Actually it kind of seems like maybe the R9 280X IS the 7970, MAYBE with a tweaked core. My thinking is the ones with TrueAudio are the only ones with actual architecture changes.
That makes sense, but TrueAudio just looks like some software to run a few FFTs at regular intervals. Maybe the 7970 (and 280X) just doesn't have the necessary interrupts.
No bus width, no price on the big one (and why the assumed $200 gap between the big one and next one down?) Not even the artificial benchmark score for the big one. Not a very informative announcement.
I was surprised to see they are fielding a sub $100 card as well. I thought the 7750 was the last low-end card they were going to put out. I can see nVidia putting out a sub $100 card before I can see AMD doing it because Richland is right there.
I wasn't aware that the 7750 was low-end. I have the 7750 and I've been really pleased with it. It makes a lot of things playable and the best thing about it is that it is completely powered by the bus, so no special power supply is required. It's not my only card, I have a 6870, and also a 7870. I like cards like the 7750 because they just work, and aren't a big deal at all. Desktops are lasting longer than ever, and I can't think of a desktop that I have that couldn't benefit from a better video card. PC gamers are a strange breed, and one older game could be all you care about. Starcraft II, Diablo III, World of Warcraft, and even the Call of Duty series are all examples of games that are very meaningful even today.
In any case, my point is that the 7750 is actually not in the low-end, it was released as decidedly "mainstream". Huge difference, both Nvidia and AMD could and probably should exit the actual low-end. I'll put it differently: There's no way in hell that my HD5000 on my ultra book performs anywhere near the 7750, I mean I wish it did, that would make me so happy but it just doesn't at all. If intel were at 7750 levels, AMD and NVIDIA should shutter their doors right now.
In years past I remember getting actual low end cards out of pure need and being really pleasantly surprised by what an architecture change can do to performance. This is central to the magic of desktops... one component change can repair and reinvigorate an old computer for next to nothing. (I'm looking at you SSD, and video cards.)
I've got a half-height 7750 in one of my HTPCs paired with an i3-2100. I bought it almost exclusively because it's the most powerful card available in a half-height configuration that has near perfect HTPC functionality. I consider the fact that it can play a lot of games at 1080p with low to med details a bonus. 720p with ultra settings? No problem. None of my SNB or IVB IGPs can do that.
The fastest Richland (A10-6800K) only gets ~1K on 3dmark, Haswell gets 600-700* so I can definitely see the market for 2-3x performance improvement on a budget.
* granted, the intel 5200 gets 1K4, but it's not available on desktop and also a *lot* more expensive.
I was hoping for Kaveri to improve on Richland by a huge margin, I might have to dampen my expectations.. (it wouldn't make much sense to bring out the R7 250 if Kaveri gets within striking distance.) It could be that they're introducing the R7 250 for intel systems *fingers crossed for Kaveri*
From a marketing POV, "Integrated graphics" isn't a welcome bullet point on budget pre-built gaming machines (entry level Dell XPS, for example), but "AMD R7 250 1GB Dedicated Graphics!" sure is.
That's a great point! It makes me upset to think of the ten-billion low end graphics cards with outrageous (1GB, 2GB, +!) amounts of useless video ram on worthless graphics processors. But that's exactly why that happens. I forgot about this whole methodology of selling graphics.
Yeah, I completely agree with you. It's the equivalent of replacing a broken XBOX 360. You aren't necessarily looking for an upgrade, maybe the fan went out on the video card, or maybe you love the games you already play and have no time or interest or budget for the latest games.
Well, if enough people buy it to make it worth their while then why not release it? Could also be an add-in card for older processors or Intel processors. The low end Intel processors still have pretty poor graphics performance.
Not to mention, these lower cards might also help rope people in. You have the whole thing where someone sees it on the shelf for $89 and then they see for only $50 more they can get a much better card. They might end up buying that $139 card whereas otherwise the sticker shock would have warded them away.
Except AMD's current CPU product line doesn't have integrated video on the parts with a reasonable number of cores. Even though the 8350 is a better choice for multithreaded tasks than the Intel CPU at the same price point, it ends up being quite a bit more expensive because you have to spend another $80 on a graphics card to even get video output.
you're forgetting that one of the main draws to amd is the low-mid performance market.... the <100 and <200 market may be a bit iffy when choosing it or an apu.... but you're forgetting that amd can make it so your performance will be it AND the apu.
