AMD: Southern Islands (7*** series) Speculation/ Rumour Thread
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AMD announced they've hired John Gustafson as Chief Graphics Product Architect. Gustafson has significant experience in parallel computing and is known as the guy behind the Gustafson's Law.
AMD announced today that the visionary behind Gustafson's Law, John Gustafson, has joined the company as senior fellow and chief product architect, Graphics Business Unit. In this role, Gustafson will set the technical vision for the AMD graphics business unit, driving the technology roadmap and platform for the AMD Radeon and AMD FirePro product lines as well as new technology planning and execution of business objectives. Gustafson will be based in Sunnyvale and will help evangelize AMD graphics leadership internally and externally.
"Our industry-leading graphics technology predicates that we consistently deliver the most differentiated and superior graphics processor unit (GPU) architectures and products -- without compromise," said Matt Skynner, corporate vice president and general manager, AMD Graphics. "With the growing importance of parallel compute in defining the computing experience, John brings the full package of industry experience and knowledge needed to help us expand and execute our AMD Radeon and AMD FirePro graphics technology programs, and will help forge an aggressive long-term roadmap that allows AMD to continue to lead and win with our gaming and virtualization technologies."
Gustafson is a 35-year veteran of the computing industry. He joins AMD from Intel, where he headed the company's eXtreme Technologies Lab, conducting cutting-edge research on energy-efficient computing and memory, as well as optical, energy and storage technologies. Prior to that, he served as CEO at Massively Parallel Technologies and CTO at ClearSpeed Technology, a high-performance computing company. Gustafson has also held key management and research positions at numerous companies including Sun Microsystems, Ames Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories.
In 1988, Gustafson wrote Reevaluating Amdahl's Law to address limitations of Amdahl's Law, which models the maximum potential performance improvement from parallel processing. Gustafson proved that processors working in parallel can solve larger problems, marking a change in how the industry viewed parallel processing. Today, Gustafson's Law is widely accepted among academia as the standard for parallel processing education.
"I look forward to working with my teams to expand the AMD graphics technology roadmap," said Gustafson. "The next decade will serve as a watershed era for GPUs in graphics rendering power and compute capabilities, creating the opportunity for multi-teraFLOPS APUs. In terms of raw performance, the evolution of discrete graphics has far exceeded that of the CPU, and the programmable characteristics of today's GPUs have thrown open a door that could very well see it rival the CPU as the most critical element of computer performance in the near future."
Gustafson holds both a master's and a doctorate degree in applied mathematics from Iowa State University, and a bachelor's degree in the same from the California Institute of Technology. He also holds numerous patents and has authored an extensive array of technical publications.
AMD announced today that the visionary behind Gustafson's Law, John Gustafson, has joined the company as senior fellow and chief product architect, Graphics Business Unit. In this role, Gustafson will set the technical vision for the AMD graphics business unit, driving the technology roadmap and platform for the AMD Radeon and AMD FirePro product lines as well as new technology planning and execution of business objectives. Gustafson will be based in Sunnyvale and will help evangelize AMD graphics leadership internally and externally.
"Our industry-leading graphics technology predicates that we consistently deliver the most differentiated and superior graphics processor unit (GPU) architectures and products -- without compromise," said Matt Skynner, corporate vice president and general manager, AMD Graphics. "With the growing importance of parallel compute in defining the computing experience, John brings the full package of industry experience and knowledge needed to help us expand and execute our AMD Radeon and AMD FirePro graphics technology programs, and will help forge an aggressive long-term roadmap that allows AMD to continue to lead and win with our gaming and virtualization technologies."
Gustafson is a 35-year veteran of the computing industry. He joins AMD from Intel, where he headed the company's eXtreme Technologies Lab, conducting cutting-edge research on energy-efficient computing and memory, as well as optical, energy and storage technologies. Prior to that, he served as CEO at Massively Parallel Technologies and CTO at ClearSpeed Technology, a high-performance computing company. Gustafson has also held key management and research positions at numerous companies including Sun Microsystems, Ames Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories.
In 1988, Gustafson wrote Reevaluating Amdahl's Law to address limitations of Amdahl's Law, which models the maximum potential performance improvement from parallel processing. Gustafson proved that processors working in parallel can solve larger problems, marking a change in how the industry viewed parallel processing. Today, Gustafson's Law is widely accepted among academia as the standard for parallel processing education.
"I look forward to working with my teams to expand the AMD graphics technology roadmap," said Gustafson. "The next decade will serve as a watershed era for GPUs in graphics rendering power and compute capabilities, creating the opportunity for multi-teraFLOPS APUs. In terms of raw performance, the evolution of discrete graphics has far exceeded that of the CPU, and the programmable characteristics of today's GPUs have thrown open a door that could very well see it rival the CPU as the most critical element of computer performance in the near future."
