AMD HD7000 Series Launch Date Revealed

[AFQ]

Its official, launch date of AMD’s next generation high-performance Radeon HD 7000 series GPUs is 9th January. DonanimHaber posted a picture of an invitation card to the official AMD event where two graphics cards based on 28nm Tahiti architecture will be launched. These cards are HD 7970 and HD 7950, most likely.

Source also has a pciture of invitation card to the vent but that's not in English.

[Dimitriman]

We still know so little about the cards, this really is a completely different launch than that of Cayman...

[tbone8ty]

http://www.3dcenter.org/news/2011-12-11

3DCenter compiled specifications of "Tahiti", based on bits and pieces of information from various sources. The specs can be listed out as:

4.50 billion transistors, die-area of 380 mm², built on TSMC 28 nm process
Advanced GCN 1D architecture
2048 1D processing cores
128 TMUs, 48 ROPs
384-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, memory clock slightly below 1 GHz, target bandwidth of 240~264 GB/s

grain of salt...however this is similar specs to NordicHardware article awhile back...

[[XC] hipno650]

We still know so little about the cards, this really is a completely different launch than that of Cayman...

the less like Cayman launch the better IMO, so much speculation and so much disappointment around that launch. I am really hoping for a CES launch though it would be nice to see if first hand.

[tbone8ty]

yeah definitely snuck up on us...suppose to launch Jan 9-10th. i bet it will be a nice card and age like a nice red wine after 10 driver updates

[BababooeyHTJ]

the less like Cayman launch the better IMO, so much speculation and so much disappointment around that launch. I am really hoping for a CES launch though it would be nice to see if first hand.

Why? With all seriousness, what was disappointing about the Cayman launch? They really moved the price to performance bar. 6950 launched at least $100 cheaper than 5870 with more performance, more vram, and better crossfire scaling, with solid drivers from what I saw.

[kuroikenshi]

Why? With all seriousness, what was disappointing about the Cayman launch? They really moved the price to performance bar. 6950 launched at least $100 cheaper than 5870 with more performance, more vram, and better crossfire scaling, with solid drivers from what I saw.

yeah, 6950's launch was so crap that within a week of those cards arriving in Australia I bought two.... yeah very disappointing launch.

[tajoh111]

Why? With all seriousness, what was disappointing about the Cayman launch? They really moved the price to performance bar. 6950 launched at least $100 cheaper than 5870 with more performance, more vram, and better crossfire scaling, with solid drivers from what I saw.

It not like AMD had a choice. The gtx 570 was more or less the same speed as the 6970 and already occupied the 350 price point. AMD basically priced there product according to what was competition at the time. This is what makes it a disappointing launch. It didn't force Nvidia to do particularly anything. 6870 release was much better than caymans. Cayman performance jump over cypress was among the smallest jumps ever. It also consumed much more power.

[[XC] hipno650]

Why? With all seriousness, what was disappointing about the Cayman launch? They really moved the price to performance bar. 6950 launched at least $100 cheaper than 5870 with more performance, more vram, and better crossfire scaling, with solid drivers from what I saw.

it had been hyped to the point were by a good number of people had it pegged to beat the GTX 580 and then some. instead it was a classic case of get what you pay for. cheaper card, lower launch performance compared to similarly priced competitors. the lack of increase over the 5870 was also a bummer. im not saying they are bad cards. I own a pair of them and have used countless others in systems for my customers. the 6950 unlock was also a major bonus. but overall it was not what people had hoped for.

the 5870 launch on the other hand was excellent. considering it gave close to 40% more performance than a GTX 285 which was the fastest single GPU of the time it was HUGE step forward. know I know full well that Cayman could have never been that type of gain because it was stuck on 40nm but all i am trying to say is that most people expected it to be more than it turned out to be.

With the 7900 series there is almost no hype and it has really come out of no ware thus i think most people will be very surprised with the numbers considering there is no chance to hype the card up...

[tbone8ty]

cayman underperformed because it was stuck at 40nm. period end of story.

[Bobsama]

cayman underperformed because it was stuck at 40nm. period end of story.

Manufacturing method doesn't really have that much to do with performance. It's far more closely associated with manufacturing cost and with power draw. That said, there are power draw ceilings. Cayman increased the die size by 25% and launched at the same price. The reason I think it was a flop was because of the price--it's always been pretty expensive compared to the HD 5850's (which have only been cleared out for a few months now). AMD didn't really up the ante by replacing Cypress with Cayman. Keeping Juniper on didn't really help, either. In tech, every product has to be good. If not, you're bleeding--customer loyalty if nothing else.

[highoctane]

cayman underperformed because it was stuck at 40nm. period end of story.

How often is that not the case, the same can be said for just about any silicon part really.

What silicon product wouldn't perform better at a smaller node.

EDIT: Not that dumb shrink would unlock any special potential but the benefits of being able to pack more transistors on a die and better power efficiency could help overall performance.

[tbone8ty]

they designed caymen to beat 580 expecting to use it on the smaller process...if Caymen was released on 28nm or 32nm whatever it was suppose to be..it would have had 1920 SP. hence that is why they had to delay NI and re-arrange their road map. the HD 7000 series is kinda what was suppose to be caymen.

