# AMD "Tahiti LE" Brand Named Radeon HD 7890



## btarunr (Nov 8, 2012)

A little earlier this week, it was reported that AMD is working on a new Radeon HD 7800 series graphics card based on the company's 28 nm "Tahiti" silicon. According to a new report, the so-called "Tahiti LE" SKU has been brand named Radeon HD 7890. Although clock speeds, core and memory configurations are still under the wraps, the new SKU, according to the report, is being designed to be 15% faster than GeForce GTX 660 on average, while being similarly priced. AMD is gunning for the crucial X'mas shopping season, when apparently, a few cool people gift high-performance graphics cards.





*View at TechPowerUp Main Site*


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## Melvis (Nov 8, 2012)

15% faster then the GTX 660? but the 7870 is on par now (12.11 drivers) with the GTX 660 Ti so how much faster is this 7890 over the GTX 660 Ti is the real question?

Also price, i can now pick up a 7870 for as low as $220 so this should be what? $250? AUS $$$


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## Nordic (Nov 8, 2012)

and there it is. We all knew it would be a 7890. I personally think it should be a 7930 because it is tahiti


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## EzioAs (Nov 8, 2012)

A weird release as the 7870 and 7950 are close enough as it is


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## manofthem (Nov 8, 2012)

james888 said:


> and there it is. We all knew it would be a 7890. I personally think it should be a 7930 because it is tahiti



maybe they figured that 7890 sounds better/stronger than 7930, I think so at least


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## ViperXTR (Nov 8, 2012)

bring the GTX 660 prices down! D:


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## okidna (Nov 8, 2012)

Melvis said:


> 15% faster then the GTX 660? but *the 7870 is on par now (12.11 drivers) with the GTX 660 Ti* so how much faster is this 7890 over the GTX 660 Ti is the real question?
> 
> Also price, i can now pick up a 7870 for as low as $220 so this should be what? $250? AUS $$$



Errrm.. not "on par" according to W1zzard review : http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/Catalyst_12.11_Performance/23.html

Trailing 8% @ 1200p, 5% @ 1600p, and 8% @ relative performance.


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## Delta6326 (Nov 8, 2012)

... so this will have old 7950 performance then?


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## Deadlyraver (Nov 8, 2012)

Dual core?


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## a111087 (Nov 8, 2012)

btarunr said:


> AMD is gunning for the crucial X'mas shopping season, when apparently, a few cool people gift high-performance graphics cards.



i think they are aiming at people who gift gifts to themselves


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## btarunr (Nov 8, 2012)

a111087 said:


> i think they are aiming at people who gift gifts to themselves



I was waiting for someone to say that.


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## Melvis (Nov 8, 2012)

okidna said:


> Errrm.. not "on par" according to W1zzard review : http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/Catalyst_12.11_Performance/23.html
> 
> Trailing 8% @ 1200p, 5% @ 1600p, and 8% @ relative performance.



Who cares about over all % if its over 10% then ill listen, if its under its just not worth the extra $100 for that few %.

If you look at each gaming benchmark to see the difference in FPS its like 3-5 frames at most, that's nothing, in my eyes thats on par and for $100 less its WAY better then a GTX 660 Ti (and I was considering a 660 Ti as my next upgrade)


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## dj-electric (Nov 8, 2012)

The defferance between HD7870 and HD7950 is so small in performance and price, that if HD7890 well be released, it's either HD7870 or HD7950 that gonna simply die and won't sell as much


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## Novulux (Nov 8, 2012)

Here's a guess: 
It's named HD 7890 in order to avoid bundling it with all the games that come with the HD 7900 series.

The larger bundle would probably be the only factor making the HD 7950 more appealing.


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## eidairaman1 (Nov 8, 2012)

just to meet market positions, NV does the same so I dont see why everyone is bitching about it.


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## okidna (Nov 8, 2012)

Melvis said:


> Who cares about over all % if its over 10% then ill listen, if its under its just not worth the extra $100 for that few %.



