Stuka87
Diamond Member
- Dec 10, 2010
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Toms Hardware is now reporting on a rumor that the 5500 XT GPU was produced by Samsung, not TSMC.
I don't put a lot of confidence in that claim but if true may explain why 5500 was so damn late. AMD may have tried to get TSMC to make it but when it became clear it would take too long they went to Samsung. Of course AMD made that deal with Samsung on mobile GPU's and the 5500 may well have been part of that deal from the beginning.
We know the rumor was wrong now, but even if it was true, the reason would not be as you state. Because TSMC and Samsung have differences in their fab technologies, a design cannot be easily swapped over to another fab without changes. AMD would have had to intend for Samsung to do it from the start.
And honestly, it wasn't *that* late. The OEM version came out when expected. The retail version just had to wait to fulfill the initial OEM (Apple) requirements.
