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Even though I am an Nvidia user, I am really impressed by what has been leaked out about AMD's upcoming Polaris.
I've always said if AMD come out with cards that perform well on Linux I would happily switch and it's looking like Polaris is moving me towards that some more.
WCCFtech have an article about leaked AMD Polaris 10 & 11 information and it really does make AMD's next generation GPU architecture sound awesome.
Although their naming is confusing. Polaris 11 is their lower end and Polaris 10 is their higher end. This is due to Polaris 10 being designed first.
Polaris 10 sounds pretty powerful:
The most impressive thing I've read about Polaris is not just the performance (which sounds great), but the drastically reduced power draw:
According to the article we will see more information on Polaris at the end of this month. Exciting times to be a gamer that's for sure, as graphics cards are becoming so powerful it's crazy.
Obviously it's still all speculative since these leaks may not be entirely true, and in Polaris 10's case it was based on a mobile GPU (which is still massively impressive!).
I am looking forward to seeing real-world tests of Polaris, especially on Linux (I imagine we can count on Phoronix for that). As an Nvidia 980ti user I won't be upgrading for quite a long time, but it's certainly putting AMD firmly on my radar as my next GPU choice if the Linux support is good. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
I've always said if AMD come out with cards that perform well on Linux I would happily switch and it's looking like Polaris is moving me towards that some more.
WCCFtech have an article about leaked AMD Polaris 10 & 11 information and it really does make AMD's next generation GPU architecture sound awesome.
Although their naming is confusing. Polaris 11 is their lower end and Polaris 10 is their higher end. This is due to Polaris 10 being designed first.
Polaris 10 sounds pretty powerful:
QuoteAccording to today’s leak the GPU is rated at 5.5 TFLOPS, which is 0.1 TFLOPS shy of the 2816 SP R9 290X. An impressive feat considering the 290X is a ~290W card with 37.5% more GCN stream processors and a memory interface that’s twice as wide. The card is also reportedly rated at less than 150W. According to a previous leak from Benchlife Polaris 10 graphics cards will be rated at around 110W-135W depending on the GPU configuration and clock speeds. Interestingly, according to VCZ this 5.5 TFLOP GPU is not even a desktop class chip but a mobility variant. This would bring R9 390X/390 class performance to notebooks.
The most impressive thing I've read about Polaris is not just the performance (which sounds great), but the drastically reduced power draw:
QuotePolaris 11 on the other hand will feature 14 GCN 4.0 compute units for a total of 896 stream processors. The GPU features a 128bit GDDR5/X memory interface and Polaris 11 cards will feature 4GB of memory. The GPU is rated at 2.5 TFLOPS and a TDP that’s less than 50 watts.
That’s 0.5 TFLOPS north of the 110W R7 370 at less than half the wattage & exactly the same performance of the 180W R9 270X.
According to the article we will see more information on Polaris at the end of this month. Exciting times to be a gamer that's for sure, as graphics cards are becoming so powerful it's crazy.
Obviously it's still all speculative since these leaks may not be entirely true, and in Polaris 10's case it was based on a mobile GPU (which is still massively impressive!).
I am looking forward to seeing real-world tests of Polaris, especially on Linux (I imagine we can count on Phoronix for that). As an Nvidia 980ti user I won't be upgrading for quite a long time, but it's certainly putting AMD firmly on my radar as my next GPU choice if the Linux support is good. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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The comments on this article are closed.
ElectricPrism May 17, 2016
Quoting: niarbehtI've been thinking that I'll be using a Polaris GPU as my passthrough for a Windows gaming VM. Okay driver support in Windows, and support the other (graphics) team? Sure, why not.
Which would require a extra monitor, I would love to do this but extra monitors seem to be too much clutter
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QuoteWhich would require a extra monitor, I would love to do this but extra monitors seem to be too much clutter
Well, I guess you could always switch the HDMI cable between one or the other graphic card depending on which one you are using
(I'm trying to setup a VM with GPU passthrough right now but I'm having troubles with my onboard graphics not working correctly...)
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I hope there will be a nice mini PC (Zotac or Brix or so), with a Polaris10 and a AM4 socket Bristol Ridge APU as a launch system. Since the Bristol Ridge APU has nearly the same watt usage as the Zens that will come out later this year, it would be an smooth upgrade as both use DRR4 and AM4.
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Promising, but probably not better than what nvidia has to offer
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cRaZy-bisCuiT May 17, 2016
I wonder of Liam Dawe is sleeping: nVidia 1080 reviews got released (kind of disappointing performance wise) and there's no news over here.
