AMD Redoing Radeon HD 7990 Under New Codename - "Malta"

[btarunr]

AMD topped off its "Southern Islands" graphics card family with Radeon HD 7990 "New Zealand," although it didn't have a reference design board of the said SKU. Around October 2012, AIB partners PowerColor, VTX3D, and Club 3D each released their custom design Radeon HD 7990-branded graphics cards, which packed a duo of Radeon HD 7970 GPUs, a total of 6 GB of memory, making up for a dual-GPU solution. Among most of these, the GPUs were clocked in the neighborhood of 950 MHz, and memory at 5.50 GHz. ASUS joined the party much later with the ROG ARES II, with 1100 MHz core, 6.00 GHz memory, and liquid cooling, but commands a hefty $1,600. Post GTX Titan, ARES II remains, at least according to AMD, the single fastest graphics card. The company seems interested in standardizing a new set of specifications for HD 7990, which could be priced competitively against NVIDIA's GTX Titan and GTX 690.

Enter the new Radeon HD 7990 "Malta," a new codename, redone specifications (clock speeds), same dual-GPU graphics card, with [hopefully] a competitive price. Its development checks out with AMD's recent statement in its teleconference last month, where it stated that we could see "more HD 7990 action" this year. According to a Technic3D report, AMD is looking to replace the generally accepted 925/950/1350 MHz (core/PowerTune Boost/memory) clock speed standard of the HD 7990 with something over 1000 MHz, probably even 1050 MHz for the core. There is no word on memory clock speed changes, although with its 384-bit wide memory interfaces, we don't imagine the "Tahiti" GPU to be facing a dearth of memory bandwidth. The HD 7990 "Malta" like the HD 7990 "New Zealand," will lack an AMD reference design, so one could expect more custom-design cards by partners. The new SKU could launch some time before July.

Source: Technic3D

[Zubasa]

So this is basically just 7990 Ghz Edition?
The existing 7990s either have an OC bios or are already clocked beyond 1Ghz anyways.
I don't see the point.

[Dj-ElectriC]

The only thing that went through my mind reading this is the question how much domesticated this card will be. How elegantly they will handle the heat.

[AsRock]

lack an AMD reference design

Lost interest right there.. I hate keep having to buy a new cooler every time although this MK-13 has served me well though since the 4k range.

Will have to see what pops up and how different the fittings are.

[radrok]

Three words.

Too damn late.

[OnePostWonder]

In case anyone is curious, Malta is Italian for "malt".

[acerace]

When I see or heard word Malta, I immediately think Tenishia.

[Xzibit]

The original source is Fudzilla and was published Feb 21, 2013, 11day old news.

Even VideoCardz had this on Feb 21.

[reverze]

these will be better binned chips, so they can get those clocks without higher voltage and heat. And at the same time they will try to price it more agressively. I say this can turn out very well.

[FreedomEclipse]

Originally Posted by OnePostWonder

In case anyone is curious, Malta is Italian for "malt".

Malta is also a 'softdrink' brewed from barley

[OnePostWonder]

Originally Posted by FreedomEclipse

Malta is also a 'softdrink' brewed from barley

YouTube

[Xzibit]

Malta is referance to the Maltese Islands which fits into there Island naming scheme.

[Frick]

Originally Posted by reverze

these will be better binned chips, so they can get those clocks without higher voltage and heat. And at the same time they will try to price it more agressively. I say this can turn out very well.

Priced correctly it can be excellent.

[Fluffmeister]

I guess $550 should be reasonable.

[xvi]

Not too late, right on time. AMD has experience when it comes to gluing two cards together on one board and if they're not releasing any new GPUs, this could be an inexpensive and easy way for them to remain in the market. Two 7970s give a decent bit more performance than a Titan (and a whole heck of a lot more compute performance) and they cost a bit less. Quite a bit less. 2.5x less.

Extending the lifetime of the HD 7000 series should help drive AMD's manufacturing cost down and allow them to maintain a profit while lowering prices. The 7970 is a strong card and I wouldn't be surprised if AMD just rode it out, lowering the price as nVidia gains the lead, until they're mostly done fulfilling their contracts with Sony and Nintendo. Who knows. Maybe we'll even see a tri-GPU HD 7995 if AMD is lazy enough.

TPU's review shows the 7970 GHz edition to be about 80% performance of the Titan. For the price of, to make this easy, two Titan cards (200% the performance of one Titan), one could buy 5 7970s (400% the performance of one Titan). This is, of course, ignoring power and space requirements, but that's what a 7990 would address. 60% more performance for less money.

The only bad thing I see here is nVidia will have the high-end market all to themselves which, I suspect, will cause them to go mad with power and start charging an arm and a leg for their products. I expect AMD to happily play the waiting game here. It doesn't sound like nVidia has a new architecture ready anyways. If they did, they wouldn't dare make the Titan obsolete by releasing it now.

I'm not saying the Titan isn't an impressive card, and even though I personally prefer AMD, I still tip my hat to nVidia. It's just not as impressive as the price would imply and that leaves a lot of room for AMD to, just as this article says, slide in a very cost effective and sensible HD 7990.

[Xzibit]

Originally Posted by Fluffmeister

I guess $550 should be reasonable.

Havent you been paying attention.

If it performs faster than 690 they can charge as much as they want and if you disagree your not the targeted audiance and shouldnt complain about it.

[Law-II]

Hi

I have owned a few dual GPU/VPU cards and will say, they are great on paper and have impressive specs.

However leave a lot to be desired when it comes to application and game compatibility as and when software devs do not always write code for these vga cards. When this happens you are left with the performance of a single GPU on occasions less than 40% GPU usage across both GPU's. [*then it's not great for the price tag]

atb

Law-II

[Fluffmeister]

Originally Posted by Xzibit

Havent you been paying attention.

If it performs faster than 690 they can charge as much as they want and if you disagree your not the targeted audiance and shouldnt complain about it.

Indeed! But considering the 690 launched 10 months ago I should certainly hope so. It will be like 14 months old when this thing arrives. :O

I hope they charge the earth personally.

[Depth]

Originally Posted by Zubasa

So this is basically just 7990 Ghz Edition?
The existing 7990s either have an OC bios or are already clocked beyond 1Ghz anyways.
I don't see the point.

Well I think the point is that nVidia has a flagship product with an actual name.

Therefore AMD needs a flagship product with an actual name.

[Xzibit]

Originally Posted by Fluffmeister

Indeed! But considering the 690 launched 10 months ago I should certainly hope so. It will be like 14 months old when this thing arrives. :O

I hope they charge the earth personally.

Just wanted to check your not delusional.

Originally Posted by Fluffmeister

Yeah it's not too hard to understand, although the people that voted $550 and lower are rather delusional.

[Fluffmeister]

Seeing as you haven't worked it out yet, I was being sarcastic.

Impressive work though :P

[de.das.dude]

wonder if BP will buy one now

[Prima.Vera]

What's the point? Half of the console ports don't work properly on CrossFire anyways...ESPECIALLY those marked TWIMTBP...

[theoneandonlymrk]

Originally Posted by Prima.Vera

What's the point? Half of the console ports don't work properly on CrossFire anyways...ESPECIALLY those marked TWIMTBP...

That's not going to be many going forward. Ive used crossfire for years and agree there can be issues but they're resolved reasonably quick normally and only tend to happen close to release .just saying it ain't as bad as all that.
This card however is as bad as all that. Late hot and dear, not a good combo.

[badtaylorx]

i think AMD is missing a good opportunity here.

a twin tahiti le chip based card would have been a great fit here.... much more powerful than a 7970, and much cheaper too, oh well