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posted by martyb on Sunday May 26 2019, @12:48PM   Printer-friendly
from the what's-in-a-name? dept.

AMD's RX 3080 has been rumoured for quite some time, a GPU name which is designed to 1-up Nvidia's RTX 20XX series in a literal sense, copying the tactics of the company's CPU division when they released their Ryzen-based X370 platform to compete with Intel's Z270 offerings.

The idea is simple, you see two products on a shelf and you look at the numbers. X370 must be better than Z270; the number is bigger, right? It's a simple marketing tactic, and it makes sense for AMD to reuse it within the graphics card market. AMD's naming schemes have moved from RX 580 to RX Vega 64 to Radeon VII; it's not like AMD has a defined branding scheme to follow within the GPU market anymore, so why not piggyback on Nvidia? Nvidia even went to the effort of changing GTX to RTX on the high-end, simply begging to be confused with AMD's established RX graphics lineup.

[...] Now, it looks like Nvidia wants to stop AMD's games, with recent trademark applications showing that Nvidia claims ownership of the numbers 3080, 4080 and 5080, at least within the world of PC graphics. This move appears to be Nvidia's attempt to stop Radeon calling their next graphics card the RX 3080, a name which would inevitably cause confusion when Nvidia releases their RTX/GTX 30XX series, which should include a model called the RTX 3080.

https://www.overclock3d.net/news/gpu_displays/nvidia_hopes_to_block_amd_s_rx_3080_with_a_new_trademark/1


Original Submission

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AMD and Intel at Computex 2019: First Ryzen 3000-Series CPUs and Navi GPU Announced 20 comments

At Computex 2019 in Taipei, AMD CEO Lisa Su gave a keynote presentation announcing the first "7nm" Navi GPU and Ryzen 3000-series CPUs. All of the products will support PCI Express 4.0.

Contrary to recent reports, AMD says that the Navi microarchitecture is not based on Graphics Core Next (GCN), but rather a new "RDNA" macroarchitecture ('R' for Radeon), although the extent of the difference is not clear. There is also no conflict with Nvidia's naming scheme; the 5000-series naming is a reference to the company's 50th anniversary.

AMD claims that Navi GPUs will have 25% better performance/clock and 50% better performance/Watt vs. Vega GPUs. AMD Radeon RX 5700 is the first "7nm" Navi GPU to be announced. It was compared with Nvidia's GeForce RTX 2070, with the RX 5700 outperforming the RTX 2070 by 10% in the AMD-favorable game Strange Brigade. Pricing and other launch details will be revealed on June 10.

AMD also announced the first five Ryzen 3000-series CPUs, all of which will be released on July 7:

CPUCores / ThreadsFrequencyTDPPrice
Ryzen 9 3900X12 / 243.8 - 4.6 GHz105 W$499
Ryzen 7 3800X8 / 163.9 - 4.5 GHz105 W$399
Ryzen 7 3700X8 / 163.6 - 4.4 GHz65 W$329
Ryzen 5 3600X6 / 123.8 - 4.4 GHz95 W$249
Ryzen 5 36006 / 123.6 - 4.2 GHz65 W$199

The Ryzen 9 3900X is the only CPU in the list using two core chiplets, each with 6 of 8 cores enabled. AMD has held back on releasing a 16-core monster for now. AMD compared the Ryzen 9 3900X to the $1,189 Intel Core i9-9920X, the Ryzen 7 3800X to the $499 Intel Core i9-9900K, and the Ryzen 7 3700X to the Intel Core i7-9700K, with the AMD chips outperforming the Intel chips in certain single and multi-threaded benchmarks (wait for the reviews before drawing any definitive conclusions). All five of the processors will come with a bundled cooler, as seen in this list.

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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 26 2019, @01:05PM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 26 2019, @01:05PM (#847879)

    How can you trademark a series of numbers?? Also can't amd can just use 3085?

    • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 26 2019, @01:21PM (4 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 26 2019, @01:21PM (#847884)

      I thought the Intel 486 case speed that numbers cannot be trademarked.

      • (Score: 5, Informative) by Booga1 on Sunday May 26 2019, @01:54PM (3 children)

        by Booga1 (6333) on Sunday May 26 2019, @01:54PM (#847890)

        https://tedium.co/2017/05/18/intel-386-486-trademark-battles/ [tedium.co]

        In March 1991, the judge sided with AMD, invalidating Intel’s trademark on the 386 by claiming it was generic.
        ...
        But what did this all mean for Intel’s numbering scheme? It meant that it was in the market for a new name. The company attempted to register both “486“ and “586” with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, but ultimately abandoned the applications. The company also attempted to register the word mark i586, but abandoned the mark after it only received approval with the disclaimer “no claim is made to the exclusive right to use ‘586’ apart from the mark as shown.”

        2002

        The year that Dale Earnhardt, Inc. received a trademark for the number 1, a trademark related to the racing team’s No. 1 car. It’s a trademark which the late NASCAR racer’s company still owns today. It’s a reminder that, yes, you can in fact trademark numbers.

        • (Score: 2) by NateMich on Sunday May 26 2019, @03:03PM

          by NateMich (6662) on Sunday May 26 2019, @03:03PM (#847896)

          2002

          The year that Dale Earnhardt, Inc. received a trademark for the number 1

          Well, that's certainly begging to be invalidated. Of course, someone would have to actually challenge the use of "1" somewhere.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 26 2019, @04:05PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 26 2019, @04:05PM (#847907)

          The year that Dale Earnhardt, Inc. received a trademark for the number 1, a trademark related to the racing team’s No. 1 car. It’s a trademark which the late NASCAR racer’s company still owns today. It’s a reminder that, yes, you can in fact trademark numbers.

