Dragonstongue
Well-known member
pre-gcn moved to legacy is simple and should be easy enough to understand for folks that know very little about computers as this is very easily researched.
HD8k are based via HD7k which are all 7700 and above meaning GCN (they were afterall a 100% rebrand via name alone and sold to OEM not direct consumer)
I think this is the right move for AMD, the less time they spend fiddling on supporting many years old products, the better they will be able to put their time, energy, manpower into the products we want, and need. Sucks to have an older APU or whatever not having front-line support anymore, but just because it is legacy does not mean if a critical problem is found or whatever that they will NOT release hotfixes or whatever. Again, it only makes sense they go with their current product stack, in this case GCN, it would have been nice if the complete 7k and above were all GCN instead of some rebrands and the like.
That is something I hope they iron out properly, example R7 2/360 and above are discrete anything less is embeded PERIOD this way here the consumer knows for example, running a Radeon 360 is effectively budget level, 370 would be performance, 380 high performance, 390 enthusiast, fancy named Fury or whatever is premium enthusiast or whatever you want to word it. They could even keep it very simple where Radeon R7-360 is standard gear whereas R9-360 is the ramped up one leaving R9-360X as the extreme variant. R7 run of the mill, R9 performance, X nomenclature of any product stack is the highest clocked beast of them, this way here it is easier for customers they know they are getting the best of the breed in relation to what they are spending for that product family.
This will ensure there can be certain minimum guarantees by AMD and its partners (clock speeds, memory amounts, shaders and so forth) while also ensuring that the product will be better supported, as simply put IMO there is no need for a Radeon or Nvidia GPU at a x1x-x5x level these can easily be built in to the processor. As many CPU/Motherboards these days either have them built in OR the cost is peanuts to do so for basic display purposes.
I say not needed as it just muddles everything up for both the maker, software support, and of course the end users for nothing really, and by clipping away 1 or 2 complete product lines, the delta performance between what remains will absolutely make much more sense, example (cause I use Radeon, hate Nvidia) Radeon 360-370-380-390-Fury leave enough room for AMD to maneuver their product offerings and would certainly leave enough room for their APU parts to use the x00-x50 level parts from basic to extreme levels considering the TDP the APU can handle, again, it would separate the lines properly in my mind.
AMD does need to ensure using high end stuff as well, as HDMI/DP at levels especially for Fury should have been HDCP 2.2/HDMI 2.0 and DP 1.3 as they are the pinnacle of their product stack and to effectively make or require end users to get extra parts or cables to use the higher resolutions is just foolish.
Myself I still GPU mine, use Radeon 7870, and overclock, and play Armored Warfare, so to me I still want to be able to do this stuff at least as good as current, with 13.11 drivers or above I cannot overclock even to stock levels (1050/1200 core/mem) with stability though I can declock very nicely and still game (983/1375 at 1.056v instead of default 1.219) whereas older driver sets I could overclock game AND mine at up to 1225/1505 1.238v..13.11 give me max of ~430KH/s but gaming suffers a bit from reduced high clocks of course, older drivers ~418-425KH/S but gaming benefits unless specific newer titles that suffer from older driver sets at that much higher due to higher clock speeds of course.
Anyways my point it I would LOVE to get new/best drivers for my 7870/955 setup though I still want to be able to mine/game/overclock and as of yet the last driver I could do this reasonably well with was 12.8-12.10 though I do not want to scrub drivers again and again just to find out they do not do well with semi-recent games
Anywho, long arse post, sorry I think AMD making the right call here, support a fair amount of products to ensure they are supported as best as can be, this of course means that older architectures are not, but hey, the world moves on, and am sure that there are other places to get "new" drivers for these older products.
HD8k are based via HD7k which are all 7700 and above meaning GCN (they were afterall a 100% rebrand via name alone and sold to OEM not direct consumer)
I think this is the right move for AMD, the less time they spend fiddling on supporting many years old products, the better they will be able to put their time, energy, manpower into the products we want, and need. Sucks to have an older APU or whatever not having front-line support anymore, but just because it is legacy does not mean if a critical problem is found or whatever that they will NOT release hotfixes or whatever. Again, it only makes sense they go with their current product stack, in this case GCN, it would have been nice if the complete 7k and above were all GCN instead of some rebrands and the like.
That is something I hope they iron out properly, example R7 2/360 and above are discrete anything less is embeded PERIOD this way here the consumer knows for example, running a Radeon 360 is effectively budget level, 370 would be performance, 380 high performance, 390 enthusiast, fancy named Fury or whatever is premium enthusiast or whatever you want to word it. They could even keep it very simple where Radeon R7-360 is standard gear whereas R9-360 is the ramped up one leaving R9-360X as the extreme variant. R7 run of the mill, R9 performance, X nomenclature of any product stack is the highest clocked beast of them, this way here it is easier for customers they know they are getting the best of the breed in relation to what they are spending for that product family.
This will ensure there can be certain minimum guarantees by AMD and its partners (clock speeds, memory amounts, shaders and so forth) while also ensuring that the product will be better supported, as simply put IMO there is no need for a Radeon or Nvidia GPU at a x1x-x5x level these can easily be built in to the processor. As many CPU/Motherboards these days either have them built in OR the cost is peanuts to do so for basic display purposes.
I say not needed as it just muddles everything up for both the maker, software support, and of course the end users for nothing really, and by clipping away 1 or 2 complete product lines, the delta performance between what remains will absolutely make much more sense, example (cause I use Radeon, hate Nvidia) Radeon 360-370-380-390-Fury leave enough room for AMD to maneuver their product offerings and would certainly leave enough room for their APU parts to use the x00-x50 level parts from basic to extreme levels considering the TDP the APU can handle, again, it would separate the lines properly in my mind.
AMD does need to ensure using high end stuff as well, as HDMI/DP at levels especially for Fury should have been HDCP 2.2/HDMI 2.0 and DP 1.3 as they are the pinnacle of their product stack and to effectively make or require end users to get extra parts or cables to use the higher resolutions is just foolish.
Myself I still GPU mine, use Radeon 7870, and overclock, and play Armored Warfare, so to me I still want to be able to do this stuff at least as good as current, with 13.11 drivers or above I cannot overclock even to stock levels (1050/1200 core/mem) with stability though I can declock very nicely and still game (983/1375 at 1.056v instead of default 1.219) whereas older driver sets I could overclock game AND mine at up to 1225/1505 1.238v..13.11 give me max of ~430KH/s but gaming suffers a bit from reduced high clocks of course, older drivers ~418-425KH/S but gaming benefits unless specific newer titles that suffer from older driver sets at that much higher due to higher clock speeds of course.
Anyways my point it I would LOVE to get new/best drivers for my 7870/955 setup though I still want to be able to mine/game/overclock and as of yet the last driver I could do this reasonably well with was 12.8-12.10 though I do not want to scrub drivers again and again just to find out they do not do well with semi-recent games
Anywho, long arse post, sorry
I think AMD making the right call here, support a fair amount of products to ensure they are supported as best as can be, this of course means that older architectures are not, but hey, the world moves on, and am sure that there are other places to get "new" drivers for these older products.
