AMD Announces Next Generation Radeon R7 and R9 Video Cards
by Ryan Smith on September 25, 2013 4:40 PM EST
At AMD’s 2014 GPU Product Showcase, AMD has just announced their upcoming next generation product lineup. In an unusual move they’re announcing a complete top-to-bottom of products at all once, rather than announcing products piecemeal as they’re ready for launch.
The upcoming generation of products will be branded R7 and R9. R7 will be AMD’s lower-end mainstream parts, while R9 will be for their higher-end enthusiast parts.
Notably, AMD is taking care to note that certain features are only available on certain cards. The R9 series is Direct3D 11.2 compliant, for example, but the R7 was not mentioned as being so. Meanwhile R7 260X, R9 290, and R9 290X will have new audio features (more on that later), but not R9 270X or R9 280X. So it’s likely that some of the chips in this stack are rebadged/rebranded Southern Islands (7000 series) parts, though it’s not clear which are what.
The flagship of the new family will be the R9 290X. AMD isn’t releasing the full specs for it at this time, though they’re quoting 5 TFLOPs of GPU performance. It will come with 4GB of memory, with a total memory bandwidth of over 300GB/sec, which assuming a 512bit memory bus would put memory clockspeeds at equal to or greater than 4.7GHz. Unlike their other parts AMD is not announcing a price quite yet.
The GPU behind 290X has yet to be named. But AMD has already told us that it has more than 6 billion transistors; this would put it between Tahiti and NVIDIA’s GK110 in transistor count.
| AMD 2014 GPU Specification Comparison | |||||||
| R9 290X | R9 280X | R9 270X | R7 260X | R7 250 | |||
| Firestrike Score | N/A | >6800 | >5500 | >3700 | >2000 | ||
| VRAM | 4GB | 3GB | 2GB | 2GB | 1GB | ||
| Transistor Count | >6B | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | ||
| AMD TrueAudio | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | ||
| Pre-Order Date | 10/03/2013 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | ||
| Launch Price | N/A | $299 | $199 | $139 | <$89 | ||
Below the 290X will be the R9 280X. This will be a card with 3GB of RAM, and it has a price tag of $299. It’s not clear whether this is the same GPU as in 290X or not, and in lieu of specs AMD has given us a single benchmark: 3DMark Firemark, where it scores better than 6800.
Further down yet is the R9 270X. This is a 2GB card with a $199 price tag. AMD is listing a Firestrike score of greater than 5500.
Finally, at the bottom of the stack are the R7 parts, R7 260X and R7 250. 260X is a 2GB card for $139, with a Firestrike score of over 3700. Meanwhile 250 is AMD’s sub-$100 card, hitting retail at $89 with 1GB of RAM and a Firestrike score of over 2000.
Update: Now with official product pictures
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
72 Comments
View All Comments
superjim - Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - link
I was surprised to see they are fielding a sub $100 card as well. I thought the 7750 was the last low-end card they were going to put out. I can see nVidia putting out a sub $100 card before I can see AMD doing it because Richland is right there.gochichi - Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - link
I wasn't aware that the 7750 was low-end. I have the 7750 and I've been really pleased with it. It makes a lot of things playable and the best thing about it is that it is completely powered by the bus, so no special power supply is required. It's not my only card, I have a 6870, and also a 7870. I like cards like the 7750 because they just work, and aren't a big deal at all. Desktops are lasting longer than ever, and I can't think of a desktop that I have that couldn't benefit from a better video card. PC gamers are a strange breed, and one older game could be all you care about. Starcraft II, Diablo III, World of Warcraft, and even the Call of Duty series are all examples of games that are very meaningful even today.In any case, my point is that the 7750 is actually not in the low-end, it was released as decidedly "mainstream". Huge difference, both Nvidia and AMD could and probably should exit the actual low-end. I'll put it differently: There's no way in hell that my HD5000 on my ultra book performs anywhere near the 7750, I mean I wish it did, that would make me so happy but it just doesn't at all. If intel were at 7750 levels, AMD and NVIDIA should shutter their doors right now.
In years past I remember getting actual low end cards out of pure need and being really pleasantly surprised by what an architecture change can do to performance. This is central to the magic of desktops... one component change can repair and reinvigorate an old computer for next to nothing. (I'm looking at you SSD, and video cards.)
nathanddrews - Thursday, September 26, 2013 - link
I've got a half-height 7750 in one of my HTPCs paired with an i3-2100. I bought it almost exclusively because it's the most powerful card available in a half-height configuration that has near perfect HTPC functionality. I consider the fact that it can play a lot of games at 1080p with low to med details a bonus. 720p with ultra settings? No problem. None of my SNB or IVB IGPs can do that.superjim - Thursday, September 26, 2013 - link
It's all relative. A 7750 is low-end compared to a Titan or even a 7970. On the other hand I'll take it over integrated graphics any day.Mil0 - Thursday, September 26, 2013 - link
The fastest Richland (A10-6800K) only gets ~1K on 3dmark, Haswell gets 600-700* so I can definitely see the market for 2-3x performance improvement on a budget.* granted, the intel 5200 gets 1K4, but it's not available on desktop and also a *lot* more expensive.
I was hoping for Kaveri to improve on Richland by a huge margin, I might have to dampen my expectations.. (it wouldn't make much sense to bring out the R7 250 if Kaveri gets within striking distance.) It could be that they're introducing the R7 250 for intel systems *fingers crossed for Kaveri*
wumpus - Monday, September 30, 2013 - link
As much as AMD wishes otherwise, some poor souls insist on buying low-end Intel gear. That and it still likely beats an AMD APU.SAimNE - Friday, October 4, 2013 - link
... an apu + one of those low end cards makes a mid range gaming machine for way less than the average cost.crimson117 - Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - link
From a marketing POV, "Integrated graphics" isn't a welcome bullet point on budget pre-built gaming machines (entry level Dell XPS, for example), but "AMD R7 250 1GB Dedicated Graphics!" sure is.Death666Angel - Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - link
Make that 2 or 4GB these days. :PEJS1980 - Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - link
I think you've pretty much nailed it on the head!