With Tiled Resources being an optional feature in DX11.2 and everything else being software changes, meaning DX11.1 compliant GPUs are also DX11.2 compliant, if the R7 series isn't DX11.2 compliant doesn't that mean they wouldn't be DX11.1 compliant as well? That would be disappointing.
R7 looks like Sea Islands hardware (7790), only the R9 series is actually using the new design of GCN. Audio processing is more closely related to pixel shading in terms of the math that needs to be applied, and it doesn't need special hardware.
I would have to guess AMD put it on the R7 just to help move units, and to get a fast-large userbase for developers to more eagerly adopt the tech.
So far, it seems: 290x/290 are the true VI parts, 280 and 270 are (probably) VI as well, since there is no AMD card that can perform on par with the 280's alleged scores.
I beg to differ. It probably is just Bonnaire/7790 which was also promoted as a "new design of GCN" when it was released. It probably has always been preset in hardware but wasn't enabled until they had an entire product line that could feature it.
All the rebrands, of course, would probably have higher clock speeds than their 7000 series predecessors accounting for a minor performance improvement. Otherwise, they are old hat. The only good news is that some of the features advertised may be available on two year old hardware with only a driver update (except the audio DSP), since most of the hardware seems to be identical.
Based on the given Firestrike scores, your summary seems to line up except for the R9 270X and R7 250. A 5.5k+ bench seems a bit of a stretch for Pitcairn XT and a 7770 is overkill for a 2k+ bench (it also likely pushes the TDP above the 75W PCI-E bus limit which is probably important for the target market on that part).
As for the audio DSP, I think it may be a proof-of-concept exercise to introduce the next step in the HSA roadmap. If support for this tech requires a new HSA-oriented GCN architecture, that would explain why the rehashed parts won't get it. Of course, as much as I try to make this an educated guess it is all just speculation (especially my guess on the R9 290).
P.S. R.I.P. Aureal, you deserved better than being financially bled to death by defending against frivolous law suits from your competition.
Great analysis. This seems more plausible than my scenario. The only thing I think might change is that the R7 250 might be a Cape Verde XT die (640SP) but at a lower clock speed than the 7770 to enable it to fit in to the 75W PCIe power spec. That would also make it more powerful than the 7750 it would replace.
Regarding Aureal. I couldn't agree more. I think that they had realistic 3D sound from headphones long before this. Its a shame that Creative Labs bled them to death on ultimately thrown out lawsuits. Curiously, Creative Labs then bought out the remaining IP of Aureal and did nothing with it. I was thrilled when Vista and 7 removed hardware support for sound. Pity that Creative didn't go out of business as a result of it...
TrueAudio may well need access to the GPU at greater than 1/30sec (or slower) intervals*. There may well be hardware limitations on interrupts being available.
* from what little I know about OpenCL programming, this may well crash the system and I could be totally wrong. I still expect TrueAudio to require lower latency than video, and need hardware interrupts.
So it took only 14 years to arrive on the similar audio technology that Aureal had been using in 1998 (before they were bought and wasted by Creative). I played Half-Life, Quake 3 and DeusEx with that tech (Aureal 2) and have not heard better 3D positional sound since then. Aureal used full 3D model for occlusions and reverbs, they could mix up to 64 different sounds in hw and used API similar to OpenGL. They were able to simulate intra aural delay as well as doppler distortion and HRTF on headphones. It was miles ahead of anything Creative had at the time (EAX, 1, 2).
Unfortunately, the technology has also its drawbacks. It needed headphones (as normal cheap speakers most gamers used were did not work that well) and it taxed CPU. But if AMD can offer the same immersion now, it could be good reason to consider an upgrade.
I would love to see DisplayPort become the true industry standard. I love (and longingly dream of) the cards that have like 6 mini-DisplayPort ports and use dongles to diversify. 1x DP is just plain sad.
