AMD - Ask Me Anything

Suarez7 · 7 Nov 2013 at 11:41

Another helpful thread spoilt by people flaming to get a reaction.

=XDC=FluphyBunny · 7 Nov 2013 at 11:43

AWPC said:
The only important question which never got asked (I wonder why) is the following:

MS recently rejected Mantle in favour of a Direct X 11/12 future so Mantle is only for PC gamers with low end GPU's looking for an FPS boost anyone with a high end GPU Nvidia or AMD will not see much benefit as no publisher is going to only support Mantle as games cost too much to make they would never see their money back !

That wasn't a question it was a badly typed statement presented as fact. Also .,.,,,.., you can borrow a few of those if you like

So no physx because its nvidia only? Oh no wait that's not the case at all (batman/witcher 3 etc). Devs will use Mantle if its any good as it will help sell their games. If Mantle doesn't deliver then they won't use it.

The fact that they have said that they wouldn't have put the effort in for the sake of 2/3 fps is very interesting.

Gregster · 7 Nov 2013 at 11:47

Great to see Thracks getting stuck in with the community and shows good commitment to their user base. I have not gone over the questions yet but will.
Good thread Matt

LtMatt · 7 Nov 2013 at 11:49

Gregster said:
Great to see Thracks getting stuck in with the community and shows good commitment to their user base. I have not gone over the questions yet but will.
Good thread Matt

I wish the AMD reps were more active here, although it is nice to hear from them when they do post. I think it would be nice to see a Nvidia rep here as well. Then we could have arguments between the two reps.

jvc9000 · 7 Nov 2013 at 11:58

"Would you consider taking a different approach to cooling in the future? I'd prefer to pay a $20-30 premium on your cards if this meant having a good cooling solution, silent, that could keep the thermals low and the clocks high (Looks at accelero xtreme 3 numbers).

I understand you saying that your cards are designed for 95*C operation, but common sense (physics/material properties) says at a lower temperature you need less power for the same job.

Have you considered holding up an auction where different established firms in the cooling industry would come up with solutions for you card, giving you options into choosing the best for reference? Or maybe even supplying naked "bulk" cards to e-tailers for the people who're into aftermarket cooling and don't want to lose the warranty or spend money for a cooler they'll probably never use."

Gregster · 7 Nov 2013 at 12:01

LtMatt said:
I wish the AMD reps were more active here, although it is nice to hear from them when they do post. I think it would be nice to see a Nvidia rep here as well. Then we could have arguments between the two reps.

Are there Nvidia reps? I can't recall seeing one since, well, I can't remember

AMD may well smell but they do show support. I still have a pic of Roy on my dartboard though

Edit:

One thing I did read and that was about the power tune thing. So basically, AMD have copied Nvidia's boost then

Silent_Scone · 7 Nov 2013 at 12:04

a lot of people trying to call them out on the reference cooler and temperature problems. If I were them I'd just tell them to comment when they've actually owned one! GPU Boost throttles in the same way, it just has a fancy name to put some finesse on the matter!

LtMatt · 7 Nov 2013 at 12:07

Gregster said:
Are there Nvidia reps? I can't recall seeing one since, well, I can't remember AMD may well smell but they do show support. I still have a pic of Roy on my dartboard though

Lol in the spirit of good humour Greg i will share this with you. After all my gentle prodding of you with AMD Roy, i feel its time i took a bit back.

Who could possibly be the alter ego of AMD Roy? Well he may not look or sound as cool, but i present you Brian Burke, Nvidia PR. The Nvidia version of AMD Roy, only less cool.

Source
https://twitter.com/bburke_nvidia

AMD_Roy ftw tbh. :cool:

Silent_Scone · 7 Nov 2013 at 12:11

Anyone that posts 'holy cow' on twitter is definitely un-cool

Gregster · 7 Nov 2013 at 12:12

Hahahaha, love the Roy Troller name

That will stick

MjFrosty said:
Anyone that posts 'holy cow' on twitter is definitely un-cool

"Holy cow" is the new "cowabunga" deal with it

Silent_Scone · 7 Nov 2013 at 12:15

Christ, he's not wrong though. I don't really listen to Anandtech these days but they really went to town on the 290 lol

LtMatt · 7 Nov 2013 at 12:16

Yeah they really did, was a surprise to be honest. The funny thing is if you read the comments everyone is saying what a great card it is. Funny old world.

