AMD to launch 20nm and a brand new architecture for GPUs this year

[Cloudfire777]

Well this is certainly interesting. For those who don`t know, todays GPUs is in 28mn. 20nm and a new architecture will be huge news.


AMD Reportedly Launching Volcanic Islands GPUs in 2013

Last year, a report revealed that AMD’s Volcanic Islands series would be the first to make use of a 20nm process and would arrive sometime in 2014. However, in a recent interview with AMD’s Jim Keller and Chekib Akrout, Rage3D has revealed that the Volcanic Islands GPUs would launch in 2013.

The next generation of graphics cards – Volcanic Islands – is coming this year and shaping up nicely. When you name products after places, it leads to interesting thoughts about where to hold events surrounding that namesake product. Typically places that are cheap to get travel to internationally for a worldwide congregation are preferred, so I’m off to renew my passport on the off chance I’m headed to Reykjavik later this summer. But I sure as hell wouldn’t complain about being sent to Honolulu, either.” Rage3D This could be huge news if true for AMD fans and could possibly provide a hint at the late launch of the much anticipated Radeon HD 8000 series GPUs. It was hinted by various techsites that the launch wasn’t planned to be late but it was delayed instead. The new VI (Volcanic Islands) GPU’s would be manufactured on a 20nm Gate-Last process through either TSMC or Common Platform Alliance.

Source: http://wccftech.com/amd-reportedly-launching-volcanic-islands-hd-8000-series-gpus-2013/

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[Cloudfire777]

To back up the story:

Two months ahead of schedule
TSMC apparently thinks we’ve been stuck at 28nm for way too long and it seems on track to open its first 20nm foundry later this month. Fab 14 is supposed to churn out 20nm SoCs and according to Taiwanese media it will open on April 20, two months ahead of schedule. If nothing goes wrong, it will begin volume production by the end of Q2, with shipments ramping up in the second half of the year, reports Focus Taiwan.

Source: http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/30939-tsmc-20nm-fab-14-coming-on-line-soon
Source: http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/other/..._Is_Ahead_of_Its_Own_20nm_Roadmap_Report.html

 

[Rvenger]

If true this will knock about 60% off Titan's price or make Nvidia's 700 lineup look like crap. Sounds too good to be true though.

 

[Cloudfire777]

Yes, we can forget about the current GPUs. These 20nm GPUs will have a huge advantage.

 

[Fx1]

If true this will knock about 60% off Titan's price or make Nvidia's 700 lineup look like crap. Sounds too good to be true though.

This will make Titan WORTHLESS!

A 20nm GPU based on the die area of the 7970 would crush Titan.

We could be looking at an 70-100% performance increase for the same money. Yields should be good given how fast they are moving ahead.

 

[wand3r3r]

With the current generation pricing they will just release them at price points above current cards.
/cynic

Finally something new. Maybe they skipped 8xxx on 28nm, so could could try to to speed this up?

 

[lagokc]

To back up the story:



Source: http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/30939-tsmc-20nm-fab-14-coming-on-line-soon

As much as I would love this to be true, I'm not sure a link to fudzilla is a good way to back up a story...

That aside, nVidia has access to TSMC as well and will make the transition to 20nm within a few months of AMD and a 20nm Maxwell based Titan 2 should be an interesting piece of technology that I will not be blowing $1k on . This isn't a "x GPU maker will crush y GPU maker" situation, this is finally another jump in performance for everyone when it happens.

 

[Rvenger]

$549 HD 9970. Still faster or equal to Titan. And cheaper. lol

 

[Cloudfire777]

As much as I would love this to be true, I'm not sure a link to fudzilla is a good way to back up a story...

There is tons of news about it. Here have another:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/other/..._Is_Ahead_of_Its_Own_20nm_Roadmap_Report.html

GloFo also have working 20nm chips which they demoed earlier last month.
ARM is manufacturing their Coretex chips in 20nm @ TSMC as we speak.

Its real

 

[lagokc]

From TFA:

AMD could go ahead and paper launch the HD 8970/HD 9970 in the last month of 2013 and official announce availability later in 2014. This would once again give AMD an head start with their GPUs being the first to utilize the 20nm architecture while NVIDIA’s 20nm Maxwell is also sheduled for 2014 but we won’t be looking at them atleast until Q2 2013.

But this does mean that if AMD follows this route, they would have nothing other than HD 7000 product refreshes such as the HD 7870 XT, HD 7790, HD 7730 and HD 7950 Boost to tackle the upcoming GeForce 700 series. We advise our readers to take this with a grain of salt for the time being since no one has official conformation about this news but if Rage3D is true on the Volcanic Islands bit then we have a massive battle under preparation between 20nm GPUs from both green and red teams.

