[EDIT]hmmm.....whats going on at AMD? (and history of 3Dfx Rampage)

[ocre]

https://www.techpowerup.com/228601/amds-...processors

The fact that this is even possible also begs the question as to why is it so - are the yields not good enough on the RX 460 chips that AMD is being forced to "lock" portions of a higher-end chip? I would wager this isn't likely, since Polaris 11 "Baffin" is such a small chip already that yield issues shouldn't have such effects. Most likely, we'd guess that AMD is re-purposing the mobile versions of the RX 480 (RX 480M, with some now suspicious-looking 1024 stream processors) that haven't passed power requirements for the 35 W those are rated at - but which surely correctly function at the RX 460's "up to 75 W" TDP. That might mean that AMD designed the original "Baffin" with 1024 stream processors for mobile devices, and carved the RX 460 as a way to recycle eventual defective dies that would surface for that particular SKU, not passing certification. But yields being better than expected, and demand for RX 460 cards outweighing the defective chips' output, AMD was forced to soft lock the extra stream processors on the "Baffin" SKU to satisfy demands.

The idea that amd had the bright idea to fill such a high volume slot like that?

"hey, I got a great idea, we can take salvaged 480m chips to create the 460 line."

Its truly bizarre logic. See, the article just got thru making the case that yields of polaris 11 could not possibly be bad enough that amd would have to use cut down chips. And then poses the idea that these were rejected 480m chips that wouldnt pass in the 35watt power envelop. Okay...
But how does that explain then being cut down? Even if these chips couldn't make it as a 35watt chip, the 460 has over double the tdp spec. Why are these hypothetically rejected mobile chips cut? He just isnt making any sense at all. There is a massively generous tdp threshold for the 460 vs 480m. He goes a long way to try to convince people (and possibly himself) that this is not a result of Polaris 11 yields but chips have to be cut sometimes in order for them to fit into a desired power envelop. That is still an issue of silicon missing its target, not yielding to expectations.

Many chips have come back too power hungry and have come to the market as a cut down version of its original planned spec.

There is the another possibility. What about apple? Did apple ask for exclusivity? Was tonga released as a cut down chip because of an apple contract which gave them a unique and exclusive chip just for them? Wasnt there some exclusive nvidia chip that nvidia provided for apple? I remember something like that a while back.

Anyhow, does apple have anything to do with this? Perhaps exclusive rights of a desktop model?
Kind of strange that amd would cut a deal like that, for a tiny segment, while making their pc customers have to settle for less.
Its just that AMD has so little to offer already and then cutting that down....Yeah

Also, its sad to see the 480m is absolutely nothing like the desktop chip. I mean, its way smaller. We were all told that the 480 was a game changer and amd was gonna disrupt mobile, that nvidia was gonna be in trouble. But, here we are. The 480m is not even half of a desktop 480. Its nowhere close. Thats kind of pathetic