Introducing the new Radeon Pro 500 Series for iMac; Delivering powerful performance for breathtaking 5K computing

AMD unveiled the high-performance last June 6, 2017, the power-efficient Radeon Pro 500 series graphics, available now in the updated 21.5- and 27-inch iMac, shown during Apple’s WWDC 2017 keynote. Radeon Pro 500 Series Graphics are designed for today’s creators – the millions of artists, designers, photographers, filmmakers, visualizers and engineers who shape the modern content creation era – fueling beyond-UHD creativity in All-In-One computing through extraordinary computing experiences, including stunning gaming, immersive VR on select models* and fluid content creation.

With the Radeon Pro 500 Series GPUs, creative professionals will also benefit from:

• Up to 5.5 TFLOPS of performance. The top end of the Radeon Pro 500 Series packs 36 Compute Units (2304 stream processors) and delivers up to 5.5 TFLOPS of performance. That means plenty of horsepower to fuel the imaginations of artists, designers, photographers, filmmakers, visualizers, engineers, and all aspiring creatives across high-resolution canvases in the most popular applications.
• Exceptional performance and support for GPU acceleration across a range of creative applications on the Mac platform through OpenCL, such as Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, and Photoshop and the Foundry Nuke, Mari and Modo.
• The critically-acclaimed Polaris architecture. The Radeon Pro 500 series makes use of the critically-acclaimed “Polaris” GPU architecture, delivering the perfect balance of performance and operating efficiency that makes them ideal for All-In-Ones.

You can read more about today’s announcement in the below press release and on the blog here. Please let me know if you have any questions.

*VR capabilities available on iMacs equipped with Radeon Pro 580 graphics

Radeon™ RX 500 Series: The Most Compelling Graphics Card Upgrade Yet

AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) introduced the Radeon™ RX 500 series, a new line of graphics cards featuring a powerful combination of improved game performance, higher clock speeds, and a refined 2^nd generation Polaris architecture, giving PC gamers the best reasons yet to upgrade their graphics.

The Radeon RX 500 series was designed specifically for system upgrades, catering to the 9 out of 10 PC gamers today who are hindered by outdated technology and aren’t able to enjoy optimal experiences in modern games, smooth VR experiences, or the latest display technologies.^1,2  Radeon™ RX 500 series graphics cards feature a variety of the most compelling new technologies and features including:

·         Optimized DirectX® 12 and Vulkan® gaming – The Radeon™ RX 500 series was engineered using the 2^nd generation Polaris architecture. It was specifically designed to perform exceptionally well with low-level, next-generation APIs like DirectX 12 and Vulkan and it supports asynchronous compute for outstanding game and VR experiences.² Radeon RX 500 series GPUs have been further refined with higher clock speeds, improved idle and multi-monitor efficiency, and the fine-grained controls gamers need to fine-tune their hardware. Combined with Radeon™ FreeSync Technology, gamers can enjoy smooth framerates in virtually every game released, without the frustration of screen tearing and input lag³

·         Improved response times, more efficiency, and cooler operation with Radeon™ Chill – Radeon Chill is an advanced framerate controller for the Radeon™ RX 500 series that works automatically in the background (when enabled) to dynamically regulate framerates in today’s most popular games based on the speed of mouse movements and the gamer’s activity in a scene⁴

·         Awesome streaming, sharing, and gameplay capture with Radeon ReLive – The Radeon™ RX 500 series supports the industry’s most revolutionary solution for capturing, customizing, and sharing gameplay. The Radeon ReLive software suite lets gamers enjoy smooth gaming and recording simultaneously, even on entry-level systems, with support for recording at 4K resolution at 30 and 60 FPS using HEVC and H.264 codecs⁵. Radeon ReLive also integrates with the most popular game streaming platforms around the world

 “Radeon RX 500 series was built on the promise that PC gaming isn’t an elite club - that all gamers can enjoy the most advanced graphics technologies. Our launch today of the Radeon RX 500 series doubles down on that effort. With higher clock speeds, revolutionary gameplay capture software, latency-reduction technology, aggressive Day 0 driver support, open and affordable standards like Radeon FreeSync, and innovative features like Radeon Chill, we know gamers who have been patiently waiting to upgrade will have more than enough reasons to now,” said Scott Herkelman, corporate vice president and general manager, Radeon Technologies Group.

A wide range of Radeon™ RX 500 Series cards will be available to meet the needs of the overwhelming majority of gamers:

·         Radeon™ RX 580: For smooth 1440p gaming – The Radeon RX 580 delivers up to an average of 57% better performance compared to the Radeon™ R9 380X in testing, delivering smooth gaming in leading AAA games and stunning immersive VR experiences for the Radeon™ RX 580 8GB GDDR 5 graphics card and Radeon™ RX 580 4GB GDDR5 graphics card an SRP starting at Php 12,000 with vat. On shelf on 4/18

·         Radeon™ RX 570: For maximum 1080p gaming – With 4GB of GDDR5 memory, the Radeon™ RX 570 boasts up to an average of 2.3X better performance compared to the Radeon™ R7 370⁷ for an SRP of Php 10,000 with vat. 

·         Radeon™ RX 560: For efficient 1080p gaming – With 2GB of GDDR5 memory, the Radeon™ RX 560 delivers up to an average 57% higher performance of the Radeon™ R7 360⁸ for a fluid and smooth gaming experience in the world’s most popular games at an SRP of Php 6,000 with vat. 

