According to Kitguru, AMD had planned to rebrand a number of their older cards and repurpose them for their 300 series. This is a normal method for those outfits who want to clear overstock of chips from channels, repurposing them, with a few extra features for a new line of cards.

AMD would be making the R9 290X the new R9 380X and the R9 285 the new R9 370, and so on and so forth. However the rumour mill suggests that AMD’s changed its mind, apparently – and every single cards in the new 300 series will be a new one. Higher ups at AMD have apparently demanded that the company launch with a full new solution, rather than a brand new high end card and a re-appropriated middle end.

All this is good, but AMD needs to move damn fast if it is going to stop Nvidia's latest surge of market share.