AMD’s Reddit AMA turned out to be less than we expected. Detailed answers about Polaris were avoided. We have also not learned when exactly Fury X2 will be released. Still, we were reassured that ‘Fiji Gemini’ is still happening, but launch had to be readjusted due to changes in VR products schedule.
Here’s a transcript with the most important answers that you may find interesting.
About Fury X2
Q: Fury X2, Whatever happened to it? Any word on release date? — tarunteam
A: The product schedule for Fiji Gemini had initially been aligned with consumer HMD availability, which had been scheduled for Q415 back in June. Due to some delays in overall VR ecosystem readiness, HMDs are now expected to be available to consumers by early Q216. To ensure the optimal VR experience, we’re adjusting the Fiji Gemini launch schedule to better align with the market.
Working samples of Fiji Gemini have shipped to a variety of B2B customers in Q415, and initial customer reaction has been very positive. — AMD_Robert
About Polaris
Q: (…) What are the current release plans? — Dunder_Chief1
A: Polaris parts will be unveiled mid-year. I cannot say much more at this time, but I hope that gives you enough detail to make some good conclusions. — AMD_Robert
Q: Are 490 going to be on 14nm as well? — TrevorPhilips
A: Polaris is 14nm. Plain and simple. Any time any company flips over to a new lineup, the old products that got replaced are a “while supplies last” kind of deal.
Q: any plans to work with watercooling vendors like EK, XSPC, and bitspower to make waterblocks for the Polaris cards. or is that left up to the board partners — ericklibanA: When you see waterblocks very close to the release of our GPUs, that’s because we worked with the block vendors and gave them PCB layouts.– AMD_Robert
Posting as its own comment for visibility: I know there are lots of questions Polaris’ architecture, memory configurations and market SKUs. Right now it is just too early for me to be disclosing this sort of information. I know that will be disappointing to many of you, and I apologize that the OP was not more clear about the boundaries.
I promise to return for another AMA when I can answer all of your Polaris questions. I intend to do right by you guys; you deserve that. You’ll just need to give me a little more time to do that. :) — AMD_Robert
Q: Previously, your next generation GCN GPU architectures were using arctic island code names ex: Ellesmere, Baffin, Greenland… As I understand it, the code names were changed to Polaris 10, 11 and Vega 10, 11. My question is, how do they relate to one another? Is Baffin Polaris 11 for example? — MahiganGPU
A: I don’t know how to answer this. Polaris 10 is Polaris 10, and Polaris 11 is Polaris 11. There are no other names. — AMD_Robert
Q: Are the cards going to have any overclocking potential, or is this going to be another fury situation? Will the cards come with DP1.4? — TheKirrick
A: We will discuss specific SKUs and overclocking capabilities at product launch in mid-year.
They will come with DP1.3. There is a 12-18 month lag time between the final ratification of a display spec and the design/manufacture/testing of silicon compliant with that spec. This is true at all levels of the display industry. For example: DP 1.3 was finished in September, 2014.
About product launches
Q: Do folks at AMD expect any significant lead over Nvidia, performance wise, as the new graphics APIs develop and take root? — disintegore
A: I cannot speak for my CTO, nor would I presume to. That is not my place. But it is absolutely the nature of my job to err on the side of conservatism and caution when saying anything. I’ve had my comments wildly misinterpreted by press and users, I’ve been harassed by email and by Twitter for months by certain users who are unhappy about X thing or Y thing.
No matter how good a place you’re coming from, or how genuine you want to be, or how much you want to tell people… it’s not enough for some. It can never be enough.
Few people understand that I am legally obligated not to make forward-looking statements that have not previously been authorized by AMD’s attorneys and executives. That is the nature of working at a publicly-traded company with strict legal and procedural requirements for disclosing new and materially relevant information.
I doubt many people here understand that we are legally required to issue press releases when, for example, we announced the physical Polaris products. That is an FTC requirement. Can everyone say they have the specter of the FTC and FD-Reg law haunting their every comment? Probably not. – AMD_Robert
About DirectX12/Vulkan
Q: Do folks at AMD expect any significant lead over Nvidia, performance wise, as the new graphics APIs develop and take root? — disintegore
A: We’ve lead in performance on every DX12 app/test so far.– AMD_Robert
Q: Are my 7970’s “fully” capable of next Gen API’s or are there going to be new hardware innovations with proprietary features that will lock me out? I could never find a clear answer for this! — dabigsiebowski
A: I want to be clear that there is no graphics architecture on the market today that is 100% compliant with everything DX12 or Vulkan have to offer. For example: we support Async Compute, NVIDIA does not. NVIDIA supports conservative raster, we do not. The most important thing you can do as a gamer is to own a piece of hardware that is compatible with the vast majority of the core specification, which you do. That’s where all the performance and image quality comes from, and you will be able to benefit. — AMD_Robert
About Crimson drivers’ core clock maintaining issue
Q: Is AMD ever going to fix the flickering lines in less demanding games when using freesync? — pecheckler
A: This is related to this item in our known issues list: “Core clocks may not maintain sustained clock speeds resulting in choppy performance and or screen corruption”
We’re working on it. — AMD_Robert
About Gaming Evolved application
Q: AMD Gaming Evolved suggested to install Radeon Software Crismon Edition on Windows 10. Now I have two AMD applications installed -> confusing. Is there a plan to remove one? — Paradiesstaub
A: AMD Gaming Evolved is our optional game streaming, game recording, game optimization client. You can remove it any time you like. Radeon Software Crimson Edition is our graphics driver, I imagine you wouldn’t want to remove that.
A2: 25 million people actively use the Gaming Evolved application every day. Not just installs, but active users. I think a little perspective is warranted.
As for RadeonPro, let me be clear: John Mautari decided to leave the project for a job at Raptr. That’s his perogative, and it’s his life. — AMD_Robert
Source: Reddit
