Will AMD Release its 8000 Series Cards in 2013?

Last week there were many stories floating around about how AMD was going to just chill-out and let the 7 series of cards just run their course throughout 2013 without any real refreshes along the way. Well it seems like those stories were just a bit premature, as AMD has now clarified the situation and it is a bit different than what everyone was thinking.

So lets talk code names for a second. Do the words Solar System or Sea Islands mean anything more than just words used in science class or geography? Well this time they refer to a couple of the proposed refreshes for the AMD line up. Sea Islands, which varies slightly on the Radeon 7000 series parts that you have grown to embrace is a new line that will fall into the 8000-Series of GPUs and will be a refresh that features architecture which is based heavily in the Southern Islands chipset used in the well selling HD 7970 series of cards.

Solar System will be the nomenclature AMD has chosen for the sub-category Sea Islands products that are directly related to the mobile segment and the 8000M. What really gets confusing is that some 8000-Series parts are already shipping in the OEM desktop/laptop market that use exactly the same HD 7000 GPU specs that creates a confusion in the market. The new Radeon 8000 is made up of some rebrands and at least a couple of new chips seen thus far. The two new GPUs, Mars and Oland which are named the HD 8650 and the HD 8670, are already being sold with some systems and can be found for purchase if you do enough looking under rocks.

Unfortunately for the channel and DIY market there is absolutely zero availability, which is really a bit strange. The big disappointment however comes with the news attached that most of Sea Island’s focus will be in the mobile and notebook market and that the only light at the end of the tunnel is in the channel market where AMD promises good things later in 2013. You can also expect AMD to keep on trucking with the 7900-Series being AMD’s flagship GPU chipset and not much change to actually happen in that arena. When AMD was asked why this was happening, their VP of channel sales Roy Taylor had this to say: “7000 series parts are continuing to gain momentum in the market and sales are increasing so as a company focused on making money a new chipset architecture is premature at this time point.”

So what is AMD’s big plan? Well for one thing they really want to improve their relations with game developers and focus on better driver support in an attempt to better perfect the entire way AMD focuses on doing business. These aspects have not been the previous focus of the company as prior to the changes we are seeing now being implemented, AMD mainly focused on developing the fastest GPU chipsets and not so much on relations. The thing that concerns me is that NVIDIA, always a great white shark lurking in the deep waters may already have another refresh that may make AMD’s changes a day late and a dollar short depending on how the market goes. Although nothing was specified, AMD has said that by the end of 2013 we will see a new stack of cards, but what they exactly are going to be is still a mystery that we will just have to wait and see what happens. For you AMD fans how does this news make you feel? Do you think this is a good move for AMD or a mistake that will cost them down the road?  I appreciate your time in reading this and really want to hear how you feel as an AMD fan about this news.

Via: PCPer