.jpg "AMD-ATI may disappoint with its new HD 6000 range -")
ATI's next generation Southern Islands cores could just simply be a tweak of the Radeon HD 5000 series architecture.
According to Fudzilla, these cores will be nothing to see here move on please.
It is the second scoop that Fudo has come up with on these cards. He worked out that AMD wasn't planning on reducing the prices of its ATI Radeon HD 5000 series graphics cards because it was already preparing its next generation of adaptors.
These were known as the HD 6000 line and were supposed to come out in October and put the willies up what ever Nvidia was going to release.
Fudo said that the new HD6000 line is tiggered because it has been developed for 40nm. ATI still doesn't have any new amazing architecture until 28nm and those will not be in the shops until next year.
The first cores based on the new improved generation is planned for October.
Fudo thinks that ATI might introduce them in last days of September just to pull wool over investors' eyes. A late September lauch means that it can it took place in Q3 2010.
AMD launched the HD 5000 series in late Q3 last year, and this gave them an advantage during the back to school period.
Fudzilla thinks ATI is pulling off something similar with the upcoming 6000 series as well. Nvidia will have to face these tweaked 5000 boards during the fourth quarter. Fudzilla seems to think that Nvidia is in with a fighting chance for back to school and Q4 2010 sales period.
anyway, it is a great time to buy new graphic again this year end, thnx to the competition from nvidia.
as hes on nvidia's payroll this story is to make people re-think waiting for the 6000 series.
the site is so nvidia biased its unreal, when the 460 was realesed it was gonna make the world a better place according to his site.
Anyway, perhaps you can check with him what happened to that Hecatoncheires code-name he (and the aptly-named BS News, maybe? I'm not sure) were throwing about a short while ago? I mean, here we have two upcoming generations from ATi and not a Hecatoncheires in sight!
:-D
A bit of history as to what happened. HD 6000 series was supposed to be a major improvement, brand new architecture and die shrink. But TSMC, the guys who actually manufacture the chips ****ed up. They kept having to delay the availability of the newer die shrink. First by one quarter, then two, then three maybe four. ATI/AMDs original decision was just to push it back the one quarter, no big loss. But when news of more and more delays came in, they decided they couldn't wait that long without a new series, so they decided to release an in-between series. Thus the original 6000 series with the brand new architecture and die shrink is pushed back to becoming the 7000 series, while a new 6000 series is planned (The one mentioned in this article). It will have only half the original architecture overhaul and no die shrink.
So where does the new 6000 series stand? What can we expect from it? Well there are three main measurements that can be performed on a card.
1) Overall performance:
Here we look at the best possible performance without caring about the costs. In this case the improvement will be modest, coming from the half overhauled architecture and hopefully a re-balancing of the card (Current 5000 series cards are bottle-necked by lack of bandwidth).
2) Performance/Price:
This is arguably the most important metric for all of us. One part of the equation is what does it cost the company to make it, the second part is what do they choose to sell it at or what does it cost the consumer. Ideally improvements on the manufacturing side will trickle down to the consumer. With regards to the manufacturing, in this case the improvements will again be modest, as it is largely linked to (1) from above or a new die shrink which isn't the case this time around. However all hope is not lost. Recent pricing is rather high, AMD/ATI could easily lower prices, but haven't. NVidias high prices are dictating the market prices, AMD simply prices their products to match. So on this front its simply a matter of more competition from NVidia which has recently arrived in the form of the 460 and 465. This should result in some price drops.
3) Performance/Power Consumption:
This is more important than it may at first seem. More power consumption equals more cost in the form of electric bills and the need for a more expensive power supply. It also results in heat and noise from the fans that have to constantly spin to dissipate the heat. Again, the improvement should be modest with the gains coming from the same reasons listed in #1 above. The good news though is that AMDs video cards are very energy efficient, at least in comparison to nVidias. In fact, I recently saw a benchmark where the 460 or was it 465 drew more power than even the HD 5870 on load!
So in summary, the improvements will be modest all around, but progress largely hinges on prices falling which is a marketing issue not a manufacturing one. Here's to hoping that the the next series will bring substantial prices cuts with it. Cheers!
In any case, with NV's new product taking so long to shape up, ATI does not need to superceded it's 5000 series with a completely new design.