{"id":91897,"date":"2016-05-18T10:58:50","date_gmt":"2016-05-18T08:58:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/?p=91897"},"modified":"2016-05-18T11:00:25","modified_gmt":"2016-05-18T09:00:25","slug":"why-you-should-wait-for-amds-new-graphics-cards-before-buying-a-gtx-1080","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/hardware\/91897-why-you-should-wait-for-amds-new-graphics-cards-before-buying-a-gtx-1080","title":{"rendered":"Why you should wait for AMD&#8217;s new graphics cards before buying a GTX 1080"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Nvidia recently unveiled their massive GPU lineup for 2016, along with a showcase of the new technology that will accompany the Pascal architecture.<\/p>\n<p>AMD fans shouldn&#8217;t give in to the green team\u00a0just yet, as Radeon\u00a0also has a new GPU lineup <a href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/hardware\/91835-amd-to-reveal-high-value-polaris-graphics-cards-later-this-month.html\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>coming soon<\/strong><\/a>, featuring their new <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amd.com\/en-us\/innovations\/software-technologies\/radeon-polaris#\" target=\"_blank\">Polaris<\/a><\/strong> architecture and innovative new technology.<\/p>\n<p>If you are thinking of upgrading your video card and are uncertain about buying the new GTX 1080, you should probably wait until the Polaris reveal at the end of May 2016 &#8211; as AMD&#8217;s new graphics cards might just surprise you.<\/p>\n<p>Here is everything you should know about AMD&#8217;s upcoming Polaris graphics cards.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">Polaris 10 and 11<\/h3>\n<p>There are two upcoming\u00a0graphics card lineups that will use\u00a0the Polaris architecture &#8211; Polaris 10 and Polaris 11.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">Polaris 11\u00a0GPUs\u00a0are built for\u00a0laptops and basic gaming desktops, while the Polaris 10 graphics cards are more suitable\u00a0for powerful\u00a0gaming PCs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The Polaris 10 and 11 GPUs will not directly compete with Nvidia\u2019s high-end products like the GTX 1080 \u2013 instead, the graphics cards will be aimed at the mainstream gaming market, offering exceptional efficiency and cost-effective performance<\/p>\n<p>The new architecture will be used in the next generation\u00a0iterations\u00a0of <strong>Radeon<\/strong> cards, namely the <strong>R9 and R7 Series<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\"><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">Specifications<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/wccftech.com\/amd-polaris-10-gpu-specs-leaked\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>WCCFTech<\/strong> <\/a>managed to get a hold of some leaked specifications of a Polaris graphics card, which are detailed below.<\/p>\n<div class=\"myg_table\">\n<div class=\"table-responsive\"><table class=\"table\" border=\"0\" width=\"100%\" cellpadding=\"7\">\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th colspan=\"2\">AMD Polaris R9 490 Leaked Specifications<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"50%\">GPU<\/td>\n<td width=\"50%\">Polaris 10<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Fabrication Process<\/td>\n<td>14nm FinFET<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Compute Units<\/td>\n<td>36<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>GCN Generation<\/td>\n<td>GCN 4.0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Stream Processors<\/td>\n<td>2304<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Memory Bus<\/td>\n<td>256-bit<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Memory<\/td>\n<td>8GB GDDR5\/X<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>TDP<\/td>\n<td>130W<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">Technology<\/h3>\n<p><strong>AMD FreeSync<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>AMD FreeSync Monitors work similarly to Nvidia&#8217;s G-Sync monitors, providing gamers with a steady, smooth image at any framerate and eliminating V-Sync judder.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Premium Game Streaming<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>AMD&#8217;s Polaris architecture will support\u00a0Premium Game Streaming, meaning that gamers can stream or record their gaming in up to 4K resolution with little to no performance impact.<\/p>\n<p><strong>GPUOpen<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>GPUOpen is an open source development code, which boasts features such as\u00a0TressFX Hair, GeometrFX, ShadowFX, AOFX and SSAA, rivalling Nvidia&#8217;s relatively secretive GameWorks.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AMD XConnect<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>AMD XConnect is technology aimed at mobile gamers and allows them to connect external graphics cards to their laptops. Gamers can connect Radeon cards to their laptop via a Thunderbolt connection, deonstrated by the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.razerzone.com\/gaming-systems\/razer-blade-stealth#ultrabook-desktop\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Razer Blade<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>Stealth<\/strong><\/a> gaming setup.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">Mainstream market<\/h3>\n<p>The Polaris architecture will aim for premium power and cost-efficiency in favour of raw power.<\/p>\n<p>This means that the new Radeon cards will not directly rival the GTX 1080, although they will provide gamers seeking 1080p gaming products with\u00a0low-cost solutions.<\/p>\n<p>AMD\u2019s new architecture will feature <strong>double the performance-per-watt<\/strong> of previous GPUs.<\/p>\n<p>The company has stated that the Polaris graphics cards are aimed at allowing mainstream users to experience VR without paying the heavy cost of a current-generation VR Ready GPU.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">More on hardware<\/h3>\n<p><strong><a title=\"Permalink to Nvidia GTX 1080 ultimate guide \u2013 performance and specifications\" href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/hardware\/91737-nvidia-gtx-1080-ultimate-guide-performance-and-specifications.html\" rel=\"bookmark\">Nvidia GTX 1080 ultimate guide \u2013 performance and specifications<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a title=\"Permalink to Nvidia unveils GeForce GTX 1080 pricing and insane new technology\" href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/hardware\/91673-nvidia-unveils-geforce-gtx-1080-and-insane-new-technology.html\" rel=\"bookmark\">Nvidia unveils GeForce GTX 1080 pricing and insane new technology<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a title=\"Permalink to AMD to reveal high-value Polaris graphics cards later this month\" href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/hardware\/91835-amd-to-reveal-high-value-polaris-graphics-cards-later-this-month.html\" rel=\"bookmark\">AMD to reveal high-value Polaris graphics cards later this month<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Don&#8217;t rush off to buy your GTX 1080 just yet, check out AMD&#8217;s answer to the GeForce 1000 Series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":232,"featured_media":84985,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_enabled":true,"_sma_x_custom_text":"","_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,7],"tags":[1051,10519,1771,17356,16819,18615,1486,2436],"class_list":["post-91897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-hardware","tag-amd","tag-comparison","tag-graphics-cards","tag-gtx-1080","tag-polaris","tag-r9-490","tag-radeon","tag-release-date"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/232"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91897"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91897\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92645,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91897\/revisions\/92645"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}