My re-spin theory is the only thing that makes sense to me here. Even if that's true the Frontier launch seems more damaging than positive to me.
Or perhaps they picked "Frontier" thinking of the pioneers- lost in the heartland, sometimes going in circles, getting there slow in ox drawn covered wagons?That's also my theory. Using Financial Edition as name would have sound a bit shady, so they went for Frontier.
Unless they realized it late and already started mass-production and now had 20k "defective" chips before they could stop it. Instead of trash-bin they came up with the idea of the FE. But this doesn't sound very plausible. Why then not release the FE 2 month before RX launch?
Exactly, I would hope AMD is smart enough to realize that selling a "defective" card will lead to lost sales and bad PR in the long run. I don't think it's a respin issue.To be honest, I think the PR damage done by selling defective chips as frontier editions would be a lot worse than the cost of manufacturing another 20K chips. And AMD is not so stupid that they would not realize this.
Imagine if word got around that a Frontier Edition was 20% slower than RX Vega even when using exactly the same drivers (assuming that is possible). Customers who bought Frontier Edition cards would never buy AMD again.
New Wait a minute... this thing is perf wise ~vanilla-1080@180watts ... and this thing is 300watts+ ? Something must have gone horrible wrong...
Looks like a shrink of Fiji on 14nm @ ~1.25Ghz clock with updated GCN architecture from Polaris and 16GB of HBM2 memory?
Exactly, I would hope AMD is smart enough to realize that selling a "defective" card will lead to lost sales and bad PR in the long run. I don't think it's a respin issue.
YES
This is what amazes me about this "launch".
No review samples is the equivalent of movies released directly to rental or theatres without prescreenings- not a good sign.
Phantom Edition availability and $1000/$1500 MSRP? Yeah that will thrill masses of gamers waiting for two years for FuryX follow up.
"Prosumer" card first? There just a "few" less programmers than video gamers. If you release a Phantom Edition gamer card that at least makes it into the hands of 20 review sites and a few hundred gamers the masses are whipped into a frenzy of anticipation and they will wait another month.
My re-spin theory is the only thing that makes sense to me here. Even if that's true the Frontier launch seems more damaging than positive to me.
I still believe a $499 RX with 1080 level performance and a Freesync monitor is a combination that must be considered in 2017, and that 1080Ti competition is not necessarily relevant.
Ryan from PCPer, in their live FE review. said that AMD told him that Gaming Mode doesn't do anything. It's just a GUI change.
He also said expect up to an 8% boost with RX Vega according to reddit.
I really wish anyone else would have gotten this card card other than PCPer though.
They bought a couple of them, I don't think AT would do that, nor would most of the other sites.He also said expect up to an 8% boost with RX Vega according to reddit.
I really wish anyone else would have gotten this card card other than PCPer though.
Up to 8%, which ain't much. I think the main issue is that the GPU can't reliably maintain 1600 MHz... There's another 10-15% performance on the table that can't be extracted due to not hitting those peak clocks consistently. On the other hand, I am hard pressed to imagine that Vega is simply Polaris with higher clocks and higher core count. There's been so much hyped up in the Vega architecture that there has to be inconsequential IPC gains, but they aren't getting utilized effectively due to driver reasons or whatever. We'll soon find out in 1 month, I suppose.8% is pretty solid. All we need to see now is pricing.
Up to 8%, which ain't much. I think the main issue is that the GPU can't reliably maintain 1600 MHz... There's another 10-15% performance on the table that can't be extracted due to not hitting those peak clocks consistently. On the other hand, I am hard pressed to imagine that Vega is simply Polaris with higher clocks and higher core count. There's been so much hyped up in the Vega architecture that there has to be inconsequential IPC gains, but they aren't getting utilized effectively due to driver reasons or whatever. We'll soon find out in 1 month, I suppose.
This "Raja has got to go" narrative is such bullshit. Maybe this is the best anyone could have done with the budget allocated to RTG, Zen was their main focus and it shows.Up to 8℅? Oh dear, things have gone badly wrong here, if that's even remotely true raja has got to go.
Although it is not looking good, the gaming Vega card with updated drivers might still show a greater then expected increase in performance (> 10-20%). Who knows, and if it still disappoints somewhat then it's not the end of the world. I still have high hopes for their new APU with Vega included.This "Raja has got to go" narrative is such bullshit. Maybe this is the best anyone could have done with the budget allocated to RTG, Zen was their main focus and it shows.
Also, if Vega performans like this (maybe with 10%+ due to drivers), they knew that months ago. He would probably have been fired months ago (see AMDs leadership change before Bulldozer launch), rarely is someone let go because of internet outrage or bad reviews. They know their product and can act accordingly long before anyone on the outside knows.
Up to 8℅? Oh dear, things have gone badly wrong here, if that's even remotely true raja has got to go.