Radeon R9 390X Could Cost $700+ USD

[blackout23]

That's what I was thinking too. No matter how powerful it is, unless they've caught up with Nvidia with performance / watt then they're not going to make much headway in the PC discreet GPU market. Maxwell has really trounced AMDs efforts in this regard.

If it really comes with its own compat watercooling solution as reference design that's already a bad sign.

[schmidtbag]

If it really comes with its own compat watercooling solution as reference design that's already a bad sign.

Not necessarily. The R9 290 and 290X had TERRIBLE reference coolers, allowing the GPUs to heat up to 95C and therefore down-throttling the performance. They chose that reference cooler because it was cheap, but it seriously hurt their sales since the benchmarks were capped out. I own a R9 290 made by HIS and I can barely reach 70C on that. If AMD is going to charge $700, I think they're just ensuring that this time around, thermals will not be the problem. I think they're also reaching for better OC numbers, since enthusiasts like that.

I do have to agree, though, that a stock GPU should never rely on an external radiator for proper cooling. If those charts we see are true, I think AMD could have sacrificed a few hundred MHz for some more reasonable cooling.

[duby229]

The only info I have on this product lineup is what I've read here, so I may be off base. It seems like AMD has a pretty good range of products to fill in this lineup. I don't really see anything wrong with a stock watercooler as long as there is a suitable air cooled product in the same lineup, and in this case there is....

As long as there is a chioce that buyers can make, I think it's a good thing.

[Raven3x7]

That's what I was thinking too. No matter how powerful it is, unless they've caught up with Nvidia with performance / watt then they're not going to make much headway in the PC discreet GPU market. Maxwell has really trounced AMDs efforts in this regard.

It's a good thing their APUs are a lot more appealing and that they've sown up the current gen consoles, this keeps them in the game. A strong AMD is good for consumers so I'm hoping for a comeback.

Performance per Watt is completely irrelevant in the ultra high end sector this is aimed at. It's the first GPU with HBM memory, and it is also huge for an AMD GPU according to the most recent rumors. As a result it will be more expensive to produce than previous AMD products. If the rumours are true it is also faster than Titan X which would be a significant blow to NVidia. I'm hoping that their new drivers will be good on Linux at least where Vulkan is concerned(It is based on Mantle after all) and they will finally be an option for people that actually care about or need good performance.

[sarmad]

Most gamers won't need 8 TFLOPS right now since almost all games for the next few years will be designed to run on a 1.8 TFLOPS machine (PS4). The ones who need 8 TFLOPS are those who want to run dual screen (VR headsets) at full HD or more running at 60+ fps. So this card isn't for the average PC gamer, it's for the enthusiasts who most probably won't mind paying 700$ for this.

[blackout23]

Performance per Watt is completely irrelevant in the ultra high end sector this is aimed at.

No it absolutely isn't. The great performance pre watt is what makes Maxwell cards overclock so well. A 980 isn't that much faster than a 780 Ti, but consumes way less power. That's your OC headroom right there.
In the end you can only draw a certain amount of power from 2x 8 Pin connectors + the PCIe bus. That power has to be put to use as efficiently has possible.

[dragorth]

No it absolutely isn't. The great performance pre watt is what makes Maxwell cards overclock so well. A 980 isn't that much faster than a 780 Ti, but consumes way less power. That's your OC headroom right there.
In the end you can only draw a certain amount of power from 2x 8 Pin connectors + the PCIe bus. That power has to be put to use as efficiently has possible.

This is all based on speculation, but if you look at where this card is targeted, it looks to compete with the Titan X. The Titan X, according to the same slides, only uses a few watts less power that the R9 390X, so for that category, they are competing head to head.

[dungeon]

Most gamers won't need 8 TFLOPS right now since almost all games for the next few years will be designed to run on a 1.8 TFLOPS machine (PS4). The ones who need 8 TFLOPS are those who want to run dual screen (VR headsets) at full HD or more running at 60+ fps. So this card isn't for the average PC gamer, it's for the enthusiasts who most probably won't mind paying 700$ for this.

Yup when someone combine it with FreeSync 144hz 4K monitor, this card sounds cheap

[duby229]

This is all based on speculation, but if you look at where this card is targeted, it looks to compete with the Titan X. The Titan X, according to the same slides, only uses a few watts less power that the R9 390X, so for that category, they are competing head to head.

Yeah, I tend to agree. Titan draws a lot of power. I don't think power efficiency was it's design goal at all.

[eydee]

Why don't they just release GPUs that are 10000 times faster than the current ones, run at 20?C, don't consume but produce power and only cost 5€? They could monopolize the whole GPU market.