Page 30 - PCWorld (September 2019)

NEWS AMD DIDN’T KILL IT’S REFERENCE RADEON 5700 CARDS

Translated by machine it
apparently says: “We learned this

morning, from our sources, that the
AMD RADEON RX 5700 and RX

5700 XT reference graphics cards
were already at the end of their life.”
The report went on to say that

even though the AMD reference
blower designs essentially (but not
literally) were put in the same landfill

as those old E.T. Atari game
cartridges (go.pcworld.com/etct),

souped-up aftermarket Radeon
5700 designs would continue.
That kicked off hand-wringing

and cardboard-box smashing in
forums across the Internet who A report on Cowcotland.com indicates AMD has ended its
assailed AMD for “cash grabs.” reference cards. That’s not necessarily true.

Others said good riddance,
because that blower design stank anyway. Radeon RX 5700 (go.pcworld.com/sp57)

PCWorld contacted AMD and was told by series reference design kit.” We just reviewed
officials that no, that’s just not true. The Sapphire’s Radeon RX 5700, for instance.
company didn’t deep-six the design it If we read that right, the company expects

debuted just a month before (read our review aftermarket designs to continue to flourish, as
[go.pcworld.com/57rv]), but it was simply well as its reference design for the companies

not competing with its partners. that want to carry it.
“We expect there will continue to be But hey, Fridays seem to be the day to
strong supply of Radeon RX 5700 series discuss rumors gone bad. Just last week, a

graphics cards in the market, with multiple popular Russian YouTuber mistranslated a
designs starting to arrive from our AIB statement (go.pcworld.com/mtrn) by Intel’s

partners,” AMD officials said. “As is standard Raja Koduri, which resulted in the false rumor
practice, once the inventory of the AMD that the first Intel GPU would cost just $200.
reference cards has been sold, AMD will Intel said that wasn’t true, and the YouTuber

continue to support new partner designs with ultimately removed the video.

30 PCWorld SEPTEMBER 2019