Tuesday, July 28th 2009
Radeon HD 4860 in the Works?
AMD released the industry's first 40 nm desktop GPU. The RV740 went on to make only one SKU, the Radeon HD 4770. The company filled its Radeon HD 4700 series almost overnight with two more SKUs positioned on either sides of the HD 4770, based on the 55 nm RV770/RV790 GPUs instead, due to stock shortages. These also impacted on the inventories of the HD 4770, which forced AMD to reposition the Radeon HD 4850 in the sub-$110 segment, creating a bit of a void between it and the roughly $150 HD 4870. If anyone of you is up for yet another ATI Radeon SKU, here's one coming your way: Radeon HD 4860.
The Radeon HD 4860 seems to have been already taped out, sampled, and pictured by sections of the Chinese media. At the heart of it is the RV790 GPU in a different configuration codenamed RV790GT. It has 640 stream processors instead of 800 on the HD 4850, except that it uses a 256-bit GDDR5 memory interface, and effectively higher clock speeds. The core is clocked at 700 MHz, and the memory at 750 MHz (3000 MHz effective). The PCB pictured shows the card to powered by a single 6-pin power connector. It is expected to be positioned in at the $130 price point, and in theory, competitive with NVIDIA's GeForce GTS 250.
Source:
IT168
The Radeon HD 4860 seems to have been already taped out, sampled, and pictured by sections of the Chinese media. At the heart of it is the RV790 GPU in a different configuration codenamed RV790GT. It has 640 stream processors instead of 800 on the HD 4850, except that it uses a 256-bit GDDR5 memory interface, and effectively higher clock speeds. The core is clocked at 700 MHz, and the memory at 750 MHz (3000 MHz effective). The PCB pictured shows the card to powered by a single 6-pin power connector. It is expected to be positioned in at the $130 price point, and in theory, competitive with NVIDIA's GeForce GTS 250.
92 Comments on Radeon HD 4860 in the Works?
EDIT:
Similar to the 9600GSO 96SP vs. 9600GT 64SP. One has more memory bandwith, the other more shading power.
G92/G92/G92/G92/G92/G92....... It gets old...
Again, exactly why I still have my 4850. :p
now spec wise this card is going to be slower than the 4770, 16 rops and 640 sp just like this card but has a lower clocked core and memory, . . . . .
I don't understand why ati would do this, making a card thats slower than the 4770 but naming it higher, . . . sounds kinda like nvidia infected them to me.
GeForce 4 had about 4 variants in the end. Ti4200, 4400, 4600, 4800. Some extras that were almost unknown too though.
Radeon 8500 had, well, Radeon 8500 and 8500 LE.
GeForce 3 had itself and the Ti200, Ti500.
Etc.
They just want to make more and more money, probably for a few reasons. 1) All companies relentlessly want to make more money. 2) GPUs are insanely more complex than they were 9 years ago or so (that's why there is so little competition now). 3) Because the graphics card market's style of competition has evolved.
Saddly, GT200 is way to power hungry to put into a mobile design, and ATi's massive underclocks on the RV770 based mobile chips means G92 is still able to compete. Both comanies need to focus on actual mobile GPUs instead of just putting desktop chips in mobile packages...
With that said, I think a lot of this multi-SKU business (Hah! Thinking like "MULTIBALL!!" in a pinball machine...) has more to do with a combination of management and manufacturing than it does with marketing. For one, we've got new management up top, and a dire financial situation, both of which have undoubtably been pushing this type of thing to increase the efficiency of their manufacturing. Speaking of which, manufacturing has changed! I would imagine the AMD of 2009 is much more capable of determining and disabling the exact defective components of a GPU die than the AMD (ATI) of 2001 when they were churning out the venerable R200 (a.k.a. Radeon 8500).
Given that, you can look at it one of two ways. One, AMD is scraping by with the slimmest margin possible by pricing expensive chips at relatively low prices. Two, AMD is reaping huge margins because the trash bin is the only other place these defects would otherwise be welcome. Which of the two is closer to reality depends largely on the agreement that AMD has with TSMC, but something tells me they're paying for the chips one way or another, so by salvaging, modifying, and selling them, they're able to keep the price of their "fully functional" products (4850/70/90) lower than would otherwise be possible.
But that's just the way I see it.
How long has the G200 been out? And how long has nVidia still been rebranding the G92?Well, not that you put it that way... :laugh: True, as long as the performance puts it between a 4850 and a 4870, this card technically isn't a rebrand.
ATi is simply releasing as many overlapping SKUs as possible to flood the market with cards. There is no reason that we need a card between HD4850 and HD4870, the gap is too small.
There has never been a flood of G92 SKUs, at most there were only 5 active at any given time. We have how many RV790/RV770 SKUs right now? 7 this one making 8? And that is even giving ATi the benefit of the doubt and assuming they are actually going to discontinue the HD4830...which is only a rumor AFAIK, and hasn't been officially announced. Otherwise it would be 9.
I mean just look at the two lineups compared:
HD4870x2 | GTX295
HD4850x2 | GTX285
HD4890 | GTX275
HD4870 | GTX260 55nm
HD4860 | GTS250
HD4850 | GTS240
HD4830 | 9600GT
HD4790 | 9600GSO
HD4770 | 9500GT
HD4730 | 9400GT
HD4670 |
HD4650 |
HD4550 |
HD4350 |
that said there is definitely a place for this card - its shorter, hopefully lower power, and faster with more overclocking potential. Given that the 4770 is essentially non-existent atm it makes sense.
BTW all of these 4830/4860 type cards are meant to sell the lower bin of the rv770 and the rv790 - the ones that dont make the cut of being an 4870/4890
You can justify it all you want to because you're obviously a fan of nVidia, but it doesn't make it true. :laugh: