AMD Radeon HD 8000 series could be delayed until Q2 2013

Jos

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AMD’s “Sea Islands” graphics card lineup is set to arrive as the Radeon HD 8000 series in the second quarter of 2013, according to supply chain sources talking to DigiTimes. The Taiwanese website says Southern Islands’s successor was originally scheduled to land by the end of the year, but was pushed back as AMD focuses on its ongoing business reorganization. Other reports had pegged the launch for Q1 next year, which would have been in line with this year’s retail launch of the Radeon HD 7970 in January.

There aren’t many details available at this point, besides the fact that the Radeon HD 8000 series will be based on the 28nm GCN 2.0 architecture (Graphics Core Next 2.0), which includes improvements to overall performance per watt as well as HSA (Heterogenous System Architecture) enhancements.

The single-GPU flagship HD 8970 is expected to arrive first followed by the HD 8950, codenamed Venus XT and Venus Pro, respectively. Later on in Q3 2013, Mars and Oland based cards are set to take the stage, covering the performance and mid-range segments in notebook and desktop markets. If previous releases are any indication we should be looking at 15 - 20% performance gains from one generation to the next.

amd pushes radeon sea islands launch 2q-2013

While AMD’s next-generation graphics chips are still a few months away, it seems the company has already kicked off the HD 8000 label with a few rebranded mobile parts. Late last month a couple of retail listings cropped up for an Asus VivoBook U38DT with "Radeon HD 8550M" graphics -- likely a rebadged HD 7550M. Unsurprisingly, its main rival Nvidia appears to be recurring to the same tactics during the holiday shopping season, with a GeForce GT 730M-equipped Acer notebook showing up at a different online store.

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Bah, I hate when they do that rebranding / rebadging thing during the lull before new generations hit. It's so misleading, and just completely muddies up sales efforts when dealing with average consumers... It puts the retailers at a disadvantage, trying to sell existing stock that has something like the "7550M" when a new unit right next to it, with "8550M" on the specs, sounds newer and faster but really has no difference...

If it's actually a new product, or has new functions or features, give it a new number. If not, leave it alone and keep it simple... Wouldn't it be great if marketing departments actually used common sense?
 
Bah, I hate when they do that rebranding / rebadging thing during the lull before new generations hit. It's so misleading, and just completely muddies up sales efforts when dealing with average consumers
The rebranding is generally at the OEM's behest in this particular case (as are most mobile GPU's)...if it carries over into desktop there's more cause for concern I think. I'd also have to wonder just how many of these customers are actually aware (or care) what hardware sits inside their notebook. Reviews are seldom an apples-to-apples comparison, and even supposed tech veterans have little idea about the mobile GPU's in comparison with their desktop counterparts.
Wouldn't it be great if marketing departments actually used common sense?
I think that is on the agenda sometime after the attainment of world peace and routine interstellar travel, but before the Detroit Lions win a Superbowl.


As for the Sea Islands delay, not big deal imo. My reasoning is paraphrased from my post at another site (just in case you read it and note the similarity)
Given AMD's cost cutting strategy of late (selling assets, sacking employees), it makes sense for them to maximize their RoI on the present range of cards. If enthusiasts are aware that a new range is imminent then it effectively Osborne's the current line-up - much as the HD 7000's did to HD 6000 sales last year. Unlike last year, AMD's partners still seem to have significant inventory.

Another consideration would be timing I think. Sea Islands will be the last 28nm series of GPU's before they (and Nvidia) move to 20nm, an early launch of this series if allied to a late launch/problematic ramp of TSMC's 20nm means a sizeable gap between releases. TSMC are only in the tooling validation stage of 20nm, and getting ready for low-power chip production at this time.
 
I think that is on the agenda sometime after the attainment of world peace and routine interstellar travel, but before the Detroit Lions win a Superbowl.

Heh... As a former resident of the state of Michigan, I hereby applaud your use of the Lions, and shall endeavor to use this phrase whenever I am explaining the concept of "never gonna happen" to others, if that is OK with you... It's so much better than "when Hell freezes over" and the like. :)
 
So we gotta wait for next Summer or after for midrange 8000 series cards? sigh
 
It's late due to "business reorganization"? I call BS on that, I'm sure it's *partly* the reason but graphic cards are getting so powerful, there's not much reason to really upgrade anymore other than from a midrange card (which can play most games on great settings).

Nothing is really pushing the graphical envelope anymore so both AMD/Nvidia are taking their sweet time to sell most of the current gen as possible, not to mention the down scaling of technology has a finite limit. Screen resolution on monitors is comfortable at 1080p so unless we see 2560+ being pushed out in the next few years as the standard. The 9xxx and 8xx series could take ever longer to come out after the 8xxx/7xx.
 
When radeon issued 8000 series, will nvidia also issued 700 series to catch up as well? :D
 
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