14 DAY TRIAL // According to wccftech.com, prices for the top line, non-Fiji Radeon 300 series have been revealed. It seems that more performance will be given to the cards themselves for the buck you pay.
Typical of AMD and especially for Radeon, prices seem to follow their life-long business practice: give enough for less money than you'd give Nvidia. Nothing's wrong with this method of selling your products when you're targeting both the low- and high-end graphics cards of your competitor.
However, the leaked prices look like this:
| Segment | Graphics Card | GPU | MSRP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enthusiast | R9 390X 8GB | Enhanced Hawaii | $389 |
| Enthusiast | R9 390 8GB | Enhanced Hawaii | $329 |
| Performance | R9 380 4GB / R9 380X 3GB (NOT CONFIRMED) |
Tonga | $239-$249 |
| Performance | R9 380 2GB | Tonga | $195 |
| Performance | R7 370 2GB | Pitcairn | $135 |
| Performance | R7 360 2GB | Bonaire | $107 |
Analysis
As we all notice, the Bonaire will still remain the lower-budget-priced GPU in the entire 300 series offer. Yet, a quick glance on what the competition is fielding, and it's clear that GeForce GTX 750Ti is infinitely inferior to the R7 360, and this will have a serious effect on the low-cost markets buying low- to mid-range graphics cards in large amounts.
Going up the graph, we'll see the Tonga GPU that will be packaged in the shape of R9, 380 and 380X, and two and maybe three gigabytes. We covered the new Tonga GPU three days ago and noticed the massive change the old GPU got from AMD to be able to compete head to head with Nvidia's GeForce 960. Those changes involved a change from the original 256-bit to a 384-bit, while using the same powerful 2048 stream processor. It became a much-needed change that will see the old dog turn into a mighty hound after transformation, at $249.
However, the greatest challenge to Nvidia will come through its Hawaii GPU package, in the form of the R9 390X at $389. Although details are unknown, except that it will come with 8GB of VRAM and higher clock speeds for the GPU core, this means it will likely enable the card to completely close the gap with the GTX 970 at 1920×1080.
If the offer stands true until official confirmation, it seems that where Nvidia strikes high, AMD will strike both low and, with a bit of luck, also high. Its much-awaited Fury HBM graphics cards is slated to be arriving on June 16.