AMD Brings Back the "XT" Moniker with China-specific Radeon RX 560 XT

[btarunr]

Back in the glory days of ATI Radeon, the XT brand extension denoted the better-endowed variant among two or more graphics card models based on the same silicon, such as the Radeon HD 2900 XT. After AMD's takeover, the XT, Pro, XL, and other lesser used extensions such as XTX and All-in-Wonder were retired in favor of numerical variant numbers, beginning with the HD 3870. The company continued to use "XT" and "Pro" internally to differentiate ASIC variants, although those monikers were seldom if not never used in marketing materials. That's about to change. AMD launched its first overtly XT brand-extended product in close to 15 years, with the China-specific Radeon RX 560 XT, but alas, it's a lousy re-brand.

The RX 560 XT is positioned between the RX 560 4 GB and RX 570 4 GB, and is based on the "Polaris 20" or "Polaris 30" silicon (we don't know which). AMD enabled 28 out of 36 NGCUs on this silicon, resulting in 1,792 stream processors, 112 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. The memory is 4 GB across a 256-bit wide memory interface, although the memory clock-speed is dialed down to 6.6 Gbps (211.2 GB/s). What makes the RX 560 XT a re-brand is that AMD launched an SKU with the same exact specifications, called Radeon Pro 570, and there are several odd-ball RX 570-branded cards in the wild with this core-config. There's no reference-design board of the RX 560 XT, and the SKU is entirely in the hands of board partners to come up with custom-designs of their own.

Update: AMD has informed us that the RX 560 XT is based on the 14 nm "Polaris 10" silicon, and not "Polaris 20" or "Polaris 30." Polaris 10 is the first implementation of the "Polaris" architecture.



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[TheLostSwede]

AMD has CUDA cores in China? Damn, that's some China specific feature...

 

[Vayra86]

Needs more X's

 

[Valantar]

At least this go around they're going the right way with the rebranding, stepping down to a lower tier (and hopefully also a lower cost) as time passes. This is a perfectly fine practice, unlike some of the other stuff that's been done in recent years.

 

[HwGeek]

Maybe it's just RX 570 with disabled CU in bios so they can get rid of the polaris stock without lowering RX 570 price?

 

[Valantar]

Maybe it's just RX 570 with disabled CU in bios so they can get rid of the polaris stock without lowering RX 570 price?

The post states that it's based on Polaris 20 or 30 (which it has to be given the CU count), so yes, more or less.

 

[HwGeek]

I miss the days when we could unlock GPU's/CPU's
I remember my GT 6200 unlocked to 6600 .
Good old days .

 

[Valantar]

I miss the days when we could unlock GPU's/CPU's
I remember my GT 6200 unlocked to 6600 .
Good old days .

Heh, yeah, I had a Radeon All-in-Wonder 9600 that unlocked to a ... 9700 Pro, IIRC. All through the simple process of installing the third-party Omega driver kit. Have to love that AMD paid homage to those drivers with their Catalyst Omega driver update, even if it didn't give quite as impressive a performance boost These days, everything is (usually) fused off with frickin' lasers to prevent this kind of thing (not to mention that - at least for GPUs - there are a lot more dice across a product range), but I for one wouldn't mind the return of ... "features" like that

 

[Robcostyle]

Hell yeah now we have 2080 Ti killer!

P.S. sad story actually

 

[Deleted member 50521]

Heh, yeah, I had a Radeon All-in-Wonder 9600 that unlocked to a ... 9700 Pro, IIRC. All through the simple process of installing the third-party Omega driver kit. Have to love that AMD paid homage to those drivers with their Catalyst Omega driver update, even if it didn't give quite as impressive a performance boost These days, everything is (usually) fused off with frickin' lasers to prevent this kind of thing (not to mention that - at least for GPUs - there are a lot more dice across a product range), but I for one wouldn't mind the return of ... "features" like that

Bullshit. 9500 can be unlocked to 9700/pro because they used the same R300 die. 9600 used die that physically only had 4 pixel pipelines and cannot be enabled at all

 

[Valantar]

Bullshit. 9500 can be unlocked to 9700/pro because they used the same R300 die. 9600 used die that physically only had 4 pixel pipelines and cannot be enabled at all

Might have been a 9500 then - this is way, way too long ago for me to remember details like that. Also, nice tone you have there. Way to foster a productive and civil debate.

