Radeon HD 6800 coming sooner than you think?

[Super XP]

ATI’s Radeon HD 5870 was released in Sept. 2009.

Let’s get down to business. The HD 5000 series has been out for 6+ months now. That’s 6 months sooner than NVIDIA and looking at ATI’s new release history we can "IMO" expect the upcoming HD 6800’s to get released sometime within June 2010 to Sept 2010 (Q2 2010 to Q3 2010).
AMD’s CEO claimed a 2nd half of 2010 release date for the upcoming HD 6800’s series.
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3740

There’s no way NVIDIA can get something out within the same time frame as ATI will and keep it profitable. 1st it wouldn't be practical for NVIDIA to get something new out the door at the same time as ATI due to there past and present Fermi issues and 2nd NVIDIA would lose an arm and perhaps a leg if they didn’t make enough sales and money on its current Fermi generation let alone release something new.

Sounds to me ATI has a good lead in this graphics race for this technology and the next. This is real good news that finally ATI is above NVIDIA and will only push the competition to the next level(s).

UPDATE:

ATI’s New-Generation Graphics Processors on Track for the Second Half of 2010 – AMD’s CEO.

ATI Looking Forward to Refresh Entire Graphics Lineup in the Second Half of 2010
[01/21/2010 11:33 PM]
by Anton Shilov
----------------------------
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/video/...ck_for_the_Second_Half_of_2010_AMD_s_CEO.html

“We are ramping the ATI Radeon HD 5000 series now and look forward to refreshing the entire lineup in the second half of next year*,” said Dirk Meyer, chief executive officer of AMD, during quarterly conference call with financial analysts.

 

[cadaveca]

Yes, good chance it's coming much sooner than most expect. I do wonder though, how GFI will do with gpu silicon...it's not quite the same as cpu stuff, yet I feel optimistic about it.

I could cars less though..hardware is advancing far too fast for hardware...18 month schedules from 2 years, sucks.

 

[JATownes]

Yes, good chance it's coming much sooner than most expect. I do wonder though, how GFI will do with gpu silicon...it's not quite the same as cpu stuff, yet I feel optimistic about it.

I could cars less though..hardware is advancing far too fast for hardware...18 month schedules from 2 years, sucks.

Agreed. I have been wanting to upgrade my video cards (4850 Crossfire) for a long time, but I can't find a reason. Even the most demanding games get shredded by a pair. Software REALLY needs to catch up to some of this hardware we have today.

 

[Delta6326]

Agreed. I have been wanting to upgrade my video cards (4850 Crossfire) for a long time, but I can't find a reason. Even the most demanding games get shredded by a pair. Software REALLY needs to catch up to some of this hardware we have today.

same here my 4850 crossfire is still kicking im trying to get rid of 1 of my 4850 because i just don't need 2. but im really hoping that 6800 come out soon because i told my self im waiting till the 7850

 

[r9]

ATI are so much in front right now. I don`t doubt that they can deliver new product so soon. But I also know that they are so much enjoying their position and so so making money. But delivering new product means costs. So I think that they will prolong the delivery of new product as long they can without endanger their position.

 

[cadaveca]

Yeah, I needed to buy three monitors to justify 5870's...even my 30-inch Dell was happy with Dual 4890's. DX11 currently offers nothing to me, as a consumer...

I replaced the 30-inch Dell with 3x P2310H, whose full-white power draw, together for all three, is less than the standby power that the 30-inch draws.

I replaced the 4890's with cards that suck less power, but do twice the work(but not really, not noticing more than 150% of one card using two, except for a few select apps).

I can now once again span my desktop across a couple of monitors.

So I bought new cards for less power consumption, and more display options, but definately not for more performance. I new card, that is faster...for what? Better programming could overcome any performance deficits in today's market. More power jsut gives more developer's reasons to be lazy....with consoles controlling the software gaming market, it makes little sense than to have much more power, or to play in a differnt resolution, than what they do.

