Sapphire AMD HD 9970 News

[Fastx]

Link

http://videocardz.com/43946/sapphire-radeon-hd-9970-to-feature-12layer-pcb

 

[Smoblikat]

Interesting. I still think AIB's will use custom cooling, thats actually what AMD wanted. They said their cooler will function fine and compete with Nvidias, but they are still hoping that AIB's will really make some killer coolers.

 

[Fastx]

Hoping for a 20nm HD 9970.

 

[sushiwarrior]

The extra coolers may be for something besides Radeon cards :whiste:

 

[Stuka87]

The extra coolers may be for something besides Radeon cards :whiste:

Such as? Sapphire is not going to start making nVidia cards if thats what you are referencing.

 

[sushiwarrior]

Such as? Sapphire is not going to start making nVidia cards if thats what you are referencing.

AMD has another graphics card line besides Radeon...

 

[Silverforce11]

This would be super funny if the refresh is spec as the leaks suggest, that's identical to the original leak with Sapphire Toxic/Atomic edition 7970s with extra shaders, ROPs, TMUs etc, which was never released. That was a leak from September 2011.. which means AMD had two variants of GCN cores on 28nm tape out and picked the lesser one. For TDP reasons or yield issues (28nm being immature at the time)?

Again, this comes from Sapphire, as per the 2011 leak.

 

[raghu78]

AMD has another graphics card line besides Radeon...

I think you are talking about Firepro. we can expect AMD to launch Firepro versions of the upcoming cards.

I hope AMD has learnt from Nvidia's Kepler generation how to design and market a series of graphics cards. its high time they competed with Nvidia on all areas - perf, perf/watt, cooling and acoustics, drivers. Thats the only way their Radeon brand will become stronger and they can compete with Nvidia for consumer mindshare.

 

[f1sherman]

David Baumann's comment at the latest in a series of leaks

http://forum.beyond3d.com/showpost.php?p=1764098&postcount=88

 

[tweakboy]

Woah thats 2014 hmmmm

 

[VulgarDisplay]

The only thing from that article that didn't make sense to me at all was "Maxwell architecture is coming sooner than expected." I thought all 20nm gpu's from AMD and Nvidia were expected to be delayed because Apple bought all the 20nm production capacity for the start of the node?

 

[Stuka87]

The only thing from that article that didn't make sense to me at all was "Maxwell architecture is coming sooner than expected." I thought all 20nm gpu's from AMD and Nvidia were expected to be delayed because Apple bought all the 20nm production capacity for the start of the node?

Several rumors that Maxwell will be 28nm.

 

[tweakboy]

All rumors. No facts. 9970 is 2014 right ?

 

[blackened23]

Hoping for a 20nm HD 9970.

Nope.

20nm isn't happening. By TSMC's best projections, in their latest investor conference call, they are projecting 20nm to be ready around Q2 2014. And that's an optimistic estimate. Besides which, it isn't exactly a secret that Apple will get first grabs for any type of volume 20nm production - they have a lot more money to throw at TSMC than AMD or nvidia.

 

[blackened23]

Anyway, i'll echo some of the comments from Beyond 3D. AMD needs a better reference cooler. Period. They've been using a similar design since the 5000 series and it is just long in the tooth at this point. Also, way too many 7000 cards had coil whine - this is inexcusable. This is an easy design fix, and to subject an unsuspecting user to that nonsense will just make them (most likely) RMA the card. FIX THE COIL WHINE. (yes, I know not all cards had it, but a LOT did)

I'm hoping for GTX 780 level performance with a slightly better price. Hopefully AMD will deliver. I want them to deliver a compelling part as they did with the 5870 - that was considered a great GPU at the time with sales to match. And a great price. I'm expecting great things this time around, if they've learned lessons from the 79xx.

 

[thilanliyan]

Also, way too many 7000 cards had coil whine - this is inexcusable.

Did it affect a particular model or brand? I have a MSI and HIS 7950 and none of them exhibit that problem...and they are running 24/7 mining. Or does it only happen in game menus or something where the fps is really high?

 

[VulgarDisplay]

Several rumors that Maxwell will be 28nm.

