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

[Fx1]

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.

No really this makes sense what so ever.

 

[DooKey]

I'm not going to hold my breath for a 2013 release and I'm not going to be an early adopter of AMD crossfire cards this go round. I was burned by 7970.

 

[Arkadrel]

I like what AMD did with the 7790.
I want to see them do a card thats 7790x2.

Ei, instead of 128bit bus, its 256bit.
Instead of 1gb, its 2gb vram.

Everything the 7790 had, just doubled up, and on 20nm so clocked abit higher.

 

[Tuna-Fish]

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?

AMD already released the entire 8xxxM line, they are rebrands. They are not going to use the same names for new, faster cards, so the next desktop lineup will likely be called 9xxx.

 

[GlacierFreeze]

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.

Exactly.

The biggest gains are going to come from the architecture improvements in Volcanic Islands compared to the 7000 series cards. I'll stick to a more realistic ~30% improvement, which is still quite significant, and be happy if it's any amount higher than that.

 

[lagokc]

AMD already released the entire 8xxxM line, they are rebrands. They are not going to use the same names for new, faster cards, so the next desktop lineup will likely be called 9xxx.

Unless AMD decides to reboot the numbering scheme again and call Volcanic Islands something like the 1k800. Who knows what's going on over there any more.

 

[Fx1]

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.

Lower power consumption is not going to happen.

The TDP will likely be in the same area as now. Just with more performance. TSMC is not aimed at low power nor high clock speeds. Its aimed at cheaper chips per wafer.

TSMC says its aiming in the middle. You can fit 2 chips in the same area at 20nm than 28nm. Which means you can make your chips with twice as many transistors for the same number of chips per wafer.

They might make smaller chips to reduce cost given 20nm is expensive but if they dont then 100% performance should be ok. The 7970 is the same speed as a 6990 which was 2 previous gen chips.

 

[Erenhardt]

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.

I don't understand this part. Can you explain it in more detail?

 

[willomz]

It's actually pretty much the same change in percentage terms.

 

[Fx1]

Exactly.

The biggest gains are going to come from the architecture improvements in Volcanic Islands compared to the 7000 series cards. I'll stick to a more realistic ~30% improvement, which is still quite significant, and be happy if it's any amount higher than that.

Why would it be 30%

As i said. A 7970 is equal to a 6990 and thats without the overclocks the 7970 can do.

The 7970 would need to be 80-90% faster than a 6970 to match the 6990

 

[Spjut]

Would be cool if true. My expectation was 20nm GPUs sometime in 2014, with a new DirectX(DX Blue?)

 

[Vesku]

Might see a 20nm 7970 successor at the very end of the year, maybe. Would be quite a pleasant surprise if there is a full 20nm release before 2014.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

If it's anything like 40 -> 28 AMD will need months to get decent performance out of their new cards allowing Nvidia to compete in price/performance with their dinosaur tech until they bring out a mid-range product to take the performance crown.

 

[Stuka87]

I don't understand this part. Can you explain it in more detail?

Talk about how much the process shrink is. Going from 40nm to 28nm is exactly a 30% shrink. Going from 28nm to 20nm is a 28.6% shrink. So basically the same. And if all other things are the same, you can either use the same number of transistors and get the same performance with less power consumption, or more transistors with the same power consumption.

For bigger GPU's use TDP will most likely be the same, as they want performance. But for mobile chips, power consumption is a big deal, so its typically add some more transistors, but also make sure power usage is less. Especially with Intel having better battery life, which is a big deal to consumers.

 

[Stuka87]

If it's anything like 40 -> 28 AMD will need months to get decent performance out of their new cards allowing Nvidia to compete in price/performance with their dinosaur tech until they bring out a mid-range product to take the performance crown.

Thats because AMD moved to an entirely new architecture. It had nothing to do with the shrink itself. Volcanic Islands is not a new architecture, its a progression of the current one.

 

[lagokc]

Gee it's really to bad AMD got shafted with the contract they have with Global Foundries or they could have started off 2014 with 20nm APUs

I bet redesigning their graphics cores for both TSMC and GloFo is a pain in the ass.

 

[Rvenger]

Thats because AMD moved to an entirely new architecture. It had nothing to do with the shrink itself. Volcanic Islands is not a new architecture, its a progression of the current one.

We will be reiterating this until the end of time unfortunately.

 

[Cloudfire777]

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.

Try to be a bit realistic. I can understand you want to dream but 70-100% aint happening.

7970 saw a 30% improvement over 6970. 8970 in 20nm and this new architecture might match or pass Titan with 10% better performance max. Power consumption on the 8970 however will be better than Titan.

 

[Olikan]

7970 saw a 30% improvement over 6970.

WHAT?

 

[Grooveriding]

WHAT?

It was 40% at launch and probably upwards of 50-60% now with driver revisions.

 

[willomz]

More like 50% once they got their drivers sorted out, that was a long old wait mind.

 

[Cloudfire777]

I didn`t take new drivers in to consideration. I was just looking at launch review since thats the situation we will see when 8970 launches obviously.

Here is an updated chart from the newest review:
7970 42% better than 6970
7970GHz 55% better than 6970

This won`t happen until the drivers have matured quite a bit, so at launch we will maybe see Titan performance or maybe 10% ish better.

 

[96Firebird]

WHAT?

At launch, it was around 30%...

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7970/28.html

Why talk about current performance delta when we are again talking about the launch of a new product?

 

[Olikan]

oh... it's techpowerup, for some reason theyr results always seems more tight than the rest of the reviews...

 

[willomz]

It's charming to see the faith people have in the AMD driver team.