Two of the more significant desktop PC technology rumour and discussion sites, Bright Side Of News and Semi-Accurate, were in rare agreement last week as they came to the conclusion that AMD will be unveiling their latest generation of discrete graphics cards in late September of this year. Citing unnamed sources, they state that an AMD conference - allegedly due for the 25th - will be the first public demonstration of AMD's Codename-Hawaii GPU featuring an update to their Graphics Core Next architecture.
By all accounts AMD plan to fly out luminaries of the technology press to Hawaii - which will hopefully be an auspicious location for its namesake GPU - and present the new card(s) running EA's Battlefield 4, with a breakdown of the new architecture and updated features. This will not be a launch per se - cards aren't anticipated to be on the market until Q4-2013 - but will serve to increase public awareness of the upcoming range and perhaps put a dent into NVIDIA's formidable presence in the top end of the market.
Arguably the next generation of AMD GFX cards is overdue. From a release schedule which was almost once every year, it's now been 20 months since the release of the HD7000-series of graphics cards with very few leaks of the new card. Even the series number is disputed, with doubt cast of it being the 8000-series thanks to OEM 8000-series cards popping up which were effectively rebadged from the 7000-series. What appears to be agreed on is that the GPU will be built on the same 28nm process as Tahiti, whilst incorporating a significantly redesigned GCN design to that seen with the 7000-series GPUs. AMD appear to be targeting GTX Titan, reinforced by recent price drops for dual-GPU 7990's, but whether they can reach the dizzying heights of NVIDIA's monster remains to be seen.
If true, this fall and holiday season will be a huge one for AMD. With launches of their their new discrete desktop line, two new gaming consoles based around AMD technology and whatever their CPU division can come up with they're surely hoping for a bumper Christmas.
