AMD Tonga arrives in August, replaces Tahiti PRO

LtMatt · 30 Jun 2014 at 11:20

Tonga could be the first GPU manufactured by Global Foundries, it is expected to be much more power efficient, and thus, less power hungry.

Tonga is reportedly equipped with 32 Compute Units, which should result in 2048 Stream Cores. Radeon based on Tonga will feature 2GB GDDR5 memory and 256-bit interface.

Source
http://videocardz.com/50972/amd-tonga-arrives-august-replaces-tahiti-pro

ubersonic · 30 Jun 2014 at 11:23

Soon

*edit*

256bit memory bus?

tamzzy · 30 Jun 2014 at 11:24

so in essence they're making a 7950-ish but with only 2gb vram. meh...1 step forward 2 steps back

Mei · 30 Jun 2014 at 11:43

its good news its coming soon tho!
it should support their freesync and maybe have trueaudio on it
i dont think that picture does them any favors tho
best PR move they could do is change the cooler, even if it doesnt need 1!

whyscotty · 30 Jun 2014 at 11:56

Mei said:
i
best PR move they could do is change the cooler, even if it doesnt need 1!

I thought they are doing?

Mei · 30 Jun 2014 at 12:08

hehe duno and thats no doubt a stock foto for "new amd gfx card"
the lower cards usually all have 3rd party coolers anyway right?

its going need be cheaper than a 280 too

Marine-RX179 · 30 Jun 2014 at 12:19

Mei said:
best PR move they could do is change the cooler, even if it doesnt need 1!

To be completely honest though...I use to bash the reference cooler design a lot before getting the reference 290(x), but after using it, I must say it is very effective in terms of cooling capability...it is just the the amount of heat from the 290/290x that it has to put up with that's causing it to be noisy, as the fan need to spin at very high rpm to coup. Had the cooler been for a lower power consumption card, I doubt noise would really be an issue.

But yes I do agree that the look of the cooler design can definitely be better. But if AMD were to charge £30-£40 price premium on the cooler like Nvidia does for their "Titan cooler", I would rather AMD just stick with using the not-so-good-looking cooler and keep the price down, and I'd just put the £30-£40 toward replacing the cooler with far more efficient 3rd party cooler instead...and it would be actually be better for people who are planning on watercooling in the first place as well.

One of the biggest advantage that AMD has comparing to Nvidia is that it offer similar performance at a lower price point; if the "fancy cooler" is gonna push the price of the AMD cards up, it might actually make people to think about to just jump onto Nvidia instead, since the price difference is not that significant.

If a "fancy cooler" doesn't lead to increase in the price of the cards, then of course it would be welcomed.

Darujhistan · 30 Jun 2014 at 12:43

Yawn.

LtMatt · 30 Jun 2014 at 12:45

Marine-RX179 said:
To be completely honest though...I use to bash the reference cooler design a lot before getting the reference 290(x), but after using it, I must say it is very effective in terms of cooling capability...it is just the the amount of heat from the 290/290x that it has to put up with that's causing it to be noisy, as the fan need to spin at very high rpm to coup. Had the cooler been for a lower power consumption card, I doubt noise would really be an issue.

But yes I do agree that the look of the cooler design can definitely be better. But if AMD were to charge £30-£40 price premium on the cooler like Nvidia does for their "Titan cooler", I would rather AMD just stick with using the not-so-good-looking cooler and keep the price down, and I'd just put the £30-£40 toward replacing the cooler with far more efficient 3rd party cooler instead...and it would be actually be better for people who are planning on watercooling in the first place as well.

One of the biggest advantage that AMD has comparing to Nvidia is that it offer similar performance at a lower price point; if the "fancy cooler" is gonna push the price of the AMD cards up, it might actually make people to think about to just jump onto Nvidia instead, since the price difference is not that significant.

If a "fancy cooler" doesn't lead to increase in the price of the cards, then of course it would be welcomed.

Spot on.

Stas823 · 30 Jun 2014 at 12:50

Where is the high end?
This looks like amd competing with the whole 750ti performance/watt thing

Mei · 30 Jun 2014 at 12:53

Marine-RX179 said:
To be completely honest though...I use to bash the reference cooler design a lot before getting the reference 290(x), but after using it, I must say it is very effective in terms of cooling capability...it is just the the amount of heat from the 290/290x that it has to put up with that's causing it to be noisy, as the fan need to spin at very high rpm to coup. Had the cooler been for a lower power consumption card, I doubt noise would really be an issue.

But yes I do agree that the look of the cooler design can definitely be better. But if AMD were to charge £30-£40 price premium on the cooler like Nvidia does for their "Titan cooler", I would rather AMD just stick with using the not-so-good-looking cooler and keep the price down, and I'd just put the £30-£40 toward replacing the cooler with far more efficient 3rd party cooler instead...and it would be actually be better for people who are planning on watercooling in the first place as well.

One of the biggest advantage that AMD has comparing to Nvidia is that it offer similar performance at a lower price point; if the "fancy cooler" is gonna push the price of the AMD cards up, it might actually make people to think about to just jump onto Nvidia instead, since the price difference is not that significant.

If a "fancy cooler" doesn't lead to increase in the price of the cards, then of course it would be welcomed.

lol church!

yeh it wasnt to say it was bad
but the perception all over the net that it was terrible
so from a PR point view...change it ull end up making more money
hell it can be a worse cooler, aslong as its not the same one!

