Monday, June 15th 2009
AMD Readying Radeon HD 4790 Based on RV790
AMD is preparing yet another performance-mainstream Radeon HD 4000 series SKU. The Radeon HD 4790 finds lineage from the Radeon HD 4890, currently AMD's fastest GPU. The RV790 GPU will be given a new set of specifications and memory configuration, to yield an SKU that performs better than the Radeon HD 4770, and slightly better than HD 4850. It beats us as to why it is positioned in the HD 4700 series, and not say "Radeon HD 4860", but we are too late to comment on that.
Specifications-wise, the RV790 core runs at 600 MHz, slightly lower than the RV770 in Radeon HD 4850 (625 MHz), but its performance increment over it comes from the use of GDDR5 memory. The GPU makes use of a 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface. It handles 512 MB of memory clocked at 800 MHz (3200 MHz effective). Being based on the RV790, it is pin-compatible with any existing HD 4890 PCB. Price-wise, it is expected to sit between the HD 4850 and HD 4870.
Source:
IT168
Specifications-wise, the RV790 core runs at 600 MHz, slightly lower than the RV770 in Radeon HD 4850 (625 MHz), but its performance increment over it comes from the use of GDDR5 memory. The GPU makes use of a 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface. It handles 512 MB of memory clocked at 800 MHz (3200 MHz effective). Being based on the RV790, it is pin-compatible with any existing HD 4890 PCB. Price-wise, it is expected to sit between the HD 4850 and HD 4870.
45 Comments on AMD Readying Radeon HD 4790 Based on RV790
Aw wait its not 40nm? :(
And the HD4850x2 was an official ATi SKU, them providing utter crap support is another discussion all together. I guess we should drop the HD4670 since it has pretty terrible support also, I mean it took them over 3 months after the HD4670's release to get a driver out for it... These are going to be binned RV790s, 800MHz might be possible, maybe 850MHz with lots of voltage, but you aren't going to see 1000MHz. Most don't even see 1000MHz on the good cores that actually make it into HD4890s.
Unfortunately I'm guessing the overclocking headroom on these slower RV790 chips is going to be limited, but I think 4870 level frequency/performance is possible.
Regardless of what their little PR guy figureheads spout out, it's obvious that neither company gives a shit about not confusing the marketplace.
NVIDIA is way worse in the notebook market though. They really screw with your head with regards to what the model numbers mean there compared to desktop and they keep dumping out new models there too.
But according to the original chinese article
publish.it168.com/2009/0611/20090611067001.shtml
The 4790 is going to be 800 shaders, probably core clock of 625-650mhz, 256bit GDDR5 512MB memory and priced at 800-900 yuan ($117-$130). It is going to be priced just below the 4870 (1000yuan $150) and be just a bit slower. It should replace the 512MB 4870 (just like the 4770 is designed to replace the 4830 and 4850, and like the 46xx series replaced the 38xx series).
This will be a great product (even if it is still using the 55nm RV790 chip). I hope we get official news on this soon, and I hope they can get enough out to customers.
And I guarantee you don't have a 65nm GTS250.
Software can not tell the difference between the 65nm and 55nm core, due to nVidia not changing the GPUID code when they made the new revision. So the only way to know for sure is to take the heatsink off and look for yourself.
but its a shame its not 40nm.
In the meantime- You more than likely have the A2 version (I think thats the # for the 55nm one) anyway... Enjoy the card Jessica.