Official Radeon 7970 Review and discussion thread

[newparad1gm]

Just picked up a stock XFX 7970 from the 'egg yesterday. Sold off my 6970 today. Does anyone know if AMD cards can output to a 3DTV sort of like NVIDIA's 3DTV Play? I'm not getting conclusive info on Google for this.

[i SPY]

Originally Posted by slaWter

Those are cheap coolers usually. Not to mention a worse design.
The reference coolers from both companies are so good now, I don't see a reason to put a different air cooler on it. If you want better cooling, get a H2O solution.

True, but with 570gtx its not the case. Im at 900mhz and i never exceed 70C (auto fan), while stock fan/freq. 570gtx ~ 77-82C.

[Ninja Prime]

Originally Posted by K007

i saw the xfx review and the temp difference was minimal vs stock. which means the stock is a decent cooler this time

Its not the cooler, its the noise, I'm just sick of how loud those turbine-style fans are when they are under load.

[JasonPC]

Don't let rollo see that these cards overclock like crazy http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/...mance_review/7

At stock they are a little disappointing when you compare them to a 580. But as you can see with a hefty overclock the results get really interesting even compared to overclocked 580s.

[Redeemed]

Well going to be honest here, and absolutely no offense intended at Roadie or others whom have already bought their cards. I am honestly disappointed in stock 7970s. I expected more, and half believe AMD has something up their sleeve to combat Kepler. I think right now they know the 7970 is just fast enough as a single GPU card to warrant the present price. However they also know it likely won't hold up against Kepler very well, going off of nVidia's history of performance increases over their own previous gen parts.

So I'm thinking there's more to these GPUs than meets the eye. I know AMD has denied such, but that could be marketing. Maybe disabled CUs or maybe they are implementing enhancements to the GCN architecture that'll greatly increase the GPUs efficiency while not hindering clock speeds at all.

So far, for the prices asked though, I have no intention of picking up a 7900. As it stands the most i have to do is either lower or disable AA with my 5870 while leaving all other in-game settings maxed, at least for all the games I've played thus far. Considering this card only cost me $90 I'm content with this.

I'm still holding out that maybe there is a "wow!" card yet to be released from either AMD or nVidia- one that offers unbelievable performance for the price. Like the 5770 when it was released or the GTX460 back when it was released. If not, I'll skip this generation entirely and put that money towards something else- more and larger SSDs, maybe a new PSU so I can retire my present one that I've been using for nearly 6 years now, maybe an LED monitor... tons of other components to upgrade.

[Shamrock]

There is already a rumor of a 8970 refresh, ready for Kepler.

I found it HERE

The 2nd generation Graphic Core Next architecture is rumored to improve in the number of Stream Processors ( increased to 2304SPs ) faster Core Clock of 1225MHz and increased Memory Bandwidth but with a possible release date of this year!

If you read the thread, this is why the 7970s overclock so well. Could also explain Sapphire's leaked paper.

[Redeemed]

Originally Posted by Shamrock

There is already a rumor of a 8970 refresh, ready for Kepler.

I found it HERE



If you read the thread, this is why the 7970s overclock so well. Could also explain Sapphire's leaked paper.

I haven't read that thread but I do find the premise believable. Kepler would be a failure if it isn't considerably faster than the 7970- AMD needs something that can compete with the potential performance of kepler. You don't win by just making do. Even if kepler turns out an abysmal failure AMD cannot assume that to be the outcome, they have to have something greater than a mere clock increase planned for their refresh.

And considering how under whelming the 7970's stock performance is compared to present-generation GPUs (the GTX580 is a present generation GPU and it only barely trails the 7970 from the reviews I've read) AMD cannot expect that to suffice. They must have something greater in the works.

My prediction is AMD new that for right now they needed a card that was easily faster than the GTX580. Not by leaps and bounds but faster indeed. The 7970 is that, and it has proven to have lots of over clocking headroom. AMD new that such a card, for at least a short period of time, could be sold for a premium. How long has it been since AMD (or ATi) has had a single GPU card that could be sold at the present asking price of the 7970s? I believe they're miling their present single-GPU lead for all it is worth. I highly doubt the production cost of the 7970 is so great such a high price to the consumer is required. No, they are enjoying profit margins larger than they've had in a very long time.

I expect the prices will not come down significantly. I imagine Kepler will launch, and shortly after AMD's refresh to the 7-series. I don't think they'll allow inventory of the 7-series to last long after the 8-series is launched. The 8000 series will be the refresh to the 7000 series like the 6000 series is the refresh to the 5000 series.

However I think this refresh is where it'll get impressive. The GCN architecture likely has tons of potential- just looking at the 7970 I can see that being the case. However it is still a new architecture and one AMD likely isn't 100% familiar with yet. I'm certain they'll be able to tweak it for even greater efficiency. Maybe not even with more CU's. They were able to do more with less going from the 5870 to the 6970. That might be very much the case, or at least they may manage to do more with the same. No increase in CU's, likely a frequency increase and other tweaks to increase performance. Lot's of possibilities of course.

I've given up on the 7900, I'll not be buying one. Never really had any intention to anyways but that is absolute now. I'm still open to the possibility of more impressive cards- maybe the 7800s or nVidia's kepler. As I've said before- I am content with my 5870 for now.

[K007]

Originally Posted by JasonPC

Don't let rollo see that these cards overclock like crazy http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/...mance_review/7

At stock they are a little disappointing when you compare them to a 580. But as you can see with a hefty overclock the results get really interesting even compared to overclocked 580s.

thats insane..

[Rollo]

Originally Posted by K007

dude love the bf3 results...the min fps is a huge boost...dam prices...need to come down so i can retire my 5870

http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon...fire-review/11

GTX580 =39fps, 7970 = 43fps

http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon...fire-review/12

GTX580=69fps, 7970=72fps

http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon...fire-review/16

GTX580=45fps, 7970 =52fps

http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon...fire-review/19

GTX580=29fps, 7970=33fps (BF3!)

http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon...fire-review/20

GTX580=39fps, 7970=44

I see what you mean K007, the prices of the 7970 do seem a little out of line with performance.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814134124

With GTX580s available at $449 AMIR, are those extra 4-5fps truly worth another $100?


EDIT: I noted the good scaling results in my CF issues OP to be fair and inclusive of available info.

[JaxMacFL]

Got a couple of Sapphire 7970s' that will be here Friday. Going to top them off with a couple of these:

http://www.arctic.ac/en/p/detail/ind...sCategory/2182

[Viral]

Originally Posted by Rollo

With GTX580s available at $449 AMIR, are those extra 4-5fps truly worth another $100?

But 2 months ago 580's were worth the extra $100-$150 over a 6970 for the same FPS increase, right? RIGHT?

Flip flop some moar...

[Redeemed]

Originally Posted by Viral

But 2 months ago 580's were worth the extra $100-$150 over a 6970 for the same FPS increase, right? RIGHT?

Flip flop some moar...