Important questions for experts in gpu field

[trolling troll]

hello, my questions are: What will the upcomming graphics card, the amd 9970 perform like ? Base your opinion on kown information such as the article from toms hardware http://www.tomshardware.com/news/AMD-Radeon-Volcanic-Islands-7790,22518.html.

Second, should I wait for the 9970 to be released or should I be the 7950 or 7970 non ghz edition now ? I ask these questions due to my ignorance in the field of mentioned specs for the 9970, I have no Idea what compute units or TMU's do !

Also, is there an article I can read that has the information correlating to the function of these individual parts of the graphics processing unit ? If so, THANK YOU for a link 😉

Speaking of correlation, the article linked says that the 9970 will have a 512 memory bus interface, does this mean that the 9990 will have 1024 bit bus ? Wouldn't that be to large of a bus to build upon a graphics card that is approximately under 1 foot in length ?

 

[manofchalk]

Just know that currently no-one has any idea of whats happening with the HD9000 series. A while ago there were rumours that it would feature an entirely new architecture and have a die shrink (which that article refers too), which would effectively put AMD a generation ahead of Nvidia. But with TMSC (Who make Nvidia's and AMD's chips) having trouble manufacturing 20nm die's, that's been put into doubt. Then there's been a bunch of later leaks that have indicated that the 9000 series will just be a 7000 series refresh, a tweaked version of GCN, a new top card, the previous cards bumped down a rung and a clock speed boost (same as what Nvidia are doing with the 700 series).

So two scenarios.
1. There's the brand new Volcanic Islands architecture and die shrink to 20nm. In that case, the 9970 will be a very powerful card and will likely sit at the top of the single GPU market for a fair while unless Nvidia pull another Titan.
2. Its just a refresh of the 7000 series with a new top GPU. Expect the 9970 to perform a bit better than a 780.

As for whether to wait or not, I wouldn't. The HD9000 series is currently rumoured to release in October, no small amount of time. Given the conflicting information we have about what to expect from the 9000 series and that AMD are holding their cards very close to their chest, I wouldn't hold out for it.

You could buy yourself a mid-range card now, bank the rest to upgrade when the 9000 series drops. Depending on what you see then, decide which flagship GPU you want from either side.

 

[trolling troll]

Thank you sir ! Then a sapphire vapor X 7950 is it then. Have a good life