Viper1 said:
zarx said:
Viper1 said: Any rumor with an HD 79xx based GPU can be thrown in the trash as the author obviously made it up. An HD 79xx GPU is far too big (die size), too hot (200+ watts) and too expensive to even be considered. A rumor is one thing but an HD 79xx rumor is just someone trying to get his to his website. |
The rumour didn't actually say a 79XX GPU though, It said "AMD R10x series (presumably the source is from before AMD dropped the R*** naming for graphics cores) GPU @ 800 MHz (Tahiti) 1.84 TFlops and 18 Compute Units" Superchuck just assumed that Tahiti referred to the HD 79XX series GPUs. But the HD 7950 which is at 800MHz is 2.8 TFlops and 28 Compute Units (A compute unit for GCN is 64 Stream processors + a scalar coprocessor) which is just a 7970 downclocked with 4 Compute Units disabled for yeilds.
It would seem to me that while the rumoured GPU shares a codename with the high end 79XX GPUs it is not the same die at all and is actually clearly much smaller. It's likely closer to a Pitcairn GPU, and probably a bit smaller than that as the 7870 has 20 compute units.
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Given that they haven't used the "R***" codenames since 2008 and the rumor came well after 2008, that raises the dubious meter to full tilt right there.
And that last time was the R700 (HD 4xxx) line. Can you imagine a rumor claiming to use a GPU 3 generations up?
And even if it were only 18 computer units, it is claiming to be a Tahiti die which wouldn't make any sense to have that much wasted silicon taking up space. Almost half of your 352mm2 isn't even being used. May as well just use a Pitcairn and drop clocks.
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Actually they did refer to Evergreen as R800 up until launch, also the R1k has been in development since 2007 http://www.theinq.com/default.aspx?article=42297. But the assumption that it predates the name change is mine, it could well be that they still use the RXXXX internally or it was made up by the article writer, many people still refer to the new AMD GPU architectures by the R number even if AMD don't publically, the Beyond 3D rumour and speculation threads, and the first acurate leaks of Tahiti GPUs http://www.3dcenter.org/news/2011-11-28.
And it doesn't actualy claim it's a Tahiti die, it said "this is code-named "Tahiti."" Not "this is a Tahiti die" or "it is based on the HD 7970".
It is quite possibly bullshit, but I still don't think it ever suggested a HD 79X0 GPU, in fact the specs provided don't match any existing GPU so suggest that it is a custom chip that happens to share a codename with the HD 79X0 and is bassed on the R1000/Southern Islands/GCN architecture.