AMD Pitcairn Specifications Surface

[MarcusTaz]

I wonder if it was a waste that I just purchased a Sapphire 6950 100312-3L with bios switch pre loaded 6970 bios for $ 220 AR...

 

[btarunr]

I wonder if it was a waste that I just purchased a Sapphire 6950 100312-3L with bios switch pre loaded 6970 bios for $ 220 AR...

No way, $220 is an awesome price for that.

 

[MarcusTaz]

Oh good I feel so relieved! I just cannot see spending the $ on AMD's new line... Really feel like they are screwing us all but that is for another topic.

 

[Casecutter]

Let's hope that with the release of Kepler prices will fall.

Unless Kepler has shrunk the relative size of die significantly (not just because on the process shrink itself, I doubt AMD is worried as to Nvidia getting any leg up on piece price on 28Nm.

 

[theeldest]

Oh good I feel so relieved! I just cannot see spending the $ on AMD's new line... Really feel like they are screwing us all but that is for another topic.

In the short term it may feel like AMD is sticking it to us but let's be realistic, if we want continued competition in CPUs and GPUs then we need AMD to pull in as much money as possible while they have the chance. Once nVidia launches the prices are going to drop to be competitive so less profit for AMD.

If AMD doesn't profit, they can't do R&D, and we lose competition.

The general consumer doesn't realize prices will drop considerably in the next 3-6 months and is happy paying a bit more for more performance.

We (techies on forums) are more willing to wait and plan ahead to reap the benefits of a competitive market.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

wow, i really didnt expect too much of 7xxx series but its not looking bad to someone who skipped 6xxx series, and since i knows the limits of my games and screen ill be right till 8xxx appear

IMHO you tend to expect too much if your upping each generation, simples

makes me chuckle tho

We (techies on forums) are more willing to wait and plan ahead to reap the benefits of a competitive market.

and be swayed by what's ahead

 

[MyFriendOfMisery]

Are you kidding?

"Radeon HD 7800 will be designed to occupy key price points in the sub-$300 market segment, where it strikes price-performance sweetspots for gamers."

Excuse me, in what era or dimension you leave in? The sentence has no meaning. I live in Europe, in a country where 250 GBP is a month's median salary and prices are the same as in Paris, Milan or Hamburg.

These sobs are squeezing us dry for more than half a century now and all you do is play their whistle. Editors like you make the world a more horrible place for us all. You think you're being deontological, because corrupt and weak people trying to justify their sins told you compromise is good in life, is a sign of responsibility and balance and that seeing things for what they are is just immature, rebellious and irresponsible.

Say it like it is, the $$ go in their pockets and those cards cost between 15 to 20$ to make. So why propagate their lies like facts?

Take it as a productive critique. After all, every kick in the groin is a step forward to becoming a better human being.

 

[jamsbong]

There is actually more detail found on the link given:

http://www.expreview.com/18484.html

So, US$249 is the price of 2gb 7850 and $359 for 7890. A huge price difference.
With my current GeForce card overheating/restarting my computer regularly, I am very tempted to go back to ATI. I mean what is the point of speed with one can't enjoy the reliability/stability.

 

[MarcusTaz]

There is actually more detail found on the link given:

http://www.expreview.com/18484.html

So, US$249 is the price of 2gb 7850 and $359 for 7890. A huge price difference.
With my current GeForce card overheating/restarting my computer regularly, I am very tempted to go back to ATI. I mean what is the point of speed with one can't enjoy the reliability/stability.

This i what i was saying for $249 for the 7850 i wonder if i should have waited for some benches?

Will the 7850 be so much better then the 6950??

 

[xenocide]

This i what i was saying for $249 for the 7850 i wonder if i should have waited for some benches?

Will the 7850 be so much better then the 6950??

The $249 is MSRP, which usually tends to be inflated when a card launches. If Nvidia doesn't have anything out by then, the price could potentially just be set to just above whatever HD6950's are at--which for a 2GB model is about $280. Your purchase was a great deal, and I wouldn't feel bad about it.

 

[MarcusTaz]

I feel relieved again... lol

 

[jamsbong]

@MarcusTaz "Will the 7850 be so much better then the 6950??"

