Thursday, March 17, 2011

AMD's 28nm mobile graphics roadmap leaked Radeon HD 7000M

DonanimHaber has published a presentation slide that outlines AMD's mobile GPU roadmap for the next year. The company launched its 40nm Radeon HD 6000M chips (codenamed Seymour, Whistler and Blackcomb) last November, and that lineup will remain in play until later this year and early next year as AMD ramps up production and distribution of its next-gen mobile graphics.
The Radeon HD 7000M will be manufactured on a 28nm process and features four GPUs: Thames, Chelsea, Heathrow and Wimbledon (least to most powerful). Slated for release in November 2011, Thames will have a slightly higher TDP of 15-25W than Seymour (6400M) and it pack twice the performance, which is partially thanks to a 128-bit memory interface (up from 64-bit).

AMD appears to be blurring the lines between its mainstream and performance segments. Chelsea will operate in the 20-30W range and also features a 128-bit bus. Nonetheless, it should bring a 30% speed increase over existing Whistler products (6600M/6700M). It's also due in the last quarter of this year, presumably alongside if not soon after the arrival of Thames-based chips.

AMD is preparing two enthusiast GPUs representing different thermal levels. Heathrow will have a TDP above 35W and will be offered in 128-bit/192-bit variants with 1.5GB/3GB of VRAM. Meanwhile, Wimbledon will represent the series flagship, featuring a 256-bit interface and a 65W TDP. Heathrow should land this year while Wimbledon is coming in the second quarter of 2012.

In other company news, AMD has announced an initiative dubbed "Project Mjölnir" that focuses on "increasing performance and providing improved stability of the AMD Catalyst software." To kick things off, the company released a Catalyst 11.4 preview that brings various enhancements, features and bug fixes. You can download the update here and read the highlights below:

  • Delivers performance enhancements for the AMD Radeon HD 6000 Series & Windows 7.
    • Up to 70% performance improvement in Civilization V
    • Up to 49% performance improvement in Call of Duty: Black Ops
    • Up to 23% performance improvement in F1 2010
    • Up to 21% performance improvement in Wolfenstein MP
    • Up to 15% performance improvement in Tom Clancy's HAWX
    • Up to 17% performance improvement in STALKER: Call of Pripyat
    • Up to 28% performance improvement in metro2033
    • Up to 33% performance improvement in Left 4 Dead 2
    • Up to 26% performance improvement in FarCry 2
    • Up to 15% performance improvement in Crysis Warhead
    • Up to 50% performance improvement in Unigine Heaven
    • Up to 22% performance improvement in Batman: Arkham Asylum
    • Up to 19% performance improvement in Aliens Vs. Predator
  • Includes enhancements to the AMD Catalyst Control Center
    • New task based Display Management controls
      • Simplifies the configuration of displays and display setting
    • New Eyefinity setup group
      • Setting up an Eyefinity group has never been easier
    • New branding (based on system configuration)
      • AMD based platform – AMD VISION Engine Control Center
      • Discrete AMD GPU with Intel CPU – AMD Catalyst Control Center
    • AMD Catalyst update notification (found within the Information Center)
      • Please note this functionality is not yet enabled, but will be in a future AMD Catalyst release
      • This feature will be used to notify users that new AMD Catalyst software packages are available
  • Includes fixes where Dragon Age 2 would hang in DirectX11 on ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series products.
  • Includes fixes where MediaEspresso 6.5 and 6.0 may crash while initializing

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