Radeon HD 7000:  HD 7790 |  HD 7850 |  HD 7870 |  HD 7870 XT |  HD 7950 |  HD 7970 |  HD 7990 |  Radeon HD 8000:  HD 8750 |  HD 8770 |  HD 8850 |  HD 8870 |  HD 8950 |  HD 8970 |  HD 8990 
GeForce 600:  GTX 650 Ti Boost  |  GTX 660  |  GTX 660 Ti  |  GTX 670  |  GTX 680 |  GTX 690 |  Titan: GTX TITAN |  GeForce 700:  GTX 760  |  GTX 760 Ti  |  GTX 770  |  GTX 780 |  GTX 790 

June 7th, 2012

First Sign of AMD’s Radeon HD 8000 Series Found in Catalyst Drivers

First Sign of AMDs Radeon HD 8000 Series Found in Catalyst Drivers radeon hd 8970 radeon hd 8950 radeon hd 8870 radeon hd 8850 radeon hd 8790 radeon hd 8770 radeon hd 8750 radeon 8000
Some interesting piece of information can be found in the newest beta version of Catalyst drivers. If you somehow got bored with actual naming of Radeon GPUs, then let me introduce to you the upcoming codenames of Radeon HD 8000 Series instead.

The latest BETA version of Catalyst drivers reveal the codenames of upcoming APUs and also Radeon HD 8000 GPUs. Ironically, no all of them does refer to Islands names. Previous information was that Radeon HD 8000 series will be named Sea Islands. There were also rumors that it would be named after Canary Islands or Central Islands and so on. But a leaked slide does prove that it’s actually Sea Islands.  Does this fit to the naming from the driver? Ask yourself: Is Mars or Venus an Island? Well, at least Öland is.

So AMD is preparing at least 16 cards for upcoming Radeon HD 8000 Series. First cards, which will likely start from Radeon HD 8970 (Venus XTX) and HD 8950 (Venus XT), should be released between December 2012 and January 2013. Then AMD will follow their series as usually – HD 8800 Series (Venus LE and Pro) and then 8700 Series (Oland). According to the numbers, we might see Mars Units along with Radeon 8700 series at the same time (silicon 6600-6611). I’m not sure about Oland 6631 GPU though, since it has slightly higher number than other Oland’s, it may be named Radeon HD 8790 (x790 cards were usually released later). Since this is only a prediction (only to be verified by time), I’m not taking this any deeper. Maybe you have a better idea, how would AMD name those silicons?

Here is a full list taken from driver files, with my predictions.

GPU CodenameGraphics Card Model Prediction
KAVERI 3rd Generation APUs
AMD1305.1 = “KAVERI1 DESKTOP (1305)”-
AMD1304.1 = “KAVERI1 MOBILE (1304)”-
AMD1307.1 = “KAVERI2 DESKTOP (1307)”-
AMD1306.1 = “KAVERI2 MOBILE (1306)”-
KABINI 2nd Generation APUs
AMD9833.1 = “KB 12W 2C (9833)”Unknown Kabini 12 W Unit
AMD9834.1 = “2C 5W KB (9834)”Unknown Kabini 5 W Unit
AMD9831.1 = “KB 4C 17W (9831)”Unknown Kabini 17 W Unit
AMD9832.1 = “KB 17W 4C (N-1) (9832)”Unknown Kabini 17 W Unit
AMD9830.1 = “KB 4C 25W (9830)”Unknown Kabini 25 W Unit
MARS Radeon HD 8300 to HD 8600 Series
AMD6600.1 = “MARS (6600)”-
AMD6601.1 = “MARS (6601)”-
AMD6602.1 = “MARS (6602)”-
AMD6603.1 = “MARS (6603)”-
AMD6606.1 = “MARS (6606)”-
AMD6607.1 = “MARS (6607)”-
AMD6620.1 = “MARS (6620)”-
AMD6621.1 = “MARS (6621)”-
AMD6623.1 = “MARS (6623)”-
OLAND Radeon HD 8700 Series
AMD6610.1 = “OLAND (6610)”Radeon HD 8750
AMD6611.1 = “OLAND (6611)”Radeon HD 8770
AMD6631.1 = “OLAND (6631)”Radeon HD 8790
VENUS Radeon HD 8800 Series
AMD682B.1 = “VENUS LE”Radeon HD 8850
AMD6823.4 = “VENUS PRO”Radeon HD 8870
VENUS Radeon HD 8900 Series
AMD6821.1 = “VENUS XT”Radeon HD 8950
AMD6820.2 = “VENUS XTX”Radeon HD 8970

  • BestJinjo

    My wallet is ready. I am over the mid-range HD7900 and GK104 generation. Bring on the real next gen parts, just in time for Crysis 3 and Metro Last Light, launching early 2013. :)

    I just hope HD8970 is a much larger improvement in performance over 7970 than HD6970 was over 5870 (6900 series was more or less a refresh generation in terms of performance; and probably shouldn’t have been designated the 6000 series generation, which was misleading given just a 15% performance increase).

