If that was the case then why did they even bother with the 590 in the first place.
Yes we all know it is just a shrunk Polaris, but that still takes time and money you cannot just say to TSMC hey shrink this down for us please.
GloFo, not TSMC. And yes, the 12nm process is literally just saying to GloFo "shrink this down for us please" because apparently that's how their 12nm works; they just use their 14nm kit to make things a touch smaller.
But bothering with the 590 at all is what I've been saying recently.
For a while now I've argued that Navi replaces Vega outright and Polaris is shifted down to the entry-level segment. To that end I was expecting a full RX 600 range powered by Polaris 30 for a nice 10-15% boost across the range. Hell, maybe even with GDDR6 too. So then when Polaris 30 lands as a single product in the RX
500 family, I was like what the hell? Literally nothing has changed on the RX 580, aside from the 12nm shrink, and even that took zero funds because GloFo just use their 14nm kit to do it. Forgive the crude analogy, but AMD took Polaris 20 and literally just printed it a bit smaller. Even the die package is the same apparently. But still, having a 1060 competitor in the RX 590 still establishes Navi's position as the 1080 level card in the mainstream.
But now those Navi leaks are out, all I can think is Polaris 30 is a token product to fulfill a 12nm wafer contract; Zen+ won't be made any more and Zen 2's I/O die is made on GloFo's 14nm, so what do AMD make on 12nm? Smash out a trivial and cheap Polaris for 6 months or so until Navi lands and replaces both Vega AND Polaris.
In terms of performance, the 3070 directly replaces Vega 56, the 3080 directly replaces Vega 64, but the 3060 directly replaces the RX590 and RX580 and covers the entry level market too. And if these price points are to be believed, if you can get a 3060 for that low price without even needing a beefy PSU, there is no point in even getting a RX 570 or lower.
As an aside, this wis why Gibbo's statement that Navi will cost a lot more doesn't fly. AMD will have literally killed Polaris with Navi 12 so there's no need to even make them any more. And with Polaris finally dead, AMD won't have their own price brackets to wrangle, they can just start with a clean slate.