[RedVi]

That sounds unlikely to me. They could possibly have a 384-bit memory interface with one 128-bit disabled, and sell an expansion for 1-2GB of extra memory that enables that connection. The extra memory and memory bandwidth could allow for better textures at playable framerates. Surely it would have a latency penalty over the other hard wired DRAM though - not to mention the fact that you have a chip which now is now far closer to being pad limited for future shrinks. Would a 7800 series chip even benefit from a wider bus and more memory alone? Probably not on the PC front, but quite possibly in a closed system.

Textures may also (hopefully) not prove to be the glaring difference between top end PC optimized games and console games next gen.

[UniversalTruth]

One particularly interesting article and topic:

AMD's Radeon HD 7000 Series Graphics Cards Reportedly Receiving Price Cuts Soon (Update: AMD denies further price cuts)



These prices are almost certainly for reference designs, and you can naturally expect to pay for any factory overclocked model. What these price cuts mean, though is that the base versions are now cheaper to get ahold of, which is a good thing (for gamers, not so much for AMD heh).

Ok, I see that AMD wants to be like Apple with many followers which are ready to pay any price for their products. But I'm afraid that for AMD it is not the way how it works.
Sorry but I think there are many people who are actually stopped from purchasing a given videocard only because they see the price.
So, my point is that they don't think that if the 7970 GHz Ed costs for example $250, that would improve dramatically the volume of shipments..
This market even without these relatively high prices shows a trend of shrinking-- so what are they trying to do (or helping/ not preventing from happening)? To kill it all?



How tablets are eating the PC's future – but might save the desktop computer

Simply "astonishing"... "Might" save...

[jimbo75]

You can be sure of one thing - that is both AMD and Nvidia have number-crunched the hell out of this and are doing exactly what they need to do to make the most money.

If they dropped the 7970 GHz edition to $250 what do you think would happen to prices on the other cards?

[ECH]

This makes me think that next gen cards are coming soon.

[McHuj]

Originally Posted by ECH

This makes me think that next gen cards are coming soon.

Perhaps. I think the launch of the 7970/680 at $499 showed that there is a consumer willing to pay that premium amount for a top of the line card.

If they can launch a high margin card this year, I think they will.

[lanek]

Originally Posted by UniversalTruth

One particularly interesting article and topic:

AMD's Radeon HD 7000 Series Graphics Cards Reportedly Receiving Price Cuts Soon (Update: AMD denies further price cuts)



These prices are almost certainly for reference designs, and you can naturally expect to pay for any factory overclocked model. What these price cuts mean, though is that the base versions are now cheaper to get ahold of, which is a good thing (for gamers, not so much for AMD heh).

Ok, I see that AMD wants to be like Apple with many followers which are ready to pay any price for their products. But I'm afraid that for AMD it is not the way how it works.
Sorry but I think there are many people who are actually stopped from purchasing a given videocard only because they see the price.
So, my point is that they don't think that if the 7970 GHz Ed costs for example $250, that would improve dramatically the volume of shipments..
This market even without these relatively high prices shows a trend of shrinking-- so what are they trying to do (or helping/ not preventing from happening)? To kill it all?

At 250$ whatever is the number of shipment, i dont think it will be valuable of the cost of R&D and production.

At the same time, the market drop for a lot of different reason.. economy crisis, instability, the fact many hardware of 3+ years are still extremely good for todays use. ( I7 920, etc ) And it seems the gpu market is not really slowing down, same for other parts. Peoples keep their I7 920 or even QX9550 and just change the gpu, the ram... Outside enthusiast or some gamers, i have never see anyone buying a full desktop pc each years...

