RV775XT and PRO have 840 SP?

[ColonelCain]

What about 960 stream/48TMU ? Ratio is fine .It could be an option for a 40nm shrink.
The above is just one very far fetched possibility since the die area didn't increase that much from the report we saw in OP.

True, but this would mean that RV870 is delayed, which wouldn't be a logical gamble for ATI. Risk GT200b beating a 40nm refresh, and have a longer wait to RV870 than if they forgo a refresh?
It WOULD however follow their "new strategy", that they announced awhile back. I think that it was around every 6 months alternating new arch/new refresh?

One thing that I found kind of interesting, concerning the redundancy debate, is that when you look at a die shot of Rv770 detailing the chips internals, there is possibility for their argument, at least as far as shaders go. If you look to the left of the "SIMD group", it looks almost like there are 4 extra shaders per group. X10, and we would get the extra 40. If you don't see it, look at the pattern.

[informal]

True, but this would mean that RV870 is delayed, which wouldn't be a logical gamble for ATI. Risk GT200b beating a 40nm refresh, and have a longer wait to RV870 than if they forgo a refresh?
It WOULD however follow their "new strategy", that they announced awhile back. I think that it was around every 6 months alternating new arch/new refresh?

One thing that I found kind of interesting, concerning the redundancy debate, is that when you look at a die shot of Rv770 detailing the chips internals, there is possibility for their argument, at least as far as shaders go. If you look to the left of the "SIMD group", it looks almost like there are 4 extra shaders per group. X10, and we would get the extra 40. If you don't see it, look at the pattern.

I think you are right,there seems to be 4 extra shaders per group.Now,if they can be active with the rest or can be used just for redundancy purposes is unknown atm.It would be nice if 840SP rumor is true,but honestly how much more perf. these 40 stream units can bring?20% more TMUs and higher core clocks on the other hand can be more effective.

[Voodoo²]

What about if they get rid of the tessellator? That could explain the decrease in transistors count too. Right?

[LordEC911]

I think you are right,there seems to be 4 extra shaders per group.Now,if they can be active with the rest or can be used just for redundancy purposes is unknown atm.It would be nice if 840SP rumor is true,but honestly how much more perf. these 40 stream units can bring?20% more TMUs and higher core clocks on the other hand can be more effective.

It's not... RV770 has only 800SP, just like G80 only had 128.

What about if they get rid of the tessellator? That could explain the decrease in transistors count too. Right?

Can't...

[hurleybird]

What about if they get rid of the tessellator? That could explain the decrease in transistors count too. Right?

It could, but I hope they didn't, since there might be some use for it in DX11 titles. If you ask me, enabling disabled "repair" units, getting rid of sideport, and some general tweaking should be enough to make the transistor count plausible. Not nearly as drastic as G70 -> G71 at least. 512MB looks suspicious, but if anything means that ATI is thinking of launching 512MB cards along with the 1024MB cards. Changing the ALU:TEX ratio makes sense since R600/R700 is a little lopsided towards shading power anyway. I don't have a problem reconciling the clock speed increase seeing as NVIDIA's 1.4 Billion Transistor chip built on a larger process gets better clockspeed/watt so there are probably some architectural problems that would be a priority for ATI to fix in both RV775 and RV880. Overall, I think the specs look credible, but as we know with ATI rumors whether or not something looks credible doesn't always mean a whole lot.

[Shintai]

What about if they get rid of the tessellator? That could explain the decrease in transistors count too. Right?

Please dont try and curve this faked news into something so it fits some hopes. We already have enough hype.

Shader amount doesnt mix, transistor count doesnt mix, clock and process node doesnt mix. Shader/TMU ratio doesnt mix. Even memory doesnt mix.

Is there even anything that do mix?

[Stukov]

True, but this would mean that RV870 is delayed, which wouldn't be a logical gamble for ATI. Risk GT200b beating a 40nm refresh, and have a longer wait to RV870 than if they forgo a refresh?
It WOULD however follow their "new strategy", that they announced awhile back. I think that it was around every 6 months alternating new arch/new refresh?

One thing that I found kind of interesting, concerning the redundancy debate, is that when you look at a die shot of Rv770 detailing the chips internals, there is possibility for their argument, at least as far as shaders go. If you look to the left of the "SIMD group", it looks almost like there are 4 extra shaders per group. X10, and we would get the extra 40. If you don't see it, look at the pattern.

The problem is, even if the RV870 is delayed and they are going to the 'tick/tock' model of releasing products there is still an issue with inventory. I think there are still plenty of RV7xx generation boards out on the market with a good amount of supply. To release a new chip would certainly be canniblelistic on their already created chips. Then, by the time you get a good supply for this 'new' chip, the RV870 should be out, again running into problems with inventory and the like.

I don't see any reason AMD would NEED to have something until the RV870. Their chips are smaller and cards are cheaper to make. If Nvidia comes out of the blocs, AMD will just throw a price war at them. Then just make a splash for the RV870.