Sunday, February 10th 2013

No New GPUs from AMD for the Bulk of 2013

AMD's product manager for desktop graphics products Devon Nekechuk, in an interview with Japanese publication 4Gamer.net, revealed that his firm won't be launching any new Radeon GPUs in 2013, and that the company would instead play out the year on its current Radeon HD 7000 series' performance, with price adjustments and possible performance increments through driver updates. In a slide released to 4Gamers.net, AMD pointed that its Radeon HD 7900 series (high-end), HD 7800 series (performance), and HD 7700 series (mainstream), will carry on the company's mantle "throughout 2013."

This announcement is indication that GPU makers have decided to slow things down from the streak of rapid new GPU launches that lasted from some time around 2007, running up to 2012, which can be heavily taxing in terms of R&D costs for either companies. We know for sure that NVIDIA is clearing its backlog of consumer GPU development by releasing the GeForce GTX "Titan" graphics card in a couple of weeks' time, and we know from older reports that NVIDIA could launch a "refreshed" GeForce Kepler lineup, that largely retains the GeForce Kepler silicon while topping up with subtle changes (clock speeds, software features that don't involve redesigning the silicon, etc.,) but AMD coming out in the open with this announcement could change everything. NVIDIA has the opportunity to save a few coins by sticking to its current lineup (plus the upcoming GTX "Titan,") and responding to competition from AMD by price-adjustments and timely driver optimizations of its own.
Source: 4Gamer.net
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233 Comments on No New GPUs from AMD for the Bulk of 2013

#76
erocker
*
I wonder if we'll see a beefed up 7970? 7990 could be a name that works since AMD never officially released one. They did this before with the 4870->4890.
Posted on Reply
#77
HumanSmoke
erockerI wonder if we'll see a beefed up 7970? 7990 could be a name that works since AMD never officially released one. They did this before with the 4870->4890.
Would seem likely. My earlier post was only partly facetious, and I'd assume that the 28nm process would become more refined as it matures. Wouldn't surprise if AMD gained some headroom with voltage from a revision, which would translate to either low power envelope, or more likely, more headroom for clocking- especially if AMD implement a form of dynamic boost to take full advantage of the hardware (both low-power states and Powertune +20 for example).

Not sure about the HD 7990 nomenclature though. If AMD are rebranding the HD 7970 to HD 8970 (OEM), then maybe HD 8990 might be an option, with HD 8980 for a similarly revised HD 7950.
Posted on Reply
#78
atikkur
i'm waiting for kepler refresh with 384memory bus width and other hardware optimizations for lower or the same price. as ussualy nvidia refreshes, better performance and lower price. i'm holding back this gen for hardware refreshes or new architecture.
Posted on Reply
#79
[H]@RD5TUFF
Too bad, was hoping AMD would respond to titan, and cause a price war.
Posted on Reply
#80
Nordic
How much more could amd buff a 7970 without being obscene? If they make a card with 300tpd compared with the 7970's 250, it could not be that much of a buff even with refinements. Could it?
Posted on Reply
#81
Rahmat Sofyan
AMD don't care about the Titan, because they've owned PS4 and XBOX 720 project.

and for that reason, nVidia moaning and this is the result geforce Titan...hahaha just happy as regular user, new product price war whatever...

AMD may said, we are Spartan!!!
Posted on Reply
#83
Nordic
Mr. FoxThey are real close overall in terms of FPS. But, you're comparing the GHz Edition, which packs a greater punch than the average 7970.
4% in favor of the 680 if useing the non ghz 7970... still a 7970. 4% is practically nothing.
Posted on Reply
#84
qubit
Overclocked quantum bit
AMD must be mad not to compete with NVIDIA's Titan. :shadedshu Graphics cards are the one area where they remain competitive and profitable, so why are they throwing this advantage away?

At this rate I can see AMD disappearing within 5 years or so.
Posted on Reply
#85
Unregistered
I think this is good...Take the time to make a decent card that plays all these ports even better...LOL

I am actually happy with this decision by AMD...nothing like buying a $300 high~end video card to watch a mid level card come out 6 months later that dominates it with a $200 price tag...