I mean really..I'm playing BFBC2 @ 5870x1080, 4xAA. I'm not interested in more power...BC2 proves it's not needed.


Now if only that powerplay worked right, so I actually got those power savings...without 2D rendering errors! They need to replace 5xxx series to fix the hardware issues present in multi-monitor configs!

 

[JATownes]

Is the 6800 series supposed to be a whole new architecture, like Fermi is? I remember hearing that somewhere...

 

[Polarman]

6000 series. Already ?

HD6770 anyone!

 

[cadaveca]

Is the 6800 series supposed to be a whole new architecture, like Fermi is? I remember hearing that somewhere...

Yes/NO.

It will be different, but not like how Fermi is. I could make a prediction, but I'm be pulling it outta you-know-where.

 

[DirectorC]

Weren't the 4800 series just a juiced up version of the 3800 series, and won't the 6800 series have the same relation to the 5800 series?

It could all be speculation, but I swear I heard this before from one of the 'sources'.

 

[JATownes]

I was under the impression it was going to be more than a die shrink and juicing it up, but I was also under the impression that is wasn't going to be near as "revolutionary" as Fermi. But again just speculation from "sources"

 

[cadaveca]

Well, to predict what will be next, you just simply look at what is lacking in the current gen.

#1. We need BETTER memory control.

#2. TMU/ROPs are needed for Eyefinity. As well as more framebuffer...not faster...but more. Eyefinity6 cards see 300% increases @ 2560x1600, 8xAA, in UT2007, for example, by increasing to 2GB buffer. And UT2007 isn't THAT gpu-intensive...clearly memory is a limiting factor for Cypress chips...

#3. Better silicon. Owners of 5-series Cypress-based chips know what I'm on about here.

#4. We need wide cpu-gpu connection... and PCI-E 3.0 doesn't cut it. Those that have run 4 Cyrpess-based cards on 8x pxi-e 2.0...3870x2 was choked by 8xPCI-E 1.1 in Crossfire, and the same is seemingly true for 5870x2. The bridge-chip is a problem.

Any way, the end of April might bring some news. Some of you should be able to figure out why...

 

[Grings]

Sounds to me ATI has a good lead in this graphics race for this technology and the next. This is real good news that finally ATI is above NVIDIA and will only push the competition to the next level(s).

Thats not good news at all, it means they can keep them at a high price...

I like both companies to be at roughly the same level, one being ahead is not competition, and no competition means a company can keep their products at a high price.

take the 5830 for example, this was supposed to be a relatively cheap card (remember the price of the x1900pro, the 4830?) yet has released in the uk at over £200, even though the 5850 originally released at this price, these have gone up to £245 on average (theres still a few you can find at 200-210, point is, they're certainly not coming down)

 

[mastrdrver]

I think it is pretty much a given that since the 6 series is going to be an architecture change that it will be on 40nm. First silicone for 28nm is going to be some die shrink of a 5 series.

 

[DirectorC]

Thats not good news at all, it means they can keep them at a high price...

I like both companies to be at roughly the same level, one being ahead is not competition, and no competition means a company can keep their products at a high price.

take the 5830 for example, this was supposed to be a relatively cheap card (remember the price of the x1900pro, the 4830?) yet has released in the uk at over £200, even though the 5850 originally released at this price, these have gone up to £245 on average (theres still a few you can find at 200-210, point is, they're certainly not coming down)

That's demand for ya though. If they release a card for super duper cheap and it sells out in two hours what are they gonna do?

 

[erocker]

ATi architecture, up until now has been based off of R600 (2900XT) Supposedly the next generation will be a new thing. I wouldn't be surprised if RV9XX is just pumped up from RV8XX yet again. Basically, it's all up to Nvidia at this point. If their new cards aren't that much better than 5xxx series, expect to wait longer for the 6xxx series possibly expect a revamped 5 series.

 

[cadaveca]

ATi architecture, up until now has been based off of R600 (2900XT) Supposedly the next generation will be a new thing. I wouldn't be surprised if RV9XX is just pumped up from RV8XX yet again.

