Less than a year after the launch of AMD's R9 290X, we are beginning to hear rumors of a follow-up. What is being called the R9 390X, because if it is called anything else, then that was a very short-lived branding scheme, might be liquid cooled. This would be the first single-processor, reference graphics card to have an integrated water cooler. That said, the public evidence is not as firm as I would normally like.
Image Credit: Baidu Forums
According to Tom's Hardware, Asetek is working on a liquid-cooled design for "an undisclosed OEM". The product is expected to ship during the first half of 2015 and the press release claims that it will "continue Asetek's success in the growing liquid cooling market". Technically, this could be a collaboration with an AIB partner, not necessarily a GPU developer. That said, the leaked photograph looks like a reference card.
We don't really know anything more than this. I would expect that it will be a refresh based on Hawaii, but that is pure speculation. I have no evidence to support that.
Personally, I would hope that a standalone air-cooled model would be available. While I have no experience with liquid cooling, it seems like a bit extra of a burden that not all purchasers of a top-of-the-line single GPU add-in board would want to bare. Specifically, placing the radiator if their case even supports it. That said, having a high-performing reference card will probably make the initial benchmarks look extra impressive, which could be a win in itself.
As much as some ppl think
As much as some ppl think this card will be a beast in performance but if card needs a custom liquid loop, then could mean gpu runs that hot and uses a lot of power maybe?
A high-end gpu using a lot of
A high-end gpu using a lot of power? That’s surprising and unprecedented, right? AMD’s CPUs are hot and high power because they are over clocked 32 nm chips. The relationship between frequency, voltage, and power is non-linear, so it goes up really fast as you overclock. GPUs have a completely different thermal profile; they are a lot more logic heavy (less cache proportionately) and usually all of that logic needs to run at almost full speed continuously. CPUs are usually more burst of processing that allows them to exceed their continuous thermal limitations for short times. I wouldn’t buy an AMD 220 watt CPU, but I would definitely buy an AMD video card. Stand-alone CPUs will not be competitive with how far they are behind in process tech.
You are not going to see much power reduction until they can move to a smaller process node, for cpus and gpus. Both AMD and Nvidia have been stuck at 28 nm for a long time. AMD got a small power reduction from the Tonga design, so if the 390 is still at 28 nm, bigger than Hawaii, and higher clocked than Hawaii, I would expect Higher power consumption than the 290x. Nvidia managed to cool 375 watts on air with the Titan Z, so it is certainly possible to air cool more than 290x power output on air.
Not gonna see much power
Not gonna see much power reduction? According to leaked info the new gtx980 Nvidia is gonna put soon it seems, 165-175watts is the listed TDP, the card it replaces the gtx780 had 250watt TDP. So it can be done just matter of R&D to get to it.
Hope you are wrong about it
Hope you are wrong about it being a refresh. Was hoping for something new already from that camp.
This could mean one of two
This could mean one of two things.
A) The card will be a beast [50/50]
B) The card will put out heat like a furnace and consume a lot of power [likely]
If AIO water cooling is the standard that is a bad precedent to set. It would be neat as an option, but one of the biggest things AMD is lacking isn’t GPU performance or the price. It’s the heat, noise, and power consumption, two of which already plague their CPU side badly.
They need to do what Nvidia did a few years back and throw a few million into developing a proper cooling solution that’ll last them a few generations. On the other hand I wouldn’t mind a beast of a card failing at those 3 things given it’s highly likely Maxwell is going to be boring performance wise. Apparently waiting 18 months for the same performance using less power is cool these days.
Who cares? What’s the point?
Who cares? What’s the point? All the games out there are horrendous and stupid, with primitive AI and mechanics, let alone the politically correct narrative of each of those new games. I guess the sheeple in the Western world need their drugs to keep living on.
If you can immerse yourself in to those virtual worlds with the extremely limited interaction possibilities and the crappy narratives, then you’re really, really live a miserable empty life.
To hell with all of you!
Lets be friends 🙂
Lets be friends 🙂
“let alone the politically
“let alone the politically correct narrative of each of those new games.”
Finally someone said it. Bless you, man.
If only we could make Lara Croft lesbian and make every straight white male character evil then that would fix our society’s (mostly imaginary) problems. Liberal morons.
/agree
See you in Hell!
/agree
See you in Hell!
Cool!
Cool!
literally
literally
The last time I tried
The last time I tried anything other than air cooling was when I used a couple of peltiers on a dual Celeron Abit BP6. Condensation was always an issue.
I like all the high performance gear coming out, but I just can’t get comfortable with it requiring a LCS to run. I’d freak if I ruined any of it due to a leak.
Well I don’t think a leak
Well I don’t think a leak would be the biggest issue as card would be tested for that, i think bigger issue would be if the pump dies.
Theory, but I could be
Theory, but I could be completely wrong:
From what I understand, the 285 is based upon Tonga, which is a new version of GCN, even newer than Hawaii. It is able to output same performance as the 280, but using less power, right?
So with that in mind, you’d think the next series would be based upon Tonga, meaning that they will have better power efficiency/heat output and not need liquid cooling.
If what I’ve typed up so far is true, and if the 390x really does need liquid cooling, then AMD and its partners are overclocking the crap out of these newer cards in order to keep up with, or exceed, performance of Nvidia 9xx series cards.
well it only uses 10 watts
well it only uses 10 watts less. The r9 280 had a TDP of 200watts, the 285 has a listed TDP of 190.
The R9 280 has a TDP of 250,
The R9 280 has a TDP of 250, and they reduced average power consumption (not peak) by about 40W with the 285. There’s a reason they can cool that card with 2 fans while 280 usually has 3.
Wrong, the 280x had the
Wrong, the 280x had the 250watt TDP. the 280 was 200watts.
edit: https://pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/AMD-Radeon-R9-285-2GB-Graphics-Card-Review-Tonga-GPU-Debut
Have a look for yourself.
The 295X is coming to destroy
The 295X is coming to destroy the 780 Ti.
AMD you DaMan.
AMD you DaMan.
Liquid cooled 295×2 is
Liquid cooled 295×2 is amazing and fun and wiped the floor with anything nvidia can offer at the very high end…
But… having every card come with a AIO liquid cooler is not a good idea.
I dont think it will be tho… kids just like to feel smart when comming up with predictions from engineering sample pics.
3 x “That said”‘s in such a
3 x “That said”‘s in such a sort piece. Scott, we know what you said, because you just said it.
On the release of the card
On the release of the card will it be benchmarked for frame rates or for kilohashes per second?
The picture looks like a
The picture looks like a giant blower. For this high of end card a hybrid cooler design would make a lot of sense. This would allow you to run it on air cooling or use a water loop. It would also allow resellers to hook up closed loop cooling systems easily.