Rumor is that the HD7xxx series name is official -- because it showed up on an AMD slide.

Rumor author says release is still scheduled for late September. About the same time Bulldozer (at least the Server version) is scheduled. Nvidia GTX6xx is not likely before March 2012 -- according to other rumors.

Hmmm... I may be buying more stuff than I thought in September if the high-end AMD HD79xx are released then. But, there have been SO MANY delays that I'll believe it when I see it


HD7000 Series Name/Schedule

Allen, just save your money and wait for the 8000 series. You already have two awesome 5870's.

Im gonna wait till tax return time, prices might be less, and I'll have a couple of Gs to splurge,

Where as if I build before then its gonna be budget buys on newegg and in waves (i hate doing that), consisting of alot of Low priced/Hi rated or buy this get this free stuff.

i'll wait till the end of Feb and splurge, I may get the case together this fall/winter though, as I want to keep my current rig running to some level.

I need to do the entire build: Case, Screen, KB/Mouse.

I figure the Mainboard/Ram/CHIP combo to be about $400, and the GFX about $300, then I just need Case/PSU/HDD about another $200.

I agree. I'll be looking at review articles. I think the odds are that HD7970 won't be "visibly" better than 2x HD5870 in games I play (I can say the same for the first Bulldozer). I'll want it, but maybe I'll hold off -- or maybe ..... Its just that I like to have fairly new stuff for its own sake these days.

I could hold out for the Black Friday sale. That might drop prices enough to make me feel OK about the purchase.

On the other hand, since Nvidia won't be competing until March or later (rumor), the prices on AMD/ATI may go up after the first batch is sold at MSRP (they always seem to sell that first batch at MSRP -- lasts only a matter of days). That happened with the HD4870 and even more so with the HD5870. So, buying one of the first ones may turn out to be "frugal" -- assuming I was going to buy one eventually

Depents on if he is needed more vRam, if so the HD7XXX could be the right upgrade!!!
For me it is the right upgrade for my HD4890.

note some games do not have any benefit in running CrossfireX

Will AMD/ATI's $200 card (hopefully HD 6950 2GB speeds) be out soon? Or are only the high end ($300+) cards coming out soon?

I have not seen which HD7xxx are coming out first. Its a good question to ask.

Often, manufacturer's start with the "top of the line" or one down from that. I assume that will be the case. However, AMD/ATI haa been known to start with mid-level models when using a new manufacturing method (as they are for the HD7xxx). Last time, they started with the HD68xx if I remember correctly (same as HD58xx). The HD69xx came later (new architecture).

Heck, I just hope we see something in October. So many slips (by both AMD/ATI and Nvidia) on the new 28mm GPUs -- blamed on the chip maker. Apparently, 28nm has been tough to make. On the other hand, the HD69xx cards use similar architecture to the HD7xxx. So, they are not trying a new architecture and a new process at the same time. That should improve the odds of getting good performance right away.

A "mid-level" card is something like the HD6950? Any will AMD's video cards still lack CUDA and be forced to do Physx on the CPU?

At the least I would hope it brings the prices down on the old cards. Both the GTX 560 2GB and HD 6950 2GB have stayed the same price for months.

Nvidia has CUDA which is their own proprietary language (though rumor says they might license it if AMD/ATI wanted it). Interestingly, a year or so ago, tests showed that PhysX runs faster on a CPU than a GPU -- except Nvidia "hobbled" the CPU code.

The ever popular Intel Havok physics used in many (if not more) games uses the CPU because the CPU does the job -- particularly now with all the CPU cores.

In the mean time, AMD/ATI worked with the industry to develop a non-proprietary GPU compute language called "OpenCL". It does the same things as CUDA but can be used by almost any GPU or CPU or company without paying royalties or recoding for different hardware. Apple has used OpenCL in their products for a couple years, for example.

AMD/ATI and Nvidia both support Microsoft Direct Compute found in DX10 and DX11 (which is used in 3DMark11 for physics).

Direct Compute and OpenCL have become standard (used by nearly everyone including Nvidia). All things considered, CUDA will fade as a tool -- because little or nothing new will get coded in it.

As you indicate, a big advantage of HD7xxx for some folks will be that it lowers the prices on HD6xxx and GTX5xx

Oh drats! The Radeon 7900/7950 are reported to use XDR memory. I hate to buy something, where there is a chance some money is going to the patent troll we know as Rambus.

http://www.nordichardware.com/news/71-gr...bus-memory.html