AMD Polaris Die Shots Reconstructed

One of the quirks of the internet is the ability to take something tiny and build up an empire around it. This is readily apparent when it comes to hardware launches, with fans building up mountains of speculation around the tiniest of tidbits leaked out. This appears to be the case with AMD’s Polaris GPUs, with Videocardz going to great lengths to reconstruct Polaris 10 and 11 die shots.

First up we have the GPU used for the title graphics on AMD’s Polaris page. According to Videocardz, the die shown doesn’t correspond to any AMD GPU from the past. This must mean it’s from an unreleased chip, likely Polaris 11. We can infer this based on the smallish die and the lack of any encasements, something that is reserved for larger dies. From the size of the capacitors, Polaris 11 appears to be of similar size to Bonaire, about right given our previous estimates.

The next die shot comes from the GCN Architecture graphic. Videocardz was able to reconstruct a plausible die shot based off of the partial shot in the graphic. Assuming a similar layout and package as Tonga, the die size works out to about 234mm2. That’s where Project F comes in at, a previously rumoured Polaris GPU. Of course, we are still making a lot of assumptions here with way out there speculation, but if it is, that means AMD has managed to trim a Fiji class GPU all the way down to just about Pitcairn levels, tripling performance.