NEWS
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NEWS
AMD unveils new ‘Polaris’ graphics architecture for its next-gen GPUs
This week at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Advanced Micro Systems Inc (AMD) is unveiling the new Polaris GCN architecture, which it promises will be able to match the performance capabilities of similar cards but with a huge reduction in power requirements.
“Our new Polaris architecture showcases significant advances in performance, power efficiency and features,” Lisa Su, president and CEO of AMD, said in a statement. “2016 will be a very exciting year for RadeonT fans driven by our Polaris architecture, Radeon Software Crimson Edition and a host of other innovations in the pipeline from our Radeon Technologies Group.”
During a press briefing, AMD product marketing manager Adam Kozack boasted that Polaris is a “historic leap in performance per watt” (via GamesBeat).
The new architecture is set to launch in mid-2016.
AMD’s ongoing battle against Nvidia
Other challenges faced by the company include its continued competition with rival Nvidia Corp. In May 2015, AMD chief gaming scientist Richard Huddy accused Nvidia of sabotaging the performance of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt on AMD cards.
“Around two months before release, or thereabouts, the [Nvidia] GameWorks code arrived with HairWorks, and it completely sabotaged our performance as far as we’re concerned,” Huddy told Ars Technica UK at the time. “We were running well before that…it’s wrecked our performance, almost as if it was put in to achieve that goal.”
“The bottom line is AMD’s tessellation performance is not very good and there is not a lot NVIDIA can/should do about it,” Nvidia Gameworks rep Brian Burke fired back in a statement to PC Perspective. “I think gamers want better hair, better fur, better lighting, better shadows and better effects in their games. GameWorks gives them that.”
It is too early to tell how the newest lines of Nvidia and AMD GPUs will stack up against one another, but the massive reduction in power consumption promised by Polaris could give AMD a slight edge in some arenas, especially when it comes to mobile graphics.
You can watch a video showcasing AMD’s new Polaris architecture below:
Screenshot via AMD | YouTube
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