Okay, so the 7900 series is rolling out, what of HTPC-relevant models?

[Comdrpopnfresh]

When will the GCN, general 7000-series, be out from AMD?
I'm not spending $5XX or $300XX for a new 7900-series gfx card. Though- do the 7950 flash up 7970?

However, when will a GCN based, 7000-series replacement for my LP AMD 5450 come along to keep my video from lagging?

 

[ElFenix]

there's no retail products at all right now and no announced 7950 so no one knows if a 7950 can be flashed to 7970.

it took roughly 3.5 months for the htpc cards to be rolled out after the 6000 series launch, so it could be about the same delay. if i were AMD i'd be sure to have the cards available to OEMs in time for IVB validation.

 

[LoneNinja]

The 77XX cards will be the lowest end on this new architecture, 76XX and below will be die shrinks of the current generation 6XXX cards. At least that is the rumor I've read for months now. Reason for the 76XX cards being a die shrink was to maintain hybrid crossfire capability with Llano and Trinity, and there is little reason to make cards weaker than that since the integrated graphics in the APUs are more powerful.

 

[LtGoonRush]

They're not even die-shrinks, everything below the 7700-series is just reusing 6000-series GPUs. That said, they will have new clock configurations and such, so they're not straight rebrands like nVidia or the 5700/6700-series cards.

 

[Arkadrel]

However, when will a GCN based, 7000-series replacement for my LP AMD 5450 come along to keep my video from lagging?

the 7750 will be the smallest of the new GCN based cards.

Its rumored to be:

832 steam cores
52 texture units
16 RoPs
80GB/s memory bandwidth
~139$ price tag on launch day (maybe lower).


This would mean it ll probably be like a ~6790-6850 in performance.

Plenty of people use a AMD 6850 or Nvidia 460 1GB....
this card would be like one of those, just useing less power/heat.

 

[maniac5999]

the 7750 will be the smallest of the new GCN based cards.

Its rumored to be:

832 steam cores
52 texture units
16 RoPs
80GB/s memory bandwidth
~139$ price tag on launch day (maybe lower).

Holy C***!
I bought a 4870 in march of 2009 for $159. Three years later, and you pay $20 less for performance that's only a little bit better? Mid range graphics performance has stagnated my friends.

 

[Arkadrel]

@Maniac5999

a 4870 is about ~10% slower than a 5770 (at release they where about even, but drivers got better).
a 6850 is about ~40% faster than a 5770.

put it all together..... 6850 is around ~154% (or 54%) faster than your 4870 (educated guess).

Pay ~13% less, get ~54% more performance, less heat/power use ect.

But yeah... not exactly crazy whats happend in low/mid-range.

 

[deimos3428]

Yup. Performance and features have improved somewhat, but heat/power/noise are the major improvements of the 5770 or 6850 over the 4870. The 7750 will probably continue that trend.

 

[maniac5999]

@Maniac5999

a 4870 is about ~10% slower than a 5770 (at release they where about even, but drivers got better).
a 6850 is about ~40% faster than a 5770.

put it all together..... 6850 is around ~154% (or 54%) faster than your 4870 (educated guess).

Pay ~13% less, get ~54% more performance, less heat/power use ect.

But yeah... not exactly crazy whats happend in low/mid-range.

That's more than I expected. I knew that the 5770 and 4870 were about the same. I actually expected the 4870 to be ahead of the 5770, since the 5770 cut memory bandwith in half, and they both use VLIW5, and I was having some problems with the bench last night, so I couldn't confirm the numbers. (Stupid work laptop makes me use IE7)

Anyway, 54% is a pretty small jump in performance. Just going by Moore's law, in 36 months, we should have had transistors shrink to 1/4 the size they used to be, and in the highly parallel world of GPUs that should mean 4X the performance. Granted, in that time we've only seen a 1.5 node shrink (55 to 28nm) but that should still bring about more than a doubling of performance.

 

[Arkadrel]

@Maniac5999

Yes... however these 7750's will cut power useage by alot.
So even if its only ~50% or so faster, if its doing it at half the power usage, thats still good right?

 

[ElFenix]

Anyway, 54% is a pretty small jump in performance. Just going by Moore's law, in 36 months, we should have had transistors shrink to 1/4 the size they used to be, and in the highly parallel world of GPUs that should mean 4X the performance. Granted, in that time we've only seen a 1.5 node shrink (55 to 28nm) but that should still bring about more than a doubling of performance.

that's if you use the same amount of silicon.

 

[maniac5999]

that's if you use the same amount of silicon.

So you're saying that $150 only buys half as much silicon as it did in 2009? :whiste:

 

[wahdangun]

So you're saying that $150 only buys half as much silicon as it did in 2009? :whiste:

no he meant you should compare it with the same segment

like 4870 -> 5870 -> 6870 -> 7870. so if you look like that the performance increase was quite good.

 

[ElFenix]

So you're saying that $150 only buys half as much silicon as it did in 2009? :whiste:

no, not at all.

if you shrink transistors so that you can cram 4x of them into the same space, assuming no other improvements (rare) the ideal performance increase would be 4x if you are using the same space. if you're using 1/4 the space, you can make the same performance for 1/4 the cost.

further, cost to the manufacturer != cost to you. and, the processor is only part of the cost to the manufacturer.

 

[blastingcap]

@Maniac5999

a 4870 is about ~10% slower than a 5770 (at release they where about even, but drivers got better).
a 6850 is about ~40% faster than a 5770.

put it all together..... 6850 is around ~154% (or 54%) faster than your 4870 (educated guess).

Pay ~13% less, get ~54% more performance, less heat/power use ect.

But yeah... not exactly crazy whats happend in low/mid-range.

The above is true, but more importantly, look at the idle and load wattage for the 4870. You are paying through the nose via electricity bills, even in idle. And wattage generates heat, which can result in louder fans and heat up the other things in your case as well. Ultimately it goes into your room which can be a bad thing during the summer and good thing during the winter, but the best thing is to have no heat at all so that you don't have to choose.