It will be called Hawaii XTX and should power Radeon R9 390X

Nov 20, 2014 12:28 GMT  ·  By

Back in September we reported on the presumed approach of an AMD video card called Radeon R9 390X, which would presumably counter NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 980. Now we have a follow-up on that report.

It is nothing that comes straight from the company, unfortunately. Advanced Micro Devices has been quite silent in terms of new consumer video cards lately.

At least compared to NVIDIA, whose GeForce GTX 980 and 970 video adapters came out not that long ago, although they did stay “out of stock” for a pretty long time.

Granted, AMD does have the Radeon R9 285, but it's not a top-tier board like the one the Radeon R9 390X was supposed to be.

On the flip side, no one said that particular card would reach the market at any point before 2015, so we can't say AMD is suffering a roadmap setback either.

AMD's upcoming video card will rely on Hawaii XTX

Hawaii XTX is the name that AMD has reportedly decided on for the new version of Hawaii that will be launched in early 2015.

We know that the Sunnyvale, California-based company has the Fiji set for some point in the first half of 2015, or maybe around mid-year. However, AMD also plans to launch one last high-end Hawaii chip before Fiji comes around.

We are only assuming that the Radeon R9 390X will be the name of the video card powered by the Hawaii XTX. It's possible that AMD will choose Radeon R9 380X instead, and reserve 390X for the Fiji.

That's assuming that the CPU and GPU maker doesn't decide to make a full jump to the Radeon R9 400 series. Alternatively, it may name the Hawaii XTX card something like Radeon R9 290X Extreme Edition and reserve the Radeon R9 300 series for the Fiji and co.

Radeon R9 295X is another possibility, but we doubt that the picture of the Radeon R9 390X would have been leaked two months ago if that were the case.

Interesting to note about that is the completely different color scheme. AMD's Radeon cards have been sticking to the black and red set, but the R9 390X is colored red and white, with black making up only parts of the shroud.

NVIDIA's likely response

Since it's AMD that has to “respond” to NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 980 and 970, the issue doesn't technically apply, and this seems to be supported by the roadmap. NVIDIA doesn't plan to launch new graphics cards this year, and probably not in early 2015 either. Maxwell GM200 will launch at the same time as or right after Fiji too, so no threat from that part either. It really looks like the ball is in AMD's court, so to speak.

AMD Radeon R9 290X versus R9 390X (5 Images)

AMD Radeon R9 290X
Radeon R9 390X coolerAMD Radeon R9 290X, flat angle view
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