AMD is having a string of successes with its 28nm 7000 series graphics cards. While it was dethroned by NVIDIA’s GTX 680, the AMD Radeon HD 7970 is easier to get a hold of. It certainly seems like the company is having a much easier time in manufacturing its GPUs compared to NVIDIA’s Kepler cards. AMD has been cranking out HD 7970s for a few months now and they have gotten the binning process down such that they are getting a good number of pieces of silicon that have a healthy bit of overhead over that of the 7970’s stock speeds.
And so enters Tahiti 2. Tahiti 2 represents GPU silicon that is binning not only for HD 7970 speeds but is able to push up the default clock speed while running with lower voltage. As a result, the GPUs are able to stay within the same TDP of current 7970 cards but run faster.
But how much faster? Well, SemiAccurate is reporting that AMD is seeing as much as a 20% clock speed improvement over current Radeon HD 7970 graphics cards. This means that cards are able to run at clock speeds up to approximately 1075MHz – quite a bit above the current reference clock speed of 925MHz!
The AMD 7970 3GB card. Expect Tahiti 2 to look exactly the same but run at higher clock speeds.
They are further reporting that, because the TDP has not changed, no cooler, PCB, or memory changes will be needed. This will make it that much easier for add in board partners to get the updated reference-based GPUs out as quickly as possible and with minimal cost increases (we hope). You can likely count on board partners capitalizing on the 1,000MHz+ speeds by branding the new cards “GHz Edition” much like the Radeon 7770 has enjoyed.
With 7970 chips having overhead and binning higher than needed, an updated and lower-power using refresh may also be in order for AMD’s 7950 “Tahiti Pro” graphics cards. Heck, maybe they can refresh the entire lineup with better binned silicon but keep the same clock speeds in order to reduce power consumption on all their cards.
Though I’ve jumped to Nivida
Though I’ve jumped to Nivida camp (first time in 10 years) This news makes me really happy. Competition is needed, and it is nice to see AMD to at least compete on the GPU front.
At least compete?
You’re not
At least compete?
You’re not new to the NVidia camp. You have been there all along, and you know it.
Awwwwwww
Awwwwwww yeaaaaaaa…..boiiiiiiiiiii!
Now you’ve done it AMD, big Kepler is coming. Lube up the ol’ cornhole, Nvidia is going back to the madafakin Battlecruiser die! It’s gonna be like a nuclear reactor in there!
Big kepler is coming….. Given the performance of what was supposed to be the 660, wait till they release what should have been the 680…
:nuke:
+1 Lube
+1 Lube
+2 lube
+1 “finally
+2 lube
+1 “finally compete”
I don’t think this card can compete but we’ll see. Chances are it is still too hot, uses too much power and performs slower even with more VRAM than my 680. Oh and I’m not at all new to the NV camp.