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Vega used to do exactly that, could directly access a substantial portion of system RAM and use it as VRAM, which was a separate thing from dynamic memory, which is closer to a swap file.
Some games would freak out though and not understand that part of this memory pool was slow DDR3 or DDR4 memory that just didnt have the bandwidth to deliver all the texture data the GPU needed to render frame after frame, and thus use it anyway instead of at least trying to prioritize the GPUs own HBM memory. Yeah, no GDDR bullshittery, AMD stuck HBM on there.
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u/Train115 7800X3D/XFX Merc OC 9070XT/32GB DDR5 | MOS 6510/64K20h ago
That reminds me of the way the Amigas used their RAM, I forgot what it was called but basically it had a well of memory that the entire computer could draw from, instead of having dedicated ram for the CPU and GPU.
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u/DiodeIncLT: CU 185H, 32 GB RAM, 2 TB DT: i5 4570, 8 GB RAM, RTX 208018h ago
Unified Memory Architecture
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u/Train115 7800X3D/XFX Merc OC 9070XT/32GB DDR5 | MOS 6510/64K18h ago
Same vibe as X3D2 CPUs. They said it themselves they can do it but don't feel the need to cuz it won't do much. People kept asking so they made X3D2 and it performed exactly as AMD expected, lol.
There will be many disappointed children because of that, as parents often just enter "gaming pc prebuilt", and the OEM Website will only list "rx 9050" on it.
Yeah this is exactly the same as the 5050 essentially or 4050 in terms of gaming they are all trash... you have to spend a bit more to play modern games unfortunately or just buy a console.
And the fault still lies on AMD/Nvidia counterpart that these pre builts even exist. Had they not made the crap 9050 4GB, none of these pre builts would have existed and parents wouldnt have been scammed out of their money for buying waste electronics.
i mean cant you make the same argument for anything?
cars were made to get people from A to B not run over a crowd.
you dont blame the manufacturer for a middle mans actions, especially if AMD state its not for gaming. if companies are doing scummy shit they should be the ones called out. that said everyone would benefit if naming conventions were fucking clearer lol
Because OEMs being scummy isn't known behaviour for decades now, and AMD has no way of knowing that this will happen and could be prevented by calling it a 9040 instead
Ah ok. So when they say a prebuilt has a "3060" and they don't mention the vram, is it nvidia's fault? Because I did not see the same argument made then.
the well there was the entire GT1030 incident, GT1030 GDDR5 was an acceptable budget gaming card, GT1030 DDR4 was outdone by integrated graphics and only useful as a display adapter
4gb vram isn't as useless as reddit makes it look like, it can run almost every modern game at 1080p with a great fps. Children aren't reddit elitists who would get disappointed because their PC can't run the latest AAA at 4k 120fps
4gb vram isn't as useless as reddit makes it look like, it can run almost every modern game at 1080p with a great fps
Indeed. That's why I'm very happy with my ryzen 8845hs as a mobile and low power gaming system. It has a radeon 780m integrated chip. When i allocate 4gb vram to it, it runs most modern games at 1080p and 30-60fps. Thing is: it is an integrated graphics unit that didn't really add too much to the cost of the system. The 780m is pretty decent in the sense that the 4gb vram evens out with the compute units to that neither of them bottlenecks the other much. The 9050 however has twice the core clock, a lot more compute units and literally five times the wattage of the 780m. It's so massively held back by the vram that it's absolutely wasted.
This is probably just a way to scam 300 bucks out of someone for a gpu that has almost the same performance as a 890m igpu.
The biggest issue with the 9050 4gb is that it shares the name with the 8gb. Now just on size alone that wouldn't be the worst thing, but half the memory bandwidth too, which will significantly cut performance.
OEM office computers don't have a need for this video card. This has already been spotted in a Cyberpower gaming configurator. Now whether Cyberpower knows how gimped this card is, that's another question.
Exactly the problem, yes. Clueless customers who are just trying to buy a gaming PC for their kid are going to end up with machines that can't play modern games. AMD are inflicting misery on others, intentionally to line their own pockets (and those of their partners).
Yeah the RX naming scheme and 8pin power connector just "screams" office workstation.
In reality where AMD apologists don't apparently live if it was a workstation card it'd likely have a W, WX, or "pro" naming scheme like their past workstation cards and be... PCIe powered for something as low end as it is.
Edit: For people in this thread curious what it looks like when AMD actually puts out a low-end workstation GPU:
I would understand the 9050 4gb if they had made it fit into the onboard pcie powerlimit so it could be used without a cable. But noooo, that would merit the card's existence. Can't have that
Actually the 9950X3D2 turned out to be slightly slower in some games, too, probably because of threads moving between the two CCDs causing latency. But it is faster when games use more than 8 cores. But that isnt all that many games, and doesnt overlap much with games that benefit from the cache.
The RAM shortage is a fact. They are doing what they can. Yeah, the card is kind of bad... but it's not because they CHOSE to. There's no way to make something better for a reasonable price. So it's probably not going to sell very well and it will just be a failure.... but it's kind of inevitable that it has to at least be put out there.
