Rumor: AMD Updating R9 280 with Efficient Tonga GPU
Will we be seeing a refreshed, more efficient R9 280 on shelves soon?
Chinese website VR-Zone has posted a report stating that AMD will be updating its Radeon R9 280 and R9 280X graphics cards to units with a new GPU. We recently reported on this same GPU, though we weren’t sure which card it would be for. The GPU is known as Tonga.
The exact technical specifications for the new R9 280 and R9 280X remain unknown. While the report does indicate that they will still come with the same 2 GB of GDDR5 memory, the old R9 280 and R9 280X, which were based on the original Radeon HD 7950 and HD 7970 both come with 3 GB of GDDR5 memory. Something isn’t right here.
Whether the new GPU will be fabricated on a 20 nm lithographic process also remains uncertain, though it is certain that the GPU will be a lot more efficient than the older Tahiti Pro GPU due to architectural changes. Performance will probably be identical to that of the old R9 280, as it wouldn’t exactly make sense to build a card with the same name that performs differently.
It also remains to be seen what effect this will have on pricing, though the change is expected to be seen sometime mid-august. The difference in frame buffer has certainly left us wondering whether this will really be a replacement to the existing R9 280 card.
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Yeah, especially when you consider the HD 5000 and 6000 series only trumped their Nvidia counterparts in power efficiency for that generation.
Yeah, especially when you consider the HD 5000 and 6000 series only trumped their Nvidia counterparts in power efficiency for that generation.
My guess is because they do not want people to quit buying the old version.
If they branded it the R9-281(X), tons of people would now consider the R9-280(X) completely obsolete even though it should perform practically the same.
Yes, it seems silly and unnecessarily confusing. If they are so concerned with people shunning all the stock of 280-based products out there, they could have released the new chips as 281 and tacked a significant premium on it for the time being so card manufacturers and retailers can flush their old inventory.
AMD only has a tiny bit over 4% more market share than Nvidia. Don't know that I would call that dominating. Note that AMD's market share includes the integrated GPU on it's A-series CPUs, so when it comes down to actual discrete GPUs, Nvidia probably has more market share than AMD. If anything, Intel is dominating by having 63% of the market share due to all of the pcs out there with it's integrated graphics.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2014/02/19/pc-gpu-market-bounces-back-with-nvidia-up-and-amd-down/
Last time the Discrete Market share was 62% for Nvidia and 38% for AMD.
Last time the Discrete Market share was 62% for Nvidia and 38% for AMD.
Last time I checked, which was sometime in Q1, Nvidia had a 65% share of the discrete grahics market, AMD was 35%. When you look at the professional GPU market Nvidia was at ~79% while AMD was ~20%.
As of Q1 AMD still technically maintains a slight advantage in the overall GPU market compared to Nvidia when you include iGPUs, but in that case Intel is far and away dominating everything with ~66% market share. Nvidia was at 16.6%, AMD was at 16.7%.
Well probably, I just couldn't find Q12014 results...
Well probably, I just couldn't find Q12014 results...
http://jonpeddie.com/press-releases/details/add-in-board-market-down-in-q1-nvidia-holds-market-share/
TSMC isn't ready for 22nm processes yet, they were delayed into next year for delivery as the yields are incredibly low right now. So I seriously doubt anyone will be shipping 20nm, not in any meaningful capacity, you won't see any improvements in performance or power management this year at 22nm - straight from the horses mouth.
TSMC has no 22nm on their roadmap. You might be thinking of Intel. TSMC jumps directly to 20nm.
Not much point in "waiting for R300" when half the models will simply be rebadged R200s so you need to check chip models down to revision numbers if you want to make sure you got an actual R300-generation chip of any model.
the same 2 GB of GDDR5 memory"
2gb!!!!!!!
AMD only has a tiny bit over 4% more market share than Nvidia. Don't know that I would call that dominating. Note that AMD's market share includes the integrated GPU on it's A-series CPUs, so when it comes down to actual discrete GPUs, Nvidia probably has more market share than AMD. If anything, Intel is dominating by having 63% of the market share due to all of the pcs out there with it's integrated graphics.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2014/02/19/pc-gpu-market-bounces-back-with-nvidia-up-and-amd-down/
To take it a step further, NV owns 65% discrete, while AMD has 35. The money is made on discrete, so I don't really count APU's and those are useless for gamers unless you like 1366x768 with details down. They might become useful at 20nm maybe for 1080p but even then I doubt it and you'll still be jacking around settings on a per game basis. I prefer a gpu I can set it at max and forget it for my chosen res. Integrated stuff is a few die shrinks away from that even for 1080p (my real guess here is 14nm with a large cache like IRIS or 10nm for Intel as I doubt they even catch AMD APU with broadwell in the gpu dept). That may be ok for some (casual), but for the serious gamers the same people that buy them keep buying them for the same reason (better game visuals and speed).
As more casual realize the gpu potential (now that you can actually game semi-ok on APU) I think you're going to see them move to discrete in at least some numbers. I'm not saying all obviously, but I expect discrete growth as they want more power and see what they're missing or the pain in the neck of trying to get this or that game to run without fps going to crap. They will find it is easier to just go discrete and get way better visuals and less screwing with settings. We've already seen some growth which is why NV's revenue records came during PC slowdown of ~12%. This quarter will be an anomaly due to AMD stocking to much and bitcoin etc dying for gpus vs. asics (wow, just as I predicted, party over in june). We'll have to see how much it hurts NV since nobody was really buying their cards for mining. I also think many of us are waiting on 20nm at this point but maybe that's just me. The mining crap will hurt AMD more than NV for sure, but I really hope it isn't the 30-40% rumors are claiming as that would be a HUGE hit for AMD to take.