AMD’s Baffin, Weston and Banks GPUs spotted on Zauba

Upon my daily check of Zauba I found a very interesting entry.

AMD Baffin, Banks and Weston

Banks and Weston are something I discovered few days ago. What I did know is that both use new boards, so these are definitely new cards. Whether they are using new GPUs or just renamed ones, is not clear right now. Baffin however is something we were definitely waiting to see.

AMD Baffin XT

BAFFIN XT is based on C981 board model. It means that those who were thinking that C981 board is somehow a Fiji-successor, were clearly wrong. They were wrong because Zauba’s entry states G5, which stands for GDDR5 memory. Assuming that this card has indeed 4GB memory it could just be a new mid-range chip that will replace Pitcairn or Tonga. Baffin could therefore land in Radeon Rx 470 series.

PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARD ASSEMBLY (VIDEO / GRAPHIC CARD) C98101 BAFFIN XT G5 4GB CHANNEL P/N 102-C98101-00 (FOC)

AMD Weston X3, Weston PRO S3

WESTON appears to be an entry-level GPU equipped with 2GB GDDR5 memory. There are two entries, one named X3 and the other is PRO S3. They both share the same specs of 2GB GDDR5 memory clocked at 4500 MHz. The only difference is the board number X3 is C729 and PRO is C728. The X3 could just be a typo and it should state XT.

PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARD ASSEMBLY (VIDEO GRAPHIC CARD) C72951 WESTON X3 2GB 4.5GBPS GDDR5 P/N:102-C72952-00 (FOC)
PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARD ASSEMBLY (VIDEO GRAPHIC CARD) C72951 WESTON PRO S3 2GB 4.5GBPS GDDR5 P/N:102-C72851-00 (FOC)

AMD Banks PRO S3

BANKS shares the same board number and specs with Weston PRO S3. Either they are the same, or designed for different purpose (desktop/mobile). Weston and Banks can end up in anything between Radeon R7 360 to R5 310 series.

PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARD ASSEMBLY (VIDEO GRAPHIC CARD) C72851 BANKS PRO S3 2GB 4.5GBPS GDDR5 P/N:102-C72851-00 (FOC)

AMD Radeon 400 series

It’s worth noting that the rumors about Baffin are not new. Back in August first unconfirmed reports suggested that AMD is preparing three brand-new chips: Baffin, Ellesmere and Greenland. All three were confirmed in recent HWINFO software update.

Zauba’s shipping manifests confirm that such GPUs could indeed exists. However, Banks and Weston might just be a rebranded GPUs we already know. On the other hand Baffin is something that still ‘baffles’ me. Is this Tonga or Pitcairn replacement? Is it a new chip or just rebranded GPU, and does G5 mean GDDR5 or GDDR5X? Questions, questions.

My theory is that AMD has indeed two brand new chips, Baffin and Greenland, while Ellesmere could just be Hawaii with GDDR5X memory. Would Hawaii benefit from even faster memory? Hard to say, but I’m afraid it would not improve performance that much. AMD could get rid of Hawaii and Tonga altogether, it would simplify the lineup and allow Fiji to use R9 480(X) market name, leaving R9 490(X) for Greenland. For now I’m assuming Hawaii is still planned for 400 series.

Anyway this is what I came up with, just remember this is just a theory and nothing confirmed. Ah, in case you are wondering Weston, Banks and Baffin are all ‘Arctic Islands’.