AMD Debuts The 8970M, A Not-So-Sneaky Rebrand Of The 7970M

While everyone might be taking some time to bash Nvidia for its GTX 700 series being formed of rebranded GTX 600 series and GTX Titan graphics cards, let us take some time to bash AMD too. Their “new” (and I use the term new very loosely indeed) HD 8000M series of mobile GPUs is more or less a total rebrand of the HD 7000M series of mobile GPUs.

What’s more “funny-yet-disappointing” is that there isn’t even any moving old products down the naming scheme of the new series. For example the HD 7970M is not now the HD 8950M, but it is still the HD 8970M!

AMD certainly isn’t trying to hide it, as it admits the entire HD 8000M series is made from the GCN architecture – which is current generation technology. And even though I dislike “rebranding” exercises from Nvidia and AMD, I can’t help but feel AMD were probably pressured into this by their AIB partners. This is because notebook vendors need to show customers that the market is moving forward, when Nvidia launches their GTX 700M mobile GPUs (also rebrands I might add) AMD needs to be ready with its equivalent, even if they are just rebrands (which they are).

That said, they are not 100% “identical”. AMD has tweaked and tuned clock speeds, power consumption, boost clocks and added AMD “Enduro” technology (dynamically adjusts GPU power consumption to optimise battery life. The full details of the new HD 8000M series can be seen below.

The eagle eyed among you may notice an increase of 128 GFLOPS of single precision compute performance and 8 GFLOPS of double precision compute performance versus the older HD 7970M. So that does translate into about a 5% boost in performance, an incremental performance boost at best, certainly not a generational one that deserves a new series in my opinion.

Features and Benefits:

• Speed: Featuring AMD’s GCN Architecture, the AMD Radeon HD 8970M GPU is built for speed and designed from the ground up to provide the best experience in the top PC games for today and tomorrow.
• Intelligent Power Features: AMD’s Enduro Technology allows the AMD Radeon HD 8970M GPU to optimize battery life. The power features are inherently dynamic, delivering instant performance when needed and adjusting GPU requirements when in idle mode.
• Multi-Display Optimization: AMD Eyefinity technology allows for the highest quality multi-display gaming spread across several different monitors, creating an immersive experience.
• Engineered for Compute: AMD App Acceleration harnesses the compute power of the AMD Radeon GPU to take workload off the CPU and provide unprecedented performance in everyday applications. The AMD Radeon HD 8970M GPU offers improved performance and enhanced visual effects5.
• Unparalleled Image Quality & Video Playback: The AMD Radeon HD 8970M GPU is the ideal entertainment and productivity tool that provides smooth video playback and maximizes image quality for all of your multimedia needs.
• DirectX 11.1 Support: Offers full support for DirectX 11.1 and Windows 8 for all of today and tomorrow’s games and applications.

You can check out the product pages of the “new” HD 8000M series here.

Source:PR