Personally I'd like to see an 18-24 month cycle with better improvements with drivers then see yearly product line releases with the older lines being abandoned before their drivers are mature.
Posted on Edit | Reply
#86
Mr. Fox
james8884% in favor of the 680 if useing the non ghz 7970... still a 7970. 4% is practically nothing.
I agree, and the additional features, not to mention better driver support, with NVIDIA more than make up for that. In the mobile segment, 680M pretty much owns 7970M in everything other than compute function.
Posted on Reply
#87
Nordic
Mr. Foxcompute function
Why I got a 7970
Posted on Reply
#88
Mr. Fox
james888Why I got a 7970
I went through 4 7970M and had too many functionality problems with them. The AMD mobile GPU is not nearly as good and stable a product as the desktop 7970. Finally got fed up and traded them for a pair of GTX 680M and couldn't be happier. Although, I do wish they had the same compute performance that Fermi did, I don't really need that for the way I use my system (exclusively gaming and overclocked benching).

I agree with some of the thoughts here about having the latest and greatest rendered obsolete and getting more mileage out of having the current best that red and green have to offer. But, I kind of hate to see either one of them slacking off the pursuit of more performance. Having the two companies constantly pushing and trying to outdo one another is really a great thing for consumers regardless of brand preference.
Posted on Reply
#89
Widjaja
These guys are so uncertain of what they are going to be doing.
Will be releasing 8xxx series Q2...then Q4....oh hold on lets make it next year.

What I think they should be working on is their console side and the drivers for their PC side.
Posted on Reply
#90
Mr. Fox
WidjajaThese guys are so uncertain of what they are going to be doing.
Will be releasing 8xxx series Q2...then Q4....oh hold on lets make it next year.

What I think they should be working on is their console side and the drivers for their PC side.
AMD making consistently excellent drivers over the course of this year would be a better use of their time than making a new GPU. The 13.X Catalysts are a major improvement over the previous, but it took them way too long to release good quality drivers for the 7XXX series.
Posted on Reply
#91
15th Warlock
What I think is, as mentioned by others, AMD will finally release the official 7990, which in theory would still be fast enough to beat a single Titan card, they can price it close to what nVidia will charge for Titan and still proclaim to have the fastest card available.

Crossfire scaling, in games that are properly supported by the driver, is close to 90%, and seeing the prices of 7970 cards lately, AMD could afford to price this card very competitively and still make a good profit.

This card would carry AMD through the rest of 2013 and allow them enough R&D time to effectively counter whatever the green team releases after Kepler.
Posted on Reply
#92
tastegw
KashunatoRI don't know why everyone is so sure Titan is a single gpu card...
prolly cause if the titan was a dual gpu card featuring 2 of the telsa chips, 85-115% performance of the 690 would be a joke on the low side.

why go through all that trouble with a dual gpu card from the pro cards when you can just slap 2 of the the 600 series together like the 690

im sure it would be much easier and cheaper to slap two 660ti's together than it would be 2 K20 chips.
Posted on Reply
#93
xenocide
tastegwwhy go through all that trouble with a dual gpu card from the pro cards when you can just slap 2 of the the 600 series together like the 690.
The 690 was hardly slapped together. Nvidia actually put quite a bit of work into engineering that thing to be a beautiful well crafted card.
Posted on Reply
#95
BigMack70
HumanSmokeFirstly, as has been mentioned...it's WCCF :laugh:
Secondly, seems strange that the Titan is being attributed the exact same clocks as the GTX 690
Thirdly, online (r)etail have a history of gouging on price ( €700 for a HD 7970 for example)
Fourthly, 512MB bus width? really? So Nvidia disabled two 64-bit controllers for a Tesla card where bandwidth is paramount, yet will enable them for a consumer card that likely would benefit less from the increased bandwidth in gaming. OK.
This is why I said it's a "somewhat interesting" update... it's worth a read but I never meant to suggest more than that.
Posted on Reply
#96
erocker
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qubitAMD must be mad not to compete with NVIDIA's Titan. :shadedshu Graphics cards are the one area where they remain competitive and profitable, so why are they throwing this advantage away?

At this rate I can see AMD disappearing within 5 years or so.
Wait... Who said they weren't? Titan is not the 7XX series afaik.
Posted on Reply
#97
GC_PaNzerFIN
erockerWait... Who said they weren't? Titan is not the 7XX series afaik.
It is codenamed to be different gen than GK104. Unless you are claiming they will never release anything else but the top model with that chip and throw away all not too well working chips I can't see how this would be any different. Sure, price is this time higher but well competition has moved to play with consoles so...
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#98
erocker
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It's one card. :ohwell:
Posted on Reply
#99
GC_PaNzerFIN
erockerIt's one card. :ohwell:
I can guarantee you there will be like a ton of not-good-enough-for-Titan GK110s. Its massive chip with poor yields ;)
Posted on Reply
#100
TRWOV
It already comes with one SMX module disabled isn't it? The full chip is supposed to have 15 SMX AFAIK but the core count suggest 14 active.
Posted on Reply
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