Monday, June 11th 2012
AMD Readies Trio of New Radeon HD 7900 Series SKUs
Apart from a few Radeon HD 7970 "X2" dual-GPU graphics cards, and a few non-reference design HD 7970, we didn't hear much about new Radeon SKUs, at Computex. AMD or its partners never even talked about the Radeon HD 7990. It appears now, that the company is working on three new SKUs that will likely replace existing ones, in a bid to replenish the competitiveness of its "Southern Islands" GPU family. The three new SKUs include the Radeon HD 7990, of which we've been hearing for a greater part of this year; the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition, which we knew was taking shape for some time now; and the new Radeon HD 7930.
Launch of the Radeon HD 7990 has been facing quite a few delays. We can't imagine technical hurdles with regard to board design, but the performance yield, and performance-per-Watt figures the SKU will have to produce, to ever make it to the market. The HD 7990 has the tough task of performing within an acceptable range of the GeForce GTX 690, on both these fronts.The Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition will be NVIDIA's bid to compete with the GTX 680, if merely lowering prices won't cut it for the HD 7970. AMD will raise the reference clock speeds for the HD 7970. Lastly, we're hearing of a new SKU, called HD 7930, codenamed "Tahiti LE". This SKU was first spotted when keen observers were poking around with driver information files. It's likely to be a cut-down 28 nm "Tahiti" GPU. It will be interesting to see how AMD prices it, seeing as how it's a tight squeeze between the HD 7870 GHz Edition and HD 7950.
According to a fresh 3DCenter.org report, launch of the HD 7990 is pushed all the way back to August (mid-Summer). The HD 7970 GHz Edition, if real, should be just around the corner, with a June launch predicted. The HD 7930, on the other hand, could be out after June, if the competition gets tough following launch of upper-mainstream NVIDIA SKUs.
Source:
3DCenter.org
Launch of the Radeon HD 7990 has been facing quite a few delays. We can't imagine technical hurdles with regard to board design, but the performance yield, and performance-per-Watt figures the SKU will have to produce, to ever make it to the market. The HD 7990 has the tough task of performing within an acceptable range of the GeForce GTX 690, on both these fronts.The Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition will be NVIDIA's bid to compete with the GTX 680, if merely lowering prices won't cut it for the HD 7970. AMD will raise the reference clock speeds for the HD 7970. Lastly, we're hearing of a new SKU, called HD 7930, codenamed "Tahiti LE". This SKU was first spotted when keen observers were poking around with driver information files. It's likely to be a cut-down 28 nm "Tahiti" GPU. It will be interesting to see how AMD prices it, seeing as how it's a tight squeeze between the HD 7870 GHz Edition and HD 7950.
According to a fresh 3DCenter.org report, launch of the HD 7990 is pushed all the way back to August (mid-Summer). The HD 7970 GHz Edition, if real, should be just around the corner, with a June launch predicted. The HD 7930, on the other hand, could be out after June, if the competition gets tough following launch of upper-mainstream NVIDIA SKUs.
64 Comments on AMD Readies Trio of New Radeon HD 7900 Series SKUs
We've yet to hear about the 650, 660, 660 Ti.
We wont be hearing about Sea Island until the Q4'-Q1'13 so I dont see the time constrant.
7970x2 custom cards=$899 and above
7990 = $799 and above
7970 GHZ edition....=$599 and above
So where is the first gen 7970`s land in price?=$399-$499 ??? and will be EOL after GHZ come out.So 2 of them will be in the same performance section the 7970x2 and 7990........Glad I stayed out of this gen to be honest.
By August the GTX690 will be 4 months in the market so people wanting to buy that kind of card will probably have bought it already. Enthusiasts are not the kind of people that like to wait several months. And it will most probably be slower than the GTX690 and not be made of same quality components, so $200 will not really make a difference.
And if that was not enough, Nvidia can just lower the price to match that of the 7990 because in those 4-5 months until the HD7990 is in good availability 95% of people who wanted the GTX690 will already have it and most likely so will 90% of people wanting to spend that much on a single card, so Nvidia would have already made all the money they wanted from that SKU and would be more than willing to accept some "reduced" profits per card on the remaining.
So what is really the HD7990 going to offer to make the wait worthwhile? I can't think of anything that would move the balance in its favor. August is definitely late for a card like that. Mid-range cards are bought constantly, high-end cards are sold mostly by enthusiasts and early adopters who want the performance lead.
I think as soon as 660ti and 660 launch AMD will be on the true defensive, as those parts will assuredly be both clocked and priced competitively with Pitcairn (7800). As soon as that becomes a less viable cash-cow, which really is all they care about at this point, the obvious choice would be to refresh the lineup with a chip clocked to perform better than a stock 680/670 and reap the rewards.
