| Codename(s) | Wekiva Makedon (RV770), Trojan (RV770),[1] Spartan (R700)[2] |
|---|---|
| Created in year | 2008 |
| Release date | 2008 |
| Entry-level cards | Radeon HD 4300, HD 4500 |
| Mid-range cards | Radeon HD 4600, HD 4700 |
| High-end cards | Radeon HD 4800 |
| Enthusiast cards | Radeon HD 4800 X2 |
| Direct3D support | 10.1, Shader Model 4.1 |
| OpenGL support | 3.3[3] |
| Predecessor | Radeon HD 3000 series |
| Successor | Radeon HD 5000 series |
The Radeon R700 is the engineering codename for a graphics processing unit series developed by Advanced Micro Devices under the ATI brand name. The foundation chip, codenamed RV770, was announced and demonstrated on June 16, 2008 as part of the FireStream 9250 and Cinema 2.0 initiative launch media event,[4] with official release of the HD4800 series on June 25, 2008. Other variants include enthusiast-oriented RV790, mainstream product RV730, RV740 and entry-level RV710.
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The RV770 extends the R600's unified shader architecture by increasing the stream processing unit count to 800 units (up from 320 units in the R600), which are grouped into 10 SIMD cores composed of 16 shader cores containing 4 FP MADD/DP ALUs and 1 MADD/transcendental ALU. The RV770 retains the R600's 4 Quad ROP cluster count;, however, they are faster and now have dedicated hardware-based AA resolve in addition to the shader-based resolve of the R600 architecture. The RV770 also has 10 texture units, each of which can handle 4 addresses, 16 FP32 samples, and 4 FP32 filtering functions per clock cycle.[5]
The SPU count of other variants of Radeon R700 family are as follows:
| Product/series | GPU codename | Stream processing units (SPU) | Memory Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Radeon HD 4890 | RV790XT | 800 | 256-bit GDDR5 |
| Radeon HD 4870 | RV770XT | ||
| Radeon HD 4860 | RV790GT | 640 | |
| Radeon HD 4850 | RV770PRO | 800 | 256-bit GDDR3 |
| Radeon HD 4830 | RV770LE | 640 | |
| Radeon HD 4770 | RV740 | 128-bit GDDR5 | |
| Radeon HD 4750 | RV740PRO | 480 | |
| Radeon HD 4730 | RV770CE | 640 | |
| Radeon HD 4670 | RV730XT | 320 | 128-bit GDDR3/DDR3/DDR2 |
| Radeon HD 4650 | RV730PRO | ||
| Radeon HD 4550 | RV710 | 80 | 64-bit DDR3 |
| Radeon HD 4350 | 64-bit DDR2 |
RV770 features a 256-bit memory controller and is the first GPU to support GDDR5 memory, which runs at 900 MHz giving an effective transfer rate of 3.6 GHz and memory bandwidth of up to 115 GB/s. The internal ring bus from the R520 and R600 has been replaced by the combination of a crossbar and an internal hub.[6]
The RV770 GPU saw the implementation of UVD 2 (only available on Windows operating system), offering full hardware MPEG-2, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC and VC-1 decoding and the support for dual video streams, the Advanced Video Processor (AVP) also saw an upgrade with DVD upscaling capability and dynamic contrast feature. The RV770 series GPU also supports xvYCC color space output and 7.1 surround sound output (LPCM, AC3, DTS) over HDMI. The RV770 GPU also supports an Accelerated Video Transcoding (AVT) feature, which has video transcoding functions being assisted by the GPU, through stream processing.
This generation of dual-GPU design retains the use of a PCI Express bridge, PLX PEX 8647 with PCI Express 2.0 support, allowing two GPUs on the same PCI Express slot with doubled bandwidth over the past generation of product (Radeon HD 3870 X2). Current generation of dual-GPU design also features an interconnect for inter-GPU communications through the implementation of a CrossFire X SidePort on each GPU, giving extra 5 GB/s full-duplex inter-GPU bandwidth. These two features increase total bandwidth for dual-GPU designs to 21.8 GB/s. At this point, the CrossFire X Sideport isn't enabled by default in the drivers.
The Radeon HD 4850 was announced on June 19, 2008 while the Radeon HD 4870 was announced on June 25, 2008. They are both based on the RV770 GPU, packing 956 million transistors and being produced on a 55 nm process. The Radeon HD 4850 currently uses GDDR3 memory, while the Radeon HD 4870 uses GDDR5 memory.
Another variant, the Radeon HD 4830 was updated on October 23, 2008, featuring the RV770 LE GPU with a 256-bit GDDR3 memory interface, and 640 shader processors. Basically the RV770 LE is a RV770 with some functional units disabled.
Dual GPU products using two RV770 GPUs, codenamed R700, were also announced. One product named Radeon HD 4870 X2, featuring 2×1GB GDDR5 memory, was released on August 12, 2008, while another dual-GPU product, the Radeon HD 4850 X2, with GDDR3 memory and lower clock speeds, is also available.
A minor update was introduced on April 2, 2009 with the launch of Radeon HD 4890 graphics cards based on the RV790 GPU. Featuring an improved design with decoupling capacitors to reduce signal noise,[7] altered ASIC power distribution and re-timed the whole GPU chip, which resulted in a slight increase in die size but overall much better stability at high clock rates. On August 18, 2009, AMD released a stripped down variant of the RV790 GPU called the RV790GT that is used by the Radeon HD 4860 which is now available in all markets.
The Radeon HD 4700 series was announced on April 28, 2009. The Radeon HD 4770, is based on the RV740 GPU, packs 826 million transistors and being produced on the latest 40 nm process. The Radeon HD 4730 was introduced June 8, 2009, unlike the RV740 based Radeon HD 4770, the 4730 is a stripped down 55 nm RV770 GPU, named the RV770CE. The 4730 packs 956 million transistors, and uses GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus. On September 9, 2009, the RV740PRO based Radeon HD 4750 was released exclusively to the Chinese market. The Radeon HD 4750 is based on the 40 nm RV740 of the Radeon HD 4770 but features a lower clock speed and the absence of a six-pin auxiliary power input.
The Radeon HD 4600 series was announced on September 10, 2008. All variants are based on the RV730 GPU, packing 514 million transistors and being produced on a 55 nm process. The PCIe version 4600 series products do not require external power connectors.[8][9][10][11] More recently, the AGP version of the 4670 has been released. This does require one molex connector.
The Radeon HD 4350 and Radeon HD 4550 were announced on September 30, 2008, both based on the RV710 GPU, packing 242 million transistors and being produced on a 55 nm process. Both products use either GDDR3, DDR3 or DDR2 video memory. AMD claims these two products have maximums of 20 W and 25 W of power consumption under full load, respectively.[12]
The R800 (Evergreen) was released as the Radeon HD 5000 series in late September 2009 with the 5870 and 5850 covering the high end segment of the market. The 5770 and 5750 were released in mid October 2009 to cover the performance segment of the market. The 5600 and 5500 series were released in late January, early February 2010 to cover the lower segments of the market. The 5970 was released in late 2009 to cover the ultra high end segment of the market. Northern Islands are the new code name for the Radeon HD 6000 series and they were released in October 2010, starting with the Radeon HD 6870 and the Radeon HD 6850. The next family (Southern Islands) are expected to be released in 2011 and will be made in 28 nm.
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