AMD has strong revenue growth again, new next-gen RDNA GPUs coming this year

How is the driver support? I am planning to upgrade my CPU and GPU (1600 and 1060) to a 3600/3600x and 5600XT. I had issues in the past with my RX 480, but never with the 1060. Would you recommend switching back to AMD?

Quoting: keanHow is the driver support? I am planning to upgrade my CPU and GPU (1600 and 1060) to a 3600/3600x and 5600XT. I had issues in the past with my RX 480, but never with the 1060. Would you recommend switching back to AMD?

Opinions vary on this. :D

It's like asking which distribution is the best, just with two sides instead of a dozen. ;)

(My experiences with the Nvidia driver are very good. Can't say anything about the AMD side of things.)

Last edited by Eike on 30 Jan 2020 at 12:44 pm UTC

Quoting: keanHow is the driver support? I am planning to upgrade my CPU and GPU (1600 and 1060) to a 3600/3600x and 5600XT. I had issues in the past with my RX 480, but never with the 1060. Would you recommend switching back to AMD?

The AMD GPU drivers are now part of the kernel, I'm running on AMD RX 590 and don't have any issue at all.

Quoting: keanHow is the driver support? I am planning to upgrade my CPU and GPU (1600 and 1060) to a 3600/3600x and 5600XT. I had issues in the past with my RX 480, but never with the 1060. Would you recommend switching back to AMD?

I wouldn't do that, the 5600XT had a very bad launch. You don't know if you will get the card previous vBios or the new one, with higher clocks. Also have in mind that the card only has 6Gig of ram and with the new console generation the vRAM requirements are going to increase, so at least search for an 8 gig card.
If i were you a would wait to see new launches, the card can hold a little longer and also the cpu.
Nvidia also has a new architecture, that will mean that previous generations will drop in price to clear inventory, so you can pick a 5700/2070 with the money of a 5600/2060.

Last edited by somebody1121 on 30 Jan 2020 at 12:42 pm UTC

I've been discussing my decision to move to an AMD CPU over on the GoL forum, so this is well timed. Kinda feels good to think I'm part of a greater movement to AMD :) . I have to mention, too, how exciting it was to see Ubuntu specifically mentioned as being supported by AMD CPUs/mobos in several of the descriptions. Never ever saw that in all my years with Intel ... it felt cool.

Good, good. Lower prices for Nvidia cards, or better AMD cards, I'll take that with both hands.

Quoting: keanHow is the driver support? I am planning to upgrade my CPU and GPU (1600 and 1060) to a 3600/3600x and 5600XT. I had issues in the past with my RX 480, but never with the 1060. Would you recommend switching back to AMD?

My partner's Rx Vega 56 has some driver issue that causes it to hang the system due to a bug with undervolting at high load. We applied some kernel workarounds to fix it, and ordered a bigger PSU so it won't need to undervolt. So, I guess there are issues, but in general it performs very well.

Quoting: GuestCould my dream finally come true. And AMD GPU which is stronger as my GTX 1080? *-*

I am very certain they have done that :) https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=RX-5600-XT-New-vBIOS-Plus-ACO). AMD is doing a hammering of a great job on the Linux side of things for once. Alongside Valves help as well.

Quoting: somebody1121

Quoting: keanHow is the driver support? I am planning to upgrade my CPU and GPU (1600 and 1060) to a 3600/3600x and 5600XT. I had issues in the past with my RX 480, but never with the 1060. Would you recommend switching back to AMD?

I wouldn't do that, the 5600XT had a very bad launch. You don't know if you will get the card previous vBios or the new one, with higher clocks. Also have in mind that the card only has 6Gig of ram and with the new console generation the vRAM requirements are going to increase, so at least search for an 8 gig card.
If i were you a would wait to see new launches, the card can hold a little longer and also the cpu.
Nvidia also has a new architecture, that will mean that previous generations will drop in price to clear inventory, so you can pick a 5700/2070 with the money of a 5600/2060.

That is not a problem for me, I have 70+ AMD cards for mining, I have no issue with BIOS tinkering :D Only the driver issues I had in the past.

Quoting: keanThat is not a problem for me, I have 70+ AMD cards for mining, I have no issue with BIOS tinkering :D Only the driver issues I had in the past.

Ah, as you mention mining: I sold my old hardware on eBay (for the first time) and wondered why anybody would want my very old GTX660. Do you happen to know if it's useful for mining?

Quoting: Eike

Quoting: keanThat is not a problem for me, I have 70+ AMD cards for mining, I have no issue with BIOS tinkering :D Only the driver issues I had in the past.

Ah, as you mention mining: I sold my old hardware on eBay (for the first time) and wondered why anybody would want my very old GTX660. Do you happen to know if it's useful for mining?

No clue, it is too ineffective for any mining, I only mine ethash with my GPUs. I have cheap electricity and it is still only 30-35% profit vs 65-70% electricity cost

Quoting: keanHow is the driver support?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IbyHTm1rTk

Cool. I hope they lower their prices because in my home country it is at the same level as Intel's

Quoting: Guest...

It still looks like it's not a huge achievement. The GTX 1080 is 4 years old in a few month while the 5700 XT was released Q3 2019 which is not a year ago. And has the same performance as the GTX 1080 (-1% with out BIOS and ACO update) which is pretty bad for a 2019 GPU vs a 2016 GPU.

...