Yes..if there was an actual issue with ATI's shader design, it would have been drastically changed already. Flogging a dead horese, and all that...

But you know...R600 - RV670 - RV770 - RV790 - RV870


"One of these things is not like the others...
One of these things is not the same..."

Might be time for the ringbus to come back ...shader AA? I can see practical reason as to why both might be viable now...and then there's that whole 2560 shader thingie...

 

[AsRock]

ATI are so much in front right now. I don`t doubt that they can deliver new product so soon. But I also know that they are so much enjoying their position and so so making money. But delivering new product means costs. So I think that they will prolong the delivery of new product as long they can without endanger their position.

Or were ATI so behind in the 1st place ?. Lets face it hardware wise the amount of ROPs and such on ATI cards were much lower.

It be all good for ATI if they can full of what nVidia have done with Fermi.

 

[KainXS]

I wish for amd to do something new, but I really doubt we'll see something new, all I can smell is a VLIW/MIMD buffed up HD6800 with beefed up L1 and L2, thats it.

 

[a_ump]

very nice read. feel i learned alot from it.

What i've heard is that ATI is indeed workin on a new architecture but how nvidia will change whether its used for the HD 6XXX series or HD 7XXX series.

just what i read somewhere

 

[Lionheart]

HD6970 6GB Anyone

 

[Mussels]

its far more likely for us to get teh refresh, the 5990, 5890, etc - a die shrink (or minor design tweak) with higher clocks.

 

[Super XP]

Weren't the 4800 series just a juiced up version of the 3800 series, and won't the 6800 series have the same relation to the 5800 series?

It could all be speculation, but I swear I heard this before from one of the 'sources'.

HD 6000's series has already been built from the ground up from what I've heard. I've already posted that info somewhere on here.
But between the HD 6000 and the HD 7000, I am not sure which one of those is based on a modular design. The last I heard was HD 6000 being the complete new build & not much in common with the current HD 5000's.

The HD 6000 and HD 7000 have already been designed and running with the HD 8000 currently on paper and HD 9000 is deep in R&D...

Fermi is a different ballgame, its like a GPU and a CPU glued together. AMD has no need for this on a graphics card, graphics cards are made for gaming and such, where as NVIDIA didn't have a CPU to compete with AMD/Intel which is why they developed the Fermi.

What NVIDIA should have done was design 2 types of Fermi's one strickly for gaming and the other with ALL the hardware which was the cause for its delays in the first place. This way they could have released say Gaming Fermi right with ATI's HD 5000 launch, then 6+ months later release the heavy duty Fermi. What was NVIDIA thinking? Who knows, but right now AMD can greatly afford to drop prices on its HD 5000's quite a bit where as NVIDIA cannot afford to so Fermi either performs like MAD or they are in trouble.

Just in case you are all wondering, I'm about 5min away from ATI's Head Quarters in Markham, ON. Canada, which is where I get some of my info from. But who am I and why on earth would they spill the beans to me

 

[Yukikaze]

Fermi is a different ballgame, its like a GPU and a CPU glued together. AMD has no need for this on a graphics card, graphics cards are made for gaming and such, where as NVIDIA didn't have a CPU to compete with AMD/Intel which is why they developed the Fermi.

nVidia didn't develop Fermi because they don't have a CPU to compete with AMD and Intel. This has nothing, at all, to do with the Fermi being what it is.

Fermi is not a CPU, it cannot run software designed for modern CPUs, for an example, an OS. It isn't in the same market segment as CPUs are. Aside of being a gaming GPU Fermi is a GPGPU tool, designed to bring HPC to a cheaper level and also make GPGPU coding easier (Hence things like cache, which are sorely missing on the G200 chips when they are used for GPGPU purposes - Manually managing memory reads/writes is a bitch, I can tell you that from hands-on experience).

 

[subhendu]

Yea ati will release 6 series soon due to heavy gsod and bsod of their 5 series...
In software section they will release gimmicks ---> hotfix