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AliG
02-28-2017, 12:44 PM
Okay, so its not everyday that the SVP of our beloved company hints at our humble existence. At the Capsaicin and Cream event a few minutes back, Raja Koduri playfully hinted that while speculation has been high, the Vega GPU will not be called the RX 490 or the RX 580, thanking us for inventing brand names that didn?t exist (we would point Raja to the official AMD nomenclature, but hey, we can take a joke), and revealing the true name of the graphics card in question: the RX Vega.

http://wccftech.com/amd-vega-gpu-called-rx-vega/

I don't know what the hell they were thinking with that presentation though... 90 minutes of random VR talk, followed with a "spicy" reveal that Vega shall retail as RX Vega.

Honestly, that makes me really nervous about Vega. With Nvidia announcing the 1080 Ti tonight, I thought for sure they would counter that launch with some big reveal of their own. The fact they did a bunch of hand waiving does not leave me with confidence.

StAndrew
02-28-2017, 01:02 PM
From what I can tell, Vega 10 = Fiji with a die shrink and clock boost + HBM2.

Maybe some tweaks here and there but it appears to be a cheap GTX1080, which isn't so bad. If Nvidia doesn't adjust their pricing, the Vega 10 can still be a competative product. Seriously, how many people game 4k? I don't think you NEED much more than a 1060 these days. I game at 2880 x 1440 on a GTX 780TI and the only slow down I get is with Total War Warhammer because of a 3GB frame buffer :shrug:

AliG
02-28-2017, 01:05 PM
Wouldn't it have made sense to announce that though? I.e. we're offering GTX 1080 performance for $500 or whatever.

They've been giving us a greatest hits of Ryzen (and curiously allowing pre-orders prior to NDA reviews or any public overclocking), but did a whole bunch of hand waiving today for Vega. I don't know if you watched the livestream or not, but the crowd's awkward silence said it all.

Greg83
02-28-2017, 01:17 PM
down the fury road , is the V(5)ega
they also called fury fury.

this is basically becoming amd's titan line

by NAVY, their might be mainstream cards with gddr6 and HBM3 on the NAVY card, which basically can 100% the mainstream offering at twice the price, but also have twice the performance, instead of going multi gpu. much like titan line cards.

also producing the amd server line of cards in the process.

titans for servers and the biggest fish in gaming, then cutt it down refresh the mainstream offerings with gddr5x, do it again, profits, like titan line and its cutt down versions in mainstream, refreshed for TI's , refreshed for 9's after 8's and then. do another fury, made max mad max fury road. the made max Vega of moves.

and then just like how amd's been treated by the made to the max titan moves in limited numbers cause too expensive, so always having the best card, amd will do the same moves nvidia has to please investors, and get that but they got the best card on the market, so buy their mainstream.

StAndrew
02-28-2017, 01:23 PM
Yeah, it was a little too much hype and a long presentation for what it was.

TBH, I wouldn't make a good PR rep; I don't lie very well.

"Today we are releasing more re-hashed crap with driver gimmicks that only work if game producers invest money into exiling our competitor’s customer base which makes up over %60 of the market... Any questions?"

Ok that was a little judgemental...

AliG
02-28-2017, 01:27 PM
Yeah, it was a little too much hype and a long presentation for what it was.

TBH, I wouldn't make a good PR rep; I don't lie very well.

"Today we are releasing more re-hashed crap with driver gimmicks that only work if game producers invest money into exiling our competitor’s customer base which makes up over %60 of the market... Any questions?"

Ok that was a little judgemental...

lol Raja sounded totally drunk out there.

Like he saw the slides, went "you seriously want me to say this :banana::banana::banana::banana: live in front of the world?", took a double shot of vodka and went on stage.

Metroid
02-28-2017, 03:18 PM
I guess they are more concerned with Ryzen right now. I watched most of the live stream and did not like anything they showed, not interested in VR.

Ace123
02-28-2017, 03:21 PM
There's actually quite a bit of an overhaul under the hood that amd could no longer identify it as GCN.

BenchZowner
02-28-2017, 03:44 PM
Most of the VR content shown was laughable.
I'd be ashamed to showcase some of them :D

AliG
02-28-2017, 04:29 PM
I guess they are more concerned with Ryzen right now. I watched most of the live stream and did not like anything they showed, not interested in VR.