Radeon fans seems to care when their cards can beat NVIDIA cards with similar amount/close percentage (i.e. 7970 Ghz vs GTX 680, 7950 vs GTX 670 with this 12.11 drivers) 

Well, I guess double standard FTW!!!


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## eidairaman1 (Nov 8, 2012)

okidna said:


> Radeon fans seems to care when their cards can beat NVIDIA cards with similar amount/close percentage (i.e. 7970 Ghz vs GTX 680, 7950 vs GTX 670 with this 12.11 drivers)
> 
> Well, I guess double standard FTW!!!



well youre the same way so whats the problem?

Just remember the same company who makes the Radeon Video Cards makes your CPU.


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## okidna (Nov 8, 2012)

eidairaman1 said:


> Just remember the same company who makes the Video Cards makes your CPU.



As a matter of fact, I don't care 

Owning CPU or GPU made by X company does not mean I can't say "not so good" things about them 

Just to be fair let me say a bad things about NVIDIA : their new driver (310.33 BETA) suuuuucks for me, crashing on NFSMW and Borderlands 2 (again).


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## eidairaman1 (Nov 8, 2012)

okidna said:


> As a matter of fact, I don't care
> 
> Owning CPU made by X company does not mean I can't say "not so good" things about them



so that means you dont care about your 560TI then?


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## Melvis (Nov 8, 2012)

okidna said:


> Radeon fans seems to care when their cards can beat NVIDIA cards with similar amount/close percentage (i.e. 7970 Ghz vs GTX 680, 7950 vs GTX 670 with this 12.11 drivers)
> 
> Well, I guess double standard FTW!!!



Not me, it all comes down to Price/performance, and i own more Nvidia based computers then i do AMD so im no fan of either company. 

When the GTX 660 Ti came out i was going to get two, i had my heart on that from the day i saw the benchmarks, yes the cost at the time was a little more then the 7870 but the price/performance was good enough for me to get the GTX 660 Ti. BUT then AMD dropped the prices on all the HD 7*** series and put out those new drivers I completely changed my mind as the 7870 was the better choice. Glad I waited to be honest.

Thats just how it happened


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## okidna (Nov 8, 2012)

eidairaman1 said:


> so that means you dont care about your 560TI then?



You can say it that way  Although the fact that my last 2 Radeon cards (5770 and 5850) burnt and dead made me a bit traumatic LOL. 

But hey, brand A, brand B, what's the big deal? As long as it works and keep making money (I work with my PC, FYI).



Melvis said:


> Not me, it all comes down to Price/performance, and i own more Nvidia based computers then i do AMD so im no fan of either company.
> 
> When the GTX 660 Ti came out i was going to get two, i had my heart on that from the day i saw the benchmarks, yes the cost at the time was a little more then the 7870 but the price/performance was good enough for me to get the GTX 660 Ti. BUT then AMD dropped the prices on all the HD 7*** series and put out those new drivers I completely changed my mind as the 7870 was the better choice. Glad I waited to be honest.
> 
> Thats just how it happened



Well, good for you then. Patience is a virtue, my friend


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## eidairaman1 (Nov 8, 2012)

okidna said:


> You can say it that way  Although the fact that my last 2 Radeon cards (5770 and 5850) burnt and dead make me a bit traumatic LOL.
> 
> But hey, brand A, brand B, what's the big deal? As long as it works and keep making money (I work with my PC, FYI).



Did you buy them online or from a retailer because Living where you are im sure quality parts are hard to get.

Ive had owned an Asus mobo in past and worked/replaced several for new customers in the past, I dont blame the chip maker but the board maker itself.

There is a user here who owns a 590 and one of the GPUs burned up, he was trying to figure out how to disable SLI on it but there is no way to do so, when a single GPU burns up on a board like that, expect the working unit to die along with the rest of the PCB


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## okidna (Nov 8, 2012)

eidairaman1 said:


> Did you buy them online or from a retailer because Living where you are im sure quality parts are hard to get.