What am I missing - the photo of the slide shows an R9 280 card and the article even refers to it - "Meanwhile R7 260X, R9 290, and R9 290X will have new audio features (more on that later)" - but the spec chart does not list the R9 290 and the article says that the "Below the 290X will be the R9 280X." Where's the R9 290?
The AMD moneyz were too much to be denied? If you can get one of the main review sites that are well known on board with your own section, you're far less likely to see stinging, horrible reviews on that site.
How much have you seen Anandtech comment on the 4K fiasco AMD is currenting enduring? Or the CF Eyefinity ails? Wasn't it Anandtech that discounted the frame latency issue for the longest before finally acknowledging there was a real problem?
To answer the question, yes, AnandTech is taking "moneyz" for this section:
"You've landed on the AMD Portal on AnandTech. This section is sponsored by AMD. It features a collection of all of our independent AMD content, as well as Tweets & News from AMD directly. AMD will also be running a couple of huge giveaways here so check back for those."
This is an exciting announcement, I think it would have been classy of AMD to include to TrueAudio in the entire lineup (from here on out, like a 5 year commitment for example). Instead they're just mucking up the water with yet another audio technology that may or may not be present or supported. It confounds me that 280X, 270X wouldn't have it. C'mon AMD! You told me it was important!
Well, shame on me for believing them that audio was important... it hasn't been and still isn't. I bet most of us will make more progress with better speakers or headphones than with TrueAudio or not. As it stands I think the gimmick win still goes to NVIDIA with PhysX.
I'm not sure I'd call including it in all cards being "classy". It actually seems more like a smart way to see that the spec actually ends up being emulated.
It's also too bad that some sort of cross licensing arrangement couldn't be made for PhysX in exchange for this. The two main PC graphics companies having different unsupported protocols really sucks.
The news going around currently is that the R7 250 is an Oland card, and that it has a younger Oland Pro sibling. In any case, firestrike scores of 2000 are to be appreciated. Please correct me if I am wrong.
I highly doubt that. Oland has only 384SP, so I see no way that it can achieve a Firestrike score of 2000 unless it is clocked at a ridiculous clock speed ~2GHz, which is unrealistic.
When these cards are tested for the site, pretty please test for 23.976! I know Haswell is the closest to the mark, and I really want to see AMD and nVidia get there too!
Ryan, are the quoted Firestrike scores an overall test score (in which case what was the test platform? CPU-type matters), or the GPU-only score? And do they refer to just Firestrike, or rather Firestrike Extreme?
I love that a mind boggling 6 billion transistors doesn't actually match today's top chip. Crazy. If we can actually keep this up we'll match the human brain in terms of at least ummm transistor to neuron count, which I know isn't the same thing, but still it's mind boggling!
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Death666Angel - Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - link
Wow, that's all pretty cryptic.Batmeat - Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - link
Agreed, probably a big change in architecture with the sound implementations they've put on. Decent Firestrike scores too.tpurves - Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - link
Which compares to.... what Firestrike scores for current AMD or NVDIA skus?ShieTar - Thursday, September 26, 2013 - link
http://www.vortez.net/articles_file/21311_3dmark%2...So the R9 280X would look like a slight upgrade from a 7970, which is pretty much what you'd expect from the $299 launch price tag.
Ortanon - Friday, September 27, 2013 - link
Actually it kind of seems like maybe the R9 280X IS the 7970, MAYBE with a tweaked core. My thinking is the ones with TrueAudio are the only ones with actual architecture changes.heffeque - Friday, September 27, 2013 - link
Watch out, Sherlock's among us!wumpus - Monday, September 30, 2013 - link
That makes sense, but TrueAudio just looks like some software to run a few FFTs at regular intervals. Maybe the 7970 (and 280X) just doesn't have the necessary interrupts.Frenetic Pony - Thursday, September 26, 2013 - link
No bus width, no price on the big one (and why the assumed $200 gap between the big one and next one down?) Not even the artificial benchmark score for the big one. Not a very informative announcement.dragonsqrrl - Thursday, September 26, 2013 - link
Ya, but it's AMD so no ones going to question or complain.TheEvilBlight - Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - link
Abandon the <100 dollar video card segment. Integrated video will probably beat it handily.Though it's possible even the <200 segment is on the way out as well, especially as entry-level integrated is "good enough" for more and more things.
