AMD releases two new GPUs

Nick Mertes 28 Apr, 2011 at 12:00am ET Article published in Tech

Two new GPUs have been announced by AMD: the Radeon HD 6770 and 6750. These are officially rebranded Radeon HD 5770 and 5750 GPUs, respectively. The rebranding comes in at least partly due to the continued popularity and viability of the two 5000-series GPUs. This isn’t to say that a simple renaming has taken place; AMD has added hardware Blu-ray 3D decoding and HDMI 1.4 support to both new cards. The changes should also allow manufacturers to play around with clock speeds a little more for factory overclocked cards.

AMD is also publicly acknowledging the rebranding on the product pages for the two new GPUs. In fact, it’s the first bullet point for each card’s page.

Specs for the new cards, as well as their original parts, follows:

	RAM	Core Speed	RAM Speed	Shaders
Radeon HD 6770	1GB	850MHz	1200MHz	800:40:16
Radeon HD 6570	1GB	700MHz	1150MHz	720:36:16
Radeon HD 5770	1GB	850MHz	1200MHz	800:40:16
Radeon HD 5570	1GB	700MHz	1150MHz	720:36:16

Pricing for the refreshed GPUs should be around $150 for the 6770 and $120 for the 6750. Both GPUs should hit the market soon.

Comments

28 Apr 2011 ~ 1:19am Tim I don't like to see this renaming / rebranding scheme starting with AMD / ATI GPUs the way Nvidia has been doing it for so long. If it is not a clear and significant HARDWARE upgrade over the 5000 series, it should not be labeled starting with a 6.
28 Apr 2011 ~ 2:28am Dan I agreed whole heartedly Tim, Here's a simple analogy of what they are doing: It's as if a car company were to take a 95' model car and put a spoiler on it and declare it a 05' model car that also is now a hybrid. It's incredibly misleading to the consumer!!!
28 Apr 2011 ~ 5:57am Garg Guess I'll put a sticker on mine so it's a six-series card, now.
28 Apr 2011 ~ 6:46am Wuu You don't get point, 6 series cards use less power and makes less heat, thats all.
28 Apr 2011 ~ 2:43pm Garg They are mostly just renamed. I think that means that a 6770 uses roughly identical power as a 5770.

Of course, AMD is hoping that everyone believes some actual 6-series voodoo has been performed on these cards.

It's actually just a clever way to keep 5770s selling at close to $150 while the more powerful 5850s can be had for cheaper.
28 Apr 2011 ~ 3:19pm Thrax Kinda hard for AMD to believe that when their own product pages clearly say it's a rebranded 5700. :P
28 Apr 2011 ~ 3:29pm MAGIC

Thrax wrote:

Kinda hard for AMD to believe that when their own product pages clearly say it's a rebranded 5700. :P

How would yoooouuuu know? Did you write them or something? /sarcasm.
28 Apr 2011 ~ 4:50pm Cliff_Forster Graphics update so quickly that marketing from one generation to the next has always been a bit of a challenge. I'd like to see it get to a point where the model number was a secondary marketing designation, because it can be confusing for the uninitiated. I'd like to see AMD employ a little bit more of their vision strategy and start really simplifying what these parts can do for people.

Its one of those hurdles for growing PC gaming as a hobby. More people have to be able to pick up the marketing material and go, okay, this one is for me. I know it seems sacrilegious to "degeek" the marketing a little, but if I were in charge I'd put the model number way in the background and find a new naming scheme.

Heck, someone said Cars, I could completely see just getting on a yearly refresh schedule with original model name designations. Everyone knows the Cavalier is what you drive when you just need to get there, the Camaro is what you drive to pick up chicks while keeping a reasonable budget, and the Corvette is for the driving enthusiast.

The 2011 AMD Radeon HD video.
The 2011 AMD Radeon 3D Basic.
The 2011 AMD Radeon Pro Gamer.
The 2011 AMD Radeon Extreme Enthusiast.

You get the idea.
28 Apr 2011 ~ 6:01pm fatcat whatever happened to the Intel Pentium 5, and what they hell is this 2600K nonsense? Core i3|5|7. WHAT THE EFFFF.

Really, Model #'s on anything computer now must really confused the shit out of mom and pop consumers

Remember: BIGGER NUMBER MEANS BETTER!!!!
28 Apr 2011 ~ 6:02pm Thrax Probably no more or worse than the model numbers for BMW, Audi, Mercedes, Acura, etc. All numbers.
28 Apr 2011 ~ 6:06pm fatcat

Thrax wrote:

Probably no more or worse than the model numbers for BMW, Audi, Mercedes, Acura, etc. All numbers.