I went through reviews comparing 68xx with 77xx cards and the results shows that 77xx = 68xx at worse while 77xx>68xx in many occasions. Note that 77xx only has 640core while the 68xx had at least 960cores.

With that knowledge, I guess the 78xx > 69xx especially when the driver matures. Moreover, I am sure ATI will have much better power envelope.

When it comes to power consumption, I'm not too concern about how much electricity it will cost me since electricity is mostly quite cheap anyway. I'm most concern about cooling. As a rule of thumb, it is always better to build a system with lesser power envelope. that way, you can overclock better, more flexibility managing heat, and the system will always be quieter.

 

[zomg]

still waiting for tdp info... I want Pitcairn powered on single 6-pin, be it 7850 (Pro) or 7790 (LE)

 

[N3M3515]

@MarcusTaz "Will the 7850 be so much better then the 6950??"

I went through reviews comparing 68xx with 77xx cards and the results shows that 77xx = 68xx at worse while 77xx>68xx in many occasions. Note that 77xx only has 640core while the 68xx had at least 960cores.

With that knowledge, I guess the 78xx > 69xx especially when the driver matures. Moreover, I am sure ATI will have much better power envelope.

When it comes to power consumption, I'm not too concern about how much electricity it will cost me since electricity is mostly quite cheap anyway. I'm most concern about cooling. As a rule of thumb, it is always better to build a system with lesser power envelope. that way, you can overclock better, more flexibility managing heat, and the system will always be quieter.

May i ask where did you saw those results?, because everywhere including this site, the 7770 is equal or worst than the HD6850 which is the lesser performer of the 68xx series.
So going by that logic, the 7870 will be most likely equal in performance to the HD6950 2GB.

Although, those 1408 shaders and the 950Mhz core clock should put it near or equal to HD6970 performance imho.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

7870 will be slightly faster then a 6970 depending on the game, aka ROP limited or not, AA performance may suffer

7850 should be somewhere between 6870 and 6950 again depending on benchmark etc eitherway dosent matter all that much we will know for sure soon enough

 

[MarcusTaz]

I guess we will all have to wait and see.

 

[JrRacinFan]

What all of you are seeing is "Hey look this is a rehash at same price/perf". I am seeing it as "Hey these aren't bad power consumption is drawn in nearly half". Even the 7770's look quite good, but for myself I would have to go 7950 for a bump in performance. Time to just wait it out on my end.

 

[NdMk2o1o]

What all of you are seeing is "Hey look this is a rehash at same price/perf". I am seeing it as "Hey these aren't bad power consumption is drawn in nearly half". Even the 7770's look quite good, but for myself I would have to go 7950 for a bump in performance. Time to just wait it out on my end.

I am almost in the same boat and if I want any upgrade in performance I am going to have to pay £400 for a card that will give me a 30% boost, will be waiting for GF7 and AMD8 series I think, even then, what am I going to get for my money when I usually drop £200 on a card? possibly equally or slightly more perf than my 570 as the mid range is £200 now and the high end is too damn high

 

[jamsbong]

May i ask where did you saw those results?, because everywhere including this site, the 7770 is equal or worst than the HD6850 which is the lesser performer of the 68xx series.
So going by that logic, the 7870 will be most likely equal in performance to the HD6950 2GB.

Although, those 1408 shaders and the 950Mhz core clock should put it near or equal to HD6970 performance imho.

Oh sorry, I should have explain a bit better. The reason I said 77xx > 68xx (and 6790) is because 7770 only has 640 cores, where as 68xx has over 800-1120 cores.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7770/26.html

The performance summary shows that 6790 < 7770 < 6850. That means 640GCN approx. = 800-960VLIW cores.

7850 has 1280cores while 6950 1408cores, so it means that 7850 can easily be >= 6950. Depending on how well the supporting architecture in feeding these GCN cores, the 7850 theoretically is always gonna be faster than 6950 (I think).

I also reckon that as driver matures, the 79xx series will gain quite a bit in performance. In other words, ATI is sand banging their performance awaiting for Kepler.

Please don't take my speculations as facts, ok? It will only be accurate if the 78xx specs are correct.