I bought it from a retailer. 

Hey, don't be mean LOL. 
It's EASY to get a quality parts here. Seriously, you can order GTX 690 or 7970 in the morning and paid it in the afternoon. 
Here's one example retailer in my country GPU inventory : http://www.enterkomputer.com/vga.php, or this PSU inventory : http://www.enterkomputer.com/psu.php. 
Not so bad, huh? LOL  

The main problem, though, is always the price. All of you in US, EU, or Australia always talks about rebate and price cuts. Well, in my country you have to wait for a long time before the price cuts applies.


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## eidairaman1 (Nov 8, 2012)

okidna said:


> I bought it from a retailer.
> 
> Hey, don't be mean LOL.
> It's EASY to get a quality part here. Seriously, you can order GTX 690 or 7970 in the morning and paid it in the afternoon.
> ...



Im not being mean im being honest, I was in Korea and funny enough couldnt get any quality pc parts. When a New product releases its always high on the price- i just know certain countries have tariffs on import parts etc. I heard AUS is pretty slow to get parts in too for retailers. Also it would appear that the retailers dont do price cuts even though the chip makers give an order to slash the prices.


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## alwayssts (Nov 8, 2012)

Delta6326 said:


> ... so this will have old 7950 performance then?
> 
> http://img.techpowerup.org/121108/Capture1024.jpg




I think the purpose is clearly to have a product that performs as well or slightly better stock/overclocked at 1080p than 660ti in the 660 price bracket.  I also think (as I've said before) this is the place 8850 will sit.  The dead obvious spec they need to hit for efficiency/price is 1536sp, 925/5000 and 256-bit, but I believe 660ti was given >150w because they knew amd was going to beat them (with 7870 over 150w and slightly less efficient...8850 under it and more efficient) hence 660ti was carved out to slightly exceed that performance level.  A make-shift 7870, if you will, based on a more efficient spec because of the greater resources of gk104, perhaps also influenced by hiking the tdp allowances and placement of 670/680 early on.  Point is, this will probably be some take on that carved out of Tahiti and ~185w (just like 660ti)...and we really don't need it.  Tahiti was not built for where 1536sp fits.  If it's a high-speed product, it needs 6gbps and 256-bit.  If it is a power-efficient product, it needs 5gbps/256-bit.

Consider the bw matching/separation game more closely.  7870 needs 4500mhz on a 256-bit bus (hence why you see a lot of 1200/5400 overclocks, given the max 170w tdp one would imagine it was engineered with that realistic overclock in mind).  Original 7950 needs 5040mhz on a 256-bit bus at stock...a bad overlap...but the boost version that replaced it (stock 'up to 925mhz boost'...which essentially equates to a 7870 at 1295mhz) would need over 5800mhz at 256-bit.  Note the hard locks at 5800mhz for the 7800 series and how 1295mhz/5800 is not exactly common for the process or 5gbps-rated ram, so 7950 boost actually does what the original does not...create market separation within their own stack.  This is how products are made these days...A convoluted mathematical nightmare...but even slight mismatching of resources within a price bracket is the difference between an appealing and unappealing all-around product. 

I can't help but wonder if this will exist in-part so amd can stop cutting the 7950 price.  Since 660ti core efficiency and tdp sits directly between 7870 and 7950, up until now the larger and stronger 7950 has been going almost buck-for-buck with 660ti. Considering gk104 is smaller/less expensive to produce, and both 7870/7950 are probably dangerously close currently to the price they want to launch 8800 series...it would make sense to try to force something into that spot so the next series has at least a little shine on it.

Best amd could do, imho, is give it 384-bit/5gbps and 1.5gb.  That should temper the tdp allocation for the ram some-what, and the core could clock to use some of that bw if allowed to scale.  In theory, they could stock clock it up to ~1025mhz stock, which would for all intents and purposes be similar-to-faster than 660ti, and would react similar to 2GB buffer without being memory/bw bound.


