AMD Launches Retail Radeon 300 Series: A Prelude To Fury
by Ryan Smith on June 18, 2015 10:35 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
- AMD
- Radeon
- Radeon 300
Throughout the last couple of months AMD has been in the process of carefully and deliberately rolling out their latest generation of video cards. In a multi-staged process we have seen AMD engage in a what is best described as a drawn-out teaser and an early technical briefing, announcing their intention to roll out a new high-end video card this quarter, further teasing the public with pictures of the card, and then in the middle of all of that giving the technical press an in-depth briefing on AMD’s key next-generation memory technology, High Bandwidth Memory. While AMD did their best to make sure the details of the cards were kept under wraps – with varying results – AMD definitely wanted to make sure the world would know that their card was coming.
Catching up to the present, earlier this week AMD held their 2015 GPU product showcase, dubbed “The New Era of PC Gaming.” As the latest stage in AMD’s master plan, AMD held a public event in Los Angeles similar to their 2014 GPU product showcase in Hawaii, where the company announced their product lineup ahead of the full launch of the products in question. In the presentation we learned some (but not all) of the details surrounding AMD’s Radeon 300 series, including the numbered products from 360 to 390, and of course the company’s new high-end flagship video card, the Radeon R9 Fury X.
All told the showcase itself was something of a teaser itself – we got prices, but not complete specifications – but we also received confirmation of AMD’s rollout plans. The next stage, coinciding with today’s article, is the formal launch of the numbered members of the Radeon 300 series, which are product refreshes based on existing AMD GPUs, similar to what we saw with the 200 series in 2013. Meanwhile today is also the greater unveiling (but not the launch) of the Fury series, with AMD allowing us to share more details about the new card and its specifications. Following today’s announcements and launches, the Radeon R9 Fury X will be launching in just under a week from now, on June 24th, and then after that the R9 Fury (vanilla) will be launching on July 14th.
| AMD R9 300 Series Specification Comparison | ||||||
| AMD Radeon R9 Fury X | AMD Radeon R9 Fury | AMD Radeon R9 390X | AMD Radeon R9 390 | |||
| Stream Processors | 4096 | (Fewer) | 2816 | 2560 | ||
| Texture Units | 256 | (How much) | 176 | 160 | ||
| ROPs | 64 | (Depnds) | 64 | 64 | ||
| Boost Clock | 1050MHz | (On Yields) | 1050MHz | 1000MHz | ||
| Memory Clock | 1Gbps HBM | (Memory Too) | 5Gbps GDDR5 | 5Gbps GDDR5 | ||
| Memory Bus Width | 4096-bit | 4096-bit | 512-bit | 512-bit | ||
| VRAM | 4GB | 4GB | 8GB | 8GB | ||
| FP64 | 1/16 | 1/16 | 1/8 | 1/8 | ||
| TrueAudio | Y | Y | Y | Y | ||
| Transistor Count | N/A | N/A | 6.2B | 6.2B | ||
| Typical Board Power | 275W | (High) | 275W | 275W | ||
| Manufacturing Process | TSMC 28nm | TSMC 28nm | TSMC 28nm | TSMC 28nm | ||
| Architecture | GCN 1.2 | GCN 1.2 | GCN 1.1 | GCN 1.1 | ||
| GPU | Fiji | Fiji | Hawaii | Hawaii | ||
| Launch Date | 06/24/15 | 07/14/15 | 06/18/15 | 06/18/15 | ||
| Launch Price | $649 | $549 | $429 | $329 | ||
Overall AMD is launching an almost top-to-bottom refresh of its product lineup overnight. Between now and July 14th the company and its partners will introduce cards from $109 to $649, and while there are a few gaps that AMD is almost certainly purposely leaving in place to give them something to announce later this year, overall we’re seeing more or less AMD’s entire hand for 2015 and early 2016 in one go.
