AMD to launch Volcanic Islands GPU (HD8000s) in 2013

[vitchilo]

Finally...

http://wccftech.com/amd-reportedly-l...ies-gpus-2013/

AMD Reportedly Launching Volcanic Islands GPUs in 2013

Last year, a report revealed that AMD?s Volcanic Islands series would be the first to make use of a 20nm process and would arrive sometime in 2014. However, in a recent interview with AMD?s Jim Keller and Chekib Akrout, Rage3d has revealed that the Volcanic Islands GPUs would launch in 2013.
AMD 20nm Volcanic Islands GPUs in 2013?

?The next generation of graphics cards ? Volcanic Islands ? is coming this year and shaping up nicely. When you name products after places, it leads to interesting thoughts about where to hold events surrounding that namesake product. Typically places that are cheap to get travel to internationally for a worldwide congregation are preferred, so I?m off to renew my passport on the off chance I?m headed to Reykjavik later this summer. But I sure as hell wouldn?t complain about being sent to Honolulu, either.? Rage3D

This could be huge news if true for AMD fans and could possibly provide a hint at the late launch of the much anticipated Radeon HD 8000 series GPUs. It was hinted by various techsites that the launch wasn?t planned to be late but it was delayed instead. The new VI (Volcanic Islands) GPU?s would be manufactured on a 20nm Gate-Last process through either TSMC or Common Platform Alliance.

Update: While this news is not confirmed by AMD yet, Sweclockers reports that Volcanic Islands could be coming in the last quarter and feature the Hawaii Core that replaces Tahiti. The Volcanic Islands architecture although not confirmed could stick to 28nm.

Maybe they'll just do paper launch in Q4 2013...

[LordEC911]

Maybe they'll just do paper launch in Q4 2013...

Nope.

[vitchilo]

In other news, anyone got any believed specifications?

Performances probably between 7970 and a 7990? Something faster than a 7990 maybe?

And if they really launch Volcanic islands at the end of the year... will they launch sea islands this summer or just skip it?

[LordEC911]

In other news, anyone got any believed specifications?

~40CUs

Performances probably between 7970 and a 7990? Something faster than a 7990 maybe?

What else would be expected?

And if they really launch Volcanic islands at the end of the year... will they launch sea islands this summer or just skip it?

Did you miss all the fun in the second half of Q1 when people were completely misinterpreting AMD's roadmap and comments?
"Sea Islands" is a power optimized tweak to their 7000 series, focused on the mobile market with some chips going to the OEM desktop market.
They are in mass production so they won't be "skipping it."

[Rollo]

Nope.

Oh. Since you say it won't be a paper launch, it must be true.

In any case this is good news for everybody but NVIDIA, hope they make it sooner than later.

[zanzabar]

so, if i buy a new card then we will get an announcement of a long overdue card.

Oh. Since you say it won't be a paper launch, it must be true.

In any case this is good news for everybody but NVIDIA, hope they make it sooner than later.

if it is a die shrink then they should be out about the same time.

[boxleitnerb]

I don't think 20nm is ready, at least not economically ready for mass production of 300+ mm2 GPUs. Of course TMSC says good things about 20nm, but what else are they supposed to say? I could imagine at least one IHV will do an intermittent 28nm series. New architecture but same process node.

[MaddMuppet]

Now this is more like it. Not interested in a dual GPU card until they sort out the stuttering. But a single GPU is good news. After they sort it out, I may even grab a second. Can't come fast enough IMO.

[vitchilo]

We've been on 28nm since late 2011, early 2012... time for 20nm already.

[Lanek]

I don't think 20nm is ready, at least not economically ready for mass production of 300+ mm2 GPUs. Of course TMSC says good things about 20nm, but what else are they supposed to say? I could imagine at least one IHV will do an intermittent 28nm series. New architecture but same process node.

I dont know for 20nm, could be good for the end of the year... But logically, if Maxwell is coming in the end of Q1-Q2 2014 on market with 20nm. mass production should be ready at least around start of 2014. The same situation of 28nm where AMD was starting on the end of the year, nvidia was coming a bit after them with kepler.

I dont see AMD releasing a 28nm productions if Nvidia is coming some months after in 20nm. ( and vice versa ) ( Could end terribly bad for AMD, or we know if Nvidia use 20nm, AMD too. ( AMD is in general first with new process . )
But maybe they plan release VI first on 28nm, then replace high end parts with 20nm ( die shrink the initial VI ).. ( Pure supposition, nothing for back it up ).

[vitchilo]

Maybe the lower models in 28nm and mid-high end in 20nm...

[Chrono Detector]

Really hope AMD will release their new generation this year, because they need a killer card to compete with NVIDIA. Yes, they release the 7990 recently, which is one year late, but I would prefer to see them release a single GPU card that can match Titan's performance or even faster, and 20nm would be nice as well.

[kromosto]

Really hope AMD will release their new generation this year, because they need a killer card to compete with NVIDIA. Yes, they release the 7990 recently, which is one year late, but I would prefer to see them release a single GPU card that can match Titan's performance or even faster, and 20nm would be nice as well.

amd releases a single gpu card better then titan with 1000usd price tag and then... we will see all new brand top cards with 1000 usd. also i don't think what amd need is a card like titan. if they can make the best card of 670 - 680, 7950 - 7970 segment they will dominate the market. imo of course.

