Before you ask yourself if the title of the article is correct. It is. Rumors have begun spreading around the internet that AMD may have in their possession a graphics card (gpu), capable of returning the crown to the once proud ‘poor man’s Intel’. But just like any rumor or leak we must take everything with a grain of salt. So before we jump into the rumor bin. Let’s take a look at the facts!
| AMD R9-290X | AMD R7970 | GeForce GTX 780 | GeForce GTX Titan | |
| GPU Codename | Hawaii | Tahiti | GK110 | GK110 |
| GPU Process | 28nm | 28nm | 28nm | 28nm |
| Stream Processors/TMUs/ROPs | 2816-2560/176/44 | 2048/128/32 | 2304/192/48 | 2668/224/48 |
| Base Clock | 800 MHz | 925 MHz | 863 MHz | 837 MHz |
| Turbo Clock | 1000 MHz + | N/A | 902 MHz | 876 MHz |
| VRAM | 4 GB | 3 GB | 3 GB | 3 GB |
| Memory Bus | 512-Bit | 384-Bit | 384-Bit | 384 Bit |
| Memory Clock | 1125-1250 MHz | 5.5 GHz (effective) | 6 GHz (effective) | 6 GHz (effective) |
| Power Configuration | 8+6 Pin | 8+6 Pin | 8+6 Pin | 8+6 Pin |
| PCB VRM | 5+1+1 | 5+1 | 6+2 | 6+2 |
| Die Size | 424mm2 | 365mm2 | 551mm2 | 551mm2 |
| Launch Date | October 2013 | 8th January 2012 | 23rd June May 2013 | 21st February 2013 |
| Launch Price | $599-$649 | $549 | $649 | $999.00 |
The chart breakdown above lists what some tech savvy engineers have been able to discern from the photos that were leaked, along with the ‘supposed’ benchmark performances of the card. The benchmarks are pretty average and don’t show any real significant improvement over Nvidia’s Titan, until you look at the price vs performance. It’s still too early to tell what the card is actually capable of, but I’m sure come the 25th of September, the technology world will be glued to their internet browsers for their live stream event showcasing their new products.
Below are some images of the two cards that have been leaked before the September 25th live streaming event. The first set of images belong the new flagship card that will be priced aggressively against Nvidia’s Titan gpu, and can perform on-par if not better if you believe what the above benchmarks are showing us. Below that is another gpu most likely belonging to the mid-range family of graphics cards AMD will be presenting at the event. It’s a very stylish graphics card, something I’m not really accustom to when you consider how reference models typically look.
Radeon R9 290X
