Really exciting, not. To quote from your 270/X article "Pitcairn is Pitcairn is Pitcairn".
Anyway, seeing how nVidia and AMD are both doing this it's really the OEMs to blame here, which ultimately boilds down to the customers saying: "But it's got the bigger GBs!"...
Anyway, I'm glad AMD is not even trying to make this sound good. And I hope those are really straight rebadges, as any technical work on them would be a waste of time.
Ryan, I think you missed a possible purpose for the R5 M230. It's a contender to Crossfire with Kaveri and get a substantial performance boost in 3D. Even more now that Crossfire is exclusively made through PCI-Express and Mantle should give it increased control over frame pacing.
Perhaps a performance boost that is substantial enough to hold its own against Broadwell GT3e at a much lower price point.
While frame pacing did improve in symmetric crossfire, APU + dGPU dual graphics is still so broken that instead of an improvement you take a performance penalty by enabling it in many titles.
This substantial boost was of -18% on Tomb Raider 2013, last time I checked. Let's pray that Mantle change this. I've been hearing people saying "Drivers will fix it" since Llano.
Yet this isn't new drivers trying to mix a VLIW4 GPU with a GCN GPU. This is new hardware, with both GPUs using GCN architecture, built with the new Crossfire in mind.
Dual graphics poor performance isn't about mixing VLIW4 and GCN. It performs far from great with a pair of VLIW4 graphic engines. It is a driver issue. New symmetrical bridgless crossfire is one thing, asymmetrical dual graphics is another beast.
I won't expect much since llano, trinity and richland poor performance in this area. But, I truly want it fixed and operational. It would kill that unpleasant scenario that is enduring since 2011: Ins most cases, a cheap Intel CPU paired with cheap dGPU performs better in games for the same money of an AMD APU.
Err, I've seen quite a few benches that show it provides a big boost to FPS in many cases these days using Richland. Was Llano the last time you looked? Anyway, where they need work is frame pacing - and that remains primarily a driver issue. Unfortunately they're spending most of their frame pacing efforts right now on traditional crossfire, so it will probably remain an issue to some degree for the foreseeable future of hybrid crossfire.
However, they've been making steady improvements to hybrid crossfire performance, and frame pacing is now very much on their radar across the board. I'm not saying that this is the generation that fixes everything, but I suspect there will be some improvement, and it will continue to get better with time. I would agree that one major use of this GPU would be crossfire with mobile Kaveri.
I suppose, but still a waste of money that AMD is not doing (although 4GB is only useful over 2GB to run more than 1 game at a time, so you can say even 4GB is wasteful).
Yeah I suppose at 4K you might max out 2GB for some games. I think only MSI offers 4K screens and top end GPUs right now though. Hopefully clevo and AW do the same soon.
"this is either another Mars part, or we may finally be seeing a Bonaire part reach mobile."
Unconfirmed rumor speculates FirePro M6100 is Bonaire/Saturn (with pro/CAD drivers). But no corresponding mobile gaming part yet (with gaming drivers).
680m -> 780m -> 880m have all used the same gpu core as well. The only difference is nvidia intentionally crippled the 680m (1/8th of core disabled. 1.35V memory).
but you forget that from 680m to 780m and to 880m: we see an amazing increase in performance. And if not for the top end cards but the mid range as well. And power usage is drasticly better...AMD on the other hand does...nothing interesting here.
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YuLeven - Wednesday, January 8, 2014 - link
Wow. Many new. Very graphics. Such AMD. Much Great.R9 M290X is just a HD 8970M whilst it is just a higher clocked HD 7970M. Three generations, same core.
Hrel - Wednesday, January 8, 2014 - link
'_' watJarredWalton - Thursday, January 9, 2014 - link
We need an AMDcoin.polaco - Wednesday, January 8, 2014 - link
the chart header is incorrectkwrzesien - Wednesday, January 8, 2014 - link
Can we buy an M please?Ryan Smith - Wednesday, January 8, 2014 - link
Technically you can only buy vowels.Notmyusualid - Tuesday, January 14, 2014 - link
Ha ha ha!r3loaded - Wednesday, January 8, 2014 - link
So the same part has been rebadged twice now, meaning that we're getting a part that was originally released in 2012. Great going -.-nathanddrews - Wednesday, January 8, 2014 - link
When are the die shrinks coming? That alone would at least make mobile AMD worth considering...MrSpadge - Wednesday, January 8, 2014 - link
Really exciting, not. To quote from your 270/X article "Pitcairn is Pitcairn is Pitcairn".Anyway, seeing how nVidia and AMD are both doing this it's really the OEMs to blame here, which ultimately boilds down to the customers saying: "But it's got the bigger GBs!"...
