What are the next series of released GPUs going to be?

[maniacalpha1-1]

I don't follow this usually, only when I actually NEED a new video card. But out of curiosity(and thinking ahead to next year when I might have some money), who is going to begin their new cycle next? AMD? I presume so, I cheated and looked at Wikipedia's "List of Nvidia Graphics Processing Units" and "List of AMD Graphics Processing Units" and I see they have Southern Islands up for 2nd half 2011 but not much more known, except that the HD7000 series will use PCI Express 3.0.

Have we even bottlenecked PCI 2.0 yet?

 

[Soccerman06]

Sometime in the next 1-18 months

 

[apoppin]

What are the next series of released GPUs going to be?

Have we even bottlenecked PCI 2.0 yet?

• Faster
• More expensive
• More fully featured

Not quite yet; but expect PCie 3.0 compatible Graphics cards this coming round
(my prediction)

 

[IGemini]

My guess is AMD will release the Southern Islands family before nVidia manages to release Kepler. AMD taped out the line four months before. I'm thinking October-November release.

 

[3DVagabond]

• Faster
• More expensive
• More fully featured

Not quite yet; but expect PCie 3.0 compatible Graphics cards this coming round
(my prediction)

Do you really think they'll be more expensive? This gen wasn't. Although, it wasn't as much of an improvement, because of being stuck on the same process, as I'm assuming 28nm will be.

 

[Pia]

I'd like to know if Thunderbolt will be offered in any of the next gen.

 

[Dark Shroud]

I'd like to know if Thunderbolt will be offered in any of the next gen.

Probably not, that's something you'll see on the motherboard working with Intel Virtu or AMD PowerXPress 4.0. Keep in mind that Nvidia isn't even using Displayport yet.

 

[apoppin]

Do you really think they'll be more expensive? This gen wasn't. Although, it wasn't as much of an improvement, because of being stuck on the same process, as I'm assuming 28nm will be.

Yes. PC games have gone up in price. Everything else is going up and we are overdue for a graphics HW price increase. Whoever is first will put their price up probably $50 over what a top card retailed for at release this gen. They are aiming for increasing their margins - both companies.

This above is my opinion from watching graphics for years.

 

[SMOGZINN]

Yes. PC games have gone up in price. Everything else is going up and we are overdue for a graphics HW price increase. Whoever is first will put their price up probably $50 over what a top card retailed for at release this gen. They are aiming for increasing their margins - both companies.

This above is my opinion from watching graphics for years.

I'm sure they are wanting to increase margins, but if they do raise prices by that much I think they will have a hard time selling those cards, GPUs are rapidly approching 'fast enough' status, and I imagine that at those prices a lot of people that would buy the mid-range video cards will either skip this generation altogether, or opt to buy last generation.

 

[deanx0r]

I'd like to know if Thunderbolt will be offered in any of the next gen.

We will surely see Thunderbolt in the next refresh of Mac Pro.

 

[apoppin]

I'm sure they are wanting to increase margins, but if they do raise prices by that much I think they will have a hard time selling those cards, GPUs are rapidly approching 'fast enough' status, and I imagine that at those prices a lot of people that would buy the mid-range video cards will either skip this generation altogether, or opt to buy last generation.

Well, we already have GTX 590 and the HD 6990 selling over $700
- however, the top single-GPU video cards of two generations past were $650 on introduction (GTX 280). A fifty dollar increase over $500 is $550

That is assuming the worldwide economy is improving and that the next gen will be significantly faster and more fully featured than this one.

 

[SMOGZINN]

Well, we already have GTX 590 and the HD 6990 selling over $700

- however, the top single-GPU video cards of two generations past were $650 on introduction (GTX 280). A fifty dollar increase over $500 is $550

That is assuming the worldwide economy is improving and that the next gen will be significantly faster and more fully featured than this one.[/QUOTE]

These are decidedly low yield niche products. I don’t personally know anyone with either of those current gen cards, and don’t see many of them in the sigs here. So, I can’t imagine that these are much more then marketing in the form of niche products, the price of products like that make almost no impact on their sales. The real place that price really matters is on the low end for OEM, and mid to upper mid-ranged for enthusiasts, the $200-300 price range. This is the place were we are seeing the cards hitting the ‘fast enough’ range, and where pricing to performance is highly competitive.

 

[Mopetar]

Have we even bottlenecked PCI 2.0 yet?

No, not at least as far as GPUs are concerned. However, it is nice to have some room to grow. I imagine that high end SSDs on PCI cards, and other high I/O parts may be driving the need for additional bandwidth.