RV790 is not a faster RV770 ( AMD ATI Graphic Processor Yet to be announced )

CeBIT 2009: An entirely new chip We learned some bits and pieces on ATI's upcoming RV790 chip and we can now happily confirm that his is yet another 55nm chip from ATI.

The company didn’t want to postpone the introduction of the new card in performance segment and therefore did it in 55nm, while RV740 remains the first 40nm. RV740 just launched as a mobile chip, and we’ve seen it up and running, while the desktop part should arrive in the next month or two.

The new chip is a new architecture, but with some basic concepts taken from the RV770, that is why the chip will be significantly faster than anything based on the RV770. It is not just a speed bump and a better batch of RV770 based Radeon HD 4870 and 4850 chips, it is a newer and better chip.

This is a leadin to the following interesting and Technical article...:

Will the AMD RV790 Architecture be Something Different?

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Author: Josh Walrath
Date: Mar 09, 2009
Subject: Graphics Card
Manufacturer: AMD

A Bit of History

The other day Fudzilla reported that the RV790 was far more than a faster clocked version of the current RV770 which powers the Radeon 4800 series. Initial reports were that the RV790 was to be a slightly optimized RV770 which would run around 150 to 200 MHz faster in clock speed. Nothing terribly exciting to see here. Or so we were led to believe.

Fudzilla’s claims are not out of this world, especially if we take a look at ’s direction when it comes to for the past two years. The R600 (HD 2900 XT) was the last generation of product from AMD which would be “over-the-top”. Since that time AMD has concentrated on making their products smaller, more efficient, and a bit more scalable.

Recovering From the R600

During development of the R600, the decision was made to stop going for “top spot” with a large, complex die which would be expensive to produce and only exist as a $400+ product. Considering how well the original 2900 XT did, we can see that the stakes for this top end game are high, and the price of failure (or coming in second best) is steep. The next iteration of the R600 architecture was far more successful.

Some interesting Graphics in the article....the first:

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Going with a R600 style of chip has proven to be risky, and if not done correctly can be quite costly for a company and their reputation.

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