I dont think Tablet is the cause , ( in 2008, the same analyst was saying, the smartphone will kill the pc. ( why use a pc when you have one in your pocket ).. the reality is a bit different, peoples dont buy pc and tablet/smartphone at the same rates. you can take the numbers of today and say in 2016, they will be x amount of tablet sold.. This dont say, they will be a lot less of pc sold due of the tablets .. ( with windows 8 tablets + hybrid tablets, some will replace the low end notebook or in reality the netbook. )

In some aspect, the tablet market is merging with the pc worlds, and all thoses technology merges...

We live in a connected world, and the tablet is ideal in some case for be the link between home, office computer experience ..... But i dont see Desktop pc or even powerfull laptop disappear on the profit of the tablet.

Even the tablet + keyboard /trackpad is not yet a really good experience, its ok for have a better experience on the tablet, but it is as weak netbook experience..

There's too a big difference, it is new, like for the mobile phones and the smartphones then, peoples buy something they have not, and the price is low.

[UniversalTruth]

Originally Posted by McHuj

I think the launch of the 7970/680 at $499

Radeon HD 7970 launched at the price of $549 and if it had really been a so good price, they would have never decided to slash it to $400.



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

You see the HD 6970s' price at the moment of HD 7970s' launch?

[AlphaWolf]

You also see the GTX 580 price at the moment of the 7970 launch. I have no idea why you continue on this ridiculous diatribe. Yes for the consumer cheaper is better, not so much for them.

[Silent_Buddha]

Originally Posted by UniversalTruth

Radeon HD 7970 launched at the price of $549 and if it had really been a so good price, they would have never decided to slash it to $400.

Yes, and if the 4870 was such a good card at the launch price of 299 USD, AMD never would have slashed it to ~100 USD. :P

Yet everyone on this board thought 4870 was fantastic at 299.

Prices tend to fall over time for electronics. Especially over time and in the face of competition. And even more so if they are getting ready for a new generation. These rumored price cuts aren't low enough to herald a new gen, but perhaps they are looking to start clearing the channel.

Regards,
SB

[UniversalTruth]

Pricing of AMD Radeon HD 7700, 7800 Graphics Cards Keeps Dropping
AMD Makes Latest Graphics Adapters More Affordable

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/graphic...ics_Cards.html

Advanced Micro Devices on Thursday informed about reduced prices of its mainstream and performance-mainstream graphics cards. The company and its partners continue to lower pricing in a bid to better compete against Nvidia Corp.'s growing lineup of Kepler-architecture GeForce 600-series graphics cards.

Starting today, AMD Radeon HD 7850 1GB costs $159 (after rebate), whereas the 2GB version carries $189 official price-tag. The AMD Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition graphics board now has manufacturer suggested retail price of $119. AMD and its partners specifically reduced price of sub-$200 graphics boards to improve positions in the most popular segment of graphics boards.

"With the holiday gaming season around the corner, we would like to share with you the exceptional value and performance that gamers can realize with AMD graphics this season for under $200. The 2012 holiday season will be outstanding for AMD Radeon gamers," a statement by AMD reads.

[ECH]

Take a look at these results using a HIS Radeon HD 7970 X Turbo at 1180/1500 default clock rate vs MSI 680 Lightening in BF3:
SP
MP
Kinda puts things in prospective when you are using 2 cards not at default stock clocks.

Edit:
I wonder why there is that wild fluctuation using the HIS OC vs it's default clock 1180/1500 (MP charts) ?

[Psycho]

Originally Posted by ECH

I wonder why there is that wild fluctuation using the HIS OC vs it's default clock 1180/1500 (MP charts) ?

No, it's the default that flucturate while the overclocked is more stable. Which make sense, as they apart from the small OC also set powertune to +20%, so basicly no throttling, unlike default.

I'm quite sure powertune setting has nothing todo with OC. If you OC and OV you will get higher consumption even when you don't touch the slider, as the slider is controlling throttling as a pure function of load metrics.

[ECH]

Originally Posted by Psycho

No, it's the default that flucturate while the overclocked is more stable. Which make sense, as they apart from the small OC also set powertune to +20%, so basicly no throttling, unlike default.

