E3 2015 has already shown us a huge amount of game-related material, but one of the “E” stands for “entertainment,” and that means all these new titles need something to run on. In the case of AMD, that “something” consists of two families of graphics cards, Fury and Nano, based on the brand-new Fiji platform. Regardless of each model and its specifications, AMD’s goals are very clear: 4K gaming and virtual reality.
Hardware enthusiasts are demanding to the core. The first necessity that must be respected at all costs is performance, but there are other parameters that cannot be ignored under any circumstances, such as power consumption, noise, multi-monitor support, high definition, GPGPU, and of course, price. Both AMD and Nvidia have created very interesting cards, with several models adapted to different budgets. Fortunately, the performance curve continues to rise, allowing the user to get more with less. However, there is always room for high-end. Every company is obliged to show the public the best it has, and the optimal way to do that is through a new product.
The Radeon 300 series: a rebrand
The latest from AMD is divided into several parts. The first is the “new” Radeon 300 series, and we must put “new” in quotes because we are essentially dealing with a name change. The most important exception in the specs is the increase in available RAM. For example, the Radeon R9 290X brings 4 GB of RAM, but the R9 390X has 8 GB, with a slight increase in the main clock. The number of transistors, the interface, the core count, and the bus width remain unchanged.
The real novelty is found in the Fury and Nano cards, equipped with the new Fiji chip that raises the transistor count to 8.9 billion. In total, there are three cards: R9 Fury X, R9 Fury, and R9 Nano. According to the official presentation, the Fury X offers 1.5 times the performance per watt of the R9 290X, and will be equipped with a liquid cooling system. The R9 Fury uses traditional cooling, and its specs are expected to be not far off from the Fury X. Finally, the R9 Nano promises up to twice the performance per watt of the 290X, although that is a very vague parameter from AMD, and the truth won’t be known until benchmarks are available. All three Fiji-based models have 4 GB of RAM, but it’s not just any RAM — it’s the new stacked HBM memory that allows for a significant reduction in the size of the card and power consumption. The HBM memory bus rises to a whopping 4,096 bits.
Project Quantum
If we step away from graphics cards for a moment, another AMD novelty is Project Quantum, a format for compact computers. The Quantum prototype had an experimental graphics card with two Fiji chips inside, which makes us think a Fury X2 could appear very soon. But the most curious fact about Quantum is that it was created on an Intel platform.
Prices and availability
As for prices, the R9 Fury X costs $649 and will hit shelves on June 24. The “standard” Fury is priced at $549, with July 14 as its debut date. For some reason, the price of the R9 Nano was not disclosed; however, it’s estimated to be available as soon as the Fury X. Prices for the 300 series range from $109 for the R7 360 with 2 GB of RAM to $429 for the R9 390X.
