Quote Originally Posted by Calmatory View Post
So they are not going to go directly to 40nm? Oh, you are right, ideal scaling would be 52% (40/55)^2 or 66 % (45/55)^2. So, expecting at least ~60 % or ~73 % smaller chips. Yet another sleepless night makes this thinking impossible.
No, I only meant to imply that ATI is making a full node jump. There probably will not be 45 nm. chips made by TSMC for ATI/AMD.

Quote Originally Posted by Calmatory View Post
So, if they are pad limited then RV790 should be at least 1280 shaders, even if they are going to 45nm first. If RV870 was 40 nm, then 1500-1600+ shaders should be very well possible.
Or they will increase the capability and/or efficiency of the shaders in RV870, in which case the shaders will take up more space, but they will perform better than the actual jump in the amount of shaders would suggest. They have to add some extra logic to RV870's shaders anyway to make it compatible with DX11's specs, although I wouldn't be surprised if RV770 is already reasonably close to having all that is needed to support DX11.
RV790 will have the exact same units as used in RV770, but there will simply be more of 'em. Just my guess though, I wouldn't mind to be proven wrong.