40nm RV870 "Lil Dragon"

gurusan · 2 Aug 2008 at 18:22

good stuff ehh?

Source: http://www.nordichardware.com/news,7999.html

It's been known for some time that RV870 would be a shrink of RV770. The node following 65/55nm would be 45/40nm, but we weren't sure if AMD would go to 45nm or directly to half-node 40nm. It's now clear that AMD will go directly to 40nm and aim for a performance per watt ratio twice that of RV770. RV870 has been code-named "Lil Dragon", which does indicate that this will be something small, yet something to fear.

The overall performance has been suggested to be somewhere around 20% better than RV770 with a significant drop in power consumption. This points to 960 shaders (192x5), 48 texture units, 40 ROPs and so forth. If this is the case, TDP of the RV870 should be around 150W at most with today's frequencies. This is just an estimate on our part as technical specifications are still hard to come by. We also presume AMD to stay at DirectX 10.1 for now.

Firegod · 2 Aug 2008 at 18:30

p0rks0da · 2 Aug 2008 at 18:31

Any word on when this is coming?

willhub · 2 Aug 2008 at 18:34

Hope its not this year I need some money saves up for this, but I'm guessing it'll be cheap.

Duke · 2 Aug 2008 at 18:38

Yummy.

gurusan · 2 Aug 2008 at 18:40

no idea on when. I would imagine Q4 this year or Q1 of next year? could be wrong though

willhub · 2 Aug 2008 at 18:42

That 20% extra is to compete with NV I guess?

drunkenmaster · 2 Aug 2008 at 18:52

THe fab plant where they have their cards made has said they will certainly not have 45nm ready till end of Q1 next year, EARLIEST. They had planned it for late this year but two separate press releases one a few months ago, one last month had delays listed as reasons it got pushed back.

Won't see die shrink till then unless for some reason TSMC manage to get online earlier which isn't likely.

SS-89 · 2 Aug 2008 at 18:59

I can imagine a Q1 Release for this. Along with an R870x2 =D with the power requirements of a single 4870 =O

milkinc13 · 2 Aug 2008 at 19:25

think i know my next card. What's left after 40nm, will it be down to 32 and so on. if so what will the manufactures use when they can no longer shrink the silocone?

willhub · 2 Aug 2008 at 19:28

It wont be possible to get to 1nm surely? Maybe after that like 0.9 etc..?

milkinc13 · 2 Aug 2008 at 19:32

surly smaller fab = more electrical leaks which will drop performance

willhub · 2 Aug 2008 at 19:33

Huh? smaller the better :s, less power more stuff on one chip too.

milkinc13 · 2 Aug 2008 at 19:35

yea, transistors are closer together so the chances of a leak in the circuits is greater

gurusan · 2 Aug 2008 at 19:36

i read about very small diameter carbon nanotubes that could prevent electron migration in the future on very small nm processes.

willhub · 2 Aug 2008 at 19:45

Lol aint they close enough allready though that if true it should be a problem allready?

Duke · 2 Aug 2008 at 19:47

I'm sure they have thought of that

5punk3monk3y · 2 Aug 2008 at 19:48

HHHMMM ponders over upgrading when it arrives

Richdog · 2 Aug 2008 at 19:53

willhub said:
That 20% extra is to compete with NV I guess?

No, Matrox!

Duke · 2 Aug 2008 at 19:54

Richdog said:
No, Matrox!

I thought it was Intel Extreme Graphics