 

[jamsbong]

7870 will be slightly faster then a 6970 depending on the game, aka ROP limited or not, AA performance may suffer

7850 should be somewhere between 6870 and 6950 again depending on benchmark etc eitherway dosent matter all that much we will know for sure soon enough

yes, you're right. the 24ROP of 78xx is probably the biggest weak link against the 32ROP of 69xx.
That means what I said before is not accurate.78xx may be just equal to 69xx because of the ROPs.

 

[N3M3515]

Oh sorry, I should have explain a bit better. The reason I said 77xx > 68xx (and 6790) is because 7770 only has 640 cores, where as 68xx has over 800-1120 cores.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7770/26.html

The performance summary shows that 6790 < 7770 < 6850. That means 640GCN approx. = 800-960VLIW cores.

7850 has 1280cores while 6950 1408cores, so it means that 7850 can easily be >= 6950. Depending on how well the supporting architecture in feeding these GCN cores, the 7850 theoretically is always gonna be faster than 6950 (I think).

I also reckon that as driver matures, the 79xx series will gain quite a bit in performance. In other words, ATI is sand banging their performance awaiting for Kepler.

Please don't take my speculations as facts, ok? It will only be accurate if the 78xx specs are correct.

Indeed, this CGN architecture is much more efficient than vliw4 and 5, they should have put like 40% more shaders in all the 7xxx series , i mean since they are very strong at perf/watt

 

[ViperXTR]

regarding GCN vs VLIW5, posted from other thread:

GCN vs. VLIW5 performance improvements HD 5770 (VLIW5) vs HD 7770 (GCN)

ht4u.net made a pretty awesome comparison.

They took a HD 5770 and a new HD 7770. Both cards have 40 TMUs, 16 ROPs with a 128bit SI and GDDR5.
And both have 10 shader-cluster.

The only difference is, that while the HD 5770 has 160 5D shaders, the HD 7770 uses 640 1D GCN shaders.

Now they clocked the HD 7770 down to the same clocks as the HD 5770 and compared the GPUs.

HD 5770: 1360 GFLOP/s, 34,0 GTex/s, 13,6 GPix/s, 76,8 GB/s
HD 7770: 1088 GFLOP/s, 34,0 GTex/s, 13,6 GPix/s, 76,8 GB/s

You can see that the HD 7770 has about 25% less FLOPs, the rest of the cards are almost identical (and keep in mind that the HD 7770 has the better AF).

The results are great: The HD 7700 is up to 37% faster in some games while losing to the HD 5770 only in two games, Dirt 3 & DA2. And there it's a maximum 1.8% slower.
+ drivers for the VLIW5 arch are matured, GCN is quiet new yet, we'll see some improvements here for sure.

So, despite having about 25% less raw power, the HD 7770 is faster in most games, sometimes even by far. This seems like the step AMD needed for a long time.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?279169-GCN-vs.-VLIW5-performance-improvements

http://ht4u.net/reviews/2012/amd_radeon_hd_7700_test/index4.php

 

[xenocide]

Oh sorry, I should have explain a bit better. The reason I said 77xx > 68xx (and 6790) is because 7770 only has 640 cores, where as 68xx has over 800-1120 cores.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7770/26.html

The performance summary shows that 6790 < 7770 < 6850. That means 640GCN approx. = 800-960VLIW cores.

7850 has 1280cores while 6950 1408cores, so it means that 7850 can easily be >= 6950. Depending on how well the supporting architecture in feeding these GCN cores, the 7850 theoretically is always gonna be faster than 6950 (I think).

I also reckon that as driver matures, the 79xx series will gain quite a bit in performance. In other words, ATI is sand banging their performance awaiting for Kepler.

Please don't take my speculations as facts, ok? It will only be accurate if the 78xx specs are correct.

The 6850 has 25% more Shader Units than the 7770. By comparison the 6950 has 10% more Shader Units than the 7850. It also has 8 less ROPs which I honestly don't know will affect performance, but it's fairly likely that the HD7850 will fall right between the 6950 and 6970.

 

[jamsbong]

Indeed, this CGN architecture is much more efficient than vliw4 and 5, they should have put like 40% more shaders in all the 7xxx series , i mean since they are very strong at perf/watt

Agree, The only group with increase cores are the 79xx cards and they cost so much money. Most of us have decent cards nowadays, unless game dev push the GPU boundary, there is very little incentives for upgrades.