Forbes interview with AMD's Matt Skynner

[cageymaru]

Link to interview.

For those who don't know who he is.
Matt Skynner: Corporate Vice President & GM, Graphics BU and AMD Canada General Manager

28mm GPU has more performance potential than the 20mm die size right now.
Next gen cards appeal to high end but not ultra high end. No $1,000 card.
7990 fastest card on the planet.
BF3 is hinted to come to Never Settle promo.
New driver every month and when a significant game comes out.
They want TressFX on every character in FPS instead of helmets or bald heads.
New games will run better on AMD hardware because they will be optimized for it from the beginning.
Feel free to Crossfire your 7990 because we fixed the driver.
Hint at special edition cards from manufacturers.
AMD version of Nvidia Experience in the pipeline.

 

[KazeoHin]

All good news. AMD is setting itself up to be a much more competitive GPU manufacturer. It's a shame about the CPUs...

 

[Deleted member 174368]

Link to interview.

BF3 is hinted to come to Never Settle promo.
New driver every month and when a significant game comes out.

Should be BF4, and you misread the "new driver every month" statement. He said it was a mistake and they're no longer doing it.

 

[JPF_]

Should be BF4, and you misread the "new driver every month" statement. He said it was a mistake and they're no longer doing it.

To add, its NM not MM

 

[Elmy]

Looks like I have 2 of the fastest cards on the planet... Pushing 5400x1920

 

[picket23]

Looks like I have 2 of the fastest cards on the planet... Pushing 5400x1920

How's it working for ya? Is eyefinity going well?

 

[LigTasm]

The thing you didn't mention about this interview is where he says "best performance for the die size", reading between the lines I took that as him saying it won't beat GK110 as did many others. Overall this interview made me less optimistic about the upcoming series. Oh well, I'll buy it anyway if its within striking distance of a 780.

 

[picket23]

The thing you didn't mention about this interview is where he says "best performance for the die size", reading between the lines I took that as him saying it won't beat GK110 as did many others. Overall this interview made me less optimistic about the upcoming series. Oh well, I'll buy it anyway if its within striking distance of a 780.

Certainly looks that way.. Bit sad.. Though what I hope to see is something around current 770 price with a bit more performance. 3gb ram. BF4 free would be nice also. Thanks AMD I'll take 2.

Hope AMD have got the market figured out, the 7900s were such good cards for such a long time.. it would be a shame to follow them up with duds.

 

[Digital Viper-X-]

I'd be happy to go back to the ways of the 4870/5870 where they were slightly slower than the GTX counterparts but used less power and cost considerably less!

 

[Silent.Sin]

It’s also extremely efficient. [Nvidia's Kepler] GK110 is nearly 30% bigger from a die size point of view. We believe we have the best performance for the die size for the enthusiast GPU.

So I guess we can infer ~425mm2 for the top end given 551mm2 for GK110. If they can keep their trend of dual GPU cards that will be quite a monster.

Another thing I can tell you is about the process node: this GPU is in 28nm. Some have speculated that it was 20nm and it’s not for a specific reason: At 28nm for an enthusiast GPU, we can achieve higher clock speeds and higher absolute performance.

Pretty much as expected. The bleeding edge process nodes are trending towards preference for low power mobility, not very well suited for something like large GPUs. I'm sure TSMC will offer high performance processes within the same range but for now they are focusing on 20nm ramps for low power devices. I would think AMD has a "pipe cleaner" in mind for a low or mid-range GPU that doesn't need a lot of grunt to test out whatever applicable 20nm process there is at that point as an architecture refresh by this time next year. It will be necessary for them to test that out for shrinks of Jaguar++ also.

 

[Porter_]

I'd be happy to go back to the ways of the 4870/5870 where they were slightly slower than the GTX counterparts but used less power and cost considerably less!

along this line of thought, i'm hoping for a $400 part that's a touch slower than the GTX 780. i'm reasonable to realize that's asking a lot but shit we've got nothing else to do between now and Sept. 25th but speculate and be hopeful.