Most of the VR content shown was laughable.
I'd be ashamed to showcase some of them :D

Yeah that's what really concerned me as a share holder. I think I'm going to get out of the game after the Ryzen launch.


There's actually quite a bit of an overhaul under the hood that amd could no longer identify it as GCN.

Understood, though that's not necessarily a good thing. I doubt Vega is a metaphorical Bulldozer by any stretch, but I have to imagine if they had something to show it would have been demonstrated to steal the 1080 Ti's thunder.

Metroid
02-28-2017, 04:38 PM
Yeah that's what really concerned me as a share holder. I think I'm going to get out of the game after the Ryzen launch.


That is typical, buy on news, sell few days after launch or before launch, AMD shares crashed a bit today, almost 5%, some sold before the launch.

AliG
02-28-2017, 05:02 PM
That is typical, buy on news, sell few days after launch or before launch, AMD shares crashed a bit today, almost 5%, some sold before the launch.

Haha yeah I got in around $3 last year. I basically stalked the company until they finally had a positive earnings report.

I'm getting out now though. I honestly think the hype levels are getting unrealistic for Ryzen/Vega, and have already gotten a massive return on my initial investment.

chispy
02-28-2017, 05:28 PM
I have just watched the event , it was the same old blah bah bla , more VR, more VR ... marketing stuff. I was hoping for more content on Vega GPU and perhaps a peek at a Vega GPU working in all it's glory. Oh and the big reveal of that show was the Vega it's going to be called RX Vega :p: , perhaps they did not want to steal the thunder from the Ryzen launch or maybe they will let the Nvidia GTX 1080Ti launch first to see how it performs. Anyhow , it felt like we were trolled by Raja :ROTF:

BenchZowner
02-28-2017, 05:36 PM
nVIDIA's biggest Pascal core is on the Quadro P6000... 3840 SM.
It's available on the market.
They can't go higher than this, they could and should stay under Titan X(P).

There's no easier thing than predicting the 1080 Ti's performance.

This "no show" of today only harmed their own image and confused, clouded the thoughts and patience of the consumers waiting for Vega.
Today's event was as close to amateurism as one can go.

chispy
02-28-2017, 05:39 PM
nVIDIA's biggest Pascal core is on the Quadro P6000... 3840 SM.
It's available on the market.
They can't go higher than this, they could and should stay under Titan X(P).

There's no easier thing than predicting the 1080 Ti's performance.

This "no show" of today only harmed their own image and confused, clouded the thoughts and patience of the consumers waiting for Vega.
Today's event was as close to amateurism as one can go.

Great to see you here Bill :up: , how are you doing my old friend long time no see ? I totally agree with you here !

Sly Fox
02-28-2017, 05:49 PM
I should have known not to think AMD could hit a homerun twice in a row.

Grrr, I don't even know what to do. I don't want to put my GTX 970 into my new Ryzen build... But I also don't want to buy a Pascal GPU right before prices maybe go down...

First world problems. :D

BenchZowner
02-28-2017, 05:49 PM
Hey Angelo, long time no see!
Good, pretty busy the past 6 months, but can't complain about having a lot of work that pays off decently right ? ( considering I'm in a "typically" bankrupt country :p )

Been contemplating on purchasing some new stuff and bench on LN2 again anytime soon.
Caught myself wanting to bench again lol.

Hope AMD didn't flop with Vega and made a "Ryzen-like" engineering wonder, we need some serious competition in the GPU market, nVIDIA has been left all alone for quite a while now and they are acting Intel-like with their continuous price bracket raise with every new flagship.
It has gotten rather silly.

chispy
02-28-2017, 05:55 PM
Hey Angelo, long time no see!
Good, pretty busy the past 6 months, but can't complain about having a lot of work that pays off decently right ? ( considering I'm in a "typically" bankrupt country :p )

Been contemplating on purchasing some new stuff and bench on LN2 again anytime soon.
Caught myself wanting to bench again lol.

Hope AMD didn't flop with Vega and made a "Ryzen-like" engineering wonder, we need some serious competition in the GPU market, nVIDIA has been left all alone for quite a while now and they are acting Intel-like with their continuous price bracket raise with every new flagship.
It has gotten rather silly.

Great tom hear from you bro. Indeed Nvidia has starting acting up like Intel :/ , hopefullu Vega will bring something new to the table. I got the overclocking bug again too Bill :yepp: , been so many years lol. Maybe i can repair my Blue 2 stage cascade or something ( she is been broken for over 3 years now , second stage compressor dead ). Hop we get her back to bussiness.

