AMD's Radeon HD 7000 series is off to a flying start with the launch of the venerable HD 7970 and the almost-as-fast HD 7950, but for those of you who're unable - or unwilling - to spend in excess of £300 on PC graphics, we've good news as it seems the underlying GCN architecture will be filtering through to the mainstream marketplace as soon as February 15.
That date appears to have been leaked by the following MSI slide, which hints at the release of the HD 7750 and HD 7770 in a fortnight's time, followed by the HD 7850 and HD 7870 in March, and the range-topping dual-GPU HD 7990 in the second quarter of the year.
It'll be an interesting couple of months, that's for certain, but these supposed release windows don't mean a lot without card specifications, so we're putting on our conjecturing hats to come up with some logicial numbers.
All seven Radeon HD 7000 series cards are detailed in the table below, and while none of the details are confirmed, the rumour mill coupled with a pinch of common sense tells us these numbers won't be far off.
Speculative Radeon HD 7000-series specification |
|||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GPU | HD 7990 | HD 7970 | HD 7950 | HD 7870 | HD 7850 | HD 7770 | HD 7750 |
| Codename | New Zealand | Tahiti XT | Tahiti Pro | Pitcairn XT | Pitcairn Pro | Cape Verde XT | Cape Verde Pro |
| Release Date | Q2 2012 | January 9, 2012 | January 31, 2012 | March, 2012 | March, 2012 | February 15, 2012 | February 15, 2012 |
| Memory | 3,072MB (x2) | 3,072MB | 3,072MB | 2,048MB | 2,048MB | 1,024MB | 1,024MB |
| Processors | 4,096 | 2,048 | 1,792 | 1,408 | 1,280 | 896 | 832 |
| Compute units | 64 | 32 | 28 | 22 | 20 | 14 | 13 |
| Texture Units | 256 | 128 | 112 | 88 | 80 | 56 | 52 |
| ROP Units | 64 | 32 | 32 | 24 | 24 | 16 | 16 |
| Core Clock (MHz) | 800 | 925 | 800 | 950 | 825 | 900 | 900 |
| Memory Clock (MHz) | 5,000 | 5,500 | 5,000 | 5,500 | 5,000 | 5,500 | 5,000 |
| Memory Bus (bits) | 384 (x2) | 384 | 384 | 256 | 256 | 128 | 128 |
| DX API | 11.1 | 11.1 | 11.1 | 11.1 | 11.1 | 11.1 | 11.1 |
| Architecture | GCN | GCN | GCN | GCN | GCN | GCN | GCN |
| Process | 28nm | 28nm | 28nm | 28nm | 28nm | 28nm | 28nm |
| Price Guesstimate | £650 | £450 | £350 | £250 | £200 | £130 | £115 |
What do you think, folks? Any reason to bet against the proposed specifications? And, if not, would any of the above cards be on your list of ones-to-watch-out-for in the coming months?
