I was looking for this on google but couldnt find anything except the older articles on the older GFX cards.

Does anyone happen to know when the next series of ATI gfx cards are coming out?  I know the 7xxx series came out recently, but I was not sure if they made any sort of announcement on the 8 series yet.

AMD tends not to announce much until shortly before products launch.  Sometimes they don't announce anything until launch day.

But that doesn't mean that nothing leaks out.  The trouble is that without official confirmation, actual leaks mix freely with wild speculation, and you can't always tell them apart.  Sometimes the wild speculation is flagrantly stupid on the ground that it's technically impossible, and then you can discard it.

AMD's next generation of video cards is reportedly code named Sea Islands, and is assumed to be the Radeon HD 8000 series.  Rumors say that there are three chips in the series, with the bottom one performing between Cape Verde and Pitcairn, while the middle one is somewhat faster than Pitcairn.

If you want me to guess, I'd say that the 8700 series will fill the hole between the 7700 and 7800 series, while the 8800 series will perform about on par with the 7900 series.  The top chip will be a new 8900 series and will be considerably faster than anything on the market now, though probably slower than Nvidia's upcoming GK110 chip.

I'd expect AMD to continue selling 7700 and 7800 series cards for quite some time to come, though they'll discontinue the 7900 series.  The new 8700 and 8800 series won't have the GPU compute stuff that the top chip gets.  All Radeon HD 8000 series chips will probably be a little more efficient than 7700 and 7800 series cards in performance per mm^2 and performance per watt, but not vastly so.  TSMC's 28 nm process nodes are more mature and better understood now than they were a year ago, but there isn't a new process node available to move to.

I'd also expect the 8000 series cards to be heavily based on the GCN architecture of the 7000 series cards.  There will be a lot of little tweaks here and there that make things more efficient, of course.  But I don't expect anything earth-shattering.  I also don't expect any major new features, since the 7000 series already supports all of the obvious features that modern video cards "should" support.  AMD will probably come up with a few new features for marketing bullet points, but I don't expect anything major.  Then again, they could well have a surprise up their sleeve, such as when Eyefinity caught people by surprise on the 5000 series.

For a launch date, I'd expect all three of the chips to launch early next year, probably with the 8900 series first and then working down over the course of a few months.  Launching a new generation about once per year has been the cadence for ATI/AMD for many years now.

I would expect early next year, Q1 maybe.

I have a 7870 now, so I will skip the 8xxx cards unless something " must have " comes with them. I generally skip a generation in video cards. Will probably do the same for the next one.

IMO anyone who has a decent card from this gen. should be fine for a bit. Unless your a max performance at all times kind of person. Which I understand also =)

So of course, the day after you ask, this comes out:

http://semiaccurate.com/2012/10/11/what-is-the-latest-on-amds-sea-islands/

might hold out until next year before i get a new card.

My 2 x ati 6850s can run most games maxed out without an issue at the moment.. well as long as the game has crossfire support..

My general rule of thumb is:

if you buy a top-tier card (x9xx from AMD, x8x/x9x from nV) card, expect it to perform for about 4 generations - then it will be more or less obsolete (both in terms of features and performance). After 2 generations you will start to have to turn down options in games that are current at the time.

If you buy a mid-tier card (x800, x7x/x6xTi), expect about 3 generations of usefulness, and to have to start to turn down options after the next generation.

If you buy a low-tier card (x7xx, x6x/x5x), expect to get about 2 useful generations, and possibly turning down options now.

If you buy a "non-gaming" card (x6xx and lower, x4x and lower, anything integrated), then expect the next generation (if it isn't already) to make it obsolete in terms of features and performance, and you will almost definitely be turning down options in most current games.

Just some rough rules of thumb that I use when talking to people about what card they should buy - it isn't really about what performance you are buying now - usually most of the cards in a current generation have enough power for the current crop of games, it's more akin to how long you want an acceptable level of performance - as new generations are released and new software is released to take advantage of that additional power, and that bar of "acceptable" is up to you - some people may never feel the need to upgrade because they don't play new releases often (fairly common in MMO-land), or they don't need to have as much eyecandy.

Originally posted by Ridelynn

My general rule of thumb is:

if you buy a top-tier card (x9xx from AMD, x8x/x9x from nV) card, expect it to perform for about 4 generations - then it will be more or less obsolete (both in terms of features and performance). After 2 generations you will start to have to turn down options in games that are current at the time.

If you buy a mid-tier card (x800, x7x/x6xTi), expect about 3 generations of usefulness, and to have to start to turn down options after the next generation.

If you buy a low-tier card (x7xx, x6x/x5x), expect to get about 2 useful generations, and possibly turning down options now.

If you buy a "non-gaming" card (x6xx and lower, x4x and lower, anything integrated), then expect the next generation (if it isn't already) to make it obsolete in terms of features and performance, and you will almost definitely be turning down options in most current games.

Just some rough rules of thumb that I use when talking to people about what card they should buy - it isn't really about what performance you are buying now - usually most of the cards in a current generation have enough power for the current crop of games, it's more akin to how long you want an acceptable level of performance - as new generations are released and new software is released to take advantage of that additional power, and that bar of "acceptable" is up to you - some people may never feel the need to upgrade because they don't play new releases often (fairly common in MMO-land), or they don't need to have as much eyecandy.

Yeah, I use a 5850, and was thinking about upgrading once this next generation comes out.  Thats a pretty good rule of thumb though, gonna have to remember that.

Originally posted by Quizzical

So of course, the day after you ask, this comes out:

http://semiaccurate.com/2012/10/11/what-is-the-latest-on-amds-sea-islands/

Mmk, looks like Q1 might be right hten after all.  Thanks for the help.

My rule of thumb on upgrading is, don't upgrade until you want to play some particular game and find that your current card can't handle it at the settings you want.

Below $250, the next generation of video cards isn't going to be terribly important.  If you're buying a new card a year from now, then you'd rather have the new generation than the old one, but it's not worth waiting for.  It's only above that mark that we'll see substantial improvements.  But even that isn't worth waiting for unless you have an enormous budget and want a real top of the line card--and are willing to pay $600 or $800 or whatever Nvidia will decide to charge for GK110.