There have been AMD leaks a-plenty over the last few days coming from Sweclockers, and the latest one is slightly more forward-looking than the rest. The source claims that AMD's 'next-next-gen' Rx 400 series GPUs will go by the codename Arctic Islands. The Rx 400 Arctic Islands series will succeed the yet-to-be-released Rx 300 Pirate Islands series which is slated for Q2 of this year, between March and May.
The Rx 400 series is rumoured to be hitting the market in mid-to-late 2016 which marks a swift transition from the previous generation. Sadly, the source has no specifics about AMD's Arctic Islands GPUs but speculation has already erupted - this isn't Volcanic Islands - ed. - about the implications of the word Arctic. The connotations of the word are fairly obvious - low temperatures. Will AMD's Rx 400 series run with dramatically lower temperatures than previous generation products?
| Year |
Series
|
Codename
|
Process Node
|
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 |
Radeon HD 7000 Radeon HD 8000 |
Southern Islands Sea Islands |
28nm
|
|
2013 2014 |
Rx 200
|
Volcanic Islands
|
28nm
|
| 2015 |
Rx 300
|
Pirate Islands (formerly Caribbean Islands)
|
28nm??
|
| 2016 |
Rx 400
|
Arctic Islands
|
14nm/20nm??
|
Trying to narrow the list of Arctic islands down to catchy individual GPU names is likely a little adventurous given that there are hundreds of Arctic islands to choose from. That said we wouldn't be surprised if the Arctic's largest island, Greenland, is used to codename the biggest GPU of the Rx 400 series, likely the R9 490X or a dual-GPU equivalent.
Naming aside there is surprisingly little that is known about the Radeon Rx 400 series, and the report is thin on technical detail. A safe assumption would be that AMD will step down the size of the process node to 20nm or less. We've already heard that GlobalFoundries and TSMC will be ready with their 14nm and 16nm production, respectively, in 2016. Furthermore, AMD is expected to launch its Summit Ridge CPUs in late 2016, also making use of 14nm technology.
All of this points to an exciting couple of years for PC enthusiasts, providing delays don't wreak havoc in the production schedules like they have done in the past for AMD. 2016 could, in theory, be the year of AMD Arctic Islands GPUs based on the 14nm process and Nvidia Pascal GPUs based on the 16nm process.
