The Radeon HD 8000 series will be released in the second quarter of 2013

The graphics card makers AMD and Nvidia now each have a complete set of graphics cards in the Southern Islands and Kepler families, respectively. With no new models in sight, the focus is now on the next generation, but those who are waiting to upgrade seem to have to persevere for a while longer.

The Taiwanese industry magazine Digitimes refers to industry sources and reports that what is known so far as the Radeon HD 8000 series will be delayed until the second quarter of 2013, ie sometime in the period April-June. The new family has the code name Sea Islands and is based on the second generation of the Graphics Core Next architecture in 28 nanometers.

A launch ahead of the spring may mean that AMD has time to show off the new models at the Cebit trade fair in Hanover, which will be launched in March next year. At the same time, there is talk that Nvidia is also planning to launch new graphics cards – also here in the second quarter of 2013. It is thus hot in the graphics card market in the not too distant future.