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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ES_Revenge - Thursday, July 2, 2015 - link
Well it's not actually less than an 980Ti, but it is "effectively" less in a way. One you're getting a CLC water cooler, so that's about $60-80 value; two you're getting HBM which is some pricey tech as well. Without those things it would (or rather should) have cost like $200 less. But then again maybe it would have then just had Hawaii-level performance without the HBM.Oh and another note Fury X doesn't even have HDMI 2.0, HDCP 2.2, or [full] HEVC decode, from the looks of it.
I agree, it's pretty underwhelming. Really bad handling of the rebrands and then Fury is really nothing spectacular either. At (and often below) a 980Ti is certainly not what the AMD fanboys were expecting; and nothing, as you put it, to blow anyone's socks off.
Looks like Nvidia has squarely won this round and I think if they *really* wanted to put the squeeze on AMD, they'd only need to drop prices of the 970, 980, and 980 Ti a little bit. I mean Fury X still has the above "advantages" where one might still consider purchasing one over a 980 Ti. But what if the 980 Ti sold for $50-100 *less*? AMD would be in some hot water then!
Despite all this though, my disappointment still comes from the fact that we're not going to see any advances in the mid-range with either price or performance, until at least 2016 (by the looks of it). R9 280X, R9 380, and GTX 960 will remain the only choices...at high prices. Only one of those can do HDMI 2.0 and HEVC though, and again it ain't AMD.
Due to the midrange-blahs, I don't see myself getting rid of my R9 280 any time soon but if I were it certainly would *not* be an AMD card, that's for sure. And this is probably the first time I've had to say this since...well, actually this is the first time I've had to say that. Pretty bad picture for AMD right now, IMO.
Nfarce - Thursday, June 25, 2015 - link
We are going into day two now and still no Fury X review when every single one of the other major tech sites have had their reviews up, including AT's sister site, Tom's Hardware. As a member here since circa 2000, it's a real shame that my time spent here continues to diminish and gaps get filled by competitors. I knew it wouldn't be the same after Anand sold and split.CiccioB - Friday, June 26, 2015 - link
Where is Fury X review? Are you completing it (so delay is more than acceptable seen your usual review quality) or you are not going to publish it at all?Did you have some problems? Card is too fast and nvidia asked you to change tests and settings? Or it is too slow and AMD is threating not to give you any future sample to review?
I'm just curious :D
@DoUL - Saturday, June 27, 2015 - link
I think a simple apology in a pipeline mini-article or a podcast with a brief description of what's causing the delay would have made you look so much better.. There are those between us who are not following closely and don't know that the guy responsible for GPU reviews 'Ryan Smith' is/was sick, for those guys, you're so much behind!The problem with this particular launch is that it's sooooo much hyped, if it's a mid-range card launch or a OEM-card launch or one of those refreshing cards silent launch then no one would have really cared about it, but such a card with so much anticipation and too many what if's questions you really can't be that silent about your cause of delay!
I, and I think the majority who hangs here, hold too many good memories about this place, I've gained almost all of my technical knowledge from this place, I hold it dear to me, but there has been some nasty mistakes in the past couple of weeks that made me really worried about the place, first, the miss-titling of Fury's webcast "paper-launching", second, falling behind and not reviewing any of the already-available-by-the-time-of-launch 3xx radeons, third, this stretching delay of Fury X review "without" any apology.
mistakes has to be done so that we learn from it, I still have faith in this place and I hope that it won't turn into another prime thing that miss-management has turned it into a dud.
PS. you already have most of the tasks lifted from above your shoulder, making so many mistakes in a short time while your primary task is the editorial stuff makes me inclined to whisper in your ears to take sometime off and re-examine how Anand was managing all things at once, I still believe in you!
neonisin - Tuesday, June 30, 2015 - link
Like.oppositelock84 - Friday, July 3, 2015 - link
Well said, sir.J.W.M. - Saturday, June 27, 2015 - link
Unless you live in International Falls, Minnesota - you don't need a 275W furnace to unnecessary heat up the house/ apt.!scanex - Friday, October 30, 2015 - link
I want a R7 370 with FreeSync or I will buy a Nvidia card!JMarlowe - Thursday, February 18, 2016 - link
So I can return my graphics card under reason of false advertisement?I purchased an R7 370 Nitro(Sapphire) and it states "latest version of GCN," when, in fact, it's actually the 2012 version of 1.0? Screw that. I'm going to return it for a 380. They can't be doing this to people. I just bought a 7850 is all. What was also misleading, was I was assuming it was the direct upgrade of the 270x. How the heck did the 370 become a downgrade? Actually, I'm just going to take it back for Nvidia and get a 970. They don't do this crap to people.
JMarlowe - Thursday, February 18, 2016 - link
...sorry, I meant I thought it was an upgrade to the 270, not 270x.