superjim - Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - link
I was surprised to see they are fielding a sub $100 card as well. I thought the 7750 was the last low-end card they were going to put out. I can see nVidia putting out a sub $100 card before I can see AMD doing it because Richland is right there.gochichi - Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - link
I wasn't aware that the 7750 was low-end. I have the 7750 and I've been really pleased with it. It makes a lot of things playable and the best thing about it is that it is completely powered by the bus, so no special power supply is required. It's not my only card, I have a 6870, and also a 7870. I like cards like the 7750 because they just work, and aren't a big deal at all. Desktops are lasting longer than ever, and I can't think of a desktop that I have that couldn't benefit from a better video card. PC gamers are a strange breed, and one older game could be all you care about. Starcraft II, Diablo III, World of Warcraft, and even the Call of Duty series are all examples of games that are very meaningful even today.In any case, my point is that the 7750 is actually not in the low-end, it was released as decidedly "mainstream". Huge difference, both Nvidia and AMD could and probably should exit the actual low-end. I'll put it differently: There's no way in hell that my HD5000 on my ultra book performs anywhere near the 7750, I mean I wish it did, that would make me so happy but it just doesn't at all. If intel were at 7750 levels, AMD and NVIDIA should shutter their doors right now.
In years past I remember getting actual low end cards out of pure need and being really pleasantly surprised by what an architecture change can do to performance. This is central to the magic of desktops... one component change can repair and reinvigorate an old computer for next to nothing. (I'm looking at you SSD, and video cards.)
nathanddrews - Thursday, September 26, 2013 - link
I've got a half-height 7750 in one of my HTPCs paired with an i3-2100. I bought it almost exclusively because it's the most powerful card available in a half-height configuration that has near perfect HTPC functionality. I consider the fact that it can play a lot of games at 1080p with low to med details a bonus. 720p with ultra settings? No problem. None of my SNB or IVB IGPs can do that.superjim - Thursday, September 26, 2013 - link
It's all relative. A 7750 is low-end compared to a Titan or even a 7970. On the other hand I'll take it over integrated graphics any day.Mil0 - Thursday, September 26, 2013 - link
The fastest Richland (A10-6800K) only gets ~1K on 3dmark, Haswell gets 600-700* so I can definitely see the market for 2-3x performance improvement on a budget.* granted, the intel 5200 gets 1K4, but it's not available on desktop and also a *lot* more expensive.
I was hoping for Kaveri to improve on Richland by a huge margin, I might have to dampen my expectations.. (it wouldn't make much sense to bring out the R7 250 if Kaveri gets within striking distance.) It could be that they're introducing the R7 250 for intel systems *fingers crossed for Kaveri*
wumpus - Monday, September 30, 2013 - link
As much as AMD wishes otherwise, some poor souls insist on buying low-end Intel gear. That and it still likely beats an AMD APU.SAimNE - Friday, October 4, 2013 - link
... an apu + one of those low end cards makes a mid range gaming machine for way less than the average cost.crimson117 - Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - link
From a marketing POV, "Integrated graphics" isn't a welcome bullet point on budget pre-built gaming machines (entry level Dell XPS, for example), but "AMD R7 250 1GB Dedicated Graphics!" sure is.Death666Angel - Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - link
Make that 2 or 4GB these days. :PEJS1980 - Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - link
I think you've pretty much nailed it on the head!gochichi - Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - link
That's a great point! It makes me upset to think of the ten-billion low end graphics cards with outrageous (1GB, 2GB, +!) amounts of useless video ram on worthless graphics processors. But that's exactly why that happens. I forgot about this whole methodology of selling graphics.Sailor23M - Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - link
Many people also want to upgrade their Video Cards within $100, rather than drop a ton of money on a new m/c.gochichi - Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - link
Yeah, I completely agree with you. It's the equivalent of replacing a broken XBOX 360. You aren't necessarily looking for an upgrade, maybe the fan went out on the video card, or maybe you love the games you already play and have no time or interest or budget for the latest games.Nagorak - Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - link
Well, if enough people buy it to make it worth their while then why not release it? Could also be an add-in card for older processors or Intel processors. The low end Intel processors still have pretty poor graphics performance.Not to mention, these lower cards might also help rope people in. You have the whole thing where someone sees it on the shelf for $89 and then they see for only $50 more they can get a much better card. They might end up buying that $139 card whereas otherwise the sticker shock would have warded them away.