Ok now that sounds plausible. A 20nm GPU preorder on Black Friday 2013 isn't happening though.

 

[Cloudfire777]

Or they could announce 8970 in September and have the GPUs ready in October for example. Who knows.
WCCFTech doesn`t know a squat more than we do. They are just quoting Rage3D and making up their own opinions based on it.

It isn`t that long ago when AMD said 7970 would be their fastest single GPU from GCN in 2013 and they are aiming to release a new architecture in Q4 2013. And now we hear news about Volcanic Islands. Strange isn`t it?

 

[nanaki333]

AMD should be paying homage to their radeon 9700 and 9800 XT series of old by naming the next gen as such. i remember when i first got my 9700 pro... i ran that GPU for YEARS, and it handled everything with ease with my athlon xp system.

 

[Fx1]

20nm will double the transistors in the same die area but the cost is going to go up. So maybe GPU's will be smaller and only 50% faster

 

[Arkadrel]

Soooooo.....

Nvidia makes a 28nm refresh (a 7xx series of cards).
AMD makes a 20nm refresh (a 8xxx series of cards).

Does this mean Nvidia's 7xx series will be short lived?
That titan's will take a nose dive in price soon?

 

[Lonyo]

Soooooo.....

Nvidia makes a 28nm refresh (a 7xx series of cards).
AMD makes a 20nm refresh (a 8xxx series of cards).

Does this mean Nvidia's 7xx series will be short lived?
That titan's will take a nose dive in price soon?

Depends on your definition of "soon".
NV isn't going to drop their prices until they have to, and neither is AMD.
Until there's an actual real launch rumour and some confirmation, people shouldn't plan their purchases based on the rumours of what might happen in 6months, or maybe even longer.

Given historical slippages from both NV and AMD, in part due to TSMC, there's no reason to currently believe they will actually manage to get products out of the door this year.

 

[Fx1]

Soooooo.....

Nvidia makes a 28nm refresh (a 7xx series of cards).
AMD makes a 20nm refresh (a 8xxx series of cards).

Does this mean Nvidia's 7xx series will be short lived?
That titan's will take a nose dive in price soon?

Titans 7 month shelf life is going to be short lived. AMD is clearly going for a win here.

Downside is that AMD will likely be footing the costs of 20nm early days and that means so will we.

 

[NTMBK]

I'll believe it when I see it...

 

[imaheadcase]

Going smaller does not mean a better GPU. They could still just cram what they got in ones now, lock overlocking, and basically have what you have now just lower power consumption. Its been done before.

 

[Fx1]

Going smaller does not mean a better GPU. They could still just cram what they got in ones now, lock overlocking, and basically have what you have now just lower power consumption. Its been done before.

Yeh except that makes no sense what so ever

 

[imaheadcase]

Yeh except that makes no sense what so ever

It does actually. Going smaller die goes over multiple platforms, for all we know maybe it was done specifically for PS4. Like I said, its been done before.

Also having higher clocks/ram only is plausible.

 

[Phynaz]

This will make Titan WORTHLESS!

A 20nm GPU based on the die area of the 7970 would crush Titan.

We could be looking at an 70-100% performance increase for the same money. Yields should be good given how fast they are moving ahead.

That's a pretty big leap you're making.

 

[Attic]

It better clean up in unreal engine 4 games.

 

[GlacierFreeze]

Going smaller does not mean a better GPU. They could still just cram what they got in ones now, lock overlocking, and basically have what you have now just lower power consumption. Its been done before.

It does actually. Going smaller die goes over multiple platforms, for all we know maybe it was done specifically for PS4. Like I said, its been done before.

Also having higher clocks/ram only is plausible.

Well except for the fact that it's been reported, detailed, and announced that it's going to be quite a bit more than just a refresh as you're describing...

Even the recently released 7790 (pretty scaled down) gives somewhat of a sneak peak of potential performance in Volcanic Islands. If it does get released on 20nm, it could be a great series and really push the market this go around.

 

[Arkadrel]

That's a pretty big leap you're making.

^ what Phynaz said.

I dont think 28nm -> 20nm is gonna be that huge a step.
I do think that the 20nm chips will be decently faster than a GTX Titan though.

 

[Stuka87]

^ what Phynaz said.

I dont think 28nm -> 20nm is gonna be that huge a step.
I do think that the 20nm chips will be decently faster than a GTX Titan though.

Neither do I. Look at what we gained going from 40nm to 28nm. 28nm to 20nm is a smaller percentage change, so don't expect a larger performance improvement.

The nicest thing will be lower power consumption, and some of the newer GPU features that AMD has been talking about recently.