I'm quite sure powertune setting has anything todo with OC. If you OC and OV you will get higher consumption even when you don't touch the slider, as the slider is controlling throttling as a pure function of load metrics.

No, I think we are looking at 2 different sets of charts.
Pic1
Pic2
The 1st 2 charts appears to show all settings except for 4xAA (although it's not really clear for me). The last 2 show all settings maxed at 1920 using 4xAA.
It has the lowest dips while having the highest peaks. While the default clocks look about normal. I'm not sure why that is though. To me it doesn't look right.

[gkar1]

Apologies for the off topic but this is probably the best place for Dave to see it.

I loved the partnership you guys made with Hidden Path Entertainment for promoting Defense Grid 2 through kickstarter (got in on the $55 early bird tier). http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...defense-grid-2

In the same vein, may I suggest you get in touch with Chris Roberts and his new game Start Citizen, if there is any genre that could showcase eyefinity plus whatever enhancements dx11 brings is a space combat sim. The games is using Cryengine 3.

http://starcitizen.robertsspaceindustries.com/
Apologies again if this is out of place. There is a thead going over at the pc games subforum here for those interested http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=62469

[iMacmatician]

From SemiAccurate: "What is the latest on AMD’s Sea Islands?"

March 2013 release (they don't mention which variants) and a 15% speed increase over Southern Islands.

[Alexko]

That would be too little and too late for my taste. I also wonder what could cause such a delay from AMD's usual schedule when no major architectural changes are expected, and the manufacturing process is the same.

[jimbo75]

I'd guess 30% was before the GHz edition was released. It'll be hard to justify the 8xxx name with only 15% performance gain though.

[silent_guy]

Originally Posted by Alexko

That would be too little and too late for my taste. I also wonder what could cause such a delay from AMD's usual schedule when no major architectural changes are expected, and the manufacturing process is the same.

It's not as if they have many options for improvement: 2 companies at eachother's throat trying to squeeze as much perf/w and perf/mm2. Where's the low hanging fruit if there's process step?

[boxleitnerb]

6970 brought also only 15% as did GTX580. It's normal for a refresh.

[Alexko]

Originally Posted by silent_guy

It's not as if they have many options for improvement: 2 companies at eachother's throat trying to squeeze as much perf/w and perf/mm2. Where's the low hanging fruit if there's process step?

The small improvement doesn't particularly surprise me, I just don't get why it's taking longer than usual when it's smaller than usual.

[UniversalTruth]

I know you make it quite fun to spam in the wrong thread but come on, guys...

[silent_guy]

Originally Posted by Alexko

The small improvement doesn't particularly surprise me, I just don't get why it's taking longer than usual when it's smaller than usual.

I don't think a year is such a big deal. Probably falls right in the middle between the current generation and the next one?

[jimbo75]

Wasn't there 15 months between the 5870 and 6970?

5870 (23rd September 2009) and 6970 (15th December 2010)

So I guess 15% and 15 months looks about right.

[Alexko]

Originally Posted by silent_guy

I don't think a year is such a big deal. Probably falls right in the middle between the current generation and the next one?

It's more like ~15 months in this case.

Originally Posted by jimbo75

Wasn't there 15 months between the 5870 and 6970?

5870 (23rd September 2009) and 6970 (15th December 2010)

So I guess 15% and 15 months looks about right.

Yeah but Cayman was originally a 32nm design that had to be backported to 40nm when TSMC canned its 32nm process, which delayed it—not to mention the time spent working out how to make a big 32nm GPU in the first place.
In fact, Barts, which was meant to be built on 40nm from the beginning, came out a month earlier, even though AMD's chips of this class are usually released about a month later than the big one.

[iMacmatician]

Originally Posted by UniversalTruth

I know you make it quite fun to spam in the wrong thread but come on, guys...

Whoops, I didn't even realize my mistake until now….

(At least I didn't put it in the Kepler thread. )