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[dragonelite]

I don't keep up with the video card arms race, but it looks good to me? 20-70% increase in power for less $$$.

probably more like 10~20% increase for more $$$

 

[Blades64]

Some more info here I guess.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6570/amds-annual-gpu-rebadge-radeon-hd-8000-series-for-oems

If I read this right, when does the the REAL next gen iteration of AMD cards role out?

 

[Reiko]

Am I reading this wrong, or is AMD artificially making sure next gen consoles don't look entirely dated in power before release?

 

[Infinite Justice]

If I read this right, when does the the REAL next gen iteration of AMD cards role out?

Apparently Q2 but we'll see

 

[dragonelite]

If I read this right, when does the the REAL next gen iteration of AMD cards role out?

summer or fall around next gen releases..

Am I reading this wrong, or is AMD artificially making sure next gen consoles don't look entirely dated in power before release?

Would have probably killed them if nvidia came out with a architecture 50% faster.
But yeah AMD is Bangs for bucks buggy bangs but still.

 

[TheGreyHulk]

Didn't the 6870 actually have fewer stream processors than the 5870? Not sure if they were even made more efficient by much, if at all.

5870 was the top of the line single GPU for AMD during the 5000 series.

It was NOT comparable to a 6870 which was a mid range card. The 6970 was the 5870's successor.

It did have less stream processors, but was obviously more powerful. The 5870 used the VLIW5 architecture vs the VLIW4 architecture used in the 6970. The 6970 was more efficient.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Nvidia might actually debut Maxwell, their new architecture, before AMD does. I don't know what the latest word is on Maxwell, last I heard was 2H 2013. If so then you can pretty much stick a fork in AMD, their GPU business was the only part of the company not bleeding money like they've been eviscerated.

 

[bigtroyjon]

Far from it. AMD goes into the next generation with a strong dominance in the console market, their GPUs power all 3 next gen consoles which give them a healthy infusion of revenue for many, many years to come.

It's NVIDIA that's desperately clinging at the driftwood to survive now that the big 3 don't wanna play ball with them, have you seen their desperate attempt to enter the handheld market with the XBOX era designed handheld?

The console chips are custom designs. They get paid to help design the chips, they aren't going to get any revenue beyond that design fee.

 

[dragonelite]

The console chips are custom designs. They get paid to help design the chips, they aren't going to get any revenue beyond that design fee.

Not sure about not getting any revenue. But it should not be enough to keep AMD a float i think.

 

[SneakyStephan]

Any update on this? This can't be real right?

Things are bad enough as is with the extreme price doublings last year

edit: please let this only be for OEM's
Also it's bad enough already that amd are pushing their manipulative naming schemes further and further, their evil is starting to make nvidia look benign:\

 

[i-Lo]

Apparently Q2 but we'll see

Yea, but I am still wondering, what's with the numbering convention? I'm still confused as to why not called it southern island and leave it at that?

 

[pieatorium]

The console chips are custom designs. They get paid to help design the chips, they aren't going to get any revenue beyond that design fee.

they would surely get royalties on anything in those chips that is AMD patented aswell no?

 

[PFD]

Any update on this? This can't be real right?

Things are bad enough as is with the extreme price doublings last year

AnandTech's article explains this in detail. It is real. It only concerns OEM parts, and was made to appease OEM manufacturers who demands higher part numbers every year, while the 7000 series will continue selling in retail. The 'real' next-gen cards will come out in Q2.

And expect something similar from nvidia shortly.

 

[Yoshiya]

Any update on this? This can't be real right?

Things are bad enough as is with the extreme price doublings last year

That's probably not going away. With the seeming end of growth (and negative growth) in the PC market, coupled with the rise of competent iGPUs on-die, the profits on discrete GPU development are going to have to be increasingly extracted from the niche enthusiast market rather than on cheap, mass market parts sold to OEMs. Unless the market capriciously decides to go running back to PC towers I don't see how this could change.

 

[Smash88]

Not surprised really.

I'll be upgrading to Haswell + Nvidia either way. But this just is poor performance from AMD/ATI.

Even though Haswell isn't some astronomical performance increase (based on early reports/rumours), I don't think we will see that with silicon based chips anymore, until Intel comes out with their architecture that is apparently not silicon based anymore.

 

[Mr. Pointy]

so GAF overreacted???

As usual.

 

[les papillons sexuels]

If I read this right, when does the the REAL next gen iteration of AMD cards role out?

probably really close to when the nda on their parts for MS and sony expire, just like with the xenos and the x1900 iirc. (ie they announced their new r600 architecture right after the xenos/360 specs were released).

There's bound to be some connection between their new architecture and the RnD from both sony and MS, and all that cash.

 

[Tallshortman]

No one should be upset because no one should be buying AMD cards.

Nvidia has done it in the past too, it's not entirely uncommon for the series after an architectural refresh to contain some rebranded cards. Or are you recommending no one buy any GPUs from anyone? How about you stop your ignorant fanboy bullshit before it starts getting to your head.

 

[i-Lo]

So I take it that when the actual Sea Island iterations do come out, they won't share the "8870" or "8950" or "8970" etc numerical convention any more. By the looks of it, I guess they would like to cut down on the variety of cards and settle for one mid range and one high end card (8990 notwithstanding).

 

[El_Chino]

Never mind haha.

 

[ShOcKwAvE]

Via AnandTech's GPU editor:

These specs are real, gang. Just like 2012, AMD is launching a number of rebadges as OEM-only cards. You won't see these cards in retail, but OEMs demand products with higher part numbers for 2013 so AMD gives OEMs what they want. I have no clue what AMD's proper refresh parts will be named, but these aren't it. For the answer to that you're waiting until at least Q2 of this year.

