14 DAY TRIAL // With AMD preparing to release a new series of desktop graphics cards, the world is metaphorically holding its breath in anticipation of what cool new chips are in store for us. Unfortunately, the answer to that is “not many.”
Previous reports have been orbiting around the “Fiji” codename, and we can at least attest that that particular graphics processing unit will make its debut.
However, it turns out it is also the only new processor that AMD has been working on. All other Radeon 300 series video cards will use rebranded chips.
That means that the GPUs from the Radeon 200 line will get a small speed bump and new names, but nothing else besides that.
The Radeon 300 series lineup
The Fiji will power the Radeon R9 390 video board, as well as the dual-GPU successor of the R9 295X2, codenamed Bermuda (unconfirmed so far). The double-chip card will be called Radeon R9 395X2.
The GCN 1.3 graphics architecture-based chip has 4,096 stream processors and (on the Radeon R9 390X) 4 GB of GDDR5 VRAM backing it up, through an interface of 4,096 bits (1,024 bits per channel). The memory type is HBM (high-bandwidth memory), not GDDR5.
HBM is made by SK Hynix and uses stacked layers of fast memory directly on the GPU die. Because of this, you can be sure that the whole setup will be unique.
The rest of the Radeon 300 series
Grenada is the processor that will be used for the Radeon R9 380 cards (380 and/or 380X), but it is actually the Hawaii GPU under a new name.
Moving a step lower, we have the Radeon R9 370 series powered by the Trinidad, formerly Tonga GPU from the Radeon R9 285.
On the other hand, it's possible that the Bonaire will be used instead of Tonga, which means that Trinidad could be a rebrand of either.
Availability
While we would love to say that the Radeon 300 series add-in graphics cards will be coming out next week or next month, we really can't. Previous rumors point at a second quarter launch, so April at the earliest.
On the other hand, the Game Developers Conference will happen from March 2 to 6, so maybe we'll see something then.