More Evidence Suggests an RX 490 GPU is Coming From AMD

[Guest_Jim_*]

When the intended performance target for the RX 480 was first revealed by AMD, many people were left wondering about a higher-end option, because while a mainstream GPU may be able to target most computer users, plenty of us want something more. Some are waiting for Vega-based GPUs, which should release next year, but there have been occasional leaks of an RX 490 card, and now we have another that also provides some technical information and the explanation for the RX nomenclature.

Previously the RX 490 has been spotted on AMD's website, as eligible for certain promotional offers, and on a list at Sapphire's website, AMD's strongest AIB partner. This latest leak comes as what appears to be a leaked slide explaining what the RADEON RX 4XX naming scheme means. Obviously RADEON is company branding, but it turns out RX does have a specific technical meaning as well. For a GPU to earn the RX prefix it needs to surpass 1.5 TFLOPS of compute power and 100 GB/s of memory bandwidth. The 4 marks the generation, while the tens digits is for Tier and ones digits is for Revision, which we may or may not see used this generation. The tier for 7 and 8 has a 256-bit memory interface and is targeted for 1440p resolutions, while the tier for 5 and 6 has a 128-bit interface. The 5 and 6 tier apparently spans the RX requirement as it is also listed for non-RX GPUs, along with a Tier 4 with a 64-bit interface.

The leak concerning the possible RX 490 is that a Tier 9 is also listed and shows it as having a memory bus greater than 256-bit and is targeted at 4K gaming. While it is always possible this could be fake or just meant to describe how the naming would work for such a GPU, this combined with the other leaks seems to support the eventual existence of this GPU and what it will be capable of. Also, because of the AMD website leak of the RX 490, we can expect it to be available this year, while the promotional campaign is still ongoing, which means it will be based on Polaris and not Vega.

(Image is from the WCCFtech source article.)

Source: WCCFtech

Back to original news post