[Lanek]

the less like Cayman launch the better IMO, so much speculation and so much disappointment around that launch. I am really hoping for a CES launch though it would be nice to see if first hand.

I was respond the exact same thing to Dimitrian ... I better like know less or nothing instead of get 1000 pages of speculation and fake bench ( remember we have the big line of what is GCN , and a little idea of what the spec can be. ( 30-32CU, 4SMID/CU, 16Vector Alu + 1Scalar Unit/SMID ( ofc i will not cite all the parts ).

In reality, this launch remember me more the HD5800 launch....

they designed caymen to beat 580 expecting to use it on the smaller process...if Caymen was released on 28nm or 32nm whatever it was suppose to be..it would have had 1920 SP. hence that is why they had to delay NI and re-arrange their road map. the HD 7000 series is kinda what was suppose to be caymen.

Cayman in 32nm, was designed far before the GTX480-580 was even released.... make an architecture ( dont misunderstand i dont say mArch )dont take 8-12month normally ( it's 2-3 years mostly ), specially if the core was designed for a lower process (32nm).

But who know.. Maybe Northern Island was allready designed for be GCN in 32nm and then Southern in 28nm.. ( lower process + new arch in 32nm ), I remember we was waiting a new architecture, and VLIW4 is not so different of VLIW5 (terrascale ).

[mR Yellow]

Can't wait for this bad boy. Guess i'll need to scratch the itch.

[Lanek]

Manufacturing method doesn't really have that much to do with performance. It's far more closely associated with manufacturing cost and with power draw. That said, there are power draw ceilings. Cayman increased the die size by 25% and launched at the same price. The reason I think it was a flop was because of the price--it's always been pretty expensive compared to the HD 5850's (which have only been cleared out for a few months now). AMD didn't really up the ante by replacing Cypress with Cayman. Keeping Juniper on didn't really help, either. In tech, every product has to be good. If not, you're bleeding--customer loyalty if nothing else.

For performance, not in itself, but on how is designed the cores within the process make a big difference.... with a die shrink (40>32nm), only 400SP more will have make a nice difference, enough for be side by side with the GTX580 ... without saying the GCE ( Tesselation units etc ) will have maybe completely different. ( it's the part similar of Cypress, the GCE is just doubled ).

[Andrea deluxe]

the only problem for real gamer are....

ati driver lock framerate to 60 in dx10/11 games when connected to a 120hz monitor and v-sync enabled.


nvidia driver are able (with the option "force max refresh") to force 120fps in a 120hz monitor in most of the dx10/11 games with v-sync on.

real gamer have 120 monitor.... and real gamer can't accept that limit....

[Oliverda]

the only problem for real gamer are....

Ati driver lock framerate to 60 in dx10/11 games when connected to a 120hz monitor and v-sync enabled.


Nvidia driver are able (with the option "force max refresh") to force 120fps in a 120hz monitor in most of the dx10/11 games with v-sync on.

Real gamer have 120 monitor.... And real gamer can't accept that limit....

[Andrea deluxe]

for me is a problem.....

maybe for you no.....


different people different needs

funny to see emoticon without words to explain why!

[Lanek]

i dont see any reason to lock to 60hz/60fps on 120hz monitor ... or are we speaking with 3D enabled ?

Cause it seem you mean, the AMD driver understand 120hz , as 60hz .....

[Andrea deluxe]

If im right this have been corrected allready .... Anyway i dont see any reason to lock to 60hz/60fps on 120fps ... or are we speaking with 3D enabled ?

no.

im talking about 2D 120hz.

one example?

dirt3 dx11

hd6990 + 120hz monitor = 120Hz but 60Fps v-sync on

gtx590 + 120Hz monitor = 120Hz and 120Fps v-sync on




IMHO is important..... no?

[seanx]

I also expected more from 6950 , the unlock was a grt feature , but I ended up getting 2 x 5870's all for $550 , so not a bad deal (beggining of this year)
I did want the 2 x 6950's but the friend who brought them for me (from the u.k) didnt want to spend the extra cash .... in all my 5870's preform very well ...
bar driver issues with 22inch samsung + tearing (even in windows) , I had to hunt around to get better drivers to minimize the tearing .....
tempting though the new cards will be come 2012 ! if the're priced right +/- <$400 , :-)

[seanx]

sig update

[Lanek]

no.

im talking about 2D 120hz.

one example?

dirt3 dx11

hd6990 + 120hz monitor = 120Hz but 60Fps v-sync on

gtx590 + 120Hz monitor = 120Hz and 120Fps v-sync on




IMHO is important..... no?

Yes.. for me it will ( just cause most games will run at 120+fps (huum i say most, i dont speak about metro etc ))... but i think this is a bug with some 120hz monitor, now i remember have read something about this on the release note of a driver. surely fixed since.

Serously i see a lot of peoples with 120hz monitor and AMD 6K, and they dont have this lock it seems.

[kam03]

the only problem for real gamer are....

ati driver lock framerate to 60 in dx10/11 games when connected to a 120hz monitor and v-sync enabled.


nvidia driver are able (with the option "force max refresh") to force 120fps in a 120hz monitor in most of the dx10/11 games with v-sync on.

real gamer have 120 monitor.... and real gamer can't accept that limit....

LOL @ real gamer.