Both AMD and Nvidia are preparing their graphics cards ranges for an update shortly and information regarding what might be on the way has recently emerged from unexpected channels. AMD appears to be readying its high-end R9 390 and R9 390X GPUs. Meanwhile Nvidia is preparing its GeForce GTX 960 graphics card to slot into its mid-range position. Both tidbits of information come courtesy of the Zauba import export shipping database.
AMD Radeon R9 390 series
Starting with a look at what AMD has recently shipped to India, this appears to be the printed circuit boards for Fiji XT based graphics cards. OC3D asserts that the accompanying code of C880 is "a finalized PCB design for the R9 390 series of GPUs, with the Fiji XT core being the GPU core used in the R9 390X". The shipping manifest doesn't give out much more data.
Supplementary information about AMD's upcoming R9 390 Series has come in from other sources to add to the above. Again OC3D has joined the dots and believes that it has found SiSoft Sandra database testing results for both the R9 390 and the R9 390X. The results indicate that upcoming R9 390 is equipped 3520 stream processors at 1050MHz and the R9 390X has 4096 stream processors at 1000MHz with 4GB of VRAM.
Nvidia GeForce GTX 960
There are many more details of Nvidia's GTX 960 graphics card on the Zauba shipping manifest than on AMD's form. For a start we have a proper model name rather than some code that corresponds with rumoured code names. Also the information includes the card specs such as GPU clock and memory speeds, RAM and number and type of monitor connector ports.
The shipping record reports that the GTX 960 features 4GB of DDR5 RAM connected to a 256 bit interface. Clock speeds of "993/6008" are listed. We assume that is the GPU and memory speed but the first figure could be either base or boost GPU speed, it isn't indicated which. Without further details of the GPU such as the number of shader units it's hard to be certain if the GTX 960 is based upon the same Maxwell GM204GPU as its big brothers. TechReport says that this DisplayPort, HDMI, and dual DVI connected card will sell in 10 card packs for approximately $256 per unit, which ties in closely to its intention of being a GTX 760 successor.
Hopefully it won't be too long until these rumoured graphics cards are officially released and we have them in under scrutiny in the HEXUS labs.