Really? If AMD's upcoming flagship fits in between the gtx780 and Titan in performance as some rumors are stating I think it would be silly for Nvidia to release Maxwell on 28nm. They won't be under any pressure to release a new architecture if those rumors are true.

So basically, come 2h2014 Nvidia and AMD will be able to get some 20nm production? Why the heck would Nvidia release a 3rd series of cards on 28nm when they are only about 12 months away from being able to get some 20nm capacity?

They have the fastest 28nm single card already, and likely still will after AMD releases the 9970. Seems pointless to release Maxwell on 28nm. The only thing I expect to change is that Titan's prices will come down out of the clouds and early adopters will feel raped.

 

[blackened23]

Did it affect a particular model or brand? I have a MSI and HIS 7950 and none of them exhibit that problem...and they are running 24/7 mining. Or does it only happen in game menus or something where the fps is really high?

It seems to be completely random with regard to affected models (mostly reference), and happens when vsync is off and the framerate is in the thousands. As a sidenote, my sapphires (when I owned them) also did not have coil whine but I've heard of many other random 79xx cards with coil whine. I just want AMD to ensure this isn't an issue with the next generation - personally if I ever bought a card with coil whine it would be an instant RMA.

If they're serious about good customer experience focus with the next-gen, then this is an issue they should ensure doesn't exist. As well, many review websites pointed out coil whine on 7970 and 7990 cards. Any card with that issue, it is an inexcusable issue with design or QA.

 

[Stuka87]

Also, way too many 7000 cards had coil whine - this is inexcusable. This is an easy design fix, and to subject an unsuspecting user to that nonsense will just make them (most likely) RMA the card. FIX THE COIL WHINE. (yes, I know not all cards had it, but a LOT did)

What make card did you have? I have not experienced it with any of my cards. I can hear a TINY bit if they are running at about 1000fps (Solid black screen or something), but thats typical for most GPU's.

Its been quite a while since I looked at my card, but I think it has little dabs of epoxy on the coils, which stops any whining.

 

[Rvenger]

I always thought the coil whine was wayyy more noticable on the lower ASIC chips that needed higher voltage. If I received a 75% + ASIC GPU, the coil whine was acceptable. Anything below that ran the GPU at a higher voltage causing louder coil whine due to high leakage. I definitely noticed a pattern.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Hoping for a 20nm HD 9970.

You have to wait to H2/2014 for the possibility of that.

Several rumors that Maxwell will be 28nm.

Maxwell will be 20nm. Else they cant even get close to forfill any projections.

 

[Silverforce11]

Anyway, i'll echo some of the comments from Beyond 3D. AMD needs a better reference cooler. Period. They've been using a similar design since the 5000 series and it is just long in the tooth at this point.

All they need is wider intake gaps on the blower fan, larger blades, more space for air to rush in without generating massive airflow blower noise. Their heatsink is excellent, its a massive solid copper, the 7950 and 7970 heatsink is nearly twice the weight of the reference 670 sink.

I would buy reference design if it wasn't noisy, easily over twin fan open setups that dump heat in the case.

As for 20nm, its not just Apple, its Qualcomm as well, both are giants eating up wafers. PC GPUs on 20nm probably wont be market ready til nearly end of 2014.. and when it arrives, it WILL be expensive.

 

[Skurge]

Maybe AMD should pull an Nvidia. Lock Voltage, get a cheap PCB and spend all the money on the cooler.

 

[Arzachel]

Things to expect:
More shaders, more ROPs, more ACEs and likely cache too
Turbo much closer to what Nvidia is doing and as such, slightly higher clockspeeds
Feature parity with the GPUs in the PS4 and Xbone
Marketing leaning heavily on BF4

Things not to expect:
20nm, not until next summer at the very earliest
Silly pricing, if the top SKU is faster than a 780, don't expect it to be under $500
Huge die, while probably bigger than Tahiti, stripping out all the redundancy needed for early 28nm dies to yield decently will help keep the size down
TDP over 250W, I don't think this even needs to be explained

 

[Erenhardt]

any1 had their fingers on one of these?
http://www.eteknix.com/sapphire-letting-clients-test-hd-9970-curacao-xt-graphics-card/