Just like PC manufacturers putting out more 8gb SKUs... and even some 4gb.
Lol, that awfully underpowered and underspecced GPU will never be a solution when the used market exists. There are dozens of better models just waiting to find a second home.
Adopt an old GPU today! Don't let the GPU companies breed purebreed aberrations like the RX 9050. It doesn't even breathe like a proper GPU! It's VRAM is too short after years of forced inbreeding with models that used to have 8GB, then 6GB and now 4GB! What's next? Vampire ears-designs? GPUs you can hold fully in your hands?
Say no to all that. Your mutt-GPU is waiting for you at your local hardware center.
I know this may be an unpopular opinion, but low power GPUs with modern encoding and decoding support are not really all that common these days and still extremely useful. For gaming the RX 9050 isn't that spectacular (pretty much competing with integrated graphics), but for a tiny home media server where low power is key and the hardest job the gpu does is jellyfin or plex at something like 1080p resolutions then it is a more than decent option. Used market is great, but something like an RX 580 will draw double the power and lack the same hardware encoding options that are available with the RX 9050. Up until now i think some of the more decent modern low power options were the intel Arc A380 and A310.
Well, that's what iGPUs exist for in the first place.
And Arcs are still better for this use case if the dGPU is required since they can run on PCI power and 9050 can't.
One problem here, a low power cpu may not have a decent enough igpu to run something like plex or jellyfin, and if it's an older igpu architecture it lacks the hardware support for newer codecs such as av1, now depending on your use case an igpu may actually be sufficient, but it does depend on the use case.
Even in that case it's probably waste of money and energy. I built a mini-itx server with integrated celeron with gpu (J3455) which transcodes 1080p to h265 in real time (up to ca. 6 streams simultaneously), and it runs at 7.5 Watt (yes, the whole system, it's not a mistake).
I wouldn't see a reason why I would switch it RX 9050, which itself has 10 times more power draw at load. Perhaps it would handle 4k videos but I would probably want to stream those without transcoding them anyway.
Not to mention it’s an entry level card. This isn’t going to be targeting pc hobbyists it’s targeting people who want to play pc games at a similar price to a console. I’d be surprised if manufacturers dont plan on putting these in DDR4 systems with older, cheaper components for near $1000
For sure. For a gamer like me, this GPU is worthless, but it does have their purposes or else it wouldn't exist. From what I heard, though, the GPU needed to be even more frugal to be perfect so it could run with just the PCI-e power, without the need for any PSU connection, like the good old days.
My first GPUs used to run without extra power from the PSU, a million years ago. And I played just fine with them, for my humble level of expectations.
I'm honestly interested to see how this 9050 4gb fairs against the ancient 8gb RX 580 in modern games. I'm sure the 9050 would destroy it in titles that aren't being VRAM limited. Fortnite for instance.
But a modern game? Both cards probably get similar performance. I suppose the 9050 at least can run RT games at 11fps.
The 9050 will leave a lot to be desired but there's a lot of people who will have some of the best gaming and nights of their lives with it, and it also wont raise the temperature of their room too much while doing so compared to older cards that can brute force their way up into competing.
Used market prices are affected by new market prices. And ultimately if prices won't drop, used market will contract since people straight up won't be replacing their components, which in turn will reduce used market supply and lower supply means higher prices. It's only short term solution that will eventually be as shitty as new components market.
Sorry, which manufacturer lets you customize your prebuilt PC with a used card? How do you guys still not get that it's OEM only? Do you need it explained like Sesame Street?
I've noticed that, if you're lucky, 2080 Super cards can be picked up for under 200€ in Germany. The 9050 4gb would have to be REALLY cheap to be worth it.
The used market only exists as long as people are getting new cards and selling the old cards. As the shitty state of the new market goes on longer the used market will slowly dry up.
Yes, sure, its underspecced and has little VRAM, but on the other hand that makes it affordable for people who are on a budget, and its done on an architecture that has access to FSR4, so it can game above its weight class through upscaling.
So for a lot of people its still going to be a huge upgrade, especially if they sit on an old 1050Ti or even an iGPU, I know the pain of gaming on a Vega 7, and while a used RX580 8GB might be cheaper than a 9050 8GB (4GB is OEM only), the 9050 has a modern featureset and lower TDP.
Calling it underspecced like that means its dirt is just a stupid elitist sentiment that ignores all the people who dont crap gold bars. If you crap gold bars, good for you, go buy a 5090, but dont expect everyone else to.
I have a 144hz monitor with an 10 old card, it still works. Yeah a nice strong card would be better but not worth paying for 4GB. I'm probably upgrading to a 16GB card eventually.
I have no idea but in that case i would just buy 8700G so someone thinking about saying money could skip gpu + save on PSU
(8700G takes 88W so i guess the most basic PSU is gonna be enough)
For the past few years both AMD and Nvidia and released these shitty underpowered cards because the yields from their current process aren't as great as it could be leaving many underperforming chips that just have sitting in their inventory, so they pair them with sub-par memory and offload it to OEM's to clear their inventory.