As for the subjects at hand today, there are really two stories to talk about. The first is of course the Radeon R9 Fury series, the products that will house AMD’s newest flagship GPU, Fiji. While I won’t butter up Fiji from an architectural standpoint at this time, what Fiji does bring to the table are two very big changes for AMD. The first of these is of course high bandwidth memory, which not only gives AMD more VRAM bandwidth than ever before, but it outright changes how GPUs video cards are constructed. The second big change is that Fiji is just very big. At 596mm2 AMD went right to the reticle limit, putting AMD squarely into the big GPU race.
But before Fury comes the rest of the 300 series. We'll take a look at Fury in due time - while we've been briefed on the subject and have been authorized to discuss it, we want to hold back for when we have the hardware in hand - so our focus for today will be on what's launching today, and that's the Radeon 300 series.
Being released today are five new cards from AMD’s partners, which will form the backbone of the Radeon 300 series from $109 to $429. To our regular readers these parts will be familiar – and to some, perhaps more familiar than they’d like – while for AMD the 300 series represents their 3rd generation of retail 28nm products.
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Kutark - Thursday, June 18, 2015 - link
Its only offering a better cooling solution if the clocks are the same as it would have been air cooled. Slapping a water cooler on it then overclocking it 20% to get better framerates isn't "better". You could easily do the same thing with a GM-200 and get huge gains. Even a moderate overclock on the stock air cooler on a 980ti already puts any of the leaked numbers in the ground. So, i'm still not sure what everyone is so jazzed over.Its a great card, and im glad to see they're finally on level playing ground (or slightly better). This is ultimately good for the consumer as its going to force nvidia to up their game. That being said. The card is a solid competitor, nothing else. It's not "beating" hte 980ti in any meaningful way.
Trenter - Friday, June 19, 2015 - link
Gm 200 doesn't benefit from watercooling because nvidia artificially limit board partners. Gpu boost theottles like mad in demanding games because it's always power limited.chizow - Friday, June 19, 2015 - link
@Trenter really? How much FUD left in the tank?http://www.techpowerup.com/gpudb/b3260/inno3d-ichi...
http://www.evga.com/articles/00935/EVGA-GeForce-GT...
just4U - Thursday, June 18, 2015 - link
Amd has been well known for keeping prices in line right back to their Radeon 8800 (400 CAD as opposed to 700 for the GF3) Once in awhile they flirt with absurdly high prices but it's never been a easy sell for them... no matter how good their product is.They've been near death for decades but thankfully they are still out there or prices would be a lot higher from Nvidia and Intel.
just4U - Thursday, June 18, 2015 - link
err.. 8500 lol.e36Jeff - Thursday, June 18, 2015 - link
It's rated at 275W and its a halo card. It has the power input for up to 375W and its cooling solution is rated to 500W, so they are not pushing things to the limits. The card itself is several inches shorter than the traditional high-end GPU would be. I'd wager its just not plausible to dissipate 275W with a heatsink that's 3 inches shorter than it normally would be. And there is the side benefit of being significantly quieter than than an air-cooled design, it is expected to be at around 30db at a normal gaming load.eanazag - Thursday, June 18, 2015 - link
I have looked at installing radiators on my R9 290s. Including it is AMD's answer to Nvidia's great blower. In terms of value, there is more with a factory included radiator. This is just fanboy hate. I look forward to seeing the benches. Another plus is that this card will fit in smaller cases because it is shorter. I had case issues with my 290.Based on AMD's pricing, I would expect parity or better performance with the 980 Ti as AMD does well in sales when they price directly while offering better value and performance.
amd_furion - Thursday, June 18, 2015 - link
ha coming from a nvidia fanboy,when nvidia rigs games using ant-competitive fraudworks,which artificaily makes nvidia cards seem faster than amd cards.pretty sad when you have to pay game developers to use prioritized closed off software to make your graphic cards seem better than amd's,when in actual raw performance amd wins.amd_furion - Thursday, June 18, 2015 - link
hi buddy i live in the land of facts,not fictionworks(gameworks)like you do.you nvidia fanboys would still think nvidia is better even if amd cards are 100x better.thats how crazy and out of touch you guys really are.theres no reasoning with your type's of people.Trenter - Friday, June 19, 2015 - link
Most people won't have a problem finding a place for that radiator. What about 10-11 inch air cooled cards? Some people may not have a place for those and they seem to do fine.