  • http://videocardz.com/ VideoCardz.com

    It’s quite similar to Ivy Bridge processors in comparison to Sandy Bridge. Not much of improvement either. Both AMD and NVIDIA should release their high-end cards in the same time. This gap between their hd7900 and gtx680 series gives one company a heads up about others performance.

  • francmic

    Ug, at the rate the next gen leaks line up with the final releases of current gen, I’m never gonna settle on buying gpus.

  • francmic

    With nothing but my gut telling me more, I forsee power reduction and die shrinks but nothing much more.

  • francmic

    with only… bad… console ports on the horizon, I don’t think nvidia/amd have any reason to push the envelope just yet. Next next gen maybe(or whatever lines up with the nextbox, ps4(I hate it too)).

  • http://videocardz.com/ VideoCardz.com

    Shall I stop looking for such leaked information? ;)

  • BestJinjo

    You can’t have a die shrink with HD8000 series next year since 20/22nm nodes are not ready. It’s going to have to be 28nm, unless they delay much later than January 2013.

    They can rebalance the HD7970 chip. They can chop off double precision GPGPU functionality (similar to GK104) and instead add 48 ROPs. That would net a huge performance increase since HD7900 is pixel fillrate starved (see HD7870 vs. HD7950 performance comparisons). Given how well HD7870 performs in overclocked states, HD7900 has a serious pixel fill rate bottleneck. I am sure they can introduce 10-15% IPC increase with GCN 2.0 enhanced.

  • BestJinjo

    Yes, but I don’t think HD8000 series can have a node shrink. 28nm process is just in the beginning phase and hasn’t even matured yet. If the rumors that this series will be available December 2012-Feb 2013, I just can’t see how 20/22nm node will be ready.

  • http://videocardz.com/ VideoCardz.com

    You remember a leaked slide released by OBR? It said that Tenerife GPU will have 1.2 times the performance of 7970. It’s hard to verify this info but it’s gives your 28nm Radeon 8000 series another thought. 22nm would likely be much faster.

  • BestJinjo

    Good point. It’s funny that you brought up console parts. Look at Max Payne 3. It was hyped up to have very advanced graphics specifically for the PC. But why does applying MSAA result in a 40-50% drop in performance on modern GPUs? Minimal performance hit with MSAA used to be a staple for PC gaming. Thanks to consoles even that is being ruined with us getting the far inferior FXAA/MLAA blur filters :(

  • BestJinjo

    Yes, I remember! 1.2x faster. 2304 SPs @ 1000mhz would get HD8000 series there.

    I guess I am hoping for too much.

  • francmic

    wow, the comment rating system is really buggy for unregistered users, sorry bought the -2

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  • http://videocardz.com/ VideoCardz.com

    We are using special Disqus 2012 edition, which is super-uber-beta version. I cannot fix any bugs by myself. Either way, it’s better than previous version.

  • http://videocardz.com/ VideoCardz.com

    It’s honestly a fake slide made by OBR hardware, but it represents expectations of many. I’m really looking forward to see performance of next series of Radeons.

  • Trolololol

    Thanks for sharing !

  • obscureAngelPT

    Simple..
    Because today we its used Deffered lighting and shading, that makes MSAA ultra heavy and demanding of memory!

    Its not a question of optimization, if you notice battlefield 3 happens the same, because of the deffered lighting.
    Unfortunaly, until a GPU functionality makes MSAA light under Deffered Rendering engines, MSAA will be very very very demanding, thats why we are using FXAA filters..

    BTW, Deffered Lighting, let you have millions of light source at almost 0 cost, while without it, you have 1 hundred, and your pc burns :P

    Regards

  • BestJinjo

    Right but the problem is FXAA and MLAA blur textures and as a result the game loses details. It’s like playing a console game on a PC. If I can’t use MSAA in a game, I’d rather play with no AA filters at all. Perhaps TXAA will be better than the FXAA/MLAA.

  • comment dude

    hd 8000 series looming ahead and nvidia doesnt even have its entry level graphics cards out left… not all of us can afford a 670 for $400 or so. Im no AMD fanboy, but the lack of competition has left AMD pricing its 7800 series rather high.

  • EpicAMDGamer

    I was going to order a 7970 a month from now, but its like jeez, a few months after that and there will be the 8000 series already.

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  • MikePembo951

    Current Gen PC > Next Generation Console.
    Even when the next gen consoles come out low/mid end gaming PCs will still have much better performance than them.