AMD's Sweet Spot cards 'Pitcairn' due in March, priced at $259/$299

[caveman-jim]

A rumored four 7800 series products coming, one based on Tahiti as the 7890, and three on the new Pitcairn GPU:

AMD would be launching its HD7800 Series of graphics processing units featuring the 28nm GCN Core Architecture in Early March – Codenamed Pitcairn, The series would consist of the HD7870 (Pitcairn XT) and HD7850 (Pitcairn Pro).

Specifications of both cards have been leaked which match the specs we reported a while back here. So what’s new in the HD7800 Series? A 28nm core powered by the GCN Pitcairn GPU used on two models, The Pitcairn XT which features 1408 stream processors, 88 texture units and 24 ROP’s, A 2GB GDDR5 memory (256-bit). The Core clock is maintained at 950Mhz and 5500Mhz for the memory. The HD7870 would retail for $299.

Its little brother, Pitcairn Pro based HD7850 would also launch the same day for a price of $249. This variant would feature 1280 stream processors, 80 texture units and 24 ROP’s, A 2GB memory buffer (256-bit GDDR5). The card would run at 900Mhz/5000Mhz for Core and Memory respectively. A 1Gb version of the card would also be available for $219, Specs would remain the same.

Read the full story at wccftech.com

Looks to be a little faster than the 6970/6950, so should offer a nice upgrade those on a 24mo+ refresh cycle.

[Swiftdeathz]

I'm thinking of getting a 7890 to replace my aging 5830 (which was originally a 4890 which I rma'd and they had run out of 4890 so they sent me a 5830).

Even though I don't game all that much these days, I would like to be able to game at 1080p with some AA and not be limited depending on the game. Plus possible lower power consumption + possibly faster GPU folding is a plus.

[noko]

AMD raining in on Nvidia GK104, especially if it doesn't perform too much better. Hope to see some reviews very shortly.

[Dwarden]

yay more ROPs

[guest]

Is 2GB going to be enough for upcoming games?

[caveman-jim]

Is 2GB going to be enough for upcoming games?

Unless you're playing at 2560x1440 or higher with lots of IQ added, I would think so. If you're that level gamer then you should be buying the high end cards.

[train2win]

cant wait to see the xfire reviews

[Sherv]

Unless you're playing at 2560x1440 or higher with lots of IQ added, I would think so. If you're that level gamer then you should be buying the high end cards.

I game at that res & 90% of games with 2 or 4XAA, it never drops below 60fps @ ultra with a 1GB 5870 crossfireX, even BF3 & Crysis 2 w/ultra high res textures etc (but no AA).

[corny]

Interesting that the 7890 is expected to have a 1.5Gb frame buffer - lower than the 7870. I'm guessing there may be both 1.5Gb and 3Gb variants?