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## okidna (Nov 8, 2012)

eidairaman1 said:


> Im not being mean im being honest, I was in Korea and funny enough couldnt get any quality pc parts. When a New product releases its always high on the price- i just know certain countries have tariffs on import parts etc. I heard AUS is pretty slow to get parts in too for retailers. Also it would appear that the retailers dont do price cuts even though the chip makers give an order to slash the prices.



Hey.. I'm just kidding 

That's exactly what happened in my country. New stuff is coming early (you can even pre-order) but always high on the price and you must wait for a long time for a price cuts. 

Hopefully the price cuts will come here ASAP, it will be good if it happens before Mayan's doomsday. LOL. 
*
On topic :* mid-November release date according to 3dcenter : http://www.3dcenter.org/news/tahiti-basierte-radeon-hd-7890-soll-schon-mitte-november-antreten


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## lossviva (Nov 8, 2012)

It is more likely to be HD 7930.
Maybe 10% faster than HD7870？


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## eidairaman1 (Nov 8, 2012)

okidna said:


> Hey.. I'm just kidding
> 
> That's exactly what happened in my country. New stuff is coming early (you can even pre-order) but always high on the price and you must wait for a long time for a price cuts.
> 
> ...



Good news for a Toy ( Looks like its meant to be played with- with proper tools and backup/recovery options).

Btw ill be 28 that day, i honestly doubt thats anything honestly lol


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## refillable (Nov 8, 2012)

eidairaman1 said:


> Im not being mean im being honest, I was in Korea and funny enough couldnt get any quality pc parts. When a New product releases its always high on the price- i just know certain countries have tariffs on import parts etc. I heard AUS is pretty slow to get parts in too for retailers. Also it would appear that the retailers dont do price cuts even though the chip makers give an order to slash the prices.


Not long ago I got this
LG E2242T-BN Black 21.5" 5ms Widescreen LED-Backli...
for ~$150


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## eidairaman1 (Nov 8, 2012)

refillable said:


> Not long ago I got this
> LG E2242T-BN Black 21.5" 5ms Widescreen LED-Backli...
> for ~$150



only 3 reviews and it was discontinued. I Remember My NEC Multisync LCD 1700V costing twice that, Still runs perfectly today.


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## Widjaja (Nov 8, 2012)

a111087 said:


> i think they are aiming at people who gift gifts to themselves



Best gifts because they are always exactly what you wanted


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## refillable (Nov 8, 2012)

eidairaman1 said:


> only 3 reviews and it was discontinued. I Remember My NEC Multisync LCD 1700V costing twice that, Still runs perfectly today.



No, It's kinda cheap and It runs perfectly fine today. And it isn't from newegg, it is just from a local store .


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## 1d10t (Nov 8, 2012)

okidna said:


> Here's one example retailer in my country GPU inventory : http://www.enterkomputer.com/vga.php, or this PSU inventory : http://www.enterkomputer.com/psu.php.
> Not so bad, huh? LOL
> 
> The main problem, though, is always the price. All of you in US, EU, or Australia always talks about rebate and price cuts. Well, in my country you have to wait for a long time before the price cuts applies.



now "enter" just like their rival,vira,tagged prices so low yet nothing in the shelf  



okidna said:


> Hey.. I'm just kidding
> 
> That's exactly what happened in my country. New stuff is coming early (you can even pre-order) but always high on the price and you must wait for a long time for a price cuts.
> 
> Hopefully the price cuts will come here ASAP, it will be good if it happens before Mayan's doomsday. LOL.



