Thursday, August 12th 2010
ATI Radeon HD 6000 Series ''Southern Islands'' Graphics Cards For Sale from November
Come this Winter, and things will heat up once again in the graphics card industry, with GPU vendors battling it out for the crucial Holidays shopping season. While AMD did not introduce any new GPUs after completing its ATI Radeon HD 5000 series launch itinerary, it did manage to grab significant amount of sales from its graphics rival NVIDIA. For this Winter, AMD and its partners will be in a position to launch the ATI Radeon HD 6000 series graphics processors, according to DigiTimes, citing sources from graphics card vendors.
It is also said that the Radeon HD 6000 series, codenamed "Southern Islands" (members of which are codenamed after islands in the Mediterranean Sea), will be built on TSMC's 40 nm manufacturing process. AMD had originally planned to build Southern Islands on TSMC's 32 nm process, but with the foundry skipping 32 nm bulk for 28 nm which will start operations only by the end of the year, AMD redrew its plans and stuck to the now-mature (stable) 40 nm process. Perhaps AMD learned a thing or two from a wide range of teething problems that plagued the 40 nm production line.
Source:
DigiTimes
It is also said that the Radeon HD 6000 series, codenamed "Southern Islands" (members of which are codenamed after islands in the Mediterranean Sea), will be built on TSMC's 40 nm manufacturing process. AMD had originally planned to build Southern Islands on TSMC's 32 nm process, but with the foundry skipping 32 nm bulk for 28 nm which will start operations only by the end of the year, AMD redrew its plans and stuck to the now-mature (stable) 40 nm process. Perhaps AMD learned a thing or two from a wide range of teething problems that plagued the 40 nm production line.
137 Comments on ATI Radeon HD 6000 Series ''Southern Islands'' Graphics Cards For Sale from November
And for all those praising the GTX 460 (undoubtedly good as it is) it's 8 months since the 5 series appeared so really it's come to the party far too late.
another intresting thing is 6k may be close but if a 5850 still hovers at $50 OVER msrp at $259 whats the 6850 gonna cost lol makes you wonder just a little bit dosent it
i considered two 5850s but the price didnt look good next to 2 460s.
btw the cheapest 5850 is $285 according to newegg.
I'm looking forward to 6 series reviews when they arrive in a few months. Not looking to buy but interested in efficiency and acoustics again. I'm a noise nazi thats why i like my 5850's so much.
All im saying is that instead of people picking on the little trivial things(that most fanboys are know for doing), we should be looking at the core performance an what it offers overall.
But i do see what you're saying.:)
Gotta remember though, the 5850 at launch sold for only £0-15 more than the 460 does now. And a 5850 overclocked comes close to a 5870. And two 5850's also kick a gtx 480 in the ass.
But i think the point still stands, going on price alone right now, the 460 is the attractive option - no arguments there :)
(But if 5 series prices drop 10%..... ooohhhhhh!)
That all said, product series usually launch from the top-end down. There's been mumblings elsewhere the high-end is launching first, and of course we have that quote from the HIS guy about reference products launching Q4 with AIB-designs in Q111, which is a hint at weak initial availability.
Elsewhere people have claimed the second tape-out was sent to the fab in mid-to-late July, which with the 3-month avg turn-around rate would mean a launch in October/Nov with scarce availability, which again meshes with this report. Furthermore, if the SI series was designed like Cypress/Juniper, or perhaps even more coordinated (if half of Cayman is Barts, half of Barts is Turks) then a bug in the design (which the rumored second tape-out would infer) could delay the whole series. It's possible that had the first tape-out had been a success, the series' launch would have been staggered in such a way as that road map suggests, but now they are launching closer together.
It's also possible the ridiculously low pricing from nVIDIA caused them to rethink their strategy going into the Holiday season; launching with lower availability (or paper launches as this articles infers) on the higher-end parts. If they offer more performance per mm than Evergreen, this would make sense more than ONLY slashing prices on the 5000 series and riding it out until early next year.
-moves on- :wtf:
I can understand if people were coming into this thread to troll and bash the company for no apparent reason, but im not seeing any of that.
Thanks! :)
Any body know of leaked pictures yet?
Im sure Wizard cant wait to review this next line from Ati
10% at the very least under the most demanding software, and like E said no less then 20%
I like that statement better :toast:
But time will tell the full story, I just hope they get there shit together with drivers this time around. :pimp:
What I am hoping for is some kind of new feature. Something that will make tessellation useful or maybe some kind of dedicated physics processor.
Because honestly all we get are crappy console ports. We don't need more "power". We need features.