fora no mercado.

[MAXLD]

Se chegar a Março ou Abril não vai haver grande problema. A nVidia só deverá lançar algo quando for pressionada a isso (até porque os baixos stocks e margens de lucro numa gráfica que tem mais algo na manga do que apresenta, ajudam a manter a factura alta).
Da parte da AMD, o carcanhol que tinha a ganhar com as R9 290 já foi (bem) ganho durante todo o ano e particularmente no início com a febre tresloucada do mining.

Se tiver que esperar um pouco, será benéfico para que seja a primeira nova gama a revolucionar o mercado com HBM. Não me parece que vão perder essa oportunidade, até porque investiram forte nessa tech, e precisam de um bom refresh de imagem e marketing. Nos meses em que saírem os modelos, os artigos nos sites da especialidade darão uma cobertura especial a essa primeira gama com HBM, explicando a tecnologia em detalhe, as potencialidades e o futuro... tudo isto é importante para a reputação da AMD e vai mexer com o mercado. Assim como já o fez antes quando foi a primeria a incluir GDDR5 nas HD4xxx.

Assim que saírem as R9 380 e 390 com HBM, e tendo em conta a performance, as GTX com GDDR5 vão ficar automaticamente marcadas pelo factor "obsoleto". Sim, na prática pode continuar igual ao litro por mais uns meses, mas HBM será o novo standard portanto isto vai ser importante, até para aquele pessoal que gosta de comprar para puxar pelo material.

[Jorge-Vieira]

O que me parece é que a nVidia, sabendo do HBM e muito provavelmente tem ou está já a trabalhar com isso ou a desenvolver algo, e apresente um "novo" Maxwell com HBM, ainda não veio nada disto cá para fora, somos nós aqui a falar, mas a nVidia pode muito bem colocar algo cá fora como resposta para não ficar atrás em termos de techs relativamente á concorrencia.

Sabemos que a nVidia tem mais graficas guardadas para as colocar cá fora a qualquer momento, isto já foi aqui falado, foram adiadas por não existir competição e o tesonis do pessoal andar todo atrás das GTX 9XX e, isso é milk sempre a entrar nos cofres.
Falta também o verdadeiro Maxwell, ninguém sabe como virá...

Relativamente ás HD 4xxx da AMD, a AMD também foi pioneira nessas graficas a apresentar a primeira grafica com um processo de fabrico reduzido que mais ninguém utilizava, a HD 4770 a 40nm.

[Winjer]

A nVidia também já anda a falar publicamente do HBM há mais de um ano.
É garantido que a nVidia já andou a meter protótipos de HBM em gráficas suas.
A questão é se acham que vale a pena apostar já nesta tecnologia para meter gráficas no mercado.

[Jorge-Vieira]

Eu acho que se a placa da AMD vier recheada de techs e a HBM proporcionar um desempenho muito bom, a nVidia numa questão de algumas semanas coloca algo cá fora.
Sabemos que ambos estão "parados" devido aos processos de fababrico não estarem ainda a correr sobre rodas, não sabemos é que arquiteturas, principalmente a nvidia terá guardado para isso.
Acho também que a AMD a ser o primeiro fabricante a colocar uma grafica cá fora com HBM vai mudar e agitar este meio, pode ficar também com uma vantagem por ter uma tech nova, mesmo que a placa depois não apanhe a concorrencia ou em desempenho ou em consumos. Muitas vezes sabemos como estas mudanças não correm bem á primeira, e AMD e nVidia ao longo dos anos já passaram por alguns fails em tecnologias pioneiras.

[Jorge-Vieira]

AMD delays financial day event as it rethinks its roadmap

Advanced Micro Devices traditionally holds its Financial Day for investors and financial analysts in November, just like Intel Corp. However, it will not host the event this year as it is reshaping its roadmap and reconsiders its goals going forward.A spokesperson for AMD has confirmed KitGuru that the company will not host its Financial Day this year. Traditionally the chipmaker reveals its roadmap and future plans at the event, but as a result of the fact that it will delay the Financial Day to next year it will not unveil any details concerning its future products other than that which it revealed last week.
AMD already delayed its Financial Day event in 2011, when Rory Read became chief executive officer in August and began to reconsider the company’s plans and strategy. As a result the company simply had nothing to present in November.
Given that AMD recently appointed Lisa Su on the position of chief executive officer, it is obvious that the company is again reconsidering its roadmap, strategies and product plans. At present, Ms. Su and her new team are shaping AMD’s short-term and long-term roadmaps as well as rethinking the future of the company in general.

For example, earlier this week it transpired that AMD decided not to introduce any new system-on-chips for tablets next year, but will continue to rely on the code-named Mullins accelerated processing unit for Microsoft Windows-powered slate. Since the company’s tablet chips have never been popular, it makes no sense to invest in the segment.
One of the key things that Dr. Su will have to do is to make AMD profitable again, something that her predecessor Rory Read has not managed to do. Given technical background of Lisa Su, expect her to cease or investments in non-growing low-margin product while increasing spending on products that either provide good margins (e.g., like high-end graphics processors) or promise to enable stable revenue streams.
While the whole picture of the future AMD will be revealed only in the coming month, it is pretty obvious that the company will continue to invest in development of fundamental technologies, including high-performance x86 and ARM cores as well as Radeon graphics processing units. The question is whether AMD will have enough money to design competitive products.

