AMD might possibly launch their next generation Volcanic Islands GPUs in October 2013 which marks the start of Q4 2013 as reported by ChinaDIY. It has already been hinted in numerous leaks and reports that AMD's Volcanic Islands GPUs will arrive in fourth quarter of 2013.
AMD Volcanic Islands GPUs To Arrive In October 2013?
AMD's Volcanic Islands GPU will be based on a completely new architecture making use of process enhancements and increased amount of stream processors. We may see a bigger leap over the HD 7000 series than previously anticipated from the new cards but currently we don't have any technical or specification details on these cards other than their codenamed which appeared in the leaked catalyst drivers a few weeks ago.
Hawaii is the codename for the next-generation flagship part which would replace the Tahiti based Radeon HD 7970. The driver has also listed some never been heard of codenames which include Vesuvius, a Volcanic Island and a Sea Islands called Tonga located just past New Zealand. The New Zealand codename has also appeared in the driver which might seem confusing since AMD renamed their New Zealand reference HD 7990 card to “Malta” so it could be possible that New Zealand may eventually become a Dual chip card within the AMD Volcanic Island series.
It should be noted that October is the same time when EA released Battlefield 4 and as their exclusive hardware partner, AMD could pit the launch of their next generation products prior to the Battlefield 4 reveal as hinted by Sweclockers although this isn't confirmed. At E3 2013, AMD revealed their 5 GHz FX-9000 series processors so the Battlefield 4 reveal could be the right time to unleash new generation of graphics hardware.
There's also an update regarding the naming scheme of the Volcanic Islands GPUs. Earlier we thought AMD might stick to the Radeon HD 8000 series branding but it doesn't seems so. ChinaDIY also mentions that AMD would not use the Radeon HD 8000 brand but would brand the cards as the Radeon HD 9000 series with the possibility of bringing the Radeon 9550 legacy back. Only time would tell whether this holds any truth, but for now AMD is quiet happy with their Radeon HD 7970 and HD 7000 series cards offering the best value and game bundles to consumers, more here.
