Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

Here comes the Radeon M400 series

QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,531
AMD has announced partial specs on their web site for a bunch of Radeon M400 series cards:

http://www.amd.com/en-us/products/graphics/notebook/r9-m200

Basically:

R9 M485X = R9 M395X
R9 M470X = R9 M385X
R9 M470 = R9 M380
R7 M465X (no 300 series equivalent)
R7 M465 = R7 M370
R7 M460 = R7 M360
R7 M445 (no 300 series equivalent)
R7 M440 = R7 M340
R5 M435 (no 300 series equivalent)
R5 M430 = R5 M330
R5 M420 = R5 M320

If you want desktop equivalent names, I'd bet on Tonga, Bonaire, Bonaire, Cape Verde, and the rest all Oland.  In other words, they're all rebrands.  Ugh.  These are not the Radeon M400 series cards you're looking for, as if you want a 28 nm laptop card, you want Maxwell--or if you can, to wait for 14/16 nm GPUs to show up in laptops, as that's probably mere months away.

But there are some conspicuous holes in the numbers chosen, made more conspicuous by having some models end in 5 or X.  Most notably, there's no 450 or 480, and, of course, no 490.  One would expect Polaris 10 to fill the 490 series, which would mean faster than Tonga.  I'm guessing that Polaris 11 becomes the 480 and possibly 475, which would mean faster than Bonaire and slower than Tonga.  The 450 series seems too low, as it would be strange to make a discrete 14 nm GPU that is slower than some bins of your bottom of the line 28 nm GPU.

So what does it mean that AMD is posting this now?  Likely, laptops with these rebranded cards are coming soon.  These are not the laptops you want.  Hopefully it also means that Polaris cards to fill in the gaps are also coming soon, but we'll see.  In 2009, Nvidia had a bunch of GeForce 300 series cards that were all rebrands, but didn't indicate Fermi being imminent.  Fermi was very delayed and ended up being the 400 series.

Comments

  • DakeruDakeru Member EpicPosts: 3,803
    I'm still happy with my Radeon 6870 but listening to the heated debates of the next round of the old Nvidia vs Radeon war get's me into the mood for a little upgrade.
    Harbinger of Fools
  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,531
    Dakeru said:
    I'm still happy with my Radeon 6870 but listening to the heated debates of the next round of the old Nvidia vs Radeon war get's me into the mood for a little upgrade.
    You might need to upgrade from that at some point, as AMD has discontinued driver support.  But this thread is about laptop cards, and going from a desktop to a laptop usually isn't exactly an upgrade.
  • DakeruDakeru Member EpicPosts: 3,803
    Quizzical said:
    Dakeru said:
    I'm still happy with my Radeon 6870 but listening to the heated debates of the next round of the old Nvidia vs Radeon war get's me into the mood for a little upgrade.
    You might need to upgrade from that at some point, as AMD has discontinued driver support.  But this thread is about laptop cards, and going from a desktop to a laptop usually isn't exactly an upgrade.
    My bad, I only like hearing about shiny new gfx cards with lots of numbers that remain a mystery to me.
    Followed by the notorious war of the brands.

    My laptop has a label on it "A6 Vision AMD"..
    Quiz tell me how epic my old Lenovo really is compared to the modern standard lol
    Harbinger of Fools
  • CleffyCleffy Member RarePosts: 6,414
    edited May 2016
    I like the numbering a bit better with the M out in front designating it a mobile GPU, but I don't like the numbering. I would rather them re-designate all 480X as 485. Its a lot more clear its a step up from a 480. Also there isn't a big enough difference between a 460 to 465 to 465X to need 3 different models. The only way I would consider it is if it uses a different memory standard that clearly makes it different like GDDR5X.

    A mobile A6 isn't a very good CPU. Its pretty much a Dual core to most applications. For its time it was a good buy, but today the CPU will be handicapping it. The GPU depends on the second number after the A6. They generally perform between adequate and OK.
  • DakeruDakeru Member EpicPosts: 3,803
    Cleffy said:

    A mobile A6 isn't a very good CPU. Its pretty much a Dual core to most applications. For its time it was a good buy, but today the CPU will be handicapping it. The GPU depends on the second number after the A6. They generally perform between adequate and OK.
    Yeah I figured it was horrible and already outdated by the time I bought it.
    It just amuses me knowing that a modern laptop is what.. 2..4.. x times faster?

    Love old clunky scrap like this... I'm weird like that.
    Harbinger of Fools
Sign In or Register to comment.