AMD Adds More Chaos with New Dual-GPU Naming Scheme

If you felt the current naming scheme of graphics cards were confusing as hell, then wait till you see what AMD has cooked up for us, it’s a real treat I assure you. Ok, so we all know that AMDs upcoming A-series APUs will pack in a rather powerful graphics card very similar to the current entry level discrete cards we have today. They’ll also support Hybrid CorssFire, which means you can pair the onboard card with a discrete entry level/mainstream card from the 6300, 6400 or 6500 or 6600 series. Now, AMD has gone one step further and given new names to every combination of the onboard GPU and discrete GPU of which the good folks at VR-Zone have managed to bag a slide. And it’s not like the new combo names have any co-relation with the graphics cards used.

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Take for instance the first discrete GPU and the A6-series APU. If you combine the HD 6670 (discrete card) with the HD 6530D (onboard GPU), we get the HD 6990D2. How did AMD arrive at this number? It’s got nothing to do with either of the cards. It’s as if they used a slot machine and all the marketing guys took turns for each combo name, the more random the number, the bigger the prize. DIY builders wont have to worry about this though, It’s the people who buy OEM built systems that are in for a world of trouble. We hope that AMD puts a mandate to mention what combination of graphics cards are used along with the new name, it’s the least they can do. So the next time you see an advert in the papers for a Dell system with an HD 6990 D2 for just 40K, don’t freak out.

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