          I'm going to try to trademark number 0. My bank balance is always 0 so I think I've got a pretty good shot at it.

        • (Score: 2) by exaeta on Monday May 27 2019, @01:18AM

          by exaeta (6957) on Monday May 27 2019, @01:18AM (#848052) Homepage Journal

          A judge says numbers cannot be patented. A barely above minimum wage trademark administrator who is probably sleep deprived "grants" a trademark on a number.

          Obviously, the latter overrules the former, and such trademarks are now legally enforcable.</sarcasm>

          You can trademark e.g. "GTX 5080", but not "5080", regardless of whether or not you limit the target market.

          --
          The Government is a Bird
  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 26 2019, @01:45PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 26 2019, @01:45PM (#847888)

    Back when they decided Intel couldn't trademark 80x86, which is why we have Pentium and Core and other names.

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Sunday May 26 2019, @02:59PM (2 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Sunday May 26 2019, @02:59PM (#847892) Journal

    All that is required, is a "standard". Each of the companies, within a given industry, should just agree that one series of numbers will be set aside for one company, and another series belongs to someone else, etc.

    I rather like nVidia's present numbering scheme. They are nice and sequential, and they impart some information - they are actually useful. Giving a new name, and some random made-up number to each product in turn has always irritated me. There was a time when I needed a video card quickly, so I bought the card without doing any research. The packaging suggested that this card was "next generation" after a card that I already owned, and that it was faster, by some small factor. Got the thing home, and it turned out to be a major regression. Utter piece of crap.

    No, I don't think anyone should be permitted to trademark a number, but I think that all the witless marketing SOB's should respect each other's numbering/naming schemes. If AMD tries to horn in on nVidia's scheme, it only indicates to me that AMD has an inferior product, that needs a boost from nVidia's reputation.

    --
    “I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 26 2019, @03:19PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 26 2019, @03:19PM (#847901)

      If AMD tries to horn in on nVidia's scheme, it only indicates to me that AMD has an inferior product, that needs a boost from nVidia's reputation.

      nVidia did it to AMD first:

      Nvidia even went to the effort of changing GTX to RTX on the high-end, simply begging to be confused with AMD's established RX graphics lineup.

      • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday May 26 2019, @03:32PM

        by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Sunday May 26 2019, @03:32PM (#847902) Journal

        Yes, of course - there aren't any "good guys" here. What's good for the goose, is good for the duck - or whatever.

        --
        “I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 26 2019, @03:01PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 26 2019, @03:01PM (#847893)

    Windows must be using the opposite tactics.

    • (Score: 1) by shrewdsheep on Monday May 27 2019, @01:55PM

      by shrewdsheep (5215) on Monday May 27 2019, @01:55PM (#848179)

      This is due to a sign error induced by the pentium bug when running code written by Billy the Kid in MS Basic that is still in use to calculate Windows version numbers.

  • (Score: 5, Funny) by Gaaark on Sunday May 26 2019, @05:36PM (3 children)

    by Gaaark (41) on Sunday May 26 2019, @05:36PM (#847924) Journal

    Nigel Tufnel: The numbers all go to eleven. Look, right across the board, eleven, eleven, eleven and...
    Marty DiBergi: Oh, I see. And most amps go up to ten?
    Nigel Tufnel: Exactly.
    Marty DiBergi: Does that mean it's louder? Is it any louder?
    Nigel Tufnel: Well, it's one louder, isn't it? It's not ten. You see, most blokes, you know, will be playing at ten. You're on ten here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you're on ten on your guitar. Where can you go from there? Where?
    Marty DiBergi: I don't know.
    Nigel Tufnel: Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do?
    Marty DiBergi: Put it up to eleven.
    Nigel Tufnel: Eleven. Exactly. One louder.
    Marty DiBergi: Why don't you make ten a little louder, make that the top number and make that a little louder?
    Nigel Tufnel: [pauses] These go to eleven.

    --
    --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
    • (Score: 2) by RamiK on Sunday May 26 2019, @07:11PM

      by RamiK (1813) on Sunday May 26 2019, @07:11PM (#847946)
      --
      compiling...
    • (Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Monday May 27 2019, @02:55AM (1 child)

      by bzipitidoo (4388) on Monday May 27 2019, @02:55AM (#848076) Journal

      RTX, STX, TTX-- um, better skip that one, too close to TXT which might make it seem like it doesn't do graphics at all-- UTX, VTX .... When will the Radeon ZZGO be released?

      • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Monday May 27 2019, @04:02AM

        by Gaaark (41) on Monday May 27 2019, @04:02AM (#848094) Journal

        ZZTop!

        --
        --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by opinionated_science on Sunday May 26 2019, @07:43PM (2 children)

    by opinionated_science (4031) on Sunday May 26 2019, @07:43PM (#847955)

    anyone got a way of using CUDA/Tensorflow/Pytorch on AMD GPUs?

    This is probably the only way we'll get some competition as Nvidia is *crushing* the industry in machine learning, modelling etc...

    AMD could have the best hardware on the planet, but if it can't be used without a load of software angst, it doesn't really help...

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Monday May 27 2019, @03:00AM

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Monday May 27 2019, @03:00AM (#848077) Journal

    Looks like the product will be called AMD Navi RX 5700. 5000-series reflecting AMD's 50th anniversary.

    --
    [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
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