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AMD Radeon 400 series is based on Polaris microarchitecture
I could tell you that I didn't know about the name, but that would be a lie. Anyway, Polaris is the new architecture codename empowering AMDs 2016 GPUs. We should have some more info on that next week. However, the naming leaked onto the web, so let's investigate a tiny bit.
Korean tech site HardwareBattle has leaked an image of seems to be an AMD presentation slide. According to some websites Polaris (North Star = brightest visible star in thes sky) will replace GCN as an architecture.
An astronomy Tweet by head of AMD Radeon Technology Group followed by a tweet from Chris Hook and Raja Koduri hint towards an upcoming Polaris-based GPU with performance accordingly. As you can see from a Twitter exchange in-between AMD marketing director Chris Hook and Koduri you can read in-between the lines with hinting towards a new micro-architecture.
Koduri references Polaris being "2.5 times brighter". Polaris would be the micro-architecture empowering GPUs like 'Greenland', based on the new 16 and or 14nm FinFET LPP process. We do hope that AMD's future is at least 2.5x more bright in 2016 with products that will shine like the North Star.
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Moegames
Senior Member
Posts: 107
Joined: 2002-05-05
Senior Member
Posts: 107
Joined: 2002-05-05
#5213561 Posted on: 01/01/2016 10:28 PM
I've been thinking about getting an Asus R9 390 Strix. Does anyone have an idea about how long it will be, before the 400 series is released?
Just get the 390 man...it is the best bang for the buck right now by far and it'll flex more muscle as drivers evolve and DirectX12 games begin to come out. It is more than enough for 1080p and 1440p and even that extra vram gives more room to grow over time, it's great to use for downsampling resolutions too.
I just bought the gigabyte G1 390 and love it, it OC's at 1100mhz core with no voltage increase, of course i knew before buying the gigabyte version that the voltage would be locked in this brand but i really don't care as 1080p is my resolution of choice since i use a Panasonic Plasma HDTV as my monitor.
Any of the new 400 series cards from AMD will take a bit of time to evolve as well. I never buy the first line of graphic cards of any new generation of cards. I usually wait for the 2nd wave/irritations of new gen cards before i even begin to think about buying. Like all new tech, i am very patient when buying any new tech as i like to wait for more efficient, better optimized versions of technology that usually comes after the first round of released technology.
Besides, you can always sell your 390 down the road when you actually have good enough reason to upgrade to a newer gen of graphic cards. Pretty much all performance level cards of the next gen cards won't be a huge increase over the 390's. It's safe to say the biggest gains will be with the very high end of enthusiast cards first..then later you will see a much better bang for the buck cards with next gen cards down the road.
Why would AMD want to scrape GCN? GCN is well known for AMD software engineers, early tests show perform well on DX12, is same architecture used in consoles and 14nm should make it power efficient too. Plus its cheaper to improve on GCN then create completely new arch.
Probably Polaris is just a name for new GCN version
why should nVidia be the only one with fancy names
Polaris is simply GCN 2/1.3, there is no way AMD is going to toss out GCN before it has even been utilized in games properly with directX12. The amount of R&D would be staggering to start a brand new approach to something that would be a true replacement of GCN. LIke others have said already, all Polaris is is a rename of GCN, it does not take rocket science intelligence to figure out what is going on here with AMD renaming GCN to Polaris. Heck i would bet my last dollar that the current AMD Fiji lineup of cards will be "ported over" to the new smaller nanometer of cards coming in 2016 and renamed once again as a "true" next gen card. Anyone wanna take any wagers>?
Remember, both the Red and Green team rely heavily on rebranding these days, not just lineup of cards but the technology inside them. So just think about it...Polaris may have new bits of technology added to the exciting GCN technology but make no mistake about it, it will be GCN 2/1.3 rebranded. Don't let these mega companies dupe you like a rag doll. We don't need to go through that sh1t like the mainstream folks do! lol
I've been thinking about getting an Asus R9 390 Strix. Does anyone have an idea about how long it will be, before the 400 series is released?
Just get the 390 man...it is the best bang for the buck right now by far and it'll flex more muscle as drivers evolve and DirectX12 games begin to come out. It is more than enough for 1080p and 1440p and even that extra vram gives more room to grow over time, it's great to use for downsampling resolutions too.
I just bought the gigabyte G1 390 and love it, it OC's at 1100mhz core with no voltage increase, of course i knew before buying the gigabyte version that the voltage would be locked in this brand but i really don't care as 1080p is my resolution of choice since i use a Panasonic Plasma HDTV as my monitor.
Any of the new 400 series cards from AMD will take a bit of time to evolve as well. I never buy the first line of graphic cards of any new generation of cards. I usually wait for the 2nd wave/irritations of new gen cards before i even begin to think about buying. Like all new tech, i am very patient when buying any new tech as i like to wait for more efficient, better optimized versions of technology that usually comes after the first round of released technology.
Besides, you can always sell your 390 down the road when you actually have good enough reason to upgrade to a newer gen of graphic cards. Pretty much all performance level cards of the next gen cards won't be a huge increase over the 390's. It's safe to say the biggest gains will be with the very high end of enthusiast cards first..then later you will see a much better bang for the buck cards with next gen cards down the road.
Why would AMD want to scrape GCN? GCN is well known for AMD software engineers, early tests show perform well on DX12, is same architecture used in consoles and 14nm should make it power efficient too. Plus its cheaper to improve on GCN then create completely new arch.