I like how you include three European car manufactures, and then throw in Acura, which doesn't use any numbers on their models. (RL, TL, TSX, MDX, and RDX)
28 Apr 2011 ~ 6:12pm Thrax I was just going back to Cliff's analogy and pointing out that a large number of auto-makers use completely nonsensical letters and numbers. People accept this because they've undertaken the effort to learn the numbers. So it goes.
28 Apr 2011 ~ 6:52pm BlackHawk IIRC the model numbers at least for BMW and Mercedes do mean something. Series, displacement and other info. BMW 325 is a 3 series with a 2.5L engine. Similar for the Mercedes.
28 Apr 2011 ~ 7:11pm _k Gosh Thrax learn something about being a man. Get some learnin' on cars and junk.
28 Apr 2011 ~ 7:55pm jedihobbit Shall we remember the grand old Skt A numbers!!
28 Apr 2011 ~ 10:00pm Cliff_Forster More what I meant is that you can have a model designation that is the enthusiast model each year. Last years Corvette vs. this years may be a little different, but the model still represents a certain kind of driving experience. The same could be managed for computer hardware model designations, and to some degree it is. We knew the difference between a Sempron and Athlon at one time. There is still a little of that in the market, but it could be more refined.
28 Apr 2011 ~ 10:29pm Garg

Thrax wrote:

Kinda hard for AMD to believe that when their own product pages clearly say it's a rebranded 5700. :P

What is AMD supposed to believe? This sentence confuses me.
28 Apr 2011 ~ 10:48pm Thrax

Gargoyle wrote:

What is AMD supposed to believe? This sentence confuses me.

AMD is hoping that everyone believes some actual 6-series voodoo has been performed on these cards

Based on the same hardware as the ATI Radeonâ„¢ HD 5700 Series, be ready for the hottest DirectXÂ® 11 games with an award-winning architecture featuring full DirectXÂ® 11 support.6 (Source)

6. AMD Radeonâ„¢ HD 6770 Graphics are based on the same hardware as the ATI Radeonâ„¢ HD 5700 Series, with added support for HDMI 1.4a and hardware-accelerated Blu-ray 3D (MVC) decode. (Source)
29 Apr 2011 ~ 9:22am Garg Sure, they acknowledge that it's the same chip with just a couple new tricks, which NVIDIA won't do. That's great. But they still put a 6 where a 5 used to be, and it's 99% a marketing move that will trick the large majority of people that don't do their research or even read the AMD webpage.

I'm not saying that's wrong, I'm just calling it what it is. I have two 5770s, and I'm quite happy with them. I paid a premium, twice, for what in my opinion was the best model on the market (Sapphire VaporX). At this point, though, I just don't think it's a smart move for anybody else.
29 Apr 2011 ~ 9:37am Basil

Gargoyle wrote:

But they still put a 6 where a 5 used to be

I'm curious as to what you expect them to do.

It's an updated card so has to get a new name, do you call it a 5770 v2? mkII? OMGxtremePWNz edition?
Or give it a 6000 series moniker anyway and just reduce it to a 6750/30?
29 Apr 2011 ~ 11:53am primesuspect We then get into the world of "letters after the numbers": IT's a 5770-BR-HDMI14
29 Apr 2011 ~ 12:23pm Kwitko

Gargoyle wrote:

99% a marketing move that will trick the large majority of people that don't do their research or even read the AMD webpage.

The 99% who don't do their research or read the AMD webpage probably don't even know what a video card is, let alone looking to upgrade to the latest and greatest. For the 1% of computer users who are enthusiasts like us, we do our research and won't be tricked. It's an upgrade for certain users, like me, who are on the 3-series AMD cards, not for people who already have 5-series cards. Would it have been better to label them as new 5-series? Perhaps. Like the answer to how many licks it takes to get the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop, the world may never know. At least AMD disclosed the similarities to the 5-series cards.
29 Apr 2011 ~ 12:30pm Zuntar AS long as they (insert any company) admit the re-branding and state the difference, or lack there of, it is up to the consumer to not get "had".
29 Apr 2011 ~ 12:34pm ardichoke

Zuntar wrote:

AS long as they (insert any company) admit the re-branding and state the difference, or lack there of, it is up to the consumer to not get "had".

QFT