New AMD GPU naming scheme explained

AMD’s new Radeon GPU family will also come with an entirely new naming scheme according to makers of GPU-Z, Techpowerup. The hardware enthusiast website reports that new graphics cards from AMD have passed through validation using GPU-Z and carry different model numbers and a new naming scheme.

With AMD’s conference just days away (25 September 2013), reports of the new graphics cards and how they will be named have been appearing everywhere on the internet. While most people expect a new HD8000 or HD9000 family to appear, the next generation is a new direction for AMD and it has seen fit to have a new way of naming things as well.

The new naming scheme has several parts that identify graphics cards in a similar way to Intel’s Core series. The model names will start with “Radeon Rx” where x denotes the position of the GPU in the market (low-end, mid-range, high-end).

The three numbers following that are the GPU’s model number, with the first identifying which generation it belongs to and the next two numbers identifying its place within that generation. The letters “M” and “I” may precede the model number to denote whether the GPU is a mobile, integrated or desktop variant.

The rest of the new naming scheme will devote two letters to identify if a card has any special features added to it. “X”, “XT” and “LE” have previously been used in older Radeon generations and AMD may be brining this back. We’ve previously seen the Pitcairn-based HD7870 be referred to as the HD7870 LE or the HD7870 XT.

To compare, this is what the naming scheme would look like when using the current discrete HD7000 family as an example:

Radeon HD7000 series	New Radeon series
Radeon HD7730	Radeon R7 720 XT
Radeon HD7750	Radeon R7 730 X
Radeon HD7750 GHz Edition	Radeon R7 735 XT
Radeon HD7770	Radeon R7 740 X
Radeon HD7770 GHz Edition	Radeon R7 745 XT
Radeon HD7790	Radeon R7 750 XT
Radeon HD7850	Radeon R8 760 X
Radeon HD7870	Radeon R8 770 X
Radeon HD7870 GHz Edition	Radeon R8 770 XT
Radeon HD7870 LE/XT	Radeon R8 775 XT
Radeon HD7950	Radeon R9 780 X
Radeon HD7950 GHz Edition	Radeon R9 785 XT
Radeon HD7970	Radeon R9 790 X
Radeon HD7970 GHZ Edition	Radeon R9 790 XT
Radeon HD7990	Radeon R9 795 XT

Mobile versions using the same naming scheme would simply appear as Radeon R9 M970 XT, for example. Integrated graphics would use something like Radeon R2 I290 X, which would help avoid confusion as to what type of GPU you’re looking at, saving you that trip to Google.

While it is a mouthful, it is a naming scheme that definitely makes some sense. Its reminiscent of Nvidia’s scheme of marking their cards GT or GTX and then assigning three numbers to denote the generation and the GPU’s placing in that generation. The “X” and “XT” will further help differentiate models, although its unclear how AMD will handle dual graphics setups, which can come out with weird numbers like Radeon HD6755.