AMD Apologizes For RX 560 Spec Change
AMD issued a new statement regarding its recent spec change to its Radeon RX 560 graphics card.
The company recently came under fire for a sneaky specification change to the RX 560, with the company now offering two different versions of the same product. Now, there are RX 560s with 14CUs (896 stream processors) and some with 16CUs (1,024 stream processors, the original specification). This sent the internet into a rage of sorts, with AMD initially passing the buck in regards to disclosure, stating that AIB partners would be responsible for being transparent with its individual RX 560 offerings. Now, the company appears to have changed course and issued a new statement:
“It’s correct that 14 Compute Unit (896 stream processors) and 16 Compute Unit (1024 stream processor) versions of the Radeon RX 560 are available,” stated a company representative. “We introduced the 14CU version this summer to provide AIBs and the market with more RX 500 series options. It’s come to our attention that on certain AIB and e-tail websites there’s no clear delineation between the two variants. We’re taking immediate steps to remedy this: we’re working with all AIB and channel partners to make sure the product descriptions and names clarify the CU count, so that gamers and consumers know exactly what they’re buying. We apologize for the confusion this may have caused.”
Although this statement indicates that the company is now dealing with the potential (and probable) confusion caused by two products with different performance sharing the same name, it’s interesting to note that AMD made this change over the summer, indicating that anyone who purchased an RX 560 graphics card between now and then may have purchased the 14CU version of the card without knowing it.
Consumers are understandably furious over the secretive change, with many commenters in our forums denouncing the move as “Nvidia-like” and comparing it to the GTX 970 memory segregation conundrum from a few years back. However, whereas the GTX 970 situation didn’t affect bottom-line performance of the GPU, AMD’s specification change portends a significant difference in performance between two products with the same name.
For anyone who purchased a Radeon RX 560 graphics card in the past few months, a quick look at GPU-Z will give you the stream processor count for your GPU. However, if you did happen to unknowingly purchase a 14CU version of the RX 560, there’s currently no set means of restitution. We reached out to AMD about this, and will update the article accordingly with the company’s response.