Also, AMD has launched a upper-mainstream part replacing the former high-end by q4 for several years running. 2900->3800 Nov 15 2007. 4870->4770 was scheduled for 2008 but obviously massively delayed/respun/downclocked a shitload because of 40nm issues. 4800->5700 Oct 2009. 5800->6800 Oct 2010. You can pretty much bet Pitcairn would've launched last year if the production quantity was there. Right now they need a more-efficient Tahiti and the drivers all but confirm that is on the very-soon (within a few months or so) agenda. The longest we've seen chips in drivers has been 4-5 months, and arguably those (Cayman and Tahiti) can be attributed to a supposed last minute respin and/or yields/production ability. 6800, for instance, launched less than two months after it first appeared in drivers (or probably three months from the initial order). September/Oct both make sense, and seems doable considering the size one would expect it to be (similar to gk104).
With a smaller die on the same process, much faster performance is definitely not going to happen and they would expose themselves to Nvidia releasing a 400 mm^2 chip which is more balanced than GK104 on it's resources (look at the GTX670) and as such much faster. Not to mention the GK110.
Although Nvidia with Kepler has followed AMDs lead in not cutting ROPs from 680-670 which it looks to be a double edge sword for them.
Nvidia themselves already established that the GK110 is Tesla only this time around and wont be seen until Q4.
www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=167030
I don't know if the cards used are production ones,but it seems to have the GPU clocked at 1075MHZ.
It supposedly uses low leakage cores and is called Tahiti 2:
semiaccurate.com/2012/06/08/computex-2012-amd-to-launch-tahiti-2-next-week/
semiaccurate.com/2012/06/08/computex-2012-amd-to-launch-tahiti-2-next-week/
AFAIK,it was meant to use the GK106 GPU which was predicted to be around the same size as Pitcairn,but there is no sign of this even in mobile products. Only the GK107 and GK104 seem to be around ATM.
The GK104(294MM2) is around 39% larger than Pitcairn(212MM2),meaning AMD can compete fine with the lower end and midrange cards,even if it is on price,especially if performance is a little lower.
Nvidia says that 28NM wafer pricing is very high this generation:
www.extremetech.com/computing/123529-nvidia-deeply-unhappy-with-tsmc-claims-22nm-essentially-worthless
HD7970 $549
HD7950 $449
HD7870 $349
HD7850 $249
HD7770 $159
HD7750 $109
remeber ON Day Release prices! now its
HD7970 $449
HD7950 $359
HD7870 $319
HD7850 $239
HD7770 $129
HD7750 $109
even if you dont agree with its context... im informing people prices for each model lol this is neweggs lowest price for each model listed
Secondly, the fact that they inflated so much the prices this round and thus my $10-20 comment is no longer anywhere close to accurate, that does not change the fact that I'm right anyway. And I'm not going to thank your post because it lacks half the lineup, probably because it would prove my point. :p
And it's also lacking the HD7930 which is why we are discussing this point in the first place. Include it in the list and things start to look ridiculous even in the high end.
edit: the price differance will be sorted out more when the hd7930 comes out... they expect the hd7930 to be 350 to 370 price range... it doesnt make sense to the current prices so we HAVE to expect a price drop ^^
thats means the HD7870 going from 319 to 279-289 and the 7930 being 319 theres alot of play room in their pricing
edit 2: you need to look at things realistically in the gpu world this generation.. cpus use the $10 price range especially amd cpus.... but i hate amd cpus and dont care for their cpu division but as for gpus.... its not going to happen.
Remember prices drop, less with this tactic I mentioned, but they drop, but SKUs stay. 4 months from now and you'll see my point being fully true. OR far worse and prices will remain the same (well it already happened with HD6000, GTX500 but we can only hope), ironically making my point true also. :laugh: It's happened before: HD4000, HD5000, HD6000. 8800/9800, GTX400, GTX500... and will happen again. This generation they are both just selling shoulda be $300 cards for $500 and so it looks like it's not happening, but IS happening already (HD7930 announced).
My comment was based on Nvidia history based on facts.GTC where the GK110 was officially announced
Can you provide links to your assumptions because I would like to read where you get your information so I can put some substance behind your post rather then just the random speculating any Nvidia fanboy can do on any given forum.
hd6950 $249
hd6870 $169
hd6850 $139
hd6790 $129
hd6770 $114
hd6750 $89
hd6670 $59
hd6570 $54
hd6450 $39
so your still wrong about the high end
back when the 7k series wasnt available there was no sku 10-20 dollars apart... it wont happen with the 7k either until the 8k comes out :P so you are WRONG.
Now the process has been inversed, but it's all the same. Last 2 generations they didn't release a bigger chip because they couldn't. But lol really you can call it speculating :laugh: all you want, but if you are really seriously suggesting that Nvidia won't release a GPU bigger than 294mm^2 in 2 years you are really nuts.