vegemeister - Thursday, September 26, 2013 - link
The mid range and upper mid range AMD processors have *no* graphics performance. Cheap GPUs are still needed.vegemeister - Thursday, September 26, 2013 - link
Except AMD's current CPU product line doesn't have integrated video on the parts with a reasonable number of cores. Even though the 8350 is a better choice for multithreaded tasks than the Intel CPU at the same price point, it ends up being quite a bit more expensive because you have to spend another $80 on a graphics card to even get video output.SAimNE - Friday, October 4, 2013 - link
you're forgetting that one of the main draws to amd is the low-mid performance market.... the <100 and <200 market may be a bit iffy when choosing it or an apu.... but you're forgetting that amd can make it so your performance will be it AND the apu.ltcommanderdata - Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - link
With Tiled Resources being an optional feature in DX11.2 and everything else being software changes, meaning DX11.1 compliant GPUs are also DX11.2 compliant, if the R7 series isn't DX11.2 compliant doesn't that mean they wouldn't be DX11.1 compliant as well? That would be disappointing.ninjaquick - Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - link
R7 looks like Sea Islands hardware (7790), only the R9 series is actually using the new design of GCN. Audio processing is more closely related to pixel shading in terms of the math that needs to be applied, and it doesn't need special hardware.I would have to guess AMD put it on the R7 just to help move units, and to get a fast-large userbase for developers to more eagerly adopt the tech.
So far, it seems: 290x/290 are the true VI parts, 280 and 270 are (probably) VI as well, since there is no AMD card that can perform on par with the 280's alleged scores.
Pantsu - Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - link
260X is also probably a new chip, considering it also has the TrueAudio dsp.The Von Matrices - Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - link
I beg to differ. It probably is just Bonnaire/7790 which was also promoted as a "new design of GCN" when it was released. It probably has always been preset in hardware but wasn't enabled until they had an entire product line that could feature it.The Von Matrices - Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - link
Multiple posters in this thread beg to differ that the 280's alleged scores can't be achieved by the 7900 series.The most likely scenario is that the the only new chip is Hawaii, the 290 series. The entire product stack is thus:
R9 290X = Hawaii (new chip)
R9 280X = Tahiti (7970)
R9 270X = Pitcairn (7870)
R7 260X = Bonnaire (7790)
R7 250 = Cape Verde (7770)
All the rebrands, of course, would probably have higher clock speeds than their 7000 series predecessors accounting for a minor performance improvement. Otherwise, they are old hat. The only good news is that some of the features advertised may be available on two year old hardware with only a driver update (except the audio DSP), since most of the hardware seems to be identical.
fade2blac - Thursday, September 26, 2013 - link
Based on the given Firestrike scores, your summary seems to line up except for the R9 270X and R7 250. A 5.5k+ bench seems a bit of a stretch for Pitcairn XT and a 7770 is overkill for a 2k+ bench (it also likely pushes the TDP above the 75W PCI-E bus limit which is probably important for the target market on that part).Perhaps the lineup might be more like this:
R9 290X = Hawaii XT (Full Chip - 2816 SP, 4GB w/512-bit, ~$600)
R9 290 = Hawaii Pro (Binned Chip - 2304 SP, 3GB w/384-bit, ~$400)
R9 280X = Tahiti XT2 (7970 Ghz - 2048 SP, 3GB w/384-bit, ~$300)
R9 270X = Tahiti LE (7870 XT - 1536 SP, 2GB w/256-bit, ~$200)
R7 260X = Bonaire XT (7790 - 896 SP, 2GB w/128-bit, ~$139)
R7 250 = Cape Verde Pro (7750 - 512 SP, 1GB w/128-bit, <$89)
As for the audio DSP, I think it may be a proof-of-concept exercise to introduce the next step in the HSA roadmap. If support for this tech requires a new HSA-oriented GCN architecture, that would explain why the rehashed parts won't get it. Of course, as much as I try to make this an educated guess it is all just speculation (especially my guess on the R9 290).
