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View Full Version : AMD Rebadges 6000M:Launches 7000M


SmogHog
12-08-2011, 07:08 PM
AMD launched a new suite of HD 7000 SKUs today aimed at the midrange and value mobile markets, but these aren't the 28nm, Southern Islands GPUs that consumers have been watching for. These new HD 7400M, 7500M, and 7600M parts are rebranded 40nm hardware.

The "new" chips are all based on AMD's HD 6000 "Northern Islands" GPU, which means they incorporate the improved tessellation performance of that chip (possibly combined with UDVD 3.0). These products retain the VLIW5 design that drove earlier iterations of AMD's Radeon products, rather than the more efficient VLIW4 architecture that debuted with the HD 6900 family (Cayman).

http://i1-news.softpedia-static.com/images/news2/AMD-Launches-Radeon-7000M-GPU-Series-Just-an-HD-6000M-Rebrand-3.jpg

nVidia is doing the same,as expected.

http://lenzfire.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Specifications-GeForce-610M-GT-63XM.jpg

NVIDIA has the specifications up for their 600M parts (http://www.geforce.com/Hardware/NotebookGPUs), and it appears that they’ll be doing a straight rebadge without changing the clock speeds from the 500M equivalents—in fact, they’ll even keep the craziness that is the GT 555M. The only difference we could find is that GT 635M GDDR5 variants may have slightly more memory bandwidth (or more likely is that the spec page just doesn't adequately describe the bipolar nature of the product). What they will be changing is the apparent positioning of the products. The GT 630M and 610M drop 10 points from the model number, while the GT 635M drops 20 points; that appears to leave room for future GT 640M/650M parts, though nothing has been announced as yet. We also don’t have information on pricing, but there’s a possibility that with the drop in model number the prices will also be lower.
Like the AMD 7000M launch, GeForce 600M looks to be more about marketing and product positioning than anything. Mobile GPUs are about a generation behind their desktop counterparts, so with the renaming both AMD and NVIDIA are paving the way for new high-end GPUs to replace the current HD 6990M and GTX 580M. Thus, when we see the desktop HD 7970 and GTX 680 (or whatever they end up being named), we’ll should also see HD 7970M and GTX 680M. If recent history holds, those will end up being mobile variants of HD 7700 and GTX 660 (whatever those entail).

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5200/introducing-amds-radeon-7000m-and-nvidias-geforce-600m-mobile-gpus

D'lonzo
12-11-2011, 01:48 PM
Thanks for the information. Now the question being, when is the Southern Islands line going to be launched? I suppose we can expect a trimester between these two lines?

Although the 6990m and 680m both seem like perfectly fine choices for a top-class gaming laptop, they have been out for some time now, closing in on 6 months. I am of course subject to the 'infinitely waiting for better' syndrome, but I believe it is reasonable to expect more bang for the buck before next summer.