·         Radeon™ RX 550: The doorway to PC gaming – Featuring 2GB GDDR5 memory, the Radeon™ RX 550 delivers up to an average 4X higher performance vs. competing integrated graphics, and up to an average of 1.7X the performance of the Radeon™ R7 250 at an SRP of Php 4,800 with vat.⁹ The Radeon™ RX 550 is also ideal for home theater PCs with support for HDMI™ 4K60, 4K playback and HEVC content.⁵ It’s also HDR ready, supports Radeon™ FreeSync 2 technology for smooth, tear-free gaming, and ships in many low-profile designs ideal for small form factor cases^10,11

Radeon RX 580 and 570 graphics cards from major AIB partners are available from retailers and etailers around the world starting today*, and the Radeon RX 550 graphics card is expected to be available April 20th. Radeon RX 560 graphics cards are planned for release in early May. For more information on where to buy, visit https://www.amd.com/en/where-to-buy/radeon-rx500.

Supporting Resources

• Become a fan of AMD and Radeon on Facebook
• Follow @Radeon, @AMDRyzen and @AMDGaming on Twitter
• Follow @WeAreRadeon on Instagram
• For more product and technology information, please go to www.radeon.com

About AMD

For more than 45 years AMD has driven innovation in high-performance computing, graphics, and visualization technologies ― the building blocks for gaming, immersive platforms, and the datacenter. Hundreds of millions of consumers, leading Fortune 500 businesses, and cutting-edge scientific research facilities around the world rely on AMD technology daily to improve how they live, work, and play. AMD employees around the world are focused on building great products that push the boundaries of what is possible. For more information about how AMD is enabling today and inspiring tomorrow, visit the AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) website, blog, Facebook and Twitter pages.

*This is Press Release

Radeon FreeSync™ 2 Technology Brings High Dynamic Range Gaming to Advanced PC Displays

AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) announced Radeon FreeSync™ 2 technology, the next major milestone in delivering smooth gameplay and advanced pixel integrity to gamers, with planned availability to consumers in 1H 2017.

Qualifying FreeSync™ 2 monitors will harness low-latency, high-brightness pixels, excellent black levels, and a wide color gamut to display High Dynamic Range (HDR) content.[i] In addition, all FreeSync™ 2 monitors will have support for Low Framerate Compensation (LFC). With Radeon FreeSync™ 2 technology, gamers can enjoy a complete plug-and-play HDR gaming experience, avoiding the need to tweak settings in software or on the monitor.

 “Gamers have spoken and they’ve made FreeSync™ the overwhelming choice and definitive industry standard for smooth, stutter-free gaming,” said Scott Herkelman, vice president and general manager of gaming, Radeon Technologies Group, AMD. “Radeon FreeSync™ 2 technology is the first of its kind that combines HDR support with dynamic refresh rate technology, and does it in a seamless, plug-and-play manner that improves gaming quality automatically when the right content is present.”

Current HDR transport formats were designed primarily for movie content displayed on televisions with tone mapping handled by the displays, often leading to higher-than-acceptable latency for PC gaming. AMD’s new API for FreeSync™ 2 offers a lower-latency alternative that shifts the workload to the powerful pipeline of a Radeon™ GPU, allowing the game to tone map directly to the display’s target luminance, contrast, and color space. Radeon FreeSync™ 2 technology offers over 2x the brightness and color volume over sRGB.[ii]

"Samsung has always embraced FreeSync™ technology, which is why we partnered with AMD from the beginning,” said Andrew Sivori, vice president, consumer IT marketing at Samsung. “We know gamers deserve the absolute best in smooth gaming experiences, and we're thrilled to see AMD further improving on that technology. FreeSync™ 2 combines the richest, highest quality pixels provided by HDR, with the stutter-free, tear-free gaming FreeSync™ is known for. We're excited to collaborate with AMD to implement FreeSync™ 2 technology in Samsung display products in the near future."

FreeSync™ and FreeSync 2 technologies will co-exist to offer a wide variety of advanced displays to gamers. All FreeSync-compatible Radeon™ GPUs will support FreeSync™ 2 technology, including the Radeon™ RX series GPUs based on the Polaris architecture which also supports DisplayPort[iii] HBR3 and enables UltraHD resolution beyond 60Hz. Multiple display vendors are actively evaluating several upcoming products for FreeSync™ 2 qualification.  

Supporting Resources

·         Learn more about FreeSync™ 2 technology here

·         Become a fan of Radeon on Facebook

·         Follow AMD on Twitter @AMD 

·         Follow Radeon^TM Pro on Twitter

·         Follow Radeon™ graphics on Twitter

About AMD

For more than 45 years AMD has driven innovation in high-performance computing, graphics, and visualization technologies ― the building blocks for gaming, immersive platforms, and the datacenter. Hundreds of millions of consumers, leading Fortune 500 businesses, and cutting-edge scientific research facilities around the world rely on AMD technology daily to improve how they live, work, and play. AMD employees around the world are focused on building great products that push the boundaries of what is possible. For more information about how AMD is enabling today and inspiring tomorrow, visit the AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) website, blog, Facebook, and Twitter pages.