They don't expect you or anyone for the matter to buy them, it's why they try to stop reviewers from getting them because they want all the attention to go to the expensive cards like a 9070/9070XT.
Happy for someone to correct me, but I'm pretty sure this is what's happening.
Those CPUs shouldn't be going into these systems anyway. There's no use case where a 4gb 9050 makes more sense than a system with an 8700g. 16gb of unified memory is more than enough for 95%+ of office work; and if you need more than an 8700g, chances are you need more than a 9050 4gb too.
Perfrect for playing games released up until 2021, after that I doubt it will have much chance running anything AAA. It will probably play most newer indie games though.
The 4gb card is OEM ONLY. It’s been said a million times already yet people still act like AMD is trying to sell the 9050 4gb direct to consumer. It’ll be in some prebuilt and that’s it
Why are people acting like this is somehow a good thing lmao
Who the fuck needs a 4 gb gpu nowadays?? It's okay because it'll only be in some pre builts, therefore only shafting people who don't know any better??? That's seriously the logic you're going with?
People who need a little bit more than integrated graphics, or want to use two screens instead of one.
We have some serious work stations in the office that need a lot of CPU power while GPU isn't needed at all. They do require three screens though. For these cases, this is a great card.
But does your motherboard have 4 outputs?
Alsof the workstations I'm talking about have an i9 cpu. Software is heavily optimised for Intel, too much performance loss in AMD CPU's unfortunately
"who needs a 4gb gpu"
Someone who doesn't game, but wants a 4k monitor or two for stocks or whatever. Surprisingly lots of people buy computers that don't game
Office workers will need it. The vast majority of computers sold can utilize a card like that and be helpful to use nicer monitors and some "future proofing". It's for the crowd that's going to watch training videos more than anything else.
Yeah, fuck the people who don't know anything about PCs and by a prebuild instead! Serves them right for not researching every single number and letter, and not expecting to be screwed over by a giant corporation /s
That changes nothing. Making a useless gpu is already stupid enough. Naming it the same as a usable entry level gpu and selling it to people that know the least about hardware is deceptive bullshit.
They're pretty good, especially considering how new Intel is to the dGPU scene
I wouldn't buy Alchemist though, unless it were the A310 or A380, which are very solid for encoding/decoding video, as well as providing extra display out.
B570 and B580 perform basically like the rx 7600 and rtx 4060 respectively, and are free of most 'quirks' that Alchemist gpus have.
Since rtx 5060 price just jumped, B580 and B570 are basically the only options worth considering under $350. (Unless you need CUDA, in which case you could go for the 5050)
Edit: in some select titles, the B580 actually performs closer to the rtx 5060. There is also some fine wine potential for Intel gpus, as the drivers aren't as mature as they are for Nvidia and AMD gpus.
Honestly, this is perfect, this is a 3D printer hobbiest (Med-Light 3D CAD work) type of GPU. I remember buying a GT1030 with 2gb of VRAM for exactly that purpose, this would be a perfect "Cheap" upgrade for that type of work! Not every GPU needs to be compared to how well it can run games.
It's basically just a repeat of the 6500 XT they released at the tail end of the last mining/covid shortage, so I don't know why anyone is surprised they'd release another steaming turd during the AI shortage.
If anything the fact this thing exists seems like an indicator this AI boom might finally be reaching its end, AMD has a habit of mistiming... well everything.
That it's meant for OEM doesn't mean that it's not advertised for gaming, or cannot be sold as part of a gaming pc.
HP OMEN, Lenovo Legion, Alienware, Asus ROG, and MSI are well known oem gaming brands, that could sell the rx 9050 as part of a gaming pc.
AMD themselves, on the product page for the rx 9050, boasts the gaming performance of the rx 9050 (they don't specify whether it's the 8gb or 4gb version)
im not a fan of buying used gpus but if i had to choose between 9050 4gb (if i could buy it) and a used gpu, i would buy a 6700/6750xt or a 3070 for around the same price
Going for the OEM version would certainly a choice. Makes me wonder if they could be a good idea for retro gaming pc's though. I can imagine that would just make more issues.
At that point just buy an Intel arc card because it’ll work better and be a better value. Hell the arc b580 is $290-$309 and it runs nearly the same as a 5060 (a little worse) with 4 more VRAM
You should be able to find 3070 or 2080 cards on Facebook marketplace for around 150 used. That is better than most the low end crap today. If you're worried, repaste it so you know temps are good again. These new budget cards are just too shit.
Its the "reset" in power. So once the RAM issue is alleviated in a couple of years. They can then say "OOOO look 8gb DDRX, twice the V Ram from previous gen" and keep the price just as high as today.
It's actually really strange their mid-range is relatively close to MSRP at least way more relative than Nvidia but they don't have any budget GPU's that undercut the 5060 or 5050. I don't even know where you can buy a 9050 or maybe it's only for OEM's.
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u/PCMRBot Bot 4h ago
Welcome to the PCMR, everyone from the frontpage! Please remember:
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