Monday, June 11th 2012
AMD Readies Trio of New Radeon HD 7900 Series SKUs
Apart from a few Radeon HD 7970 "X2" dual-GPU graphics cards, and a few non-reference design HD 7970, we didn't hear much about new Radeon SKUs, at Computex. AMD or its partners never even talked about the Radeon HD 7990. It appears now, that the company is working on three new SKUs that will likely replace existing ones, in a bid to replenish the competitiveness of its "Southern Islands" GPU family. The three new SKUs include the Radeon HD 7990, of which we've been hearing for a greater part of this year; the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition, which we knew was taking shape for some time now; and the new Radeon HD 7930.
Launch of the Radeon HD 7990 has been facing quite a few delays. We can't imagine technical hurdles with regard to board design, but the performance yield, and performance-per-Watt figures the SKU will have to produce, to ever make it to the market. The HD 7990 has the tough task of performing within an acceptable range of the GeForce GTX 690, on both these fronts.The Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition will be NVIDIA's bid to compete with the GTX 680, if merely lowering prices won't cut it for the HD 7970. AMD will raise the reference clock speeds for the HD 7970. Lastly, we're hearing of a new SKU, called HD 7930, codenamed "Tahiti LE". This SKU was first spotted when keen observers were poking around with driver information files. It's likely to be a cut-down 28 nm "Tahiti" GPU. It will be interesting to see how AMD prices it, seeing as how it's a tight squeeze between the HD 7870 GHz Edition and HD 7950.
According to a fresh 3DCenter.org report, launch of the HD 7990 is pushed all the way back to August (mid-Summer). The HD 7970 GHz Edition, if real, should be just around the corner, with a June launch predicted. The HD 7930, on the other hand, could be out after June, if the competition gets tough following launch of upper-mainstream NVIDIA SKUs.
Launch of the Radeon HD 7990 has been facing quite a few delays. We can't imagine technical hurdles with regard to board design, but the performance yield, and performance-per-Watt figures the SKU will have to produce, to ever make it to the market. The HD 7990 has the tough task of performing within an acceptable range of the GeForce GTX 690, on both these fronts.The Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition will be NVIDIA's bid to compete with the GTX 680, if merely lowering prices won't cut it for the HD 7970. AMD will raise the reference clock speeds for the HD 7970. Lastly, we're hearing of a new SKU, called HD 7930, codenamed "Tahiti LE". This SKU was first spotted when keen observers were poking around with driver information files. It's likely to be a cut-down 28 nm "Tahiti" GPU. It will be interesting to see how AMD prices it, seeing as how it's a tight squeeze between the HD 7870 GHz Edition and HD 7950.
According to a fresh 3DCenter.org report, launch of the HD 7990 is pushed all the way back to August (mid-Summer). The HD 7970 GHz Edition, if real, should be just around the corner, with a June launch predicted. The HD 7930, on the other hand, could be out after June, if the competition gets tough following launch of upper-mainstream NVIDIA SKUs.