OEM AMD Radeon HD 8000 Graphics Cards Are Rebranded HD 7000 Series

Let me just start this post by saying, what the hell AMD?? This is probably the most stupid idea ever. While there is still no confirmation about the ‘real’ graphics cards release date, we are presented with the new OEM solutions by AMD, which include all variety of HD 8000 graphics cards.

So if you were following our blog, you’ve noticed that AMD has announced the availability of their mobile and desktop Radeon HD 8000 series for OEM market yesterday. The problem is that the list include all models from 8300 to 8900 series. So as long as we’ve expected some entry-level cards being rebranded HD 7000 cards, there was no confusion, but since there are also HD 8870-8970 cards here, the market will be flooded with the models named the same, while offering different configuration.

First indicator that AMD might be preparing the HD 8950 3GB was leaked by Lenovo, but as it turns out, it was the OEM card in the first place. But we will likely see more non-OEM cards launched by June (which is the release date of that Lenovo desktop), so long story short, there will be two HD 8970’s on the market, each with different configuration (quite similar to what NVIDIA did with GeForce GTX 660). The interesting thing is that they modified the name of Radeon HD 7750 into HD 8740, while leaving no room for HD 8870, HD 8950 and HD 8970. Does this means there is no HD 8970? Is that card called HD 8980 or whatever they are now planning? I have no idea how to understand this policy of naming. I always preferred the way AMD is using their naming scheme, it was quite clear, but now, it doesn’t really make any sense.

So what do you guys think, what’s the next move by AMD?

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