And don't be surprised if NVIDIA does something similar here in the near future. They play the same game (and work for the same OEMs) as AMD.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=34466111&postcount=18

 

[SneakyStephan]

That's probably not going away. With the seeming end of growth (and negative growth) in the PC market, coupled with the rise of competent iGPUs on-die, the profits on discrete GPU development are going to have to be increasingly extracted from the niche enthusiast market rather than on cheap, mass market parts sold to OEMs. Unless the market capriciously decides to go running back to PC towers I don't see how this could change.

Kind of self fulfilling prophecy if you double prices on gpus, don't increase performance/dollar (edit: wrote watt, meant price) in the low end for 4 years and when the cpu market delivers miniscule performance increases with each new line.
If you don't give people a reason to upgrade they aren't going to replace their hardware every cycle.
I reluctantly upgraded from a 512MB 4870 to a 1GB 6870 in 2011 because the vram bottleneck started to bug me (paid 30 percent more for 50 percent more performance 3 years after the 4870), but until there is something with significantly better price/performance wise I'm not upgrading again, not tomorrow, not in 5 years.

GPU prices just doubled because AMD released 6 months before nvidia with nothing to compete (at least not performance/watt and low noise wise) , and nvidia then released their midrange cards against the dissapointing amd ones at the same price because enough people were buying the amd cards at these prices (people desperate to replace their long in the tooth 40nm 300watt too high clocked hairdryers with something more sensible I suppose).

The pc market is still bigger than it was when the amd 4xxx series released, and prices were way better then.

What happened to large volume production promising lower prices, guess a lack of competition and corporate greed are burying moore's law , another thing to be proud of.

 

[kharma45]

Nvidia might actually debut Maxwell, their new architecture, before AMD does. I don't know what the latest word is on Maxwell, last I heard was 2H 2013. If so then you can pretty much stick a fork in AMD, their GPU business was the only part of the company not bleeding money like they've been eviscerated.

Maxwell is back to 2014 now.

Via AnandTech's GPU editor:


http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=34466111&postcount=18

Hopefully the OP can be updated and the title now so avoid any more confusion.

 

[amstradcpc]

So, next gen consoles are volcanic islands based?. If so, it has sense that Sea islands is a Southern island rebrand and focus on 20nm new gen ( volcanic islands ), that, on the other, hand appeared in some rumors as the next Xbox gpu.

 

[derFeef]

They did this before with OEM, what's the surprise/outcry?

edit: I see, OP needs an update

 

[DieH@rd]

They did this before for OEM configurations, nothing new. In Q2 we will see full desktop 8000 series, and it will rock.


Will mods adjust the thread title?

 

[Sir_Crocodile]

Is the op new to how GFX companies operate?

 

[amstradcpc]

They did this before with OEM, what's the surprise/outcry?

Well, first of all Sea islands if not ditched will not be called 8xxx but 9xxx. The doubt is if 9xxx series will be Sea islands or Volcanic islands. If all the effort in AMD for next gen went to make customizations to Volcanic islands for consoles they could have ditched improvements over southern islands and so ditch sea islands to concentrate in volcanic. Something similar happened with Xbox 360. They ditched R500 ( xenos was based on it ) and launched in PC space R520 ( a prior architecture, R300 based, evolution ). It was almost a year after Xbox 360 that they launched a similar architecture in PC ( R600 ).

 

[amstradcpc]

They did this before for OEM configurations, nothing new. In Q2 we will see full desktop 8000 series, and it will rock.


Will mods adjust the thread title?

You cant have a XFX 8970 that is a rebranded 7970 and another 8970 that is truly next gen. If rebranding sits on 8xxx branding next architecture will have to be a different name scheme.

 

[derFeef]

You cant have a XFX 8970 that is a rebranded 7970 and another 8970 that is truly next gen. If rebranding sits on 8xxx branding next architecture will have to be a different name scheme.

But there aren't two, those are OEM only. We enthusiasts will know what to buy new (and only can). It should maybe have a different name, but it will not be an issue, at least for us.

 

[Sir_Crocodile]

But there aren't two, those are OEM only. We enthusiasts will know what to buy new (and only can). It should maybe have a different name, but it will not be an issue, at least for us.

But they will report as 8xxx series. It would raise all kinds of problems with support & game box recommended specs.

AMD will probably do what Nvidia did with the 300 series and just leave it rebrands only

 

[Cynar]

No one should be upset because no one should be buying AMD cards.

The future you propose would be awful.

 

[derFeef]

The future you propose would be awful.

Yeah. And not to mention that I would not have a underdog to support anymore I am primary a AMD/ATI user since like 10 years now.

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

I haven't heard anything about 2014. I don't keep as much as up this stuff because it's too hard to sift through the crap.

The comment was more a pass that AMD doesn't seem to have GCN 2.0 ready to coincide with their new series numbers (aka soon) vs. nVidai which can probably do a lot more with their 6xx series. nVidia probably knows more of what is going on and pushed back their own release since there is no need to release Maxwell soon.
Should be fun to see all the model numbers for AMD when the real set of cards come out.

WCCFtech confirms the rebadge, but still is holding for Q2 release of the 'real' new cards.

Nvidia didn't even end up releasing what was supposed to be their top of the line 600-series card, right? Like, what was originally supposed to be the 680, but they instead went with a cut back version of the architecture because they didn't have to to be competitive? If so, I would expect a refreshed 600 series to much more of an upgrade than the 8000 series refresh is.

 

[tipoo]

I think this will go the way of the 300 series from Nvidia, they killed the marketing of that name so they'll just skip it for the true next gen cards, they will be the 9000 series. Unless AMD changes the naming scheme, in which case AMD Radeon HD Whizbang or whatever. Not 8000 again.