A brand new AMD graphics card ID has been noticed in a latest Linux kernel patch – a beforehand unseen Polaris 10-based PCI ID – with the enigmatic title 0x6FDF. There’s an excellent probability that that is both a contemporary rebrand of an current Polaris GPU, or AMD goes to launch an up to date model of its mainstream graphics structure. And which means we’d lastly be seeing an RX 590 some two years after the primary Polaris GPUs launched.
There was all the time hypothesis that AMD would launch higher-end variations of its Polaris GPUs, partly as a result of on the 2016 launch of Polaris indicated to us the naming scheme for the brand new graphics playing cards was set to deal with a top-tier RX 490 sitting above the RX 480 and RX 470 playing cards. Though it was by no means used.
That, and the truth that AMD virtually did launch the RX 490, besides not for the PC, however successfully dropped it into the Microsoft Xbox One X. Now, the Scorpio GPU contained in the Xbox One X isn’t precisely similar to a desktop Polaris chip, but it surely’s utilizing the identical GCN 4.Zero tech and sports activities 40 GCN 4.0 Compute Units (CUs) versus the 36 related CUs used within the RX 480 and RX 580.
Fitting 40 CUs, and due to this fact 2,560 GCN cores, right into a slice of PC graphics silicon would in all probability solely ship a efficiency increase just like the delta between the RX 570 and RX 580. But that does imply it in all probability wouldn’t ship the 4K efficiency that the unique pondering behind the RX x90 labelling was seemingly meant.
The new ID was reported by the ever-vigilant Michael Larabel over at Phoronix, and he’s not seen cover nor hair of the 0x6FDF ID in any earlier driver record. And we’ve not been capable of finding any point out of it wherever on the web both.
The earlier RX 580 and RX 570 playing cards historically come below the machine ID of 0x67DF, with the Polaris 10 GPUs additionally getting 0x67CA, 0x67CC, and 0x67CF designations. The AMD RX Vega playing cards, for reference, sit below the 0x687f label.
It is feasible that that is merely a slight replace to the best way the Polaris 10 GPUs are referenced within the Linux drivers. Normally we’d see that 0x67DF ID used alongside the CA, CC,and CF variations, and this new 0x6FDF ID appears to be like mighty near the beforehand used code. That might point out the RX 570 and RX 580 are being given a slight refresh, or perhaps even a rebrand – anybody taking bets on an RX 680 coming earlier than the brand new yr?
We weren’t anticipating any new AMD client GPUs this facet of Christmas, with the 7nm Vega playing cards being designed for the Instinct, machine studying line, and the AMD Navi structure set for the primary half of 2019. It can be a shock for AMD to launch one other Polaris chip, however given the very fact we gained’t see any mainstream Turing GPUs this yr, – with the costly RTX 2070 launching in October and a RTX/GTX 2060 unlikely till subsequent yr – it could be a sensible transfer.
Getting a brand new mainstream GPU out of the door with no contemporary competitors might give AMD a good gross sales win over the Christmas/holidays interval.
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