It is not clear when AMD plans to launch its Radeon HD 7990 successor card, codenamed Malta, but we know that some cards are already in the works. They are a faster version of the HD 7990 dual chip card, and a necessary refresh for a card that launched in December 2011.

As usual, there will be a reference cooler and reference design, but we heard that AMD will let a few partners to come up with their own cooling solutions.

We heard that some vendors will take the custom cooling route as there’s always a belief that things can always get better and that reference designs can be improved. Malta cards are real, they are dual-chips cards, they still have to launch and there will be some custom cards as well.

Dual chip cards were never great sellers and they cannot generate a lot of revenue, but at the same time they are a prestige thing and it being able to claim the performance crown is always important.

The Malta custom cards we heard about are air cooled, and just maybe some AIBs will dare to come up with water cooled cards and make a successor to the Asus Ares 2.

Ares 3 anyone?