Darujhistan · 7 Nov 2013 at 12:17

Uncle Petey said:
According to them, they're not too hot. Loud? At over 50% or so, sure.

The 280X is a 7970, so it's pretty easy to just adapt existing models or make new coolers for those.

...IMO it's nonsense, the non ref coolers can only help the cards. I don't believe for a minute that having a non ref cooling solution in any way hinders AMD or NV for that matter on new cards.

Uncle Petey · 7 Nov 2013 at 12:32

Darujhistan said:
...IMO it's nonsense, the non ref coolers can only help the cards. I don't believe for a minute that having a non ref cooling solution in any way hinders AMD or NV for that matter on new cards.

Maybe. I'm not completely convinced either, but I haven't seen anyone with a watercooled 290X posting about the awesome clocks they've reached either. Maybe I've just missed those posts?

But anyway, my main point was that the 280X didn't contradict anything by releasing with 3rd party coolers as it was basically a 7970 and they required nothing more than a lick of paint

Darujhistan · 7 Nov 2013 at 12:38

Uncle Petey said:
Maybe. I'm not completely convinced either, but I haven't seen anyone with a watercooled 290X posting about the awesome clocks they've reached either. Maybe I've just missed those posts?

But anyway, my main point was that the 280X didn't contradict anything by releasing with 3rd party coolers as it was basically a 7970 and they required nothing more than a lick of paint

I don't see how posts about WC 290x's has any relevance.

I see what you're saying but their stance makes no sense to me.

Uncle Petey · 7 Nov 2013 at 12:42

It has relevance because you're talking about non-ref coolers helping a 290X and AMD are saying this:

95C is the optimal temperature that allows the board to convert its power consumption into meaningful performance for the user. Every single component on the board is designed to run at that temperature throughout the lifetime of the product.

If you throttle the temperature down below that threshold, then the board must in turn consume less power to respect the new temperature limit. Consuming less power means lowering vcore and engine clock, which means less performance.

You want to take full advantage of product TDP to maximize performance, and that is accomplished with a 95C ideal operating temperature for the 290 and 290X.

Even with a third-party cooling solution, like the Accelero 3 some users have started deploying, the logic of PowerTune will still try to maximize TDP by allowing temperatures to float higher until some other limit is met (voltage, clock, fan RPM, whatever).

It's so bloody smart and it kills me that more people don't fully understand it.

SS-89 · 7 Nov 2013 at 12:56

Uncle Petey said:
It has relevance because you're talking about non-ref coolers helping a 290X and AMD are saying this:

If you have a good clocking sample then you'll likely reach the temp limit before you reach the limit of the chip itself on the reference solution.

However if you are reaching the chip limit before the temp limit then obviously a non-reference solution isn't going to make an iota of difference apart from in the noise and load temperature stakes.

You make a valid point in the sense that it seems the chips aren't really being pushed past what is currently achieved on air. So apart from noise and temps non-reference cards aren't likely to be revolutionary.

Silent_Scone · 7 Nov 2013 at 12:56

I don't think many people have pushed their 290/290Xs yet. The only thing setting a lower target temp does is make it look good on paper, and possibly lower temperatures inside the case slightly. The 290X actually doesn't produce much ambient heat though at 95C. Even through the back of the card, it's quite surprising.

If people like me, Kaap and UKSoldier can ramp up the voltage and clocks on the reference cooler whilst maintaining the 95c target temp, then I'd say you can most definitely push these cards further with 1.4V on water. You certainly run out of cooling performance before you hit any limitations on the memory/core.

Uncle Petey · 7 Nov 2013 at 13:04

I'd bloody well hope that putting them under water allows you to push the hell out of them

I'd be majorly ****ed off on your behalf if you couldn't.

Like I said, I'm not entirely convinced of the idea that it needs to run at high temps to get the best out it. I'm just repeating what they're saying and hopefully awaiting results from the guys that have put theirs under water

SS-89, yeah, having had a 7950 that wouldn't budge beyond 1150mhz whether on a dual-X or uber aftermarket air cooling, I totally agree that in the case of a chip limit, there's sod all you can do about it

teppic · 7 Nov 2013 at 13:10

He's saying that it's pointless running it at a lower core temp because unless you've hit some other limit you'll be getting less performance than you could. He wasn't saying it was a good cooler, rather that if you have a better cooler you should still run it as close to 95C it'll get, unless it hits a limit before then.