Kind regards: Angelo

chew*
02-28-2017, 06:02 PM
Ill be honest if vega is anything like fury x or the dyanamic tdp control and companies keep making green products i dont see it benefitting us ( extreme overclockers ) only the mainstream market. If it can be competive on that front it will gain market share however.

I like the fury x....if comparing at stock. It ends there.

BenchZowner
02-28-2017, 06:05 PM
TDP control, throttling due to power limits, turbo boost, funky shiet.
Take us back to the old days :D
Give us a Radeon 9700 Pro "2017" version :D

Metroid
02-28-2017, 07:42 PM
Haha yeah I got in around $3 last year. I basically stalked the company until they finally had a positive earnings report.

I'm getting out now though. I honestly think the hype levels are getting unrealistic for Ryzen/Vega, and have already gotten a massive return on my initial investment.


Amazing, at $3, you are 4.30x, that is 330% profit if my calculation is correct, I hope you bought as much as you could. Ryzen really helped the shareholders, yes get out while you can.

Tim
03-01-2017, 01:45 AM
Sheesh, really AMD, how can you rock with Ryzen and fail so hard with Vega. Just take Raja off the platform, for starters. With 1080 Ti out, there is not a chance in hell Vega will recapture the high end market. And hey, it's going to be a year late soon! No rush AMD!

I'm just annoyed now after that farce.

BenchZowner
03-01-2017, 02:56 AM
Whoever attended/saw both events ( AMD's and nVIDIA's ) must be wondering WTF is wrong with AMD.

And to all the "AMD will bring pre-high end performance value"... nVIDIA just ruined those dreams with the 1080 at 499 ( which could slip lower in case AMD releases Vega for less ).

Damn.

vario
03-01-2017, 05:04 AM
AMD is like a gambling addict, they shoot for the stars and mostly lose :-/ .
Vega is already almost a year late. Thats glofo bet + hbm2 bet .So no wonder when they finally come out , they will be a year+ behind.
Nvidia just cut 1080 a 100$ even though they didnt had to .Cause theres no more amd competition.That means they are sitting on a big pile of 1080ti and 1080 chips.No wonder, TSMC had the time to fine tune the already decent process.
To me it seems that going glofo for all was a mistake.And no wonder, they didnt had the greatest track record.RX480 is pretty much a worse choice than the 1060 ,and nvidia is equpping them now with faster memory.I mean RX480 is good at stock, but nv clocks much better.
So yea, AMD GPU division doesnt look great for this year.Maybe next.
I have a 3,5 half year product from AMD, and they really dont have anything to offer me. RX480 is same perf, Fury is old hot and also has 4Gb ,390X is just a rehash of 290X.That just looks bad.

Sparky
03-01-2017, 05:06 AM
Well that kinda messes up my hopes a bit. Was thinking if I did upgrade my PC this year it would be a Zen + Vega. But if it is lackluster, what's the point.

Might end up back in the AMD camp CPU-wise, but hop over to the nVidia camp for GPU, if AMD can't deliver there. Would be the first time in a while I haven't had an ATI/AMD card (last 3 cards were 7950, 4870, X1950XT)

AliG
03-01-2017, 05:14 AM
Amazing, at $3, you are 4.30x, that is 330% profit if my calculation is correct, I hope you bought as much as you could. Ryzen really helped the shareholders, yes get out while you can.

Already sold at $14.50, was more than half up to 6-figures worth lol. I have a hunch stock is about to go way down based off the 1080 Ti being faster than Titan X (and more power efficient), as well as the typical disappointment that comes from reviews showing a $500 CPU isn't more powerful than 6950X. May buy back once the dust settles with the expectation that earnings will speak for themselves - but at much lower share quantity.


Whoever attended/saw both events ( AMD's and nVIDIA's ) must be wondering WTF is wrong with AMD.

And to all the "AMD will bring pre-high end performance value"... nVIDIA just ruined those dreams with the 1080 at 499 ( which could slip lower in case AMD releases Vega for less ).

Damn.

Yeah that's why I got out. The combination of all the hand waiving (wtf were they thinking with all the VR stuff and the constant heavy metal intros?) and 1080 Ti being very legit makes me think you're going to see a big drop today.

