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Radeon-RX480-Feature2

AMD may be headed back to the well with Polaris, this time launching the new GPU on a 12nm version of GlobalFoundries 14nm process node. There's been rumor of this coming, though there have also been questions nigh whether AMD would endeavour a 12nm refresh given the reality of Nvidia'southward Turing launch.

According to Phoronix, a new PCI ID, 0x6FDF, has been added to Linux. It's not mentioned in whatsoever database of Radeon drivers or GPU models anywhere online. It's listed as being part of the Polaris x family — in Linux, Polaris xx GPUs (RX 500 series) are part of the Polaris 10 family as well, which increases the chance that this is a 12nm die shrink. What might we expect from such a part?

We only have one data point for comparison for this shift: the transition from Ryzen 7 1800X on 14nm to Ryzen vii 2700X on GlobalFoundries 12nm (optimized 14nm). In this case, non-gaming benchmarks are actually a better comparison point than gaming tests, since they highlight CPU performance in areas where the GPU isn't a bottleneck and we desire some perspective on what the practical improvements of moving from 14nm to 12nm were for AMD. Our slideshow from the Ryzen 7 2700XSEEAMAZON_ET_135 See Amazon ET commerce review is embedded beneath if you care to refer back to it.

The Ryzen seven 2700X is ~11 percent faster than the Ryzen vii 1800XSEEAMAZON_ET_135 See Amazon ET commerce in the majority of tests, though some isolated benchmarks may evidence larger results. To look at how much this would matter, we've likewise included our slideshow from the original RX 580 launch. Our comparison point is the Nvidia GTX 1060.

A straightforward 10 percent clock increase would put AMD's RX 580SEEAMAZON_ET_135 See Amazon ET commerce alee of the GTX 1060 in every test we ran at launch. Power would still exist a meaning reward for Nvidia unless AMD managed to rearchitect the fleck along with the die shrink, just AMD would have a stronger position to challenge Team Green in the midrange.

Holes in Turing's Product Line

The idea that AMD would pull a refresh like this seemed unlikely back when Nvidia was idea to be launching a top-to-lesser stack refresh. Merely today, that doesn't wait to exist the case. The performance hitting from enabling features similar RTX is so heavy, it's not clear if Nvidia tin can even launch the feature beneath the RTX 2070, which means Turing may effectively exist a refreshed GPU family with a lot of Pascal cards hanging on. Nothing is stopping NV from eventually launching new "2060" cards that are basically rebadged 1060s, and both AMD and Nvidia take gone downwards this road before.

Just Nvidia may not desire to take that step this time around. The question for the visitor is whether it makes more sense to position the new RTX family as entirely devoted to ray tracing and DLSS with the quondam Pascal numbering system reserved for non-RTX cards or if bringing these other GPUs forrad into the Turing product line and labeling them with the new naming convention would confuse buyers. I'm inclined to think it would; buyers are unlikely to grasp the stardom between an "RTX 2070" and a hypothetical "GTX 2060" if Nvidia tries to make the "G" lonely the distinguishing factor for whether new features are bachelor. Regardless of whether or not Nvidia keeps Pascal in market or attempts to re-brand older cards as part of the Turing family, AMD may take an opportunity to better position itself in the mid-market place.

Of course, all of this is assumption, based on some PCI ID codes for a production family, non bodily hardware. Simply if AMD tin can snag a win across the midrange for a die-shrunk version of its Polaris family unit, the company may well get for it. Improving its competitive midrange position is a good way for AMD to win back market place share, even if it isn't competing with the RTX family.

Now Read: Nvidia'due south RTX Family Delivers Incredible Performance, Lousy Value, New AMD GPU Rumors Suggest Polaris Refresh in Q4 2022, and AMD Reportedly Built Navi for Sony PS5, Delayed Vega to Practice It