The 7970 is just as fast as a 6990.
Which is 2x6970
Also the 7970 was clocking 1125mhz right out the gate.
Drivers didnt increase performance THAT much!
Or maybe they did!
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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.
The 7970 is just as fast as a 6990.
Which is 2x6970
Also the 7970 was clocking 1125mhz right out the gate.
Drivers didnt increase performance THAT much!
Or maybe they did!
7970GE is faster than a 6990 in some cases. Slower in others. When the 7970 first shipped it was quite a bit slower. Drivers and the faster GE have pushed it ahead in many cases.
I assume you mean overclocking?
Drivers improved a LOT over the course of the last year. there was some very large gains in some games.
I dont give the GE formal recognition because its just a factory overclock.
The review cards were hitting 1125mhz on release day.
Also i think AMD's driver team has improved alot since launch and i think launch drivers will be better this time around.
I think 50% faster is a conservative estimate
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?
Also, the 6990 is not 6970x2. The cores are clocked down.
Not all HD7970's hit 1125 like you say. A lot did sure, but not all. Plus, the person had to overclock it. And the majority of graphics card owners do not overclock. The GHz also has boost, which helps the average person get better performance as well.
As for the drivers, like I have stated above, the change from VLIW to GCN is the reason the drivers took such a hit. It has nothing to do with their team getter "better", its just the process of switching to a completely new architecture. Volcanic Islands is not a new architecture.
It takes two seconds to move a slider, and hours to hone in volt/clock stability.
i never moved voltage...
I started off at 1150mhz and there were small artifacts
Moved down to 1125mhz and stable!
Also i kept moving memory up 100mhz a time all the way to 1900 where it crashed and then i backed down to 1800 and stable!
About 45 mins i was done.
That is very good news. I feared the 20nm transition would be way off. I just hope the yields are good enough and the costs aren't that high.
@Stuka87:
Wafers are two-dimensional objects
40 -> 28 = 0.7*0.7 = 0.49
28 -> 20 = 0.714*0.714 = 0.51
It wouldn't be the worst idea to imitate Intel's tick-tock: Alternate between new process and new architectures. Especially considering that 20nm should be quite expensive at the beginning. So why rush things?The Volcanic Islands architecture although not confirmed could stick to 28nm.
Sorry dude, but I have to laugh at your logic. you are saying because your 7970 (Which I assume is a non-GHz) can overclock with no voltage adjustments, and your memory clocks to an unusually high level, that ALL cards can clock to that? Really? There are people that cannot get past 1050 even with voltage bumps (Talking original non-GHz cards).
Fair enough. Although the difference seems rather small. In the end, it's theoretical anyway. What transistor density both companies can achieve, remains to be seen.
Btw, the thread title is a bad choice since:
It wouldn't be the worst idea to imitate Intel's tick-tock: Alternate between new process and new architectures. Especially considering that 20nm should be quite expensive at the beginning. So why rush things?
I think one thing you can give AMD is that their GPU division does a great of making use of new processes. So I'm not worried at all about them "rushing" to 20nm.
If it's $999, no thanks.
That's what people said about Titan, too. :shrug:
AMD has been selling stuff at little or no profit for too long. That's why they're struggling so much financially. Their APU's look like they are starting to gel, their CPU's are improving relative to their competition, and their GPU's seem to be taking a more upmarket direction rather than the sweet spot strategy.
Except the Titan is an nvidia product.
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.
I don't think that matters to AMD. They didn't try to undercut the market with the 7970 and they aren't trying to undercut the market with the 7990. I'm not trying to argue the success of the strategy, just saying that judging from their past releases under Rory Reed, there's no indication they'll go back to releasing product beneath the establish market levels. I could be wrong, but I'm predicting $1000 if it's faster than Titan.