14 DAY TRIAL // At the start of 2012, AMD is expected to release its next-generation Radeon HD 7970 and HD 7950 graphics cores based on the company’s NGC architecture which were just detailed in a recent report to hit the Web.
As I am sure that many of you know, both of these GPUs are based on the Tahiti core and will be the first AMD graphics cards to use the Next-Generation Core (NGC) Arch.
While this info has been pretty much common knowledge, the specs of the core have remained pretty much a secret until recently, when the Bright Side of News publication managed to dig out some additional details about this GPU.
Tahiti will be actually available in two versions, one called Tahiti Pro and one Tahiti XT, the latter coming as the more powerful version of two since it uses a fully working version of this core.
According to BSN, the HD 7970 GPU will be made up from 32 Compute Units for a total of 2048 cores that operate at a 1GHz clock.
These will be linked via a 384-bit wide memory bus to 3GB of GDDR5 VRAM working in a quad data-rate mode at 1.37GHz (5.5GHz effective) in order to provide a whopping 264GB/s of memory bandwidth.
The HD 7950 on the other hand, which is based on the Tahiti Pro version of the AMD GPU, will drop two of the Compute Units of its older brother to provide its users with 30 CUs and 1920 streaming cores that operate at a lower 900MHz frequency.
The number of ROPs will also be decreased to 60, which will be paired with 120 texture units, as in AMD’s new architecture every CU connects to 2 ROPs and 4 TMUs.
As far as the memory controller included in this core is concerned, the information available is a bit sketchy as it hasn’t been revealed if this will be 384-bit or 256-bit wide, but we do know that the memory clock was decreased to 1.25GHz.
Both products are expected to be released during CES 2012 and will occupy the $349-449 price bracket, while the dual-GPU version of Tahiti, the HD 7990, will debut in March 2012 and the target price is the same as the original price of its predecessor - $699 (520 EUR).
In order to get the media familiar with these GPUs, as well as with the rest of the Radeon HD 7000 product family, AMD will organize a series of Tech Days in several destinations around the globe, such as London or Paris starting with next week, so stay tuned for more info.