Wednesday, December 21st 2011
Cost-Effective Radeon HD 7900 PCB Already In The Works
A little earlier today, we showed you pictures of AMD's first Radeon HD 7900 series single-GPU PCB that makes use of digital-PWM power delivery. Some of the first batches of Radeon HD 7900 graphics cards will stick to that PCB and board design, as it's backed by AMD's engineering. Even as the SKU's launch is less than 24 hours away, there are pictures of AMD's cost-effective Radeon HD 7900 PCB surfacing on Asian media sites. Once ready, AMD add-in board partners can opt for this cost-effective PCB if they want to fine-tune their prices. It looks like AMD is ready well ahead to face competition from NVIDIA, with its GeForce Kepler 104 (GK104) GPU.
The cost-effective PCB, without any components laid, is pictured below. The first picture shows its obverse side, the second, its reverse side. The PCB is completely up to speed with everything Tahiti GPU will need. It has provision for two 8-pin PCIe power inputs, an 8+2 phase cost-effective analog VRM, probably driven by a cost-effective CHIL controller, and a different display output connector loadout. It has provision for two DVI, and one each of HDMI and full-size DisplayPort. Partners can still use a single DVI connector, and keep their cards single-slot capable. Provisions for 12 GDDR5 chips are right where they should be. There is nothing eventful in the reverse side, just traces for all the supportive components.
Sources:
Weibo.com, Expreview
The cost-effective PCB, without any components laid, is pictured below. The first picture shows its obverse side, the second, its reverse side. The PCB is completely up to speed with everything Tahiti GPU will need. It has provision for two 8-pin PCIe power inputs, an 8+2 phase cost-effective analog VRM, probably driven by a cost-effective CHIL controller, and a different display output connector loadout. It has provision for two DVI, and one each of HDMI and full-size DisplayPort. Partners can still use a single DVI connector, and keep their cards single-slot capable. Provisions for 12 GDDR5 chips are right where they should be. There is nothing eventful in the reverse side, just traces for all the supportive components.
29 Comments on Cost-Effective Radeon HD 7900 PCB Already In The Works
Ans: It's a spacer for the production line. They remove it after the assembly and QA are over. Your graphics card will have marks of its spacer if you look closely.
/kiss
This right here means board partners can have 1 or 2 dvi connectors and the rest HDMI/Display port, some boards will definitly be single slot and others will be dual slot
I think I've read that 7970 will all be stock while on 7950 AMD has given freedom to partners to clock / design cards as they want
Reason I ask is because Western Digital along with its competition both have greatly reduced warranty for their hard drives due to the fact they are breaking down more often now. I find this counterproductive; if you are not capable of backing up your products, then get the hell out of dodge. HD 7900 series better have at least 3 years of warranty, better yet lifetime.