& i bet a duck with a crayon could design a better looking one

whyscotty · 30 Jun 2014 at 12:57

Mei said:
& i bet a duck with a crayon could design a better looking one

You're quackers

LtMatt · 30 Jun 2014 at 12:59

Boomstick777 · 30 Jun 2014 at 13:00

Unless this is a 260 or 270 based card. this next lot of cards look very boring.

However if '2000' cores are being utilized in the 260/270 line it's possible the 280/290 lines will see a nice jump in the amount of cores.

3000+ Cores with stacked memory on mature 28nm could bring something to the table. Would prefer 20nm though.

Marine-RX179 · 30 Jun 2014 at 13:01

Boomstick777 said:
Unless this is a 260 or 270 based card. this next lot of cards look very boring.

However if '2000' cores are being utilized in the 260/270 line it's possible the 280/290 lines will see a nice jump in the amount of cores.

3000+ Cores with stacked memory on mature 28nm could bring something to the table. Would prefer 20nm though.

I'm guessing the Tonga is probably going to be AMD's equivalent of Nvidia's GK104, but a bit faster or at lower price point.

At the moment Nvidia only got the GTX760 2GB sitting at £170+, and the GTX770 2GB sitting at £240+, which are overpriced and unattractive to anyone except for those people who would only consider Nvidia cards.

I'm guessing AMD see that there's a potential market for the £200 +/- price range, with Nvidia's Maxwell for that price range probably won't arrive until Q1 or Q2 2015 at the very earliest. So basically they just need to release something similar to GTX680 at £150-£160, GTX770 at £170-£200 and something a little big faster than both GTX770 and R9 280x at £220-£240, then there would be potential customers, and it would line up well with the R9 290 which is now at just around £280-£300.

These new cards are not targeted at us who already got Nvidia GTX760 or above or AMD HD7850 or above, but for people who are still stuck on the slower cards who are planning to upgrade before the end of the year and are not planning on dropping as much as nearly £300.

_Alatar_ · 30 Jun 2014 at 13:12

They don't need yet another desktop GPU in the ~$250 price range.

What AMD needs is a good laptop GPU. Their laptop marketshare has been decimated by Nvidia during the past 2 years. That's why you see a power consumption focused 256bit design with more grunt than Pitcairn.

Not sure how successful it will be though considering that GM204 will drop in a few months.

varkanoid · 30 Jun 2014 at 13:16

Marine-RX179 said:
To be completely honest though...I use to bash the reference cooler design a lot before getting the reference 290(x), but after using it, I must say it is very effective in terms of cooling capability...it is just the the amount of heat from the 290/290x that it has to put up with that's causing it to be noisy, as the fan need to spin at very high rpm to coup. Had the cooler been for a lower power consumption card, I doubt noise would really be an issue.

But yes I do agree that the look of the cooler design can definitely be better. But if AMD were to charge £30-£40 price premium on the cooler like Nvidia does for their "Titan cooler", I would rather AMD just stick with using the not-so-good-looking cooler and keep the price down, and I'd just put the £30-£40 toward replacing the cooler with far more efficient 3rd party cooler instead...and it would be actually be better for people who are planning on watercooling in the first place as well.

One of the biggest advantage that AMD has comparing to Nvidia is that it offer similar performance at a lower price point; if the "fancy cooler" is gonna push the price of the AMD cards up, it might actually make people to think about to just jump onto Nvidia instead, since the price difference is not that significant.

If a "fancy cooler" doesn't lead to increase in the price of the cards, then of course it would be welcomed.

Yeah I agree with you although the picture of the card could be anything not necessarily the new Tonga card !

Marine-RX179 · 30 Jun 2014 at 13:16

_Alatar_ said:
Not sure how successful it will be though considering that GM204 will drop in a few months.

The only rumor regarding the GM204 for from Nvidia is just the GTX870 and GTX880, which will effectively be in the £300+ and £400+ price range at the very least.

There's no rumor regarding the middle-range GK204 yet, so they probably won't arrive till Q1 or Q2 of 2015 as I've already mentioned.

Boomstick777 · 30 Jun 2014 at 13:17

Marine-RX179 said:
I'm guessing the Tonga is probably going to be AMD's equivalent of Nvidia's GK104, but a bit faster or at lower price point.

They already have the 'HD 7970' 'R9 280X' in response to GK104. What we don't want is this card to re-branded once more. Unless it's coming in at the low end this time, at least that would indicate a shift in performance for the higher end cards. If HD 7970 AKA R9 280X is once again rebranded for the midrange than it's set to look very dull until 20nm and some new architecture arrives.

If the 'HD 7970' 'R9 280X' became the new X70

Plus the 'GTX 680' 'GTX 770' became the new GTX X60

Than at least this would show some progression, and indicate the higher end cards would indeed be higher end.

_Alatar_ said:
They don't need yet another desktop GPU in the ~$250 price range.

+1

_Alatar_ · 30 Jun 2014 at 13:22

Marine-RX179 said:
The only rumor regarding the GM204 for from Nvidia is just the GTX870 and GTX880, which will effectively be in the £300+ and £400+ price range at the very least.

There's no rumor regarding the middle-range GK204 yet, so they probably won't arrive till Q1 or Q2 of 2015 as I've already mentioned.

GM204 is coming in Oct-Nov. It's been spotted tons of times. Even full working graphics cards have been spotted on import/export lists. Not to mention the countless times we've seen ASICs and test boards being shipped.

And it (GM204) is most likely the design that Tonga is going to have to go up against in the laptop world, the market AMD needs to be targeting right now. Laptops is the reason they're making a lower power 256bit tahiti-level GPU.