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AMD Sea Islands Rumours.

humbug

humbug

humbug

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Dual-GPU AMD Radeon HD 8990 specifications leak online

Spanish website BitDreams.se (Google translated) has posted what they claim is information on AMD’s next generation Radeon HD 8000 Series GPUs. Of particular interest to hardcore gamers is the indication that AMD will be launching a dual-GPU card sometime in the second quarter of 2013.
Click to expand...

8990

# 5,210 stream processors (2x 2605)
# Core: 950Mhz
# Mem: 1250Mhz
# 320 texture units (2x 160)
# 96 ROPs (2x 48)
# vRam: 6GB to 12GB
# TDP: 375 watts

8970 + vs 7970 GE

# 2,605 stream processors / 2,048
# Core: 1050Mhz / 1050Mhz
# Mem: 1500Mhz / 1375Mhz
# 160 texture units / 128
# 48 ROPs / 32
# vRam: 3GB
 
When they finally release these cards, I will finally be able to complete my transition from budget owner to bona fide gamer. My Radeon progression has gone like this over the past few years:

5670

5770 (5670 demoted to second computer for parents)

7850 (5770 retired because it ran too hot)

89x0.

Hopefully the step-up from an overclocked 7850 to an 8900 will also yield a doubling of performance like my transition from 5770 to 7850.
 
pgi947 said:
What do the above rumored specs on the 8970 mean in rough terms of performance gain?
Click to expand...

Probably in the region of 25-40%* depending on game / settings etc.

Most likely you are looking at it being slightly faster overall than a mildly clocked Titan (say 1Ghz) but priced like the 7970 was at launch.

*Clock for clock
 
Mike306 said:
Big question is when? Q2 keeps being mentioned but so does Q4 2013.
Click to expand...

Q4 has been the rumoured release date for the 8970 for a few weeks now (from AMD themselves).
Looks as though the 8990 is the one for Q2 but i would have thought it would more likely be an official version of the 7990 as the ones you can buy now are toggled together by partners, AMD have never made a 7990.
 
PorkPieCat said:
q2 is when amd plan to release malta, the 7990. 8990 seems unlikely if not outlandish?
Click to expand...

Thats what i said (may not have worded it correctly) it will most likely be the official version of the 7990.
Can't see it being the 8990 unless they have decided to take on Titan which i seriously doubt being the case.
 
oweneades said:
Probably in the region of 25-40%* depending on game / settings etc.

Most likely you are looking at it being slightly faster overall than a mildly clocked Titan (say 1Ghz) but priced like the 7970 was at launch.

*Clock for clock
Click to expand...

From the specifications alone it looks in the region of 25%, which would place it give and take = to Titan.

perhaps more with some GCN 2.0? optimisations.

PorkPieCat said:
q2 is when amd plan to release malta, the 7990. 8990 seems unlikely if not outlandish?
Click to expand...

I don't think its outlandish, the 7990 is a little power hungry (500 to 600 Watt TDP depending on which brand) AMD have never been happy with the power draw two 7970's have, its why they never released a 7990 in the first place.
Tahiti is a power hungry beast, it uses more power than the GTX 680.
But strangely the power draw seems different to Pitcairn which seems very efficient, the 7870 using the same or less power than the GTX 660 (none TI)
Its probably the mass of Compute cores stuffed into Tahiti.

The 8970 does exist today (apparently) The specification increases are very much in line with AMD's GPU upgrading history, if the Temash and Keveri APU's are anything to go by AMD have a good power envelope on GCN 2.0.
They may well have looked at Titan and thought "Lets not bother with messing on with the 7990, We can take this with Sea Islands"
 
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humbug said:
From the specifications alone it looks in the region of 25%, which would place it give and take = to Titan.

perhaps more with some GCN 2.0? optimisations.
Click to expand...

That's what I was thinking. 25% for the "brute force" spec increase, with the other 15% or so from optimisation.

It makes sense as they have a perfect yard stick with Titan.
 
Interesting, I would have thought AMD were to pre occupied with console and APU contracts (releasing March) etc to launch a new card so soon..

The 8990 does look impressive if those specs are legit, that would be a Titan beater for sure.. Will keep an eye out, time the sale of my Titan just right before anything new launches to re-coup the money and pay for an 8990 :cool:
 
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