 

[BorgOvermind]

9500 can be unlocked to 9700/pro because they used the same R300 die. 9600 used die that physically only had 4 pixel pipelines and cannot be enabled at all

That is correct.

@Valantar for a true modder such an error is not acceptable

 

[Valantar]

That is correct.

@Valantar for a true modder such an error is not acceptable

In my defense, I was 14 when these cards came out. In other words, I've lived longer after this than before, and the information is thus thoroughly buried by other stuff

 

[INSTG8R]

9800 Pro to XT was the hot one and what brought me here way back when. My Sapphire Tri-X Fury fully unlocked all shaders making it a Fury “X” on air.

 

[Casecutter]

What goes into China... as long as it stays in China.
So we think a Polaris 20, cut-down further than a RX 570 and calling it a RX 560 XT is not a problem for me, or China.
Good way to use binned chips.

 

[Valantar]

What goes into China... as long as it stays in China.
So we think a Polaris 20, cut-down further than a RX 570 and calling it a RX 560 XT is not a problem for me, or China.
Good way to use binned chips.

Yep. Sure is better than the (very similar hardware-wise) 470D - 560 XT sounds more powerful than 560, less than 570. 470D sounds like ... 470 but with a non-descriptive modifier attached to it. Nvidia has a good system with their xxxx (Ti) system, and AMD had one with their Rx xxx(X) system, but that was abandoned rather quickly. In other words: Main model number = X performance, main model number + modifier = >X performance. Anything else is confusing and borderline misleading.

 

[T4C Fantasy]

@btarunr dont forget about HD 7870 XT and RX 580 XTR those are official monikers, club 3d and sapphire used it in names for 7870 XT and gigabyte for the XTR 580

 

[Valantar]

@btarunr dont forget about HD 7870 XT and RX 580 XTR those are official monikers, club 3d and sapphire used it in names for 7870 XT and gigabyte for the XTR 580

You're right about the 7870 XT, but the RX 580 XTR is just a binned version of regular RX 580 chips, and not an official part name.

 

[T4C Fantasy]

You're right about the 7870 XT, but the RX 580 XTR is just a binned version of regular RX 580 chips, and not an official part name.

It's an official chip moniker and it was used in names, that's all it takes

 

[king of swag187]

Needs more X's

xxxRX560XTxxx

 

[Valantar]

It's an official chip moniker and it was used in names, that's all it takes

But it isn't an official chip moniker, it's Gigabyte's proprietary name for top-binned (by them, with their proprietary binning process) RX 580 chips. Those chips are codenamed Polaris 20 XTX, but the article (reasonably) draws a firm line between chip codenames (which are never used in public-facing contexts (family codenames are, like Polaris, but never chip codenames)) and marketing names.

 

[cucker tarlson]

moar Polaris,moar X

 

[Apocalypsee]

Instead of calling it RX 570 LE, they called it RX 560 XT.

 

[Casecutter]

Instead of calling it RX 570 LE, they called it RX 560 XT.

Or, like when you should give it like GTX 1060SE 3Gb and don't.

 

[T4C Fantasy]

But it isn't an official chip moniker, it's Gigabyte's proprietary name for top-binned (by them, with their proprietary binning process) RX 580 chips. Those chips are codenamed Polaris 20 XTX, but the article (reasonably) draws a firm line between chip codenames (which are never used in public-facing contexts (family codenames are, like Polaris, but never chip codenames)) and marketing names.

They are officially Polaris 20 xtr even have their own chip codes labelled on the chip substrate, HIS also uses XTR in name for the SKU. It's 580 XTR

Polaris 20 XTX
(215-0910038)

Polaris 20 XTR
(215-0910066)

not all 7870s had XT in name either

GIGABYTE AORUS RX 580 XTR
HIS RX 580 XTR IceQ X2 Roaring Turbo