AMD Hawaii GPUs Could Return in R9 300 Series

[bp9801]

If you thought the rebranded AMD R9 300 cards would only be limited to the mid to low-range cards, guess again. A new report seems to suggest two Hawaii cards will be rebranded in the R9 300 series, with those two Hawaii cards being the Hawaii Pro and Hawaii XT. For those keeping track, the Hawaii Pro is the R9 290 and the Hawaii XT is the R9 290X, although their rebranded versions are also enhanced versions. Both cards apparently get bumped up to 8GB of memory (most likely still DDR5 and not HBM), and a boost to both memory and core clock speeds. The memory speeds on both will jump to 1500MHz, a 250MHz increase over the R9 290/290X, with the core speed of the R9 290 rebrand bumped up 63MHz to 1010MHz, and the R9 290X rebrand jumped up 50MHz to 1050MHz.

Now, we get to an interesting point. The R9 300 series will use Fiji cores, the new core, which makes sense. However, the older Tonga core, the R9 285, is being rebranded as the R9 380 for OEMs. With the R9 290 and 290X also being rebranded for the R9 300 series, maybe as the R9 390 and 390X, where does that leave Fiji? Well, AMD could divide things up between OEMs and consumers, with OEMs getting the rebranded R9 290/290X and consumers getting Fiji cores with their R9 300 series. Or the R9 290/290X will be something like an R9 385 and 385X. Another possibility is Fiji will only be a high-end model, say an R9 395X or a dual-core R9 395X2. That would kind of go against AMD saying there will be multiple Fiji products to choose from, but maybe that was a reference for just different manufacturers to consider? Either way, all these rumors and leaks are starting to seriously muddy the waters, and hopefully we get some clarification at Computex in a couple of weeks or soon after.

Source: Videocardz.com via WCCFtech

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