Code names for AMD Radeon HD 8000 series found in drivers

[Final8ty]

After speculations on various problems NVIDIA made a comeback with Kepler and showed the world how it's done, but AMD is not sitting idle for now the next generation graphics cards based on the Sea Island architecture has appeared in the latest drivers.

NVIDIA took back the lead with a small margin with the launch of GeForce GTX 680 and then trumped that with the GTX 690. AMD's counter with Radeon HD 7990 with dual Tahiti circuits is still behind closed doors. There is something even more interesting than the rumored HD 7990, namely code names for graphics cards in the future HD 8000 series.

Code names with bundled model names first appeared in test drivers from AMD and revealed that the company has at least 16 new graphics cards coming - this can change at any time though. First we have the code name Venus, followed by the suffixes XTX and XT, which represent HD 8970 and HD 8950. There is also a Venus Pro LE, which implies a crippled version that will be part of a HD 8800 series. In the lower segments we see names like Oland that is used in the HD 8700 series.

Other than that we know very little about the Sea Islands family. What we do know is that it will build on the new Graphics Core Next architecture, also known as GCN. Besides better performance and energy efficiency it will focus more on GPGPU acceleration and a continued work toward Heterogenous System Architecture, HSA.

It is interesting that just Venus and Oland are mentioned, which are only two graphics cores to cover the whole upper segment. It is too early to speculate in this, but we know for certain that AMD's third generation APU Kaveri will sport eight GCN units for a total of 512 Radeon cores - like Radeon HD 7750. It is therefore likely that the new APU will run in Dual Graphics with a HD 8600 series - today's HD 7750 and HD 7770? As the integrated graphics processors grow faster, graphics cards in the lower price ranges become more and more irrelevant and thus not worth spending a lot of money on developing new ones.

We can only wait and see what will happen, but we find our scenario quite likely. Radeon HD 8000 and Sea Islands are expected to appear in H1 2013.

http://www.nordichardware.com/news/...000-serien-synas-i-senaste-drivrutinerna.html

 

[OVerLoRDI]

Roadmaps slate these for what? Q1 2013?

 

[Arzachel]

My guess is Q3 2012 or Q1 2013. Without node woes, I'm guessing it'll be less than a year between generations.

 

[ViRGE]

My guess is Q3 2012 or Q1 2013. Without node woes, I'm guessing it'll be less than a year between generations.

On the other hand you need to space it out for business purposes. TSMC's next node is effectively 2 years out still (it's taking them around 2.5 years/node right now), so a 2012 launch would mean AMD would have nothing new for all of 2013. Even looking at AMD's product schedule they haven't launched next generation parts in under a year in quite some time.

 

[BrightCandle]

On the other hand you need to space it out for business purposes. TSMC's next node is effectively 2 years out still (it's taking them around 2.5 years/node right now), so a 2012 launch would mean AMD would have nothing new for all of 2013. Even looking at AMD's product schedule they haven't launched next generation parts in under a year in quite some time.

If AMD could design, build and release a new product every week that was a little better than the last they would do it. But that isn't feasible for lots of reasons. They will release the next version when their planned features are finished, all the tooling etc necessary to build them is complete and they can yield enough of them to make a viable product at a reasonable price. Then the driver team will make a hash of it all and it'll be another brilliant card ruined by software.

 

[Grooveriding]

Couldn't Sea Islands just be released on 28nm ?

I'm expecting it will be. There are no locked off or fused parts on Tahiti. Most likely they'll release a new design on the same node for 8XXX.

 

[-Slacker-]

I hope they go easier on the compute crap and just focus on pure gaming performance this time.

 

[3DVagabond]

I hope they go easier on the compute crap and just focus on pure gaming performance this time.

Well, that's not going to happen. Let's just hope they take it easier on our wallets now that the process is more mature. I don't think that's going to happen either, to be honest.

 

[lavaheadache]

It has been long rumored that Tahiti was going to be followed quickly by a refresh. This new finding doesn't surprise me at all.

 

[Smoblikat]

If AMD could design, build and release a new product every week that was a little better than the last they would do it. But that isn't feasible for lots of reasons. They will release the next version when their planned features are finished, all the tooling etc necessary to build them is complete and they can yield enough of them to make a viable product at a reasonable price. Then the driver team will make a hash of it all and it'll be another brilliant card ruined by software.

I like hash...............

But seriously, i agree that ATi could make some great cards if their drivers didnt hold them back.

 

[Final8ty]

If AMD could design, build and release a new product every week that was a little better than the last they would do it. But that isn't feasible for lots of reasons. They will release the next version when their planned features are finished, all the tooling etc necessary to build them is complete and they can yield enough of them to make a viable product at a reasonable price. Then the driver team will make a hash of it all and it'll be another brilliant card ruined by software.

Yes they made a hash of the 7xxx so far, its seems that they may be turning a corner.
As far as making a big hash of 8xxx is less likely to be as bad as the 7xxx seeing as GCN had to be written from scratch and when the 8xxx turns up they should be more prepared.

 

[Gordon Freemen]

Who cares what there named god LOL

 

[Borealis7]

the golden age of the 8800 is coming back!

 

[Arzachel]

On the other hand you need to space it out for business purposes. TSMC's next node is effectively 2 years out still (it's taking them around 2.5 years/node right now), so a 2012 launch would mean AMD would have nothing new for all of 2013. Even looking at AMD's product schedule they haven't launched next generation parts in under a year in quite some time.

Reed might push for tighter execution, Trinity came out less than a year after Llano. But I believe it's more down to what Nvidia does. We won't see a midrange card from Nvidia until July at the very earliest and GK110 is still a pretty big unknown at this point. It's possible that AMD could go for three generations on the same node if Nvidia can only manage two to out-do them similarly as what Nvidia did to 3dfx but I wouldn't bet on it.