Ryzen is incredibly efficient in the applications AMD really cares about (servers and laptops). When clocked modestly - 3.0 GHz or less - it actually beats Intel's offerings in the same range in terms of perf/watt. A version on TSMC 16FF+ might have been better optimized for enthusiast clocks (4.0+ GHz), but the truth is that desktop gaming enthusiasts are a fairly small niche and it would have been economically foolish for AMD, with their limited resources, to focus on those needs when it might mean a worse product for bigger and more important markets.
Polaris is a different story. The primary reason it was a disappointment is that it was overhyped - not surprisingly, since it was basically AMD's only new product for 2016. Polaris is a slightly refined version of GCN; it would not be unfair to call it GCN 1.3. It was also a "pipe cleaner" product used to test the market readiness of the GloFo 14nm process and work out kinks. In other words, it was largely a placeholder so AMD would have something at least modestly competitive until Vega was ready. All other versions of GCN have their "sweet spot" in terms of clocks around 800-900 MHz and so did Polaris. 1266 MHz was pushing it, and AMD only did that so that the product would be within spitting distance of Hawaii in terms of performance. (They wanted to discontinue Hawaii since it was a massive die that didn't help them fill their WSA and required large, expensive boards.) I'm not at all convinced that fabbing Polaris on TSMC 16FF+ would have provided a huge advantage. It might have given some marginal benefits, but it was always going to require substantial effort on AMD's part to break the clock speed wall for GCN, and Polaris just did not incorporate those efforts.
You're preaching to the choir if you want to talk about Ryzen merits. I've been the one crying the most about this. Ryzen doesn't fit my specific use case. Of course that makes me sad. The design choices they have specifically make it impossible for me to use the processor the way I want. This still doesn't change what I've said either way that Ryzen is the best budget choice.
I'm saying Ryzen discussions are stupid in general. Ryzen 7 has been compared to the 7700k. If you compare Ryzen 7 to a 7700k, then you don't get what Ryzen 7 is for. PERIOD. It's like comparing an SUV to a sports car. They are both cars, but they have very different capabilities. Ryzen 7 can do server tasks. 7700k CAN NOT.
So my main complaint with Ryzen 7 is the discussion of Ryzen 7 vs 7700k in gaming when I think that's one of the most low intelligence level conversations you can have about a processor. It should be Ryzen 5 and the 7700k, and Ryzen 5 is just better value for the average gamer period. It's not a discussion, it's just a fact that I don't feel like even debating.
I don't even want to talk about it any further, it's a frustrating conversation that's happening all over the internet and it's way too simple.
Polaris was overhyped by some people. It was always a R9 290 replacement at a lower pricepoint. That's what AMD said.... people took that and ran with it to ridiculous levels. If we're being honest, with every GPU release on here, people take things and start twisting what is said to make everything crazy.... so I don't look at the extreme things people say on here. Polaris could have been better. Global Foundries. It sucks. You fab this chip somewhere else, and it will have marginal benefits. The thing is, how large are those marginal benefits....
Until Global Foundries is a reliable place that has a proven track record, I won't put faith in them.
Because HBM2 is expensive to implement, is expensive itself, makes it prohibitively expensive for large memory configurations, and is just generally a poor solution for consumer products when a GDDR-follow on that can offer similar performance is available.
It has nothing to do with "release rights."
I take a much simpler approach....
Because Nvidia with a DDR5x chip will still have the FASTEST chip on the market for god knows how long now? Even if HBM2 made Nvidia chips faster, it's not like they need it right now....