Probably Polaris is just a name for new GCN version
why should nVidia be the only one with fancy names
Polaris is simply GCN 2/1.3, there is no way AMD is going to toss out GCN before it has even been utilized in games properly with directX12. The amount of R&D would be staggering to start a brand new approach to something that would be a true replacement of GCN. LIke others have said already, all Polaris is is a rename of GCN, it does not take rocket science intelligence to figure out what is going on here with AMD renaming GCN to Polaris. Heck i would bet my last dollar that the current AMD Fiji lineup of cards will be "ported over" to the new smaller nanometer of cards coming in 2016 and renamed once again as a "true" next gen card. Anyone wanna take any wagers>?
Remember, both the Red and Green team rely heavily on rebranding these days, not just lineup of cards but the technology inside them. So just think about it...Polaris may have new bits of technology added to the exciting GCN technology but make no mistake about it, it will be GCN 2/1.3 rebranded. Don't let these mega companies dupe you like a rag doll. We don't need to go through that sh1t like the mainstream folks do! lol
Tree Dude
Senior Member
Posts: 532
Joined: 2005-10-09
Senior Member
Posts: 532
Joined: 2005-10-09
#5213593 Posted on: 01/02/2016 12:21 AM
Silicon is an element, quantum is a type of computing. You would compare binary computing to quantum computing. Quantum is not becoming mainstream any time soon as we still don't fully understand how to use it outside of encryption algorithms.
Graphene, carbon nano tubes, black phosphorus and a few others are being looked at to replace silicon. There is no clear winner yet so silicon will stay for a while longer.
These light based processors have already been given the green light so expect half Silicon, half Quantum real soon.
Silicon is an element, quantum is a type of computing. You would compare binary computing to quantum computing. Quantum is not becoming mainstream any time soon as we still don't fully understand how to use it outside of encryption algorithms.
Graphene, carbon nano tubes, black phosphorus and a few others are being looked at to replace silicon. There is no clear winner yet so silicon will stay for a while longer.
Reddoguk
Senior Member
Posts: 1766
Joined: 2010-05-26
Senior Member
Posts: 1766
Joined: 2010-05-26
#5213605 Posted on: 01/02/2016 01:38 AM
Silicon is an element, quantum is a type of computing. You would compare binary computing to quantum computing. Quantum is not becoming mainstream any time soon as we still don't fully understand how to use it outside of encryption algorithms.
Graphene, carbon nano tubes, black phosphorus and a few others are being looked at to replace silicon. There is no clear winner yet so silicon will stay for a while longer.
Controlling electrons using silicon is quantum physics, i never said it was going to be quantum computing.
Directing atoms to travel down tiny fiber optics to remove some of the resistance copper has will double or even triple the current speed of CPU's.
It's like putting a tiny internet web inside the silicon and removing need of copper traces. The bandwidth would improve immensely and caching would be near instant. This would also make silicon last god knows how long because they can just keep improving 10 nm forever.
Silicon is an element, quantum is a type of computing. You would compare binary computing to quantum computing. Quantum is not becoming mainstream any time soon as we still don't fully understand how to use it outside of encryption algorithms.
Graphene, carbon nano tubes, black phosphorus and a few others are being looked at to replace silicon. There is no clear winner yet so silicon will stay for a while longer.
Controlling electrons using silicon is quantum physics, i never said it was going to be quantum computing.
Directing atoms to travel down tiny fiber optics to remove some of the resistance copper has will double or even triple the current speed of CPU's.
It's like putting a tiny internet web inside the silicon and removing need of copper traces. The bandwidth would improve immensely and caching would be near instant. This would also make silicon last god knows how long because they can just keep improving 10 nm forever.
Xendance
Senior Member
Posts: 5548
Joined: 2005-07-19
Senior Member
Posts: 5548
Joined: 2005-07-19
#5213901 Posted on: 01/02/2016 11:05 PM
Controlling electrons using silicon is quantum physics, i never said it was going to be quantum computing.
Directing atoms to travel down tiny fiber optics to remove some of the resistance copper has will double or even triple the current speed of CPU's.
It's like putting a tiny internet web inside the silicon and removing need of copper traces. The bandwidth would improve immensely and caching would be near instant. This would also make silicon last god knows how long because they can just keep improving 10 nm forever.
I'm having trouble understanding what you mean.
Controlling electrons using silicon is quantum physics, i never said it was going to be quantum computing.
Directing atoms to travel down tiny fiber optics to remove some of the resistance copper has will double or even triple the current speed of CPU's.
It's like putting a tiny internet web inside the silicon and removing need of copper traces. The bandwidth would improve immensely and caching would be near instant. This would also make silicon last god knows how long because they can just keep improving 10 nm forever.
I'm having trouble understanding what you mean.
BColt
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Posts: 32
Joined: 2015-09-26
Member
Posts: 32
Joined: 2015-09-26
#5214064 Posted on: 01/03/2016 12:54 PM
Im guessing the 2.5 more effective, combined with another slide that says HDR 1080 better than 4k... means the cards will be 5% more powerfull that this gen, but a bit more efficient. So no mid-range 4k gaming soon
Also my 6th sense says the 14nm parts and HBM2 will probably be reserved for the top parts only. Mid range maybe HBM1 at best, or the new GDDR5. Also most likely 28nm wont go away this year. 470 ( or even 480) might be 28nm aswell?
Im guessing the 2.5 more effective, combined with another slide that says HDR 1080 better than 4k... means the cards will be 5% more powerfull that this gen, but a bit more efficient. So no mid-range 4k gaming soon
Also my 6th sense says the 14nm parts and HBM2 will probably be reserved for the top parts only. Mid range maybe HBM1 at best, or the new GDDR5. Also most likely 28nm wont go away this year. 470 ( or even 480) might be 28nm aswell?
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As I posted in the AMD subforum, I believe it means 2.5x more energy efficient (watt/transistors packed), and the 169bce reference probably means 16.9 billion transistors for the top part.