AMD 300 series

[BloodOmen]

Might indeed be worth holding off Nvidia purchases atm for the AMD cards. Assuming tis true of course!

AMD's highly anticipated R9 300 series are expected to be unveiled on June 16, 2015, which happens to be the date when the world's premier trade show for computer, video games and other related products kicks off. Now, according to Sweclockers, the launch price of the upcoming series is going to be far more expensive as compared to launch price of R9 200 series. However, one thing that the desktop and graphics processor manufacturing company has done is increased the standard memory capacity on its high-end card lineup from 4 GB to 8 GB.

Since PC titles are becoming far more demanding and will require a ton of video frame buffer to deliver smoothed-out gameplay sessions at high resolutions, it is a commendable thing done by AMD, assuming the information turns out to be true. While prices were detailed in the Swedish Krona currency, they have been converted into USD for a more accurate comparison against NVIDIA's GTX 900 series. Details of each card and its price have been stated below:

• Radeon R9 390X 8 GB: 4,990 SEK ($499)
• Radeon R9 390 8 GB: 4,190 SEK ($419)
• Radeon R9 380 4 GB: 2,790 SEK ($279)
• Radeon R9 380 2 GB: 2,490 SEK ($249)
• Radeon R7 370 4 GB: 2,090 SEK ($209)
• Radeon R7 370 2 GB: 1,790 SEK ($179)
• Radeon R7 360 2 GB: 1,390 SEK ($139)

The biggest price difference is between R9 390 and R9 380. R9 390 is expected to deliver performance in between the capabilities of GTX 970 and GTX 980. One the other hand, R9 390X is going to provide PC gamers with performance that will land in between GTX 980 Ti and GTX 980. AMD is yet to unveil the direct competitor of NVIDIA's current single flagship GPU solution, GTX Titan X, which features 12 GB of GDDR5 type memory.

As stated earlier, the R9 300 series are expected to be showcased during E3, 2015 and with that, accurate pricing and hardware specification details will be made available to the globe.

 

[Embattle]

Yeah I'll wait for a review although I've my doubts about AMDs abilities.

 

[caLLous]

AMD have been first to bring a lot of technological advancements (successfully) to the fore so I have faith that their HBM card (which is speculatively called the R9 Fury) will be fantastic.

 

[Embattle]

I've no doubt they've generally always been behind in the raw performance battle although done better in the performance/price area, not that it'll make much difference to me since I've no intention of buying another AMD graphics card for a long time considering the last two I had both failed.

 

[ECA]

The problem is apart from the fury the rest are all I believe rebrands with higher clocks than previously, tldr nothing new unless you wanna spunk £600+ on the fury.

 

[caLLous]

It's standard practise for both manufacturers to introduce new top end models and refresh (not rebrand) the previous line rather than redesigning the lot. AMD are changing the manufacture process which will bring up to 20% more power efficiency which should lead to significant potential clock increases, among other benefits.

 

[Scouse]

So, ATM it still looks like the 980Ti is the card of choice?

 

[caLLous]

It would be bordering on criminal to make a decision until the 16th when AMD announce (unless you have no intention of buying an AMD card). I expect Nvidia have had to put the 980Ti out at a much lower RRP than they would've liked to try and head AMD off. The R9 295x2 still beats it and is cheaper (although it is a dual GPU card so you have occasional shenanigans with that. And it's huge. And it needs its own power station).

 

[leggy]

So, ATM it still looks like the 980Ti is the card of choice?

My conclusion also (not interested in SLi or Crossfire as I don't have the space). Might wait to see if there's a price drop come the 16th June.

 

[Scouse]

The R9 295x2 still beats it and is cheaper

I dunno - you're looking at £650 for that whereas you can pre-order a 980Ti for ~£570.

Having said that - if you're spending near the 600 quid mark for a graphics card that's probably not much difference to the cost of a new system. Do you reckon the 295x2 is worth the extra in terms of price/performance?

 

[caLLous]

The cheapest I found for the R9 295x2 is £548. It was definitely sub-£600 on Overclockers but the price seems to have gone up again.

And I don't know to be honest, the dual GPU and insane power requirements and size are off putting but it's performance can't be ignored. It's an absolute beast of a card.

 

[TdC]

AMD is for the gheis!!! That said, I have an AMD cpu which I have overclocked to 4.6GHz. I'm scared of it. It whispers to me. It sings songs of death. Death and high energy bills!

 

[caLLous]

A picture! Of a box!

There are pics floating about of the Fiji cards too, and (apparently) some 3D Mark benchmarks that put the Fiji XT squarely between the 980Ti and the Titan X. They just need to be damn sure they get the launch price right. There's some rumours about that AMD were caught off guard by just how much faster the 980Ti was than the 980 so they had to tweak the lower Fury card a bit to make it more competitive.

 

[BloodOmen]

if they get the launch price right they'll make an absolute killing if its truly between 980Ti / Titan X

I for one would upgrade from a 780GTX to a 390-390X.

 

[Scouse]

980Ti / Titan X

According to Tomshardware there's fuck all (like 3%) between them anyway...

 

[BloodOmen]

it'll come down to how much nvidia can adjust then i guess, if nvidia don't adjust to match the prices amd still stand to make a killing. Either way the AMD cards look juicy.

 

[Hawkwind]

Honestly hope AMD do well with it, but they better get their driver right or sorted out very early. What put me off their products years ago was having to wait months for fixes for something that pretty bloody obvious, major issues with tier 1 game releases. Having to load different drivers to get some games working properly - it was a bloody nightmare.

 

[caLLous]

Giggidy.

 

[Gwadien]

Arma 3 hates AMD.

I hate AMD.

 

[Raven]

Arma wishes it was AMD

 

[Raven]

Giggidy.

That fan would look great in my PC.

That's how I will square it with the wife.

 

[caLLous]

Well I hope she likes big black things too, because it seems like the retail version (or what's assumed to be the retail version) will have an all-black radiator/fan.

 

[Embattle]

Well least it shouldn't be so noisy.

 

[Embattle]

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1865280

 

[caLLous]

The performance of the 300 cards isn't looking great to be honest, if the Euro prices I've seen are to be believed (I'm almost positive that they're not - € 550 for the 390X which is basically a clocked 290X with 8GB GDDR5 on it would be sheer madness on AMD's part) they will be fucking expensive over here as well. I've seen "actual" benchmarks results of the R9-390 (Best Buy are already selling them in America), I hope the numbers go up with improved drivers.

Anyway, Sapphire's R9-3xx offerings (including new cooler design which looks way better than the XFX card) are up on their website, I assume deliberately. Roll on Tuesday when we learn more about the Fury.

 

[ECA]

The early benchmarks from streetdate broken cards are not using correct drivers as they havn't been released except to tech websites.
Just a wait and see.

 

[caLLous]

http://www.twitch.tv/amd

 

[BloodOmen]

$649 for the Fury X

Missed the price of the lower model, it was $540 ish though I think.

 

[caLLous]

It was $549. That's a good price for the Fury X, let's see some reviews before I take the plunge but hell yes tentatively.

 

[Raven]

So long as that translates to Sterling nicely i'm sold.

Wont be happy if its £549 rather than £350 which is the (around about) forex