14 DAY TRIAL // The AMD Radeon HD 7900 series of upcoming graphics cards has again scored some media coverage, albeit unintentionally and before actually getting officially released.
The specifications of the Tahiti are what 3DCenter.org claims to have somehow uncovered, or at least compiled from various sources.
Some of the info we have already mentioned, though it was mostly guesswork based on photos of it and of a Crossfire setup.
For one, the GPU (graphics processing unit) has a maximum clock speed of just under 1,000 MHz and an assumed memory speed of 2500-2750.
The above, along with 2,048 ID processing cores (shader units), 48 ROPs and 128 TMUs are joined by a memory interface of 384 bits.
All in all, the video card is supposed to achieve a bandwidth of 240 – 264 GB/s .
Advanced Micro Devices built the Tahiti with advanced GCN 1D architecture and a die-area of 380 square millimeters. The interior holds 4.50 billion transistors.
3DCenter says that graphics cards powered by the 28nm Tahiti GPU will be released as early as January 10, 2012.
That much was easy enough to assume even prior to this admittedly unconfirmed report, though.
After all, January is when the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) takes place, so new products are going to be unleashed in droves, or at least officially previewed.
3DCenter also went out on a limb and tried to figure out how much stronger than current solutions the Tahiti is going to be.
Considering all the above, the conclusion was that Radeon HD 7900 boards would be 40 to 60% better than Radeon HD 6970.
Nonetheless, this all is still just rumor and hearsay, so people could probably do with some skepticism until AMD actually releases the creature to be reviewed.
After Tahiti, the Sunnyvale, California-based company will bring out Radeon HD 7800 Pitcairn graphics and, afterwards, a dual-GPU 28nm card as well.