Gustafson holds both a master's and a doctorate degree in applied mathematics from Iowa State University, and a bachelor's degree in the same from the California Institute of Technology. He also holds numerous patents and has authored an extensive array of technical publications.
Cost of production is lower for nvidia then for AMD this generation? I've not seen much discussion about that.
I can't say I agree. If that were true wouldn't you've bought from them yourself if their execution was that enticing (from a consumer point of view)?To be clear, they burnt themselves by going back on their strategy somewhat and then their competitor did the exact same strategy but executed much more successfully at the same time. If they'd gone for a slightly bigger Pitcairn with faster memory, like their old strategy ala 4800/5800 series, perhaps they could have had a very similar product to GK104. Of course NV probably would have still marketed it better, with turbo and the like winning over consumers by winning reviews. As a consumer I prefer the path AMD have taken, but what benefits me in being able to buy a card I see as far more future proof than the 660Ti for $50 less, doesn't necessarily benefit AMD.
People should voice their opinions more. If you believe that then say it :smile:. From what I've seen people are just as vocal about both brands. Tahiti is a very good card to buy. However, and this is just my opinion, I'm looking to see if AMD will release the 8900 series once win8 hits the market. But to be fair there really isn't a game out there now that the 7900 series can't handle already if you are gaming at 1080/1200 resolution (not sure how many play at higher resolutions so I'll leave that out).
Edit:
Here is some additional information I've found from JPR. Also found this. I don't make it out to be the end all be all but there is other information out there then the impression you've gotten.
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Unfortunately I get a similar impression from reading other forums, that nVidia is by far the better card. Some people have, in their words upgraded from 7970s to GTX670s, others seem to think the 660Ti out right faster than the 7950 and a match for the 7970!. I can only asusme it's review sites continual use of reference cards and maybe also re-using old test data based on old drivers that is fueling this. Oh and of course that THE most demanding game on the PC is Battlefield 3...
UniversalTruth
Veteran
Now I begin to understand why AMD decided to cancel HD 7990 at all, and let the partners do some "crazy" editions.
So, this thingie is a poor performer for the asked price of $999. Why?!? Who will going to buy it? As read somewhere else, the true and real price should be $666.
And, that means the technology both in 7970 and the drivers is outclassed by the middle-class GTX 680.
On this review they have anyway not this problem.. + i still dont understand why TPU want absolutely continue to use 4xMSAA maximum at all resolution ( including 190x1200). instead of really go to the max.( some with FXAA, or AAA dont allow more, but there's other where you can use 8xAA ) I dont say the Hardware heaven review is better, but this is just the second review we can find.
SLI still broken in this game anyway.
A little max payne3
Diablo III
CS: GO ( dont know why they test this game when we see the fps ( and as someone mentioned capped at 300fps max )
No problem for them with the cooler, max temp reported gpu1= 73°C / gpu2 68°C.. ( 1000mhz )
a bit more noisy of the 690, but better temp. Instead an higher TDP max reported ofc with the second bios enabled ( 1000mhz ).
The card OC in their review without problem to 1150mhz without touch the voltage.
No PLX chips available, you have just to see 690 availibilty... + What if AMD had release the 7990, let say around march, before nvidia .. look the results, they are really close.. ( some fps faster in some games, some fps slower in other, and again most of the time the results @ high res is inverted ( 2560x1600 is not shown here ). There will be allways some games who favor more Nvidia and some who favor more AMD cards....
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so late now, market moved on to next update/generation anyhow.
seems logical to go SI and maybe save some plx chips on the way.
I dont find multi gpu solutions good, I use a single card and still it runs my set up just fine at 5040x1050. This 7970 is impressive.
If you want to increase profit and marketshare convince MS and Sony of the "upgrade path" market strategy. Then let developers make a few game that require more gpu power to play. Would it really be all that surprising to finally see a gpu upgradeable console?
Isn't that what we went through with directx back in the day?
Isn't that what we went through with directx back in the day?
My only concern is what GPU would actually be used in such a situation. With memory I don't think you need high end, low latency, faster speed ram on consoles. But for GPUs it would be something different IMO. For example, if they used the equivalent of a 7800 series on next gen consoles Then offer an upgrade path for a 7950 equivalent that's a big performance gap. IMO, that would be the difference between a game that's playable (that needed the 7950) vs not playable at all (as there is no IQ settings to adjust on console...unless that changes next gen). That would make all current next gen consoles base models regardless of what it comes equipped with.
What would be the cost of such an upgrade for us? Would people buy the gpu if it's less then $100 of the console itself? What if the gpu cost as much as it's equivalent on PC?
Then we have to ponder on the ability to overclock them
.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.
Textures may also (hopefully) not prove to be the glaring difference between top end PC optimized games and console games next gen.
UniversalTruth
Veteran
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...
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...
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