RX 490 Speculation

[pandem0nium]

I think the way it needs to work is some abstraction between the gpus and the OS so that many can be used as if they were one. Then assigning work to each gpu would need to be done in hardware.

 

[Toss3]

nVidia didn't block this in Ashes. You can even use an AMD and an nVidia chip.

nVidia even said it would be allowed up to 4 way in DX12 in the 1080 release. It doesn't require effort from them.

However, other than the techdemo that is Ashes, I doubt we will see any other games bothering with it. Why would a developer want to take on all the work that is done by a graphics driver team as well, and have to patch their game for every new release.

It's not ever going to amount to anything.

Anytime you see anything labeled as "up to the developer" you can probably kiss it goodbye.

 

[Dirk Diggler]

Another barrier to mgpu support is the fact that a single GPU can drive pretty much all games at 1080p and most at 1440, so the demand is not there any more.

 

[Dave2150]

Rumours have it that its hotter than hell and you need to run a plug straight from a three phase circuit board with load balancer

It's going to be 1080 performance, but at 181W TDP instead of the 1080's 180W. That 1W makes all the difference, meaning the 490 will need a nuclear power plant to power it, while the 1W less NVIDIA card trickles power from a AA battery

 

[Brizzles]

Where are you getting that info from? Witcher 3 is 99% scaling, as is Shadow Warrior 2, ROTTR, Battlefield. GTA V has great scaling.

Which games are you seeing 50% scaling with?

A reasonable selection of benchmarks in here based around the 1070 ( as an example )

http://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/2474-gtx-1070-sli-benchmark-vs-gtx-1080-and-gtx-1070/page-4

Overall, it's still a mixed bag of results. Some games show less than 10% scaling – or even “negative” scaling, particularly with poor frametimes – and others show 40-50% (or, rarely, greater) scaling in SLI. Look through the data and make a decision.

 

[Nasher]

It's going to be 1080 performance, but at 181W TDP instead of the 1080's 180W. That 1W makes all the difference, meaning the 490 will need a nuclear power plant to power it, while the 1W less NVIDIA card trickles power from a AA battery

I love how people go on about how inefficient AMD cards are. Yet some of the rx480s can run on less power than a 1060 with a bit of undervolting

 

[~>Dg<~]

if we look at amds hinderance with gpus or perceptions it comes down mainly to this.

Bad drivers
HEAT!

generally nvidia cards run cooler with less effort.
bad drivers.generally nvidia cards are more simple to just plug in use forget about.

recently trying to sort out a 295x2 for eg.you wouldnt believe the amount of hassle to try and just use the item.

this needs to be refined.

so many drivers unnecessaries are added.not needed.

 

[JediFragger]

I love how people go on about how inefficient AMD cards are. Yet some of the rx480s can run on less power than a 1060 with a bit of undervolting

Have to undervolt the 1060 though too to be a fair comparison

 

[TNA]

if we look at amds hinderance with gpus or perceptions it comes down mainly to this.

Bad drivers
HEAT!

generally nvidia cards run cooler with less effort.
bad drivers.generally nvidia cards are more simple to just plug in use forget about.

recently trying to sort out a 295x2 for eg.you wouldnt believe the amount of hassle to try and just use the item.

this needs to be refined.

so many drivers unnecessaries are added.not needed.

Not really fair comparing single gpu to multi gpu dude. In my experience AMD have perfectly fine drivers for single GPU solutions. I also had a 295x2, problem was with crossfire, turn off one GPU and everything was fine. Not like Nvidia's SLI is any better these days, they don't even want to support more than 2 cards anymore

Buy an AMD card that is a single GPU and it will be just as simple plug and play.

 

[Nasher]

Have to undervolt the 1060 though too to be a fair comparison

Yea if you can, most likely it will just crash. AMD seem to over-estimate the voltage by default.

 

[JediFragger]

Yea if you can, most likely it will just crash. AMD seem to over-estimate the voltage by default.

Never assume, it makes an ass out of u and me

 

[Rroff]

Yea if you can, most likely it will just crash. AMD seem to over-estimate the voltage by default.

Problem there is that it appears the voltage is required due to the level of variance with atleast the initial run of cores on the 14nm process - you might find some 480s that can run stable at far lower voltage than stock but you will also find many that can't be undervolted by any meaningful level at all.

I'll be unsurprised if AMD do another run with a respun variant of Polaris that has significantly better thermal/electrical properties and clock speeds TBH.

 

[nashathedog]

Buy an AMD card that is a single GPU and it will be just as simple plug and play.

+1

Or at least it was hassle free, Now I find it annoying that we have an overclocking software built into the drivers, as an example I'm now unable to run my Fury Tri-x on it's auto fan profile because the Radeon software has broken it, previously the stock fan gave me the perfect balance for temps and noise, I've now been unable to use it for over a month.

 

[TNA]

Problem there is that it appears the voltage is required due to the level of variance with atleast the initial run of cores on the 14nm process - you might find some 480s that can run stable at far lower voltage than stock but you will also find many that can't be undervolted by any meaningful level at all.

I'll be unsurprised if AMD do another run with a respun variant of Polaris that has significantly better thermal/electrical properties and clock speeds TBH.

Could be they start with 500 series where the new better thermal Polaris slots in. New improved 480 could be 580 which will run with a bit more performance and cooler and quieter. Even better though I would like to see that tier drop to 570 so we can see Vega 11 take 580 and 590 slots and Vega 10 take the Fury and Fury X spot

Don't think they should call it Fury though, as I think that name has been tarnished with the "overclockers dream" etc. They should go with Rage or something like that, maybe why not even Vega?

+1

Or at least it was hassle free, Now I find it annoying that we have an overclocking software built into the drivers, as an example I'm now unable to run my Fury Tri-x on it's auto fan profile because the Radeon software has broken it, previously the stock fan gave me the perfect balance for temps and noise, I've now been unable to use it for over a month.

Can you not use something like MSI Afterburner? That is what I have to do with my Nvidia card in order to OC/control fans. So in a way if you think of it like that, my 1070 is not plug and play either. Bloody Zotac and their crap fan profile

 

[Rroff]

Don't think they should call it Fury though, as I think that name has been tarnished with the "overclockers dream" etc. They should go with Rage or something like that, maybe why not even Vega?

They could do a "Fury Edition" poking fun at nVidia's Founders Edition

EDIT: TBH they should really have done that for a the Christmas market - an RX480 "Fury Edition" with cherry picked cores and a sweet cooler heh.

 

[Mtom]

if we look at amds hinderance with gpus or perceptions it comes down mainly to this.

Bad drivers
HEAT!

generally nvidia cards run cooler with less effort.
bad drivers.generally nvidia cards are more simple to just plug in use forget about.

recently trying to sort out a 295x2 for eg.you wouldnt believe the amount of hassle to try and just use the item.

this needs to be refined.

so many drivers unnecessaries are added.not needed.

"Generally" yeah for like...umm...one generation (Maxwell).
Before that they were about even, and before that the NV cards were the real power hungry and hot cards.
Too bad people cannot remember older things than 5 years ago.

 

[TNA]

"Generally" yeah for like...umm...one generation (Maxwell).
Before that they were about even, and before that the NV cards were the real power hungry and hot cards.
Too bad people cannot remember older things than 5 years ago.

Exactly. I even remember those 5000 series cards back in the day, proper hot and loud those were. People still lapped them up, so very little to do with heat either