AMD Rebrands Radeon HD 7000 Series GPUs to HD 8000 for OEMs

[NC37]

To be fair, this happens a lot in laptop GPUs. Heck nVidia's 600M series has a bunch of Fermi parts in it. Some of them high end ones. It is just easier to get away with it because people don't expect laptop GPUs to be the same as desktop.

[jigar2speed]

There is going to be more of this kind of magic because of this guy - http://www.brightsideofnews.com/news...ream-team.aspx

Sources suggest this was one of the best hiring in recent times by AMD.

[n-ster]

At least my card will retain its value longer lol

[SonDa5]

If it helps build up AMD cards and get more gpus sold I don't care. This should only help lower costs to consumers.

[xenocide]

This is a very idiotic move--rebranding older parts in general is pretty silly.

[n-ster]

Originally Posted by xenocide

This is a very idiotic move--rebranding older parts in general is pretty silly.

not really idiotic imo... not for them. doesn't matter for us because it doesn't exist for us since it's OEM only

[xenocide]

Originally Posted by n-ster

not really idiotic imo... not for them. doesn't matter for us because it doesn't exist for us since it's OEM only

And those OEM's are going to be selling them as AMD advertises them to consumers, which is going to create confusion and possibly people getting scammed on sites such as eBay. Technically it's an 8970, did I forget to mention it's an OEM version? *trollface*

I'm still pretty certain Nvidia is going to rebrand mid/top-end 6xx series GPU's as low/mid 7xx series GPU's, but as long as the performance isn't misleading (e.g. rebranding a GK104 as a 780 then releasing like a GK110 as a 775 that performs better or something) I am fine with it.

[Prima.Vera]

Anyhow you put this, it is still a VERY bad move from AMD...

[n-ster]

Still, it's not affecting us apart from needing to wait for the 9XXX series which is good if they take the time to really get a good jump from the 7XXX series

AMD will make more money because of this so its a good move for them, when they did renaming before it didn't hurt them. AMD with more money = better for us the consumers since AMD can remain more competitive and still alive

[Melvis]

This is all i gotta say about this > Sweet Brown - Ain't Nobody Got Time for That (...

[Recus]

Originally Posted by SonDa5

If it helps build up AMD cards and get more gpus sold I don't care. This should only help lower costs to consumers.

Originally Posted by n-ster

Still, it's not affecting us apart from needing to wait for the 9XXX series which is good if they take the time to really get a good jump from the 7XXX series

AMD will make more money because of this so its a good move for them, when they did renaming before it didn't hurt them. AMD with more money = better for us the consumers since AMD can remain more competitive and still alive

I'm surprised how Nvidia's rebranding is bad but AMD can do anything to survive.

That said, once again AMD appears to be delaying a product line due to inventory levels.

So they have plenty of HD6xxx if they are going to use than in next-gen consoles.

[Calin Banc]

Originally Posted by james888

They are only doing this with OEM parts not the 8000 series in general. They will still put out the next gen that will actually be a next gen.

And if "this" generation is called 8000 series, then "that" generation is going to be called ... 9000 series?

[n-ster]

yea, basically like skipping a generation for us... didn't NV do something like that with the 3XX series?

[repman244]

This should be made illegal to do IMO.

[3870x2]

Originally Posted by Frick

GPU dark ages? Why?

I guess he is referring to the fact that we have very powerful GPUs but not a whole lot to push it, which many blame on the console stagnation.

You might see things that will put a hurt on your high-end GPUs, but this is primarily due to intensive particle effects that don't add a whole lot to the experience. A good example of this is Metro 2033. (great game though)

Unreal and Source engines do a great job while maintaining wide playability, while engines like Frostbite are tough to run, but look great with effects not often found in other engines.

Edit: this makes me wonder if my 6850m is actually a 5850m, ill have to check that.

[claylomax]

Originally Posted by Melvis

This is all i gotta say about this > Sweet Brown - Ain't Nobody Got Time for That (...

Lol!

[Jizzler]

I take it back, I don't wish anyone at AMD a happy new year!

[TheMailMan78]

WTF just happend?

[newtekie1]

Originally Posted by eidairaman1

http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desk...specifications

whats funny NV site doesnt specify shader count, transistor count etc.

The OEM version of the GTX660 being weaker is arguable, the clocks are lower, but it has more shaders, and while the memory bandwidth seems higher on the retail GTX660, because of its memory configuration 512MB of the memory has to share its memory bandwidth.

[SeventhReign]

Originally Posted by james888

I think it is more by OEM's request. Maybe even to move old 7000 stock.

That makes no sense. If that was the case they'd just label and sell it as the 7000 series and save themselves the hassle.

[cadaveca]

Originally Posted by SeventhReign

That makes no sense. If that was the case they'd just label and sell it as the 7000 series and save themselves the hassle.

They could do that, but they'd not have the same profit margins for having a "NEW" GPU.

I can't buy a GHZ Edition 7970, or ANY BOOST 7950's, or 7870's...they just do not exist locally.

In fact, ANY high-end AMD card is really rare here. NVidia, you got 100 models of GTX670 in stock, and about 15 GTX680.

I'll gladly take an HD8950, and flash my 7950 BIOS on to it. Because I CANNOT buy a 79xx-series card even if I wanted to.

[Delta6326]

I didn't realize this many TPUer's used Pre-Built OEM's... I don't see anything wrong with this a 7970 is still plenty fast for any normal user and someone thats going to be buying Pre-Built will not be buying a whole new computer just to upgrade the GPU.

[cdawall]

Originally Posted by McSteel

And that makes it ok?
It's not like the OEM market is insignificant - if it was, AMD wouldn't be doing business in it. And I for one wouldn't enjoy being screwed over just because I wanted to buy a Lenovo or a Dell. This will hurt sales, and it is a crappy move, no matter how you look at it.

How will this hurt sales? When the people who buy the vast majority of these rigs configure them on Dell or Lenovo's or HP's site or see them in the local bestbuy and one has an 8950 in it the highest number card sold do you really think they are going to spend hours researching if that is a rebranded card or blindly purchase it? Do you really think for a second the people purchasing a PREBUILT PC give two flying hoots what rebrands in their PC as long as it is the fastest sold? No one is telling you to run out and spend 3 times as much as the hardware is worth for a prebuilt, but people buy them and right now the 8950 sounds like the fastest card out there.

Why do you think OEM's have terrible graphics cards with 4GB of onboard ram? Do you really think a GT620 can use 4GB of ram? On a spec sheet that looks great just like the 16GB of slow as heck ram they stuffed in next to it. OEM prebuilts are a numbers game and big numbers sell. Move on. You can get your panties in a wad all you want, but you are never going to stop it.

[RejZoR]

This should be prohibited by law. Seriously. Lets repack Fiat 500 as Ferrari 458 Italia. They are both italian, they can both be in red, lets sell them both for the same price. Wtf...

[cdawall]

Originally Posted by RejZoR

This should be prohibited by law. Seriously. Lets repack Fiat 500 as Ferrari 458 Italia. They are both italian, they can both be in red, lets sell them both for the same price. Wtf...

What are you talking about? They do that now Ford Taurus and Ford 500, Chevy Aveo and Chevy Sonic the list goes on and on. AMD didn't rebrand the 7950 as a GTX780 like you are suggesting.