They charge a steep price away from MSRP,why reducing a price if still sell like pancake  

OT:Great AMD,now i have to reconsider about my future 7870 GHz edition :shadedshu


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## eidairaman1 (Nov 8, 2012)

1d10t said:


> now "enter" just like their rival,vira,tagged prices so low yet nothing in the shelf
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Eh why not just go with a 7950 then


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## 1d10t (Nov 8, 2012)

eidairaman1 said:


> Eh why not just go with a 7950 then



2 of 7950 would be an overkill for single display 1080p 
from current setups,which is 2 7850,still not "enough" to my current display panel.i'm just need little juice to maintain frame rate above 60fps while turning all feature on,so my panel could convert them to 200Hz 3D correctly.
Besides that,i had to savings...my fiancée demand FirePro V5800 for christmas


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## refillable (Nov 8, 2012)

okidna said:


> Radeon fans seems to care when their cards can beat NVIDIA cards with similar amount/close percentage (i.e. 7970 Ghz vs GTX 680, 7950 vs GTX 670 with this 12.11 drivers)
> 
> Well, I guess double standard FTW!!!



Hey remember 7870 vs 660 Ti is like $70 difference! So 10% Difference is not important. 7970 GHz and 680 and 7950 vs 670, they're both the same or cheaper. So this case, any percentage of performance does matter.


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## eidairaman1 (Nov 8, 2012)

1d10t said:


> 2 of 7950 would be an overkill for single display 1080p
> from current setups,which is 2 7850,still not "enough" to my current display panel.i'm just need little juice to maintain frame rate above 60fps while turning all feature on,so my panel could convert them to 200Hz 3D correctly.
> Besides that,i had to savings...my fiancée demand FirePro V5800 for christmas



iirc certain model Radeons are the exact same as the FirePro and vice versa, wonder if any bios mods have ever been done before lol


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## SIGSEGV (Nov 8, 2012)

Dj-ElectriC said:


> The defferance between HD7870 and HD7950 is so small in performance and price, that if HD7890 well be released, it's either HD7870 or HD7950 that gonna simply die and won't sell as much



Imho, either HD7870 or HD7950 won't die and still will sell much, you should read once again regarding this article that this card has LE emblem which mean Limited Edition 



1d10t said:


> now "enter" just like their rival,vira,tagged prices so low yet nothing in the shelf
> 
> 
> 
> ...



exactly, they should thanks to many rich people in Indonesia who constantly upgrade their peripheral and making most of graphic cards price remain constant since its released. 

so, you wanna sell your HD7870 cards ? 

i will wait on how this card will performs, it's interesting. They're offering a nice package (price per performance) but one thing that i don't like from this card is being limited


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## Casecutter (Nov 8, 2012)

Like when 6*7*90’s came out… those were a good buy for 90 –AR; which is what some went for quite quickly.  AMD targeted the GTS550Ti or outgoing GTX460 768Mb, and on that they competed very well. Working from a cut-back Bart that were $30-40 less than a 6850, but still got a all that and then an OC of 12% (950Mhz) were great for 1680x.

I see this the same way, AMD can price aggressively at say $230-240 –AR, (GTX660Ti are like $270 –AR today) you get a 384-Bit card that easily offers strong 1980x/1080p performance.  Still also permits AMD to shore-up both the 7870 and 7950 that offer the bundles.

Does it need to be 10% better than a 7870... No you get it and OC it!  It just need to better the 7870, while provide more SP’s and bandwidth increasing its "hp" for what's the new mainstream resolutions.  While that means Nvidia offers a 192-Bit 2GB card which provides 144Gb/s bandwidth (which to me is barely eke’n by) vs. probably 240 Gb/s of such a Tahiti.

I might start scrounging up some pocket change in anticipation.


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## ShiBDiB (Nov 8, 2012)

Can we please for the love of god come up with a less complicated numbered/naming system


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## Pehla (Nov 8, 2012)

i have read somewhere they could be litle bit cheaper then 7870..,becouse manufacturing is cheaper!! i wish i can remember where i read that!!all doh i would still wait for 8xxx series couse they will give more power for less money!!


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## Cortex (Nov 8, 2012)

*7890*

This will probably have 

1536SP
96TMU (3/4 of 128)
32ROP
1000MHz clock
FP64 1/4 FP32 (hopefully)
2GB 256bit GDDR5 @1500MHz (192GB/s)


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## Hilux SSRG (Nov 8, 2012)

I was interested when the rumors were flying in March of a 7890 but I couldn't wait so I picked up a gtx670 instead this summer.


