As you saw during our coverage of AMD’s GPU14 Tech Day in Hawaii, there are three SKUs in AMD’s line-up with TrueAudio support: R9 290X, R9 290 (neither of which are available yet), and R7 260X.

The Tensilica (a fabless semiconductor company) DSPs that enable TrueAudio are built onto AMD’s GPUs, which might make you think, “Ah ha, a new feature on-die—surely we must also be dealing with a new GPU, too.” Disappointingly, no. This functionality was actually part of the Bonaire processor that launched alongside Radeon HD 7790 (AMD Radeon HD 7790 Review: Graphics Core Next At $150, from March of this year), but was simply not enabled. Now, at least, it’s available for middleware developers to play with and, eventually, expose.

Bonaire, as it appeared on the Radeon HD 7790, boasted 896 shaders, 56 texture units, and 16 ROPs. The sample we reviewed had a GPU running at 1 GHz with 1 GB of GDDR5 memory at 6 GT/s on a 128-bit bus. Power, interestingly enough, was rated at 85 W, deliverable through the PCI Express slot and one six-pin lead. Bonaire was also AMD’s first GPU with an updated version of PowerTune featuring a second-generation voltage regulation controller able to control voltage in 6.25 mV steps. The result of this functionality is much faster response to changes in input (temperature, activity, or telemetry) and corresponding voltage/clock rate/fan speed adjustments.

The GPU that shows up on R7 260X features all of the same vital specs, including the newer PowerTune implementation. Only, its engine clock operates at up to 1.1 GHz. Its memory (now 2 GB instead of 1) streaks along at 1625 MHz over an aggregate 128-bit bus, serving up to 104 GB/s of bandwidth. It’s still serviceable by a single six-pin power cable, but the result of higher clock rates all around are a board power that jumps to 115 W. That’ll hardly be an issue for most folks.

As of this writing, Gigabyte has a Radeon HD 7790 running at 1075 MHz with 2 GB of memory at 1500 MHz selling for $140 on Newegg. AMD plans to sell the R7 260X for the same $140. Most of the other 7790s are 1 GB models, so AMD is still adding some value. But there’s really not much to get excited about in the shift from Radeon HD 7790 to R7 260X, aside from TrueAudio getting switched on. And even then, we need to wait for the feature to get enabled in upcoming games.
- Tahiti, Pitcairn, And Bonaire Show Up For An Encore
- R9 280X: The Tahiti GPU’s Second (Or Third?) Lease On Life
- R9 270X: Pitcairn Gets A Little Boost
- R7 260X: TrueAudio’s First Outing On The Back Of Bonaire
- TrueAudio: Dedicated Resources For Sound Processing
- Display Technology
- Test Setup And Software
- Results: Arma III
- Results: Battlefield 3
- Results: BioShock Infinite
- Results: Crysis 3
- Results: Grid 2
- Results: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
- Results: Tomb Raider
- CAD: AutoCAD 2013 And Inventor 2013
- OpenGL: Maya 2013 And LightWave
- OpenCL: Bitmining, OpenCL, And RatGPU
- Power Consumption
- Clock Rate And Temperature
- Fan Speed And Noise
- Old GPUs Ride Again, But That’s Not A Bad Thing
I wrote one of the least flattering GTX 780 stories out there. I only identified a couple of situations where a Titan made any sense at all. And although the 760 *did* change the balance at $250, that card still didn't get an award. I liked the 770 for the simple fact that it delivered better-than-680 performance for close to $100 less.
The rest of AMD's new line-up is a lot like what exists already. Again, the 7870 is a better value than 270X. So what are you getting worked up over? The fact that I'm pointing out these aren't new GPUs? They're not.
Best to hold out till the reviews on the R9-290X I guess. But considering the specs I hope for at least 20% performance increases over a 7970.
The MSI R9 280X Gaming at $299 appears to outperform the GTX 770 at 1600P and is within margin of error at 1080P according to Techpowerup. Not a bad value at $100 less and still overclocks well:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/R9_280X_Gaming/26.html
Best to hold out till the reviews on the R9-290X I guess. But considering the specs I hope for at least 20% performance increases over a 7970.
Are the days of (nearly) annual simultaneous full line GPU launches from $100-500 with a dual GPU chip to follow at $750-1000 really over?
I wrote one of the least flattering GTX 780 stories out there. I only identified a couple of situations where a Titan made any sense at all. And although the 760 *did* change the balance at $250, that card still didn't get an award. I liked the 770 for the simple fact that it delivered better-than-680 performance for close to $100 less.
The rest of AMD's new line-up is a lot like what exists already. Again, the 7870 is a better value than 270X. So what are you getting worked up over? The fact that I'm pointing out these aren't new GPUs? They're not.
That goes to you too Mr. NVIDIA
you won't want to. the 260 is more expensive, and you'll only get 1gb of it's memory in a xfire with a 7790. (in xfire/sli, the video memory is duplicated on both cards... not shared... so the total memory of the xfire/sli setup is equal to the smallest total mememory on each of the cards. so a 2gb + 1 gb gpu in xfire will have basically 1gb of vram for the xfire setup.
you won't want to. the 260 is more expensive, and you'll only get 1gb of it's memory in a xfire with a 7790. (in xfire/sli, the video memory is duplicated on both cards... not shared... so the total memory of the xfire/sli setup is equal to the smallest total mememory on each of the cards. so a 2gb + 1 gb gpu in xfire will have basically 1gb of vram for the xfire setup.
the true audio thing is still a mystery. We have to see if this thing really takes off or not. If this thing is at least has a just small success like physyx, I guess I wont mind shelling out just extra $10-20 for it.
the 7970/r9-280x is not competing in the 770's price bracket anymore. the 770 is 400 min... until that price comes down reviewing it against the 7970 would make as much sense as reviewing a 7950 against a gtx 650.
What retailer is doing this deal? I've been holding out to upgrade my 5850 for a while now and a pair of these would be a nice little (gigantic) upgrade
It feels like the price per pixel (in games at a given setting) has stayed the same for a while despite the increase in average display resolutions. Which would equate to gaming getting more and more expensive if you like to max the settings. I don't know if this is AMD/NVidia's fault or the game developers fault or both but it's kind of annoying.