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TheRiddick May 18, 2016
1080 makes most its performance gains in VR, double in fact. Allot of people were expecting double 980Ti performance, yeah no.
Anyway its the card I will get because of 4k and Linux drivers, been riding on my 390x for a long while and I don't see drivers doubling performance any time soon. Allot of NVIDIA users here who switch to the Polaris and expect decent Linux performance are going to be in for some tears... Take it from someone who has experience ;-) (me)
Anyway its the card I will get because of 4k and Linux drivers, been riding on my 390x for a long while and I don't see drivers doubling performance any time soon. Allot of NVIDIA users here who switch to the Polaris and expect decent Linux performance are going to be in for some tears... Take it from someone who has experience ;-) (me)
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DasCapschen May 18, 2016
I've always been an AMD user, just with the PC I have right now I switched to Nvidia+Intel (must have been ~2-3 years back now).
I would love to go back to AMD, to support them, love that they're doing open source stuff now (also, competition) :)
But I am on Linux for just about one year now, so I have no experience with AMD drivers, but telling from the comments here, it sounds like they're not that good... but hey, can't be worse than nouveau, right?
And as my current graphics card gets old, I wanted to switch soon anyway.
Last edited by DasCapschen on 18 May 2016 at 7:16 am UTC
I would love to go back to AMD, to support them, love that they're doing open source stuff now (also, competition) :)
But I am on Linux for just about one year now, so I have no experience with AMD drivers, but telling from the comments here, it sounds like they're not that good... but hey, can't be worse than nouveau, right?
And as my current graphics card gets old, I wanted to switch soon anyway.
Last edited by DasCapschen on 18 May 2016 at 7:16 am UTC
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If Polaris 11 is only to use max 4GB memory and supposed to be power efficient then why would it use GDDR5 instead of HBM?
HBM use less power and is a substantially smaller form factor than GDDR5.
It doesn't make sense unless GDDR5 is much cheaper or if HBM got availability problems.
http://www.amd.com/en-us/innovations/software-technologies/hbm
"Compared to GDDR5, HBM can fit the same amount of memory in 94% less space"
"HBM resets the clock on memory power efficiency, offering >3X the bandwidth per watt of GDDR5"
HBM use less power and is a substantially smaller form factor than GDDR5.
It doesn't make sense unless GDDR5 is much cheaper or if HBM got availability problems.
http://www.amd.com/en-us/innovations/software-technologies/hbm
"Compared to GDDR5, HBM can fit the same amount of memory in 94% less space"
"HBM resets the clock on memory power efficiency, offering >3X the bandwidth per watt of GDDR5"
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Quoting: CAPTNCAPSBut I am on Linux for just about one year now, so I have no experience with AMD drivers, but telling from the comments here, it sounds like they're not that good... but hey, can't be worse than nouveau, right?Personally, I switched to AMD years ago because they started to do open source drivers. Having the drivers directly in the kernels is a real blessing and just that is enough for me to take an AMD card again next time. I won't lie, performances aren't as good as with an NVIDIA card with proprietary drivers, but they have improved a lot in just one year and now I can even play Dota on my (very) old HD 6870 (in 2560x1440). And with the catching up of OpenGL versions going to an end, I guess mesa devs will focus on more performance and stability (and Wayland!).
And as my current graphics card gets old, I wanted to switch soon anyway.
Last edited by Creak on 18 May 2016 at 12:46 pm UTC
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Quoting: CAPTNCAPSI've always been an AMD user, just with the PC I have right now I switched to Nvidia+Intel (must have been ~2-3 years back now).If you want to squeeze every last fps out of your hardware then nvidia with the proprietary driver is the one you should use.
I would love to go back to AMD, to support them, love that they're doing open source stuff now (also, competition) :)
But I am on Linux for just about one year now, so I have no experience with AMD drivers, but telling from the comments here, it sounds like they're not that good... but hey, can't be worse than nouveau, right?
And as my current graphics card gets old, I wanted to switch soon anyway.
If not AMD should do fine.
AMD open drivers is far better then nouveau, i actually think that the difference in drivers functionality is smaller between AMD open drivers like radeon and nvidia proprietary driver then radeon and nouveau.
Nouveau is getting better but it still lacks a lot of functionality.
I use AMD open source driver and for me it works like a charm and i do play a lot of games on staem, and the drivers do get better all the time and in a year i think it will be better then catalyst/amdgpu-pro for users that doesn't use old OpenGL compatibility profiling, and i don't think any normal user ever will need to use OpenGL compatibility profiling.
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