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## Norton (Nov 8, 2012)

Crossfire issue?

Don't know if this came up yet but if this card is a Tahiti LE (79xx gpu) and called a 7890... what can you run with it in Crossfire?

- just another 7890 (or two)?
- 7850/7870?
- 7950/7970?
- nothing- no Crossfire support?

Seems this new naming scheme is going to be a problem :shadedshu


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## eidairaman1 (Nov 9, 2012)

Norton said:


> Crossfire issue?
> 
> Don't know if this came up yet but if this card is a Tahiti LE (79xx gpu) and called a 7890... what can you run with it in Crossfire?
> 
> ...



im assuming it will be relegated to being 7800 series compatible.


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## SIGSEGV (Nov 9, 2012)

eidairaman1 said:


> im assuming it will be relegated to being 7800 series compatible.



i suppose it would be compatible with 7900 series as this card is using tahiti chip


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## tacosRcool (Nov 9, 2012)

I think that these gaps are way too small to put another product in them. It would undercut some of the sales of the higher performance and lower performance cards around that gap


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## Rei86 (Nov 9, 2012)

You know with the 78XX moniker and not the 79XX, the price of this card is gonna undercut the 7950 and end up cannibalizing the 7950.  

And we all know people who end up buying mid~high range video card are enthusiast like us who actually does a bit of research before purchasing. 

Must be that the process has gotten cheaper for AMD and is a way for them to stop production the 7950 soon after the 8000 series is out.


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## EarthDog (Nov 9, 2012)

^^ or........... like the (another)article said its chips that couldnt quite cut it as a 7950 so they made this card instead? ^^



eidairaman1 said:


> im assuming it will be relegated to being 7800 series compatible.


AMD is different than Nvidia of course, but last I recall the odd 560ti 448 core you could only SLI with another 448c. Again, AMD is different and you can Crossfire similiar families. At worst CrossfireX with itself. At best, both 78xx and 79xx series.


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## Widjaja (Nov 9, 2012)

tacosRcool said:


> I think that these gaps are way too small to put another product in them. It would undercut some of the sales of the higher performance and lower performance cards around that gap



Definitely too small of a gap.
I think this is more of a case of excess materials possibly materials which were supposed to be used for the GPU which was never released.
So AMD have decided to put the materials towards creating the 7890 instead of the GPU which was supposed to compete with the GTX690.


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## Rei86 (Nov 9, 2012)

EarthDog said:


> ^^ or........... like the (another)article said its chips that couldnt quite cut it as a 7950 so they made this card instead? ^^



Which could mean end of life is happening as we know it!


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## brandonwh64 (Nov 9, 2012)

If this is a just a shader drop but with the same die and 7950 then maybe more unlocking action?


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## ice_v (Nov 9, 2012)

Man I just sold my 560ti TFII OC card, and I was just finishing deciding between a MSI 7870 Hawk and a Gigabyte OC 660ti, with clear intention towards the last one, when I come across this news. I'm like...


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## eidairaman1 (Nov 9, 2012)

EarthDog said:


> ^^ or........... like the (another)article said its chips that couldnt quite cut it as a 7950 so they made this card instead? ^^
> 
> AMD is different than Nvidia of course, but last I recall the odd 560ti 448 core you could only SLI with another 448c. Again, AMD is different and you can Crossfire similiar families. At worst CrossfireX with itself. At best, both 78xx and 79xx series.



I just follow the Charts, its hopefully possible to xfire between the 7900 and 7800 series then with this card.


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## EarthDog (Nov 10, 2012)

So it looks like this chart (please post! I dont know a lot about AMD GPU's really!) blesses my 'at best' scenario.. excellent!


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## DieselSS (Nov 11, 2012)

I think I'll just wait on the 8000 series. I want a pair of HD8870s.


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