AMD is onto a good thing with the Radeon HD 7000 series, but the manufacturer is having a hard time of keeping its upcoming products under wraps.
Whether or not the frequent leaks are intentional remains a mystery, but there's certainly no shortage of them and they're a treat for any reader who lives and breathes PC graphics.
This week, two yet-to-be-released products - the Radeon HD 7770 and Radeon HD 7750 - are all the rage, and 3DCenter has backed up the earlier rumours of a February 15 launch with detailed card specifications. According to the site, both cards will be officially unveiled this week and will shape up as follows:
Radeon HD 7000-series specification |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GPU | HD 7970 | HD 7950 | HD 7770 | HD 7750 |
| Codename | Tahiti XT | Tahiti Pro | Cape Verde XT | Cape Verde Pro |
| Launch Date | January 9, 2012 | January 31, 2012 | February 15, 2012 | February 15, 2012 |
| Memory | 3,072MB | 3,072MB | 1,024MB | 1,024MB |
| Processors | 2,048 | 1,792 | 640 | 512 |
| Compute units | 32 | 28 | 10 | 8 |
| Texture Units | 128 | 112 | 40 | 32 |
| ROP Units | 32 | 32 | 16 | 16 |
| Core Clock (MHz) | 925 | 800 | 1,000 | 800 |
| Memory Clock (MHz) | 5,500 | 5,000 | 4,500 | 4,500 |
| Memory Bus (bits) | 384 | 384 | 128 | 128 |
| TDP | 250 | 200 | 80 | 55 |
| DX API | 11.1 | 11.1 | 11.1 | 11.1 |
| Architecture | GCN | GCN | GCN | GCN |
| Process | 28nm | 28nm | 28nm | 28nm |
| Approx. Price | £450 | £350 | £130 | £100 |
Taking a Radeon HD 7970 and cutting it down to size, AMD has apparently shaved off a massive 22 compute units to create the more affordable Radeon HD 7770, leaving 640 shaders, 40 texture units and 16 ROPs.
The cuts are bigger than anticipated, but if pricing is anything to go by, the card - expected to hit retail at or below £130 - should deliver similar levels of performance as a Radeon HD 6870.
We can't confirm or deny the rumours, but Tarinder's been locked in the labs with something this past week, so when the Radeon HD 7770 and 7750 do make their appearance, you can rest assured that we'll have in-depth reviews ready and waiting.
