AMD Radeon 7900 series rumored for January launch

Hoping the rumour about using XDR2 is true. I've seen rumours of the HD 7970 coming with 2Gb XDR2 clocked at over 3Ghz. I think I'm gonna need a new case though as unless 28nm allows them to shrink the length of the PCB or allows them to to keep it at 69XX lengths I'm out of luck if it's bigger.

I was holding out for the Southern Islands but went ahead and bought a 6970 to replace my aging 3870. The wait became unbearable. Even so, if these aren't as big a of a let-down as Bulldozer then I'll probably buy one.

Check this from the Wikipedia article:

quote

It has been speculated that AMD is to use a version of the 28 nm process that is optimized for low power/low clock chips in order to meet the Q1 2012 target.

The editors of this article have been employing a 1984 technique. I watched them go from "the Q3 2011 deadline" all the way to Q1 2012. It's funny but slightly disturbing to me.

quote BlackLabel

I think I'm gonna need a new case though as unless 28nm allows them to shrink the length of the PCB or allows them to to keep it at 69XX lengths I'm out of luck if it's bigger.

I find the enormity of these cards a little amusing, despite the frustration it can cause. I remember ISA cards that were around the same length, then they kept getting smaller and smaller, now we're back to having obscenely long cards.

I really hope this is true, I was just beginning to think that my 4770's were going to need upgrading, of course, if it's lies, I'll have to settle for something else.

quote BlackLabel

Hoping the rumour about using XDR2 is true. I've seen rumours of the HD 7970 coming with 2Gb XDR2 clocked at over 3Ghz. I think I'm gonna need a new case though as unless 28nm allows them to shrink the length of the PCB or allows them to to keep it at 69XX lengths I'm out of luck if it's bigger.

No such luck with the XDR2, otherwise they would have gone with a 256-bit bus width. From the pics and info it looks like it will be 3gb GDDR5 for the 7970 (You can see the soldering for 12 VRAM chips on the back).

quote Supernova1332

No such luck with the XDR2, otherwise they would have gone with a 256-bit bus width. From the pics and info it looks like it will be 3gb GDDR5 for the 7970 (You can see the soldering for 12 VRAM chips on the back).

Ah I'd take 3Gb of GDDR5 for the 7970.. I was pretty much putting 2Gb XDR2 up against the typical configuration of 1Gb GDDR5 for a single chip card and 2Gb for a dual chip card. Didn't actually consider them sticking with GDDR5 and just sticking a ton of memory on each card.

yay! now nvidia will likely reveal something soon.

the gtx 5xx series was the gtx 4xx series proper. now that they have fermi pretty well under control, the gtx 6xx series could be a very serious performer (or knowing nvidia, maybe theyll just jump to the gtx 7xx series to have their numbers on par the ATi's offerings, and then'll rename a lot of gtx 5xxx series to the gtx 6xxx series or something).

bring it, nvidia.

quote ashantiqua

yay! now nvidia will likely reveal something soon.

the gtx 5xx series was the gtx 4xx series proper. now that they have fermi pretty well under control, the gtx 6xx series could be a very serious performer (or knowing nvidia, maybe theyll just jump to the gtx 7xx series to have their numbers on par the ATi's offerings, and then'll rename a lot of gtx 5xxx series to the gtx 6xxx series or something).

bring it, nvidia.

Unlikely, Nvidia is at least three months behind AMD in development and production. They'll have something like leaked specs but no boards or even just the chip quite yet. The problem wasn't entirely the architectures fault, it was also the MASSIVE die size (Which they're expected to do again with Kepler). The GTX 480 came in at a huge 529mm² while the HD5870 came in at just 334mm².

Edit: BlackLabel

They're going to push 3D Eyefinity setups more so the extra VRAM will help in that aspect, but for most single screen users it's about uselss.