AMD targeted the mainstream market when it debuted the RX 400 series graphics cards. The RX 480 was the industry’s first $200 VR-ready GPU, and the RX 470 and 460 offered more performance-per-dollar than any of the company’s previous graphics cards. The key to Radeon’s next-gen performance is the Polaris 10 architecture, and AMD is now branching into the embedded market with the new GPU in an effort to bring high-performance imaging to the medical field, digital signage, and commercial casino gaming.
AMD’s new embedded Polaris offerings feature the same Polaris 10 GPU we see in the desktop variants, and it comes in two different models. The E9260 can come as an MXM module or a PCIe card and features 14 compute units (CUs) for a total of 896 shaders, with 4GB of GDDR5 memory running on a 128-bit bus.
The E9260 can reach up to 2.5 TFLOPs with its 50W TDP. The E9550 is beefier, with 36 CUs (for a total of 2,304 shader cores), 8GB of GDDR5, and a 256-bit memory bus. However, the E9550 comes in only an MXM form factor, but it can hit 5.8 TFLOPs of single-precision calculations with a 95W TDP.
We’ve already discussed the role that VR has to play in the gambling market, and AMD appears to have its finger on that pulse with the new E9550 and E9260 embedded graphics, which are capable of delivering 4K and VR experiences in an appealing form factor.
Although these new cards won’t be on the consumer market, the debut of the E9550 and E9260 confirm that AMD is striving to become an even more relevant factor in the commercial markets.
| Product | AMD Radeon E9550 | AMD Radeon E9260 |
|---|---|---|
| Form Factor | MXM Type B | -MXM Type A-PCIe 3.0 x16 |
| Compute Units | 36 | 14 |
| Memory | 8 GB GDDR5 | 4 GB GDDR5 |
| Memory Width | 256-bit | 128-bit |
| TDP | 95W | 50W |
| Outputs | DisplayPort x6 | -Mini-DisplayPort x4 (PCIe)-DisplayPort x5 (MXM) |
| Planned Longevity | 3 Years | 5 Years |