The 5700 XT's launch price was nearly half that of the 1080. 25% smaller die size while having 3 million more transistors, due to newer process size. While in Linux, the two are in most cases, performing the same (room for AMD drivers to improve) in Windows, the 5700 XT is on average, 20% faster.

Hence why GamersNexus rated it best GPU of 2019.

I imagine, in 6-12 months, drivers for Navi will improve, and the 5700 (along with all other Navi/RDNA 1.0 cards) will perform at least 10% and maybe even up to 20% faster than it does now. And that from open source drivers, that are in the kernel, available right from fresh install of Linux, in any distribution, not needing to mess with the installation of binary drivers.

Quoting: GuestIt still looks like it's not a huge achievement.

The GTX 1080 is 4 years old in a few month while the 5700 XT was released Q3 2019 which is not a year ago.

And has the same performance as the GTX 1080 (-1% with out BIOS and ACO update) which is pretty bad for a 2019 GPU vs a 2016 GPU.

If we look at the Phoronix Benchmarks, the RTX 2060 SUPER is 0.2 FPS behind the 5700 XT + ACO and the RTX 2080 SUPER is as fast as the GTX 1080 according to: https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-1080-vs-Nvidia-RTX-2060S-Super/3603vs4049

So even the BIOS Update did not achieved that much.

That's why I hope they will finally make stronger GPUs so I can make the switch.

This year seems complicated for amd* gpus because actual amd 7nm gpus dont have same nvidia 12nm turing tdp (gtx cards) and on rtx cards only stay closer

*on cpu side, i think them can give very good news with zen 3

But now nvidia with 7nm, is possible see for example geforce gtx 1660 super performance without power connector**

**on amd this seems impossible now, them need throw actual gpu designs

^_^

Last edited by mrdeathjr on 30 Jan 2020 at 6:16 pm UTC

Quoting: Audi

Quoting: Guest...

It still looks like it's not a huge achievement. The GTX 1080 is 4 years old in a few month while the 5700 XT was released Q3 2019 which is not a year ago. And has the same performance as the GTX 1080 (-1% with out BIOS and ACO update) which is pretty bad for a 2019 GPU vs a 2016 GPU.

...

The 5700 XT's launch price was nearly half that of the 1080. 25% smaller die size while having 3 million more transistors, due to newer process size. While in Linux, the two are in most cases, performing the same (room for AMD drivers to improve) in Windows, the 5700 XT is on average, 20% faster.

Hence why GamersNexus rated it best GPU of 2019.

I imagine, in 6-12 months, drivers for Navi will improve, and the 5700 (along with all other Navi/RDNA 1.0 cards) will perform at least 10% and maybe even up to 20% faster than it does now. And that from open source drivers, that are in the kernel, available right from fresh install of Linux, in any distribution, not needing to mess with the installation of binary drivers.

Both of you seem to have forgot the VII which is faster than both released feb last year

I'd also not recommend RX 5600 / 5600 XT. Go with RX 5700 or RX 5700 XT if you want a Navi card.

Some details here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDyP9nDw_q0

Last edited by Shmerl on 30 Jan 2020 at 6:44 pm UTC

Quoting: pete910Both of you seem to have forgot the VII which is faster than both released feb last year

And discontinued 6 months later, upon the release of the 5700 XT, which was less than 5% slower on average, not having the HBM2 memory, while nearly half the price. I didn't forget about it, just had no need to mention it.

Quoting: mrdeathjrThis year seems complicated for amd* gpus because actual amd 7nm gpus dont have same nvidia 12nm turing tdp (gtx cards) and on rtx cards only stay closer

*on cpu side, i think them can give very good news with zen 3

But now nvidia with 7nm, is possible see for example geforce gtx 1660 super performance without power connector**

**on amd this seems impossible now, them need throw actual gpu designs

^_^

No argument there. Nvidia's Pascal architecture was an amazing feat. It provided huge performance with an incredibly low power consumption. That said, GF 14NM process was not as good as TSMC's 16NM, so AMD got huge gains just by moving to TSMC's 7nm. Nvidia will be moving there, potentially this year, but I wouldn't expect it until September at the earliest. AMD should have big Navi release by July at the latest.

AMD has huge potential with their upcoming designed. They have huge 7nm experience now, from 2 previous generations of cards released to 7nm. The upcoming "Big Navi" might even be on the newer 7nm+ node.

It's all speculation at this point, but I think 2020 will be the year where the GPU wars heat up again, after years of disappointment from AMD.

Quoting: AudiNo argument there. Nvidia's Pascal architecture was an amazing feat. It provided huge performance with an incredibly low power consumption.

That said, GF 14NM process was not as good as TSMC's 16NM, so AMD got huge gains just by moving to TSMC's 7nm.

Nvidia will be moving there, potentially this year, but I wouldn't expect it until September at the earliest. AMD should have big Navi release by July at the latest.

AMD has huge potential with their upcoming designed. They have huge 7nm experience now, from 2 previous generations of cards released to 7nm. The upcoming "Big Navi" might even be on the newer 7nm+ node.

It's all speculation at this point, but I think 2020 will be the year where the GPU wars heat up again, after years of disappointment from AMD.

personally see nvidia launch 7nm gpus before out big navi, maybe in some place around gtc 2020 but only 3070 - 3080

and 3080ti around big navi launch

hopefully amd can make something but for now seems nvidia put a big jump this time (similar to pascal)

however if amd goes bad in gpus, ryzen still saving the day

^_^