Mechanical Man
03-01-2017, 05:51 AM
Why would AMD distract Ryzen hypetrain with something else, specially when Ryzen NDA breaks off tomorrow and that would be another distraction again. Capsaicin also is not consumer event.

Its just stupid to expect them to release performance numbers on product coming in Q2/17.

I think just Radeon Vega would have been better than having RX in it. Maybe go with Ryzen like naming, "Vega 7, Vega 5, Vega 3".

kromosto
03-01-2017, 05:56 AM
I am not concern about what amd said or not said but price cut of 1080 will hurt them a lot.

AliG
03-01-2017, 06:02 AM
Why would AMD distract Ryzen hypetrain with something else, specially when Ryzen NDA breaks off tomorrow and that would be another distraction again. Capsaicin also is not consumer event.

Its just stupid to expect them to release performance numbers on product coming in Q2/17.

I think just Radeon Vega would have been better than having RX in it. Maybe go with Ryzen like naming, "Vega 7, Vega 5, Vega 3".

I don't think you're taking the market into account. The stock is incredibly risky at its current valuation; people wanted assurances that Vega would compete given Nvidia was announcing the 1080 Ti.

Giving out promising Vega information would have further boosted the Ryzen launch. The lack of any substance, compounded by all the random bs they did (like that "spicy" tidbit that it'll be retail as RX Vega), is very telling.

BenchZowner
03-01-2017, 06:09 AM
People are building new rigs now with Ryzen... most of them accompany their purchase with a graphics card.
nVIDIA's move makes things very tempting. And plenty of people are now speculating that AMD might have a flop with Vega and that's why they haven't disclosed a single performance figure.

Mechanical Man
03-01-2017, 06:10 AM
I don't think you're taking the market into account. The stock is incredibly risky at its current valuation; people wanted assurances that Vega would compete given Nvidia was announcing the 1080 Ti.

Giving out promising Vega information would have further boosted the Ryzen launch. The lack of any substance, compounded by all the random bs they did (like that "spicy" tidbit that it'll be retail as RX Vega), is very telling.

In any case nVidia timing TI on same day they could have not won it. They gave some more with showing hbcc in action. And really, capsaicing is not consumer event, try to get that.

And what comes about stock price, no real investor needed any half assed performance figures that could have been given now. Its just what consumers wanted. nVidia never gives performance numbers three months before launch, there is real reasons for it, same goes for AMD. its just stupid to think otherwise.

Mechanical Man
03-01-2017, 06:12 AM
People are building new rigs now with Ryzen... most of them accompany their purchase with a graphics card.
nVIDIA's move makes things very tempting. And plenty of people are now speculating that AMD might have a flop with Vega and that's why they haven't disclosed a single performance figure.

You really think it would make any difference? We dont know if Vega launch is march or june, most likely its june. Nobody would wait for that long to get the final performance. Those who would, will wait it anyway (they have good enough gpu now).

BenchZowner
03-01-2017, 06:17 AM
The percent of patient people in the gaming and PC enthusiast category is... pretty low you know.

Not much can be done now, they should focus on launching earlier not taking their time.
Their release schedule has been terrible for the past 2 years, aren't you tired of them trying to catch up with nVIDIA like 1 year later with every new piece ?

Mechanical Man
03-01-2017, 06:29 AM
The percent of patient people in the gaming and PC enthusiast category is... pretty low you know.

Not much can be done now, they should focus on launching earlier not taking their time.
Their release schedule has been terrible for the past 2 years, aren't you tired of them trying to catch up with nVIDIA like 1 year later with every new piece ?

If its not ready, its not ready. There is no point releasing half year ahead, it does not do any good business wise. I'm not tired of waiting, I don't do that, i buy what ever is best for me at the time of the purchase (when I have the need). Naturally I do hope AMD gets also Vega right (Ryzen looks like pretty good product, tomorrow we will know), that would do only good for us consumers.

I do have my hopes up becouse Sampsa wrote in end of the Titan X article "N?ht?v?ksi j??, kuinka paljon NVIDIAn tarvitsee puristaa tehoja irti GP102-grafiikkapiirist?, jotta se pystyy kilpailemaan Vegan kanssa." 13.2.2017

That translates to: "It remains to be seen how much nVidia will squeece more performance out of GP102 graphics chip (as TI variant), so that it can conpete with Vega".