 

[LigTasm]

along this line of thought, i'm hoping for a $400 part that's a touch slower than the GTX 780. i'm reasonable to realize that's asking a lot but shit we've got nothing else to do between now and Sept. 25th but speculate and be hopeful.

This is my hope as well. My gut feeling is the card will end up slotting in where the 6970 was with the 580. Slightly slower stock with a smaller die, but with some overclocking it can pretty easily match the Nvidia card. A better value with slightly less than 780 performance would not hurt my feelings, just make it easier to buy two

 

[LordEC911]

along this line of thought, i'm hoping for a $400 part that's a touch slower than the GTX 780. i'm reasonable to realize that's asking a lot but shit we've got nothing else to do between now and Sept. 25th but speculate and be hopeful.

Or something faster than a GTX780 at $599-$649...

 

[Mungojerrie]

Or something faster than a GTX780 at $599-$649...

That'd make me happy.

 

[SonDa5]

I'll be happy with a card that beats GTX 780 for $500. I'd also like to see some shorter PCB cards for smaller mini ITX builds.

 

[ccityinstaller]

I'll be happy with a card that beats GTX 780 for $500. I'd also like to see some shorter PCB cards for smaller mini ITX builds.

So would I. It would put AMD back up where it belongs, the best price/per combo like the 79XX series has been, along with their excellent gaming bundles!! I gotta say even with my renewed gaming interest, I just love the hell outta my 7950..I mean sure it helps that it's a golden card that is faster then any other single card below the 780...

Even though I have been strongly considering going to 1440P, with the great feedback I have heard from the new X-fire fixes, another better then average to golden 7950 would be a great setup for me for BF4..AMD will have poured a ton of time and focus on getting out excellent drivers for this game, so it should be a great experience no?

 

[SonDa5]

So would I. It would put AMD back up where it belongs, the best price/per combo like the 79XX series has been, along with their excellent gaming bundles!! I gotta say even with my renewed gaming interest, I just love the hell outta my 7950..I mean sure it helps that it's a golden card that is faster then any other single card below the 780...

Even though I have been strongly considering going to 1440P, with the great feedback I have heard from the new X-fire fixes, another better then average to golden 7950 would be a great setup for me for BF4..AMD will have poured a ton of time and focus on getting out excellent drivers for this game, so it should be a great experience no?

I have 2 decent HD7950s that I am going to run xfire for awhile.

I want the single new Hawaii card for my mini ITX build and that is why I hope it has short PCB for limited space case I am using. Hd7950 is too long right now.


I think the Hd7950s in Xfire will hold their performance value for awhile. They are great cards.

I also want to get a larger higher resolution display.

 

[SonDa5]

So would I. It would put AMD back up where it belongs, the best price/per combo like the 79XX series has been, along with their excellent gaming bundles!! I gotta say even with my renewed gaming interest, I just love the hell outta my 7950..I mean sure it helps that it's a golden card that is faster then any other single card below the 780...

Even though I have been strongly considering going to 1440P, with the great feedback I have heard from the new X-fire fixes, another better then average to golden 7950 would be a great setup for me for BF4..AMD will have poured a ton of time and focus on getting out excellent drivers for this game, so it should be a great experience no?

I have 2 decent HD7950s that I am going to run xfire for awhile.

I want the single new Hawaii card for my mini ITX build and that is why I hope it has short PCB for limited space case I am using. Hd7950 is too long right now.


I think the Hd7950s in Xfire will hold their performance value for awhile. They are great cards.

 

[ccityinstaller]

I have 2 decent HD7950s that I am going to run xfire for awhile.

I want the single new Hawaii card for my mini ITX build and that is why I hope it has short PCB for limited space case I am using. Hd7950 is too long right now.


I think the Hd7950s in Xfire will hold their performance value for awhile. They are great cards.

IF you decide to sell them, make sure to PM me first...I like the one Sapphire card you did some modding to the WB since it clocks insanely high and would hang with my MSI..