Noticia completa:
http://www.kitguru.net/components/gr...s-its-roadmap/


Uma noticia mais generalizada e abrangente da AMD mas que de certa forma tera algo a ver com novos produtos da AMD, penso tambemque a Sra Su estara a tentar rentabilizar ao maximo os produtos da AMD sem mudançasmuito radicais.

[V3ctor]

AMD’s Radeon R9 390X ES Performance Numbers Allegedly Leaked – Faster Than The GeForce GTX 980, Consumes 197W in Gaming

Chiphell, a source of many leaks has yet again posted a chart which might be related to AMD’s next generation Radeon R9 390X graphics card. The format used for the chart has appeared at Chiphell forums many occasions such as Kepler’s launch, Tahiti’s launch and even the most recent Volcanic Islands “Radeon R200″ and Maxwell GM204 launch and turned out to be quite accurate in terms of the performance numbers it provided. This time we are looking at alleged performance and power consumption numbers of AMD’s next powerhouse GPU.

AMD’s Next Gen Radeon R9 390X Performance Numbers Allegedly Leaked

Alright, so while I have given my reasons to why I believe these charts to be somewhat accurate, the one we are looking at may not be indicative of the final product as the user who leaked this has mentioned it as a ES “Preview Sample” which is very much like the Radeon R9 290X “Hawaii” samples we saw months back during its launch timeframe. One more thing, the name “Radeon R9 390X” isn’t actually confirmed for the card being shown in the chart, its speculated based on the fact that it is the fastest shown graphics card in the chart and hence leads to the conclusion that this could be the upcoming “flagship” card from AMD to rival NVIDIA’s GM 204 chip architecture. I still advise to take these charts with a grain of salt since the launch is still a few months away in Q1 2015 as reported by several hardware websites but the results shown are really interesting, especially due to the fact that these are from a early test sample and final specifications such as clock speeds have not yet been finalized.
The user posted two charts, the first chart, as usual, shows average performance in several gaming titles such as Alien Isolation, Assassins Creed: Unity, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Metro Last Light Redux, etc (won’t list all the games since the list is huge). The games were testing across a wide range of graphics cards from NVIDIA and AMD at 2560×1440 resolution with IQ settings set to maximum detail (2xSSAA, 4xMSAA, SMAA, FXAA). The test platform included a Intel Core i7-4790 clocked at 3.60 GHz and the drivers used were 344.75 WHQL for NVIDIA cards and Catalyst 14.11.1 BETA for AMD cards.
Coming to the results, I am shocked with the performance increase over Maxwell and the Radeon R9 290X. The alleged Radeon R9 390X has a average performance rating of 65.6 FPS across all titles while the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 has a performance rating of 56.6 FPS which is a 16% performance increase. The GeForce GTX 780 Ti and Radeon R9 290X end up with 52.6 FPS and 50.1 FPS respectively. The user couldn’t run a crossfireX testing since he had just one sample onboard with him but the thing I laughed about the most is the fact that he has the card labelled as “Captain Jack” (from Pirates of the Caribbean). Now this is both funny and interesting, funny since we are talking about Jack Sparrow over here, interesting because this is a hint that this could be the first “Pirate Islands” cards to hit the AMD R 300 series lineup. The results say for themselves, the ES is faster than NVIDIA’s offerings but NVIDIA had one thing better than AMD, that was the power consumption. Till now, we thought AMD’s next card would be a powerhouse in performance but will end up with similar power consumption as Hawaii.


That’s not the case anymore, AMD seems to have devised a way to make its GCN core much more power efficient. Judging from the second graph, the alleged Radeon R9 390X graphics card has a power consumption across games rated at just 197W. This brings it under the 200W category of rival Maxwell parts. The rating is still a bit higher than the GeForce GTX 980 and GTX 970 which have the power numbers rated at 185W and 167W respectively, but given the performance numbers, the card looks well made. The Radeon R9 290X on the other hand is a power sipping juggernaut rated at 242W in standard more and 279W in uber mode. So there’s a major difference there. We don’t know if its 20nm in works or a similar 28nm technology which Maxwell has adopted by boy do these numbers look good.
As far as specifications are concerned, we don’t really know much about them and the accuracy of recent leaks (even including this one) remains unknown and would only be found out when the cards officially launch. The Radeon R9 390X has gone by several codenames, the most recent one is that it is adopting the Fiji XT chip with some rumored specifications available here along with a high possibility that it may adopt the new HBM VRAM standard. Aside from that, it uses a new cooler which is a modified version of the one featured on AMD’s 295X2 Vesuvius.
Well that’s all for the leaked information but it looks like the battle between both teams is going to be tense. If AMD manages to outperform NVIDIA’s Maxwell with their new cards, then NVIDIA will be forced to launch their GM200 cards for consumers in 1H of 2015. We so far have literally no information available on the GM200 and the cards but from the looks of it, it will be a whole new series featuring the daddy Maxwell cores.
AMD Radeon R9 390X “Alleged” Performance and Power Consumption Numbers: