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AMD reveals specs of AMD Radeon R9 300-series: Old GPUs get new life

Advanced Micro Devices on Thursday revealed all the details about its new family of graphics cards, the Radeon R9 and the Radeon R7 300-series. As reported, the whole lineup is based on existing graphics processing units with minor speed-bumps to improve performance in certain cases and games. The flagship Radeon R9 Fury-series adapters do not belong to the 300-series, but will co-exist with them in the market.

AMD uses existing code-named “Hawaii”, “Tonga”, “Pitcairn” and “Bonaire” graphics processing units for its new Radeon R7 and R9 300-series products. The company itself admits that the chips are rather mature, but claims that they were “reimagined” and actual products have been tailored for modern workloads. While this is true and the new Radeon graphics dapters can potentially deliver noticeable performance improvements over graphics cards based on the same chips, do not expect new performance levels from the upcoming Radeon 300-series offerings.

amd_radeon_300_promo

To differentiate its fresh Radeon R9 and R7 300-series graphics cards from predecessors, AMD enabled virtual super resolution (VSR) and frame-rate target control (FRTC) software technologies for all the new add-in boards. VSR is designed to enhance quality of certain objects in games and offer 4K-like level of details, whereas FRTC helps to reduce power consumption of graphics cards by limiting their compute performance in games that do not require a lot of processing horsepower.

amd_radeon_r9_300_specifications

AMD Radeon R9 390: ‘Hawaii’ gets second life with extra memory and bandwidth

Although “Hawaii”-based Radeon R9 290-series graphics cards perform very well in games, they have not been positioned very well against direct rivals; moreover, modern workloads require higher memory bandwidth. The new Radeon R9 390-series cards based on the same chip are designed to offer better performance for today's needs.

amd_radeon_r9_390_promo

The launch of Nvidia Corp.’s GeForce GTX 900-series graphics cards last September largely caught AMD unguarded because very few people expected Nvidia’s GM204 to perform so well. Since the company had tens (if not hundreds) of millions of dollars worth of inventory in the channel, it could not simply introduce new products to respond to Nvidia, which is why it had to cut-down prices of its Radeon R9 290-series.

The new Radeon R9 390 and 390X products have slightly higher GPU clock-rates as well as 20 per cent higher memory bandwidth. In addition, both graphics cards are equipped with 8GB of onboard memory to boost performance in ultra-high-definition resolutions. Since “Hawaii” already offers remarkable computing performance, the new cards will continue to deliver great FPS in games and will be generally better than predecessors. However, do not expect breakthroughs thanks to higher memory bandwidth and 8GB of memory (at least, based on our reviews). If you want to play all games comfortably in 3840*2160 resolution, you will need to get two Radeon R9 390X, or something even more powerful from AMD or Nvidia.

amd_radeon_r9_390_specs

The new Radeon R9 390-series products seem to be a little better positioned to fight against Nvidia Corp.’s GeForce GTX 900-series than their predecessors released in late 2013, but their prices may just be too high. Eventually, AMD will probably have to reconsider them.

AMD Radeon R9 380: ‘Tonga’ gets second life with memory boost

AMD’s “Tonga” graphics processing unit boasts very high energy efficiency and generally high performance. In fact, the AMD Radeon R9 285 introduced last September is a rather good adapter for the money. AMD has just made it a little better.

amd_radeon_r9_380_promo

The Radeon R9 380 features 1792 stream processors and 256-bit memory bus, just like the predecessor, but it sports slightly higher GPU and memory frequencies as well as 4GB of GDDR5 onboard. 2GB of memory was clearly a drawback of the R9 285, so AMD fixes it with the R9 380. The novelty will perform better in high resolutions, but it will not offer radically higher performance than the predecessor, at least, not in cases worth considering.

amd_radeon_r9_380_specs

Many believe – and there are evidences – that Tonga features 2048 stream processors and 384-bit memory bus, just like AMD’s “Tahiti”. Unfortunately, for some reasons AMD decided not to introduce “Tahiti XT” with all SPs enabled. Perhaps, it will do it at a later date when its previous-generation graphics cards are sold out and do not compete against a new high-performance offering. The Radeon R9 380 is not a bad product, but at $249 it just seems overpriced.

AMD Radeon R7 360/370: “Pitcairn” and “Bonaire” re-introduced once again

While the Radeon R9-series graphics cards are designed for serious gamers, the Radeon R7 graphics adapters are aimed at casual gamers and multimedia enthusiasts. Such users do not need a lot of horsepower to enjoy their titles and content, so AMD re-introduced its good-old “Pitcairn” and “Bonaire” GPUs under new names with slightly higher clock-rates to address this market.

amd_radeon_r7_370_promo

The Radeon R7 360 is based on a slightly cut-down “Bonaire” graphics processor, which is powered by the GCN 1.1 architecture and thus supports TrueAudio and FreeSync. The Radeon R7 370 is based on the “Pitcairn”, which is slightly faster, but does not support all the latest capabilities of AMD’s GPUs as it was originally introduced in early 2012 and features GCN 1.0 architecture.

amd_radeon_r7_370_specs

Since both “Pitcairn” and “Bonaire” graphics processing units are pretty outdated, they do not support HDMI 2.0 as well as HEVC/VP9 hardware decoding. As a result, the new GPUs will not be able to decode upcoming Ultra HD Blu-ray movies in hardware, they will also not be able to output content that comes in 3840*2160 resolution at 60 frames per second on UHD BD media. While the boards will be able to output 4K content downloaded from the Internet, it generally does not seem that the new AMD Radeon R7 360 and 370 graphics cards will be great solutions for next-generation UHD home-theater personal computers. In fact, even Radeon R9 Fury X “Fiji” lacks HDMI 2.0, but has hardware decoding of HEVC. Therefore, AMD generally has certain issues with its living room strategy.