P.S. R.I.P. Aureal, you deserved better than being financially bled to death by defending against frivolous law suits from your competition.
The Von Matrices - Thursday, September 26, 2013 - link
Great analysis. This seems more plausible than my scenario. The only thing I think might change is that the R7 250 might be a Cape Verde XT die (640SP) but at a lower clock speed than the 7770 to enable it to fit in to the 75W PCIe power spec. That would also make it more powerful than the 7750 it would replace.erple2 - Thursday, September 26, 2013 - link
Regarding Aureal. I couldn't agree more. I think that they had realistic 3D sound from headphones long before this. Its a shame that Creative Labs bled them to death on ultimately thrown out lawsuits. Curiously, Creative Labs then bought out the remaining IP of Aureal and did nothing with it. I was thrilled when Vista and 7 removed hardware support for sound. Pity that Creative didn't go out of business as a result of it...wumpus - Monday, September 30, 2013 - link
TrueAudio may well need access to the GPU at greater than 1/30sec (or slower) intervals*. There may well be hardware limitations on interrupts being available.* from what little I know about OpenCL programming, this may well crash the system and I could be totally wrong. I still expect TrueAudio to require lower latency than video, and need hardware interrupts.
vladx - Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - link
My bet is the R9 290X will cost $499. That would be sweet!!!risa2000 - Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - link
So it took only 14 years to arrive on the similar audio technology that Aureal had been using in 1998 (before they were bought and wasted by Creative). I played Half-Life, Quake 3 and DeusEx with that tech (Aureal 2) and have not heard better 3D positional sound since then. Aureal used full 3D model for occlusions and reverbs, they could mix up to 64 different sounds in hw and used API similar to OpenGL. They were able to simulate intra aural delay as well as doppler distortion and HRTF on headphones. It was miles ahead of anything Creative had at the time (EAX, 1, 2).Unfortunately, the technology has also its drawbacks. It needed headphones (as normal cheap speakers most gamers used were did not work that well) and it taxed CPU. But if AMD can offer the same immersion now, it could be good reason to consider an upgrade.
Nagorak - Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - link
The Vortex2 was great! It really was a shame that Creative bought them up and basically killed A3D off.Tams80 - Thursday, September 26, 2013 - link
At least we're getting something like it back.Kevin G - Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - link
Also missing from AMD's announcement of the R9 290X what display connectors the card has. Pictures of it are positioned to hide the back plate.Kepe - Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - link
There are pictures of it, it has 2x DVI + 1x HDMI + 1x DP.gochichi - Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - link
I would love to see DisplayPort become the true industry standard. I love (and longingly dream of) the cards that have like 6 mini-DisplayPort ports and use dongles to diversify. 1x DP is just plain sad.Kevin G - Friday, September 27, 2013 - link
During the live stream I had gotten my hopes up that the 290x would have 6 mini DP + 1 DVI-I for something crazy like 7 portrait Eyefinity.Did mange to find some pics of the card around the web after the live stream. Still kinda odd that they obscured this initially.
ddarko - Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - link
What am I missing - the photo of the slide shows an R9 280 card and the article even refers to it - "Meanwhile R7 260X, R9 290, and R9 290X will have new audio features (more on that later)" - but the spec chart does not list the R9 290 and the article says that the "Below the 290X will be the R9 280X." Where's the R9 290?ddarko - Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - link
Sorry, typo, the photo shows an R9 290 card.Pantsu - Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - link
They'll probably stagger the release and 290 will be released later.Ytterbium - Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - link
7970 Ghz scores 6963, 7950 scores 5750. From Hexus.netSeems like a standard kind of waterfall from previous gen
Ytterbium - Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - link
7790 OC got 3679 so seems like R7 260X might be similar.stickmansam - Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - link
Here are some 3dmark firestrike markshttp://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/graphics/display/...
Seems like most AMD cards have shuffled up half a step. Which sounds about right with the R9 290x somewhere between 7970ghz and 780.
coburn_c - Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - link
Why is there a whole section of this site dedicated to AMD? Has Anand sold out or does he just own a lot of AMD stock?Gigaplex - Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - link
Go troll elsewherehttp://www.anandtech.com/tag/nvidia
HisDivineOrder - Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - link
The AMD moneyz were too much to be denied? If you can get one of the main review sites that are well known on board with your own section, you're far less likely to see stinging, horrible reviews on that site.How much have you seen Anandtech comment on the 4K fiasco AMD is currenting enduring? Or the CF Eyefinity ails? Wasn't it Anandtech that discounted the frame latency issue for the longest before finally acknowledging there was a real problem?