Anyway, I'm glad AMD is not even trying to make this sound good. And I hope those are really straight rebadges, as any technical work on them would be a waste of time.
ToTTenTranz - Wednesday, January 8, 2014 - link
Ryan, I think you missed a possible purpose for the R5 M230.It's a contender to Crossfire with Kaveri and get a substantial performance boost in 3D.
Even more now that Crossfire is exclusively made through PCI-Express and Mantle should give it increased control over frame pacing.
Perhaps a performance boost that is substantial enough to hold its own against Broadwell GT3e at a much lower price point.
YuLeven - Wednesday, January 8, 2014 - link
While frame pacing did improve in symmetric crossfire, APU + dGPU dual graphics is still so broken that instead of an improvement you take a performance penalty by enabling it in many titles.This substantial boost was of -18% on Tomb Raider 2013, last time I checked. Let's pray that Mantle change this. I've been hearing people saying "Drivers will fix it" since Llano.
ToTTenTranz - Wednesday, January 8, 2014 - link
Yet this isn't new drivers trying to mix a VLIW4 GPU with a GCN GPU.This is new hardware, with both GPUs using GCN architecture, built with the new Crossfire in mind.
YuLeven - Wednesday, January 8, 2014 - link
Dual graphics poor performance isn't about mixing VLIW4 and GCN. It performs far from great with a pair of VLIW4 graphic engines. It is a driver issue. New symmetrical bridgless crossfire is one thing, asymmetrical dual graphics is another beast.I won't expect much since llano, trinity and richland poor performance in this area. But, I truly want it fixed and operational. It would kill that unpleasant scenario that is enduring since 2011: Ins most cases, a cheap Intel CPU paired with cheap dGPU performs better in games for the same money of an AMD APU.
silverblue - Thursday, January 9, 2014 - link
I imagine Kaveri might actually fix this, at least partly, considering AMD is spending most of its time supporting GCN rather than VLIW4/5.Alexvrb - Friday, January 10, 2014 - link
Err, I've seen quite a few benches that show it provides a big boost to FPS in many cases these days using Richland. Was Llano the last time you looked? Anyway, where they need work is frame pacing - and that remains primarily a driver issue. Unfortunately they're spending most of their frame pacing efforts right now on traditional crossfire, so it will probably remain an issue to some degree for the foreseeable future of hybrid crossfire.However, they've been making steady improvements to hybrid crossfire performance, and frame pacing is now very much on their radar across the board. I'm not saying that this is the generation that fixes everything, but I suspect there will be some improvement, and it will continue to get better with time. I would agree that one major use of this GPU would be crossfire with mobile Kaveri.
Khenglish - Wednesday, January 8, 2014 - link
Really sad. I was hoping that they'd put a low voltage tahiti on a card with a 256bit memory bus, but they're doing a rebadge just like the 880m gtx:http://forum.techinferno.com/clevo-sager/5642-nvid...
At least AMD isn't wasting a ton of money putting a ludicrous 8GB on the card though, but that will probably cost them sales to the uneducated.
extide - Wednesday, January 8, 2014 - link
It's really Clevo putting 8GB on there, not nVidia...Khenglish - Wednesday, January 8, 2014 - link
I suppose, but still a waste of money that AMD is not doing (although 4GB is only useful over 2GB to run more than 1 game at a time, so you can say even 4GB is wasteful).Alexvrb - Friday, January 10, 2014 - link
At 1080p, maybe. But as more of these 4K laptops hit the market, 4GB becomes more useful. Especially in newer titles.Khenglish - Friday, January 10, 2014 - link
Yeah I suppose at 4K you might max out 2GB for some games. I think only MSI offers 4K screens and top end GPUs right now though. Hopefully clevo and AW do the same soon.Gc - Wednesday, January 8, 2014 - link
"this is either another Mars part, or we may finally be seeing a Bonaire part reach mobile."Unconfirmed rumor speculates FirePro M6100 is Bonaire/Saturn (with pro/CAD drivers).
But no corresponding mobile gaming part yet (with gaming drivers).
iwod - Wednesday, January 8, 2014 - link
No wonder why Apple choose Nvidia GPU for the consumer line of product. Same GPU for 3 generation.Khenglish - Thursday, January 9, 2014 - link
680m -> 780m -> 880m have all used the same gpu core as well. The only difference is nvidia intentionally crippled the 680m (1/8th of core disabled. 1.35V memory).austinsguitar - Tuesday, March 18, 2014 - link
but you forget that from 680m to 780m and to 880m: we see an amazing increase in performance. And if not for the top end cards but the mid range as well. And power usage is drasticly better...AMD on the other hand does...nothing interesting here.