[vitchilo]

Who cares about 1000usd cards? Nobody buys them.

Give us another good card with a decent price like the 7950/7970.

[paulbagz]

Who cares about 1000usd cards? Nobody buys them.

Give us another good card with a decent price like the 7950/7970.

Seen how many Titans are out there?...

-PB

[Kallenator]

Tried to find a source on Titan sales that would aid the discussion, but steam survey for example is completely void of them. Anyone got any solid numbers?

As for the Steam survey though, the x60 and x50 series cards from Nvidia represent a very large portion of the graphic cards end users buy. They do represent great value as well.

[kromosto]

if i am amd then i will begin to advertise my new magnificent bundle before nvidia's release of new cards and release my cards 2 months after that.

[Rollo]

Now this is more like it. Not interested in a dual GPU card until they sort out the stuttering. But a single GPU is good news. After they sort it out, I may even grab a second. Can't come fast enough IMO.

I don't know how many will be interested in dual 28nm 1.5 year old chips even after they sort out the drivers, especially at $1000.. (same if NVIDIA released a $900 GTX689 that was two 670s)

Hard to get very revved up over year and a half old chips, especially at new high end prices.

The market wants the 8970s, not Christmas 2011 chips. (7970s paper launched around Christmas 2011)

[Rollo]

Who cares about 1000usd cards? Nobody buys them.

Give us another good card with a decent price like the 7950/7970.

Every forum I've stopped by lately has people on it talking about their Titans. What surprises me is how many people are buying two at that price. I suppose in the world of hobbies it's not hard to spend $2K, so I should not be.

[cowie]

Great news then maybe they will have good drivers for it in 2015

[Jamesrt2004]

Every forum I've stopped by lately has people on it talking about their Titans. What surprises me is how many people are buying two at that price. I suppose in the world of hobbies it's not hard to spend $2K, so I should not be.

Just remember the forums we most likely browse are computer/gadget/technology centred so will be more likely for us to see them in the wild than average joe (=

[Tao~]

What difference does it make when AMD will launch 20nm GPUs ? They would be so scarce and overpriced till Nvidia has a better counteroffer with mass availability which will take further 3-6 months. So its mid 2014 at the earliest when we will have the real next-gen playing field.
I have always felt AMD GPUs look better when put in context with costlier Nvidia cards

[xMrBunglex]

Every forum I've stopped by lately has people on it talking about their Titans. What surprises me is how many people are buying two at that price. I suppose in the world of hobbies it's not hard to spend $2K, so I should not be.

That's why people buy cards like that in the first place - to go on forums and brag about their overpriced hardware.

[EniGmA1987]

Whether these cards really launch or not doesnt matter much. This news is in response to Nvidia's 700 series trying to get customers away. All AMD has to do is say right now is that the timetable has been moved up, which will keep a few people from buying a new Nvidia card. Then AMD can either stick to their new timetable or can come back in 2-3 months from now and say "well we have some setbacks so now it is back to 2014 again". people will be dissapointed if that happens for sure, but AMD will have achieved the primary goal they were going for, to keep some people from buying the new Nvidia cards.

[vitchilo]

http://wccftech.com/rumoramd-volcani...am-processors/

[RUMOR]AMD Volcanic Islands 20nm “Hawaii” GPU Architecture Leaked – 512-Bit Memory, 4096 Stream Processors

AMD 20nm Volcanic Islands “Hawaii” Architecture Leaked?

The architecture in question is from the flagship 20nm Volcanic Islands chip “Hawaii” featuring 4096 stream processors. That’s almost double to what we get in today’s flagship Radeon HD 7970 GHz edition GPU. AMD hasn’t taken such a big leap since Radeon HD 5870 which double the stream processor count to 1600 compared to 800 SPs on the Radeon HD 4870. The switch from AMD’s VLIW4 (HD 6000 series) to GCN 1.0/1.1 (HD 7000) was more of a die shrink from 40nm to 28nm, but if this architecture shot holds any truth then AMD would not only be shrinking the die down to 20nm but also bring radical changes to the whole architecture.
AMD Volcanic Islands “Hawaii” AMD Southern Islands “Tahiti”
Die Size 20nm 28nm
Stream Processors 4096 2048
Compute Units 16 32
TMUS 256 128
ROPS 64 32
Memory 4 GB GDDR5 3 GB GDDR5
Memory Bus 512-bit 384-bit

The 4096 stream processors would be arranged in 16 SPUs (Stream processor modules), each holding 64 processors split into 4 Compute modules and would feature 4 ACE (Asynchronous Compute Engines) units which accept data and pass it over to the SPUs for processing. The Volcanic Islands “Hawaii” chip would comes with 256 Texture mapping units or TMU and 64 ROPS (Raster operation Units). The most intresting thing about the architecture is that AMD would use a 512-bit memory bus instead of the 384-bit on current HD 7900 series parts which would allow for higher native VRAMs of 4 GB. In addition to the main parallel compute module (PCM), the Hawaii chip would also feature 8 SPMs (Serial processing modules) which allows for parallel computing and could be a dedicated HSA module.

If true... sweeeeeet