Tim
03-01-2017, 09:07 AM
Why would AMD distract Ryzen hypetrain with something else, specially when Ryzen NDA breaks off tomorrow and that would be another distraction again. Capsaicin also is not consumer event.


Because Vega complements Ryzen. They go hand in hand when it comes to marketing. There are a lot of people who want AMD/AMD in their rigs. It would not be a distraction to the hypetrain, but an extra push in the right direction. Consumers, investors need to believe in AMD again, in all their products.


And really, capsaicing is not consumer event, try to get that.


Yet it's consumers and then some that talk all about it!

Ket
03-01-2017, 09:20 AM
Lets not count Vega out. While Vega itself I don't find all that interesting (or VR for that matter), I am interested in what all the Vega GPUs that don't make the "big Vega" cut become. No doubt a whole new RX line to put the semi-failure of Polaris (solid, but dodgy OC-ability hurts it a fair bit) out to pasture.

That said, I have noticed the latest batches of RX480s are clocking at around what I initially said they would - 1.45GHz or so, so maybe not all is lost for Polaris quite yet.

Still though, I hardly see how coming out and saying officially what the name of Vega will be along with a design could be called good info.. all somewhat predictable really. Surely AMD could of told people some peliminary clock speeds or something for something of even tangible interest? I mean really, the "announcement", wasn't any announcement at all. AMDs failure of a PR department at its finest again I see :rolleyes:

StAndrew
03-01-2017, 09:34 AM
Lets not count Vega out. While Vega itself I don't find all that interesting (or VR for that matter), I am interested in what all the Vega GPUs that don't make the "big Vega" cut become. No doubt a whole new RX line to put the semi-failure of Polaris (solid, but dodgy OC-ability hurts it a fair bit) out to pasture.

That said, I have noticed the latest batches of RX480s are clocking at around what I initially said they would - 1.45GHz or so, so maybe not all is lost for Polaris quite yet.

Still though, I hardly see how coming out and saying officially what the name of Vega will be along with a design could be called good info.. all somewhat predictable really. Surely AMD could of told people some peliminary clock speeds or something for something of even tangible interest? I mean really, the "announcement", wasn't any announcement at all. AMDs failure of a PR department at its finest again I see :rolleyes:

I agree; I don't think Vega will be a terrible launch; depending on price, I think matching or even beating out the GTX1080 would keep AMD in the game. I don't know what they hoped to accomplish at Capsaicin and cream...

AliG
03-01-2017, 09:42 AM
Still though, I hardly see how coming out and saying officially what the name of Vega will be along with a design could be called good info.. all somewhat predictable really. Surely AMD could of told people some peliminary clock speeds or something for something of even tangible interest? I mean really, the "announcement", wasn't any announcement at all. AMDs failure of a PR department at its finest again I see :rolleyes:

That was my concern. They knew Nvidia had a big disclosure planned, but then just presented a poor man's hype machine about VR instead. Juxtaposing this to the relative transparency of Ryzen/Polaris, but obliquity of Bulldozer, does not leave me with confidence.

In the end I got my nut off the stock and am planning on investing most of it back into my usual allocations of index funds. Given Ryzen and Vega doing well were already priced in, I have a hard time believing they have more room for growth baring massive midrange sales.

Aleki
03-01-2017, 09:45 AM
I'm going to put on my conspiracy hat for a moment and see if this all makes sense..
Based on what people have said, Vega is supposed to beat a 1080 in performance, but they didnt mention relative performance to a 1080Ti, correct?
What if the "spicy tidbit" at the end was supposed to be a contingent announcement? Like, what if they were looking to see what NV had in their hand before revealing that the card is capable of "x/y/z"?
Considering they are still months away from release, it is possible AMD is playing something close to its chest(much like when they made the claim that Zen was a 40% IPC improvement, and we all assumed that figure was compared to bulldozer IPC).
It isnt a far-fetched idea to think AMD will trickle more information nearing VEGA's release in order to keep the hype train moving

AliG
03-01-2017, 09:53 AM
Doubt it.

I'm already somewhat skeptical that Ryzen actually is as impressive across the board as it is with Cinebench, simply because of the AVX2 limitations, their very selective usage of benchmarks that don't use those instructions and the launch prices. We'll find out for sure tomorrow, but the leak from the Iranian site already seems to confirm my suspicions there.

