14nm FinFET technology, AMD's next generation Polaris GPU size has had a public leak..
It's common knowledge now that AMD's next generation graphics cards are going to be based on the FinFET manufacturing process & that it will be codenamed 'Polaris', as reported by us last month. What many will not know is the actual size of this GPU - an incredible 232mm² surface area.
AnarchX @ 3DCenter has found a LinkedIn profile of a senior engineer at AMD whom among listed projects; notes the Polaris die:
- source: wccftech
So there is the 14nm LPP process, transistor density increase of 232mm² GPU will equate to a 464mm² 28nm processor.
The 14nm manufacturing process not only allows for more transistors to be placed within the same surface area, but this will inadvertently increases of scale & thus lowering overall production costs.
On lower production costs; this leads to another nite; as reported by wccftech - AMD are hoping to 'lower the cost of a “minimum spec VR” to a point below the $349 mark' - that's around £241 UK GBP:
"Now I would like to address a different challenge for us – and that is what is called a Total Available Market. One of the issues we have is the minimum spec for the PCs which will run the Occulus and the HTC headset ant 90 fps and 2k resolution. Now to do that you need either a Radeon 290x or the GTX 970 both of which retail for $349. The challenge that we have is if you look at the total numbers of these GPUs that have been sold, according to JPR, that’s an install base of just 7.5 Million units. Now that’s an issue because it means you can only sell 7.5 Million of anything – because that’s the number that can run those headsets. I am very pleased to tell you that we have invented something called Polaris which we think will address this problem. – AMD’s Roy Taylor
Considering the fact that VR is the current & next hot technology; AMD appear to be heading in the right direction by creating a cost-effective GPU which will open the technology to the wider market.