If you haven’t heard already, over the past couple weeks AMD has been on a graphics card launch frenzy launching a number of new graphics cards including the Radeon R9 270X, R9 280X, R9 290X and the R9 290. While impressive, with the exception of the R9 290X and the R9 290, most of the R9 200 lineup that’s been launched already is still based off AMD’s last generation GPU technology with the R9 280 series based off the Tahiti GPU found in the Radeon HD 7900 series and the R9 270 series based off the Pitcairn GPU found on the Radeon HD 7800 series. Given that AMD is expected to launch around eight GPUs for the R9 200 series before the end of the holiday season, it’s not all that surprising.

While it is disappointing that AMD is essentially re-branding a number of their GPUs for the new generation, I think it’s much needed especially from a marketing standpoint even if AMD doesn’t have a brand, brand new GPU to go with the new name. Over the past year and a half, AMD has made a lot of improvements to the drivers and the 28nm manufacturing process in a way that significantly improves the older Pitcairn and Tahiti GPUs. Given that most reviews on the Radeon HD 7800 and HD 7900 series were written before most of these changes were implemented, giving the old GPUs a new name and a new SKU is actually a good idea.