AMD had been absolutely not going to remain silent on 2018 graphics playing cards for lengthy, and now we’ve acquired an thought what these are going to be. In the previous few days AMD have put reside placeholders on the principle web site for Radeon RX 500X collection of graphics playing cards.
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An eagle-eyed Reddit consumer noticed 5 placeholder pages on AMD’s web site, these embody: the RX 580X, RX 570X, RX 560X / RX 560X (doubtless two reminiscence SKUs), and RX 550X. Currently these pages provide little or no data past the identify – or to place it bluntly they’re fully clean – however we are able to nonetheless infer some particulars from the identify alone.
The first Polaris graphics playing cards that workforce pink launched had been again in June 2016. These 400 collection playing cards utilised RX 4xx codenames, whereas their refreshed counterparts, launched almost ten months later, adopted the RX 5xx nomenclature. These new playing cards don’t comply with the identical development, and this doubtless scuppers any grandiose concepts for large upgrades over the 500 collection graphics playing cards.
A 12nm refreshed lineup was a well-liked principle for AMD’s mainstream launch plans in 2018. The new course of from GlobalFoundries improves on the 14nm lithography used throughout the first-generation of Ryzen CPUs and 400 and 500 collection graphics playing cards. AMD’s Ryzen 2 processors are the primary merchandise from workforce pink to take advantage of the brand new course of and are set to launch later this month. These processors shall be launching underneath the 2000-series nomenclature. You see the issue right here?
It’s not not like naming conventions to be just a little inconsistent, however the 600-series naming conference could possibly be a simple homerun for AMD’s advertising and marketing. Even the slightest bump in clockspeed, such because the one between the 400 and 500 collection playing cards, was sufficient to warrant a complete generational change. It appears this conference was prevented for good cause.
So what does that imply for AMD’s RX 500X collection graphics playing cards? Well, AMD could possibly be mixing up their advertising and marketing – naming schemes aren’t set in stone in any case – and that might imply any mixture of speedier clockspeeds and reminiscence. Any architectural adjustments are massively unlikely, though we’ve got seen Vega 11, Vega 12, and Vega 20 codenames floor on a couple of event.
Speculation of GDDR5X additionally appears irrational. Reports late final 12 months indicated a worryingly brief provide of GDDR5X led to the creation of the GTX 1070 Ti. Since reminiscence shortages have seemingly removed from improved since that point, it appears unlikely that AMD could be putting offers for this reminiscence tech on the eve of GDDR6.
Previous ‘X’ suffix iteration playing cards, such because the R9 390X, provided tangible efficiency will increase over the usual fare. In principle, growing the amount of Compute Units (CUs) may enhance Polaris efficiency equally with the 500X collection over the present 500-series playing cards.
There had been rumours, again when the 400 collection Polaris elements first launched, {that a} 40CU GPU was within the works – or at the least viable. The ‘RX 490’ graphics card with this high-end GPU half by no means got here to cross, however a 40CU Polaris chip did ultimately make its means into Microsoft’s Xbox One X. Not saying console gamers stole a graphics card from PC gamers, but…. Either means, it is an attention-grabbing tidbit, and proves a better CU chip is certainly doable.
If an analogous launch cadence had been to be adopted because the previous two years, then we are able to anticipate to see AMD’s RX 500X collection graphics playing cards arrive someday round June.
It’s not a lot to go on, and sadly the proof of the pudding is within the consuming. AMD have been decided to keep up momentum throughout their complete product stack, and this looks like the logical conclusion to the argument that AMD should launch one thing in shopper graphics throughout 2018 – it is going to assist maintain their buyers joyful, at the least.
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