AMD Radeon HD 8790M: Next-Gen Mobile Mainstream Graphics Preview

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]whyso[/nom]With regards to compute, 8790 gets about 62 gflops dp. Which is about equal to what you can get from a mobile i7 cpu. AMD crippled their mobile gpu's just as bad as nvidia. The gt 650m will get about 35 dp gflops. The radeon is better, but not much better than CPU.[/citation]

AMD clearly didn't cripple their Radeon 8790M as much as Nvidia crippled their cards if it's nearly double the GT 650M. Besides, that seems more like a case of optimizing their low end models for low power since you're not likely to use a low end graphics card for compute purposes where performance matters whereas you are likely to care about battery life.

 

[whyso]

Sorry, i listed the figures for the 88xx series, the 87xx will get up to 42 dp gflops. Says on first page. So not really any advantage for AMD. However, the 384 core configuration looks like it could be used for some really nice crossfire in their next generation apus.

 

[Nephilim_17]

wow! nice one amd... all you need is a processor that can out perform intel...

 

[silverblue]

[citation][nom]whyso[/nom]Sorry, i listed the figures for the 88xx series, the 87xx will get up to 42 dp gflops. Says on first page. So not really any advantage for AMD. However, the 384 core configuration looks like it could be used for some really nice crossfire in their next generation apus.[/citation]
Offering high DP compute performance on a budget mobile part wouldn't make any sense; both AMD and NVIDIA are more interested in offering that with their workstation parts, where they can charge a lot more for it and get away with it.

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]silverblue[/nom]Offering high DP compute performance on a budget mobile part wouldn't make any sense; both AMD and NVIDIA are more interested in offering that with their workstation parts, where they can charge a lot more for it and get away with it.[/citation]

To be fair, AMD did give pretty high DP performance to their Tahiti based models such as the Radeon 7950, Radeon 7970, Radeon 7970 GHz Edition, and the unofficial Radeon 7990/7970X2.

 

[silverblue]

True, but only on their higher priced offerings; anything below Tahiti is only a fraction as powerful at double precision.

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]silverblue[/nom]True, but only on their higher priced offerings; anything below Tahiti is only a fraction as powerful at double precision.[/citation]

Yes, but would it really matter for the lower end models, especially mobile ones which are better off focusing on battery life than on compute? I see your point, I just don't think that offering huge compute performance on the sub $300 cards is important, especially considering how AMD does offer pretty decent compute even on those lower end cards, at least compared to their previous generations. Even a Radeon 7750 and 7770 can kick the crap out of many of the mid-ranged VLIW5 cards that preceded it in DP compute performance.

 

[genekellyjr]

I have a Phenom II X920 and a 5650M in a 15" laptop and Skyrim plays great on Ultra at 1650 x 1050.
Why hate on a 7670M? That'd just be an improved 5650M! Without a Phenom II!

"We wouldn't bother trying to enjoy Skyrim on a Radeon HD 7670M-equipped notebook at even 1280x720 using that setting." Hmpf.

 

[Holdemnutz]

How do I get AMD to start sending some processors over to my house?

 

[nukemaster]

How do I get AMD to start sending some processors over to my house?

You buy em

OR

You start a review site and when you get big enough(at the start you get your own), they WILL send you some hardware.