The moneyz, they are so sweet.
jwcalla - Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - link
To answer the question, yes, AnandTech is taking "moneyz" for this section:"You've landed on the AMD Portal on AnandTech. This section is sponsored by AMD. It features a collection of all of our independent AMD content, as well as Tweets & News from AMD directly. AMD will also be running a couple of huge giveaways here so check back for those."
gochichi - Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - link
This is an exciting announcement, I think it would have been classy of AMD to include to TrueAudio in the entire lineup (from here on out, like a 5 year commitment for example). Instead they're just mucking up the water with yet another audio technology that may or may not be present or supported. It confounds me that 280X, 270X wouldn't have it. C'mon AMD! You told me it was important!Well, shame on me for believing them that audio was important... it hasn't been and still isn't. I bet most of us will make more progress with better speakers or headphones than with TrueAudio or not. As it stands I think the gimmick win still goes to NVIDIA with PhysX.
Nagorak - Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - link
I'm not sure I'd call including it in all cards being "classy". It actually seems more like a smart way to see that the spec actually ends up being emulated.It's also too bad that some sort of cross licensing arrangement couldn't be made for PhysX in exchange for this. The two main PC graphics companies having different unsupported protocols really sucks.
Nagorak - Thursday, September 26, 2013 - link
That should be implemented, not emulated.Arnulf - Thursday, September 26, 2013 - link
Except that there are a lot of people posting questions and complaining about AMD being cryptic right here. Go away troll!hojnikb - Thursday, September 26, 2013 - link
make r7 250 a lowprofile card by default and i'll be a happy person. 7750LP just holds a too big of a premium..lopper - Thursday, September 26, 2013 - link
The news going around currently is that the R7 250 is an Oland card, and that it has a younger Oland Pro sibling. In any case, firestrike scores of 2000 are to be appreciated. Please correct me if I am wrong.The Von Matrices - Thursday, September 26, 2013 - link
I highly doubt that. Oland has only 384SP, so I see no way that it can achieve a Firestrike score of 2000 unless it is clocked at a ridiculous clock speed ~2GHz, which is unrealistic.lopper - Thursday, September 26, 2013 - link
The hd 7730, with 384 SP, gets a firestrike of 1600. Seems likely to me.lopper - Thursday, September 26, 2013 - link
The R7 260 looks like Cape Verde.n0b0dykn0ws - Thursday, September 26, 2013 - link
When these cards are tested for the site, pretty please test for 23.976! I know Haswell is the closest to the mark, and I really want to see AMD and nVidia get there too!silverblue - Friday, September 27, 2013 - link
I thought both AMD and nVIDIA were already there?lopper - Thursday, September 26, 2013 - link
The hd 7730 gddr5 is capable of 1600 in firestrike. Seems likely enough. That card has 384 sharers,mapesdhs - Friday, September 27, 2013 - link
Ryan, are the quoted Firestrike scores an overall test score (in which case what
was the test platform? CPU-type matters), or the GPU-only score? And do they
refer to just Firestrike, or rather Firestrike Extreme?
Ian.
Dman23 - Friday, September 27, 2013 - link
Sweet! these look awesome and quite powerfulsmitty123 - Saturday, September 28, 2013 - link
why the f do they mess with us with these numbers ?just put something simple: R7 and R7e for enthousiast.
and what does the x in 290x stand for ?
i hate amd now, they lost me.
piroroadkill - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link
I agree that the numbering system is total bollocks, but it's not a reason to hate the cards themselves.Wolfpup - Wednesday, October 2, 2013 - link
I love that a mind boggling 6 billion transistors doesn't actually match today's top chip. Crazy. If we can actually keep this up we'll match the human brain in terms of at least ummm transistor to neuron count, which I know isn't the same thing, but still it's mind boggling!markchadwick - Thursday, February 20, 2014 - link
Good for htpc's?