If Vega was a big winner compared even just 1080, I think they would have given out more teaser info.

LordEC911
03-01-2017, 10:58 AM
So people in this thread, many of whom are widely praised for their tech/hardware knowledge, believe Nvidia made moves and dropped prices out of the goodness of their heart?
What world are we living in?

AliG
03-01-2017, 11:04 AM
You drop prices to squeeze the bottom out of your competition.

Nvidia pulls much better yeild per GPU than AMD right now, and have gotten away with overcharging for a good 2 years now. Then introducing the 1080 Ti yesterday is the same tactic they did with the 980 Ti: you leverage your competitive advantage to gain a stranglehold on the market.

AMD has to now reportedly deliver something faster than Titan X now if they want to keep in the $700 price range. I just don't think they can deliver that based off yesterday's debacle.

LordEC911
03-01-2017, 11:29 AM
You drop prices to squeeze the bottom out of your competition.

Nvidia pulls much better yeild per GPU than AMD right now, and have gotten away with overcharging for a good 2 years now. Then introducing the 1080 Ti yesterday is the same tactic they did with the 980 Ti: you leverage your competitive advantage to gain a stranglehold on the market.

AMD has to now reportedly deliver something faster than Titan X now if they want to keep in the $700 price range. I just don't think they can deliver that based off yesterday's debacle.

??? They needed something to do with binned GM200... and when they released it, they didn't shift the rest of their lineup by ~$100.

AMD doesn't necessarily need something faster than Titan XP to price it up there...

I think people are over-reacting to a presentation aimed at Devs and interestingly enough... heavily underestimating Vega when everything we know about it shows them going in the right direction. Yes, I understand the proof is in the pudding but there isn't any indications of Vega being a flop other than people connecting nonexistent dots.

StAndrew
03-01-2017, 11:58 AM
??? They needed something to do with binned GM200... and when they released it, they didn't shift the rest of their lineup by ~$100.

AMD doesn't necessarily need something faster than Titan XP to price it up there...

I think people are over-reacting to a presentation aimed at Devs and interestingly enough... heavily underestimating Vega when everything we know about it shows them going in the right direction. Yes, I understand the proof is in the pudding but there isn't any indications of Vega being a flop other than people connecting nonexistent dots.

I don't think the TI is made from binned chips. They make mention of silicon changes and tweaks for better efficiency and performance.

AliG
03-01-2017, 12:02 PM
I don't think the TI is made from binned chips. They make mention of silicon changes and tweaks for better efficiency and performance.

The Ti chips are typically just cut down versions of the full Titan X versions. Nvidia castrates the double precision compute shaders to protect their deep learning market, then deactivates 1 shader cluster for good measure and sells a server chip as a high end gamer.

My guess is the extra clocks come from a combination of improved manufacturing process and the deactivation of shaders (especially the double precision logic).

Ket
03-01-2017, 12:18 PM
Its easy to be skeptical of AMD with the massive failure it became for 5-7years but lets put a few things in perspective here.

1. The RX470 and RX480.

Anyone care to name a better bang for your buck card than the 4GB RX470? No? Thought not. This card is by far and away the ultimate price/performance card out there right now, and as far as OC potential goes.. its ok, not stellar, but you'll get perhaps another 10% from it. In the UK anyone can go and pick one up for 150 (why in the hell does the pound sign STILL not work in these forums?) for that money you can't deny how good the card is.

Now, the RX480. I said this card could be a dark horse way back and IMO its become exactly that. Newer batches having it OC right on what I said theoretically it would be capable of 1.4GHz - 1.5GHz kind of range with a average OC being 1.4GHz -1.45GHz and even the odd report of almost 1.6GHz. The 8GB RX480 in the UK can be picked up for 185 and thats with a code for Doom. Certainly not bad at all.

So, right here we can see that teething issues aside AMD have got the upper-mid range segment nailed pretty well. I'd say the extra vRAM of the 480, or 470 if you find one at a bargain price, combined with DX12 and Vulkan performance that seems to continuously gradually creep up makes either card a better choice for lifespan than any 6GB 1060. The RX470/480 has plenty of performance to challenge competing cards, AMD are proving by doing that they are getting things right again, despite some stumbles on the way.