Final words

The Radeon R9 and R7 300-series graphics cards are based on mature graphics processing units and thus do not bring support of any revolutionary features. While the new graphics cards are clearly faster than their predecessors powered by the same GPUs, do not expect them to offer breakthrough performance.

In general, the whole lineup of the new AMD 300-series graphics adapters looks rather good and logical; however, prices of the new cards seem to be rather high, considering current prices of already available solutions.

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KitGuru Says: If you are in the market for a new graphics card and do not want to spend over $400 or £300, then you may want to consider AMD’s new Radeon R9 and R7 300-series graphics cards. However, at present there are similar solutions that formally belong to previous-generation, but which cost considerably less while offering similar performance. If you are looking at higher-end offerings, wait for AMD to roll-out its Radeon R9 Fury Nano, which will cost more than $449, but which will deliver higher performance.

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21 comments

  1. Demon Highwayman

    So for a gamer only the fury cards are worth looking at unless your on a strict budget

  2. I see lots of ‘Do Not’

  3. Prices in euros are ridiculous 290x with same amount of memory was 50-100 euro cheaper than the new/old 390x and if you look at 4gb model the difference is more like 150-200 euro

  4. well, not entirely true; the 390 would still be a good mid-high card. “Gamer” doesn’t automatically mean “top of the line”, and a well priced 390 could be definitely worth looking at

    I’d be more inclined to say “for a gamer, only the fury cards are worth getting excited about”

  5. those are fake charts, GCN 1.1 and 1.2 have DX12 feature level 12_0

  6. Demon Highwayman

    Yes, that would sum it up in a neater fashion. On the downside it sounds like anything in the 300 series will be charging too much at least upon release.

    I really hope KG manage to get some fury cards to compare with Nvidia’s best current cards. I really want to get into VR soon and my current gtx 970 can hardly handle 1440p just now, so little chance of 90fps on two 1440p screens.

  7. Jozo kajvasbriga

    DID YOU RELLY NEED THIS $HITSTORM AMD?

    WAS IT NECESSARY TO LOOK LIKE A PETTY FÖÖL OVER A FAIR REVIEW ?

  8. < ??????.+ zeldadungeon+ *********….. < Now Go R­e­­a­d M­o­r­e

    20

  9. R7 260x (full bonaire) $90-100 > R7 360 (cutdown bonaire) $109
    R9 270x (7870 rebrand) $140 > R7 370 (R7 265 rebrand/7850 rebrand) $ 150

    Deceitful and disgusting AMD.

  10. probably they want to get rid of the old stock too

  11. My current 200 series card will do until next year – hopefully by then AMD will have a new architecture in the more affordable mainstream. Quite happy with my card for the time being anyway, might see if I can get a new cooler on it though as it can get loud.

  12. yeah sadly, best waiting until 2016 for the real new AMD architecture. was disappointed to see so many rebrands from 200 series to 300 series.

  13. Yeah id like to read the KitGuru review too, shame about the issues – not sure why, Ive based my own buying decisions for AMD hardware on Kitguru reviews for years.

  14. All time hit the kitguru Find Here

  15. Northsidelunatic

    with direct x 12 able to pool memory together and use gpu in parallel you think 2 r 360x in crossfire would be good for high ultra gaming @ 1080p ?

  16. Fucking terrible! Seriously they released the 370 for $150, when you can already find 270 for $150 and 270x which are faster for $170, I would have thought they would actually lower the prices on 3 years old turds!

    The 380 is like $200 when you can find 280x for $220 with 4GB memory! You can find a 290 for as low as $230 if you monitor carefully and patiently, but in general you can find it for $250 easily and the “new” turd is $330. Give me a break!

    I was actually waiting for AMD to release the 300 series so I can guy a new GPU, but I guess I’m going to be switching to Nvidia. 4 years and still no new GPU’s, what have they been doing for 4 years?

    They’ll have the Fury X in like 1 week, but big deal, its neck and neck with Nvidia 980ti and at $650 its only for idiots and super rich kids who have money to burn!

    Anyone who is looking at $150 to $200 for a gpu like me is screwed and even those looking at the $250-300 market are screwed! Garbage “new” products!

  17. No “new, un-enabled tech” is going to save amd’s crap.
    Mantle didn’t do crap and neither will dx12.
    Crossfire drivers are crap, dx12 will make them more CRAP.
    Face reality, amd has stupid and non caring washouts left barely hanging on the dive pit debt ridden doused deck of dingalings.

  18. Why would some amd fanboy bloviating idiot buy a 390 instead of the cheaper 290X ?
    Mango’s mango is mangie and mangled.

  19. Then they need to DROP THE PRICES !
    I MEAN DROP THEM DOWN LOW LOW LOW

    Of course they cannot as they just skyrocketed the 290x price with a new sticker and some lies.

  20. but most of it doesn’t work except in the mind of the fanboy amd freak then of course it’s already an enormous screaming better than mantle overclocked upgrade cause ( someone other than crap amd did the work that someone being MICROSOFT !) the amd fanboy is so stupid that they believe in microsoft upgrading crap amd products, and it’s always someone else’s fault if amd is crap, never amd’s fault – intel did them in, nvidia hoses them, microsoft must make windows do 4 and 8 cores for bullsnoozer the patch is coming oh it’s going to be so great buy it now !! dx12 will kame crap amd cards fly, fly like the wind, to be free again !!! doo doo di di di doo doo !.

  21. 4 Gigs of extra vram? I’m also looking at overclockers right now, and the 390 is actually cheaper than a 290x

    So yes, a 390 is a good mid-to-high end card with 8G of Vram for ~£270, with the added advantage of being quite well future proofed