In the long history of graphics cards, AMD has brought many classic products, but at the same time, there are also some GPUs that are “impressive”, but negative.
A few days ago, foreign media Digital Trends editor Matthew Connatser summarized several so-called most disappointing graphics cards in the history of AMD (ATI), I wonder how many you have used?
1、Radeon 8500
Released in 2001, it was regarded as a strong opponent of NVIDIA GeForce 3 at that time, and the price of $299 was also $50 cheaper than GeForce 3 Ti 500. However, at the beginning of the release, the old problems of the 250 frequency version of the driver were still unresolved, giving consumers the impression that the performance is very mediocre.
According to Anandtech, the actual performance of 8500 in some games is only half of that of GeForce3 Ti 500, although the 3DMark 2001 running score is very high. However, due to poor driver optimization, it can only compare with GeForce3 Ti 200, which is less than $200.
Although the follow-up Radeon 9000 series saved ATI’s face, it is also because of the 8500 to some extent.
2、Radeon R9 390X
Frankly speaking, the graphics cards launched after the merger of AMD and ATI in 2006 performed well. Although HD3000/6000 can still be criticized, it is not concealed. The R9 290X in 2013 is a beautiful counterattack against NVIDIA GTX 780.
However, AMD eventually fell on GlobalFoundries’ foundry 28nm process, and then started a crazy vest strategy, resulting in the R9 300 series graphics card being nothing but changing the shell.
The test shows that the R9 390X can barely catch up with the GTX 980 in 1080P games, but the opponent still has the terrifying GTX 980 Ti. The worse problem of the R9 390X is that the power consumption is extremely high, not only close to twice that of the GTX 980, but also 100W more than the 290X.
3、Radeon R9 Fury X
Launched in 2015, the Fiji core was developed based on the third-generation GCN architecture, and it was also equipped with 4GB of HBM display memory. It was ambitious at the time, and even the public version was directly liquid-cooled.
However, at the same price of $649, the game performance of GTX 980 Ti and Fury X are almost the same. In terms of extreme performance, NV also has the mighty TITAN X. Although it is $350 more expensive, consumers are still willing to buy it.
Another problem with Fury X is the poor overclocking performance. It may be due to the core technology and the failure to understand the HBM display memory. The overclocking performance of this graphics card is very poor, and it is extremely difficult to reach 10%. In contrast, the GTX 980 Ti can be easily overclocked by 20%, further releasing its performance potential.
4、Radeon RX 590
As soon as RX Vega achieved a little success, AMD began to play mid-range vest cards again. Although the RTX 20 series is also suspected, the light pursuit is packaged by NV as a new selling point that I don’t have.
The reason for the existence of RX 590 seems to be only to fill the large performance gap between RX 580 and Vega 56, but changing the soup does not change the medicine, which means that the essence of RX 590 is 580 overclocking, and the essence of 580 is 480 overclocking, which leads to RX The power consumption of the 590 reaches 225W, 75W higher than the 480, and even higher than the RX Vega 56.
5、Radeon VII
Faced with the embarrassment of the RTX 2080 seconds family, AMD hastily launched the Radeon VII, which has the name of the world‘s first 7nm gaming graphics card, but its essence is nothing more than the “reduction” of the data center product Radeon Instinct MI50.
In terms of absolute performance, Radeon VII and RTX 2080 can indeed compete, but the advantage is also very weak, and even GTX 1080 Ti is not capable of playing some games.
Another problem with Radeon VII is the poor production capacity and huge cost. At that time, the production of 7nm GPU and 16GB HBM2 display memory made AMD sell cards at a loss in the middle and early stages.
The cost has finally come down, and the RX 5000 series has also been launched. The RX 5700 XT can achieve 90% performance of Radeon VII, but the price is only half.