2. Zen. (Ryzen sounds crap, wtf AMD :eh: )

The current gorilla in the room. Lets not forget this is a brand new architecture that is a colossal 52% IPC improvement. No matter how you slice that, it will compete with intel, and kick a large chunk of intels overpriced CPUs in quite nicely. AVX is a little questionable, but its fair to say Zens performance on this instruction set is still going to be good, which is perfectly fine for pretty much everybody. Also remember new UEFIs, platform drivers, software updated and optimised for Zen, are all going to only but improve things further.

Theres no such thing as a perfect architecture, all things being the same generation something will always perform worse on one architecture than it does on another. This is not unusual and certainly doesn't mean the performance when the CPU comes up against its "weaker" abilities will be bad.

The only real difference the "X" models seem to have are a better cooler, the CPU automatically clocking higher by itself, and possibly better binning than non-X models, suggests the general rule for Zen could likely be X models hit 4.6GHz - 4.8GHz, while non-X models hit 4.3GHz - 4.5GHz, only needing voltage in the ballpark of what "X" models need for 4.6GHz - 4.8GHz. Thats not bad at all, particularly if those 8 core monsters are the ones hitting those speeds which evidence would suggest is very possible as it looks like CPUs that don't make the R7 grade just get cut down to the R5 grade. Its anyones guess how that might effect OCing as the CPUs won't be native Hex or Quads, but my guess would be it won't effect them much.

Some stumbles (maybe) here and there but AMD are showing again by doing that they have something that will rival competing CPUs, and lets be honest, I don't think a single one of us will pay much attention to slightly lower IPC in exchange for noticeable extra cores/threads for the same money intel are asking for quads with 4/8 threads.


3. Consoles

Somehow, AMD figured out how to make money off of a modified Jaguar based APU for XB and PS4. Providing hardware for 2 out of the 3 console manufacturers is not only going to give them cash to make even better stuff, but come on, AMD are making money off of something none of us would be caught dead with. They deserve credit for that.


All of this is just a brief breakdown to highlight one thing; its easy to be skeptical of a company that looked like it was minutes away from sinking entirely but this emergency pumps and all hands on deck with buckets have done the job. AMD are back, they have been smart, got some solid stuff with better days to come, and a consistent source of cashflow in their back pocket providing hardware for XB and PS consoles.

StAndrew
03-01-2017, 01:20 PM
The Ti chips are typically just cut down versions of the full Titan X versions. Nvidia castrates the double precision compute shaders to protect their deep learning market, then deactivates 1 shader cluster for good measure and sells a server chip as a high end gamer.

My guess is the extra clocks come from a combination of improved manufacturing process and the deactivation of shaders (especially the double precision logic).

Thought there was some silicon tweaks to run the 11GB/s memory but I guess I misread that section.

Mechanical Man
03-02-2017, 02:42 AM
SNIP

Well said there. I don't know why anyone is dissapointed for amd being little behind ipc wise on games, when just few months ago the gap looked a lot bigger.

And if the performance for watt is what it looks like, Ryzen will be hit in server market, that is what matters even more for the bottom line of the AMD.

Vega looks like good gpu and having the right direction, but it really is too much to ask any accurate performance numbers from chip that is not ready and will not be launched in many more months. I have not seen anyone demanding that from nvidia. Just looks like fanboyism and double standards.

AliG
03-02-2017, 06:06 AM
Well said there. I don't know why anyone is dissapointed for amd being little behind ipc wise on games, when just few months ago the gap looked a lot bigger.

And if the performance for watt is what it looks like, Ryzen will be hit in server market, that is what matters even more for the bottom line of the AMD.

Vega looks like good gpu and having the right direction, but it really is too much to ask any accurate performance numbers from chip that is not ready and will not be launched in many more months. I have not seen anyone demanding that from nvidia. Just looks like fanboyism and double standards.

Depends on the application though. The results Fugger put out show that AVX512 makes an enormous difference in certain server applications (like 4x faster per core difference).

Kinda reminds me of the old Athlon 64 Opeterons vs Netburst based Xeons. The Xeons would actually be quite a bit faster if the software was recompiled to utilize SSE3, but anything that was memory dependent tended to be faster (and far more power efficient) on the Opterons.

Ket
03-02-2017, 07:08 AM
That just all comes back to different architecture strengths and weaknesses I mentioned, Zen will do well, and I'd be surprised if Zen+ doesn't support AVX512. The real question I have right now is just how fast can Zen become, theres a awful lot of flexibility in its design. It could well be the GCN of the CPU world.