Radeon HD 7970 Inbound

[hassata]

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/computers/amd-to-launch-new-flagship-radeon-hd-7970-desktop-graphics-card-on-december-22/7170

[Kuky]

any time now... waiting for one

[Grimes]

Just waiting to see the benchmarks. I figure my gfx card will be due for an update sometime this year.

 

Anyone know if they will be releasing cards at other price points? aka, 7770?

[Kuky]

For a start there should be HD7950 and HD7970 and hopefully later next year dual GPU 7990. I'm trying to avoid dual GPU card because I want to avoid any possible issues like I had in past (like micro stuttering) so HD7970 will be good choice for me, I hope you can run 4 monitors of it...

[Beagle One]

Hey good news this means the price for HD68xx will drop soon.

[Gadroc]

Well that looks like a performance jump enough to make me move off my 5870. I just hope they delver some eyefinity 6 versions as well. I need six monitors to drive my pit.

[Kuky]

The card is officially announced today and there are reviews available on the net... I am personally not impressed at all, it's is only about 10% faster then HD6970 and in some games slower then GTX580. Considering just how many more transistors is has compared to 40nm cards I was expecting at least 30% better performance but it's nowhere near that... not even close.

[WynnTTr]

The card is officially announced today and there are reviews available on the net... I am personally not impressed at all, it's is only about 10% faster then HD6970 and in some games slower then GTX580. Considering just how many more transistors is has compared to 40nm cards I was expecting at least 30% better performance but it's nowhere near that... not even close.

If this is the case I guess my 6950 CF will still be good for the generation after.

[Kuky]

maybe I was bit harsh, I've read another review (from AnandTech) and it seems it's more then 10% increase over HD6970... more like 15-20% on average, but still I was hoping to be near HD6990 and GTX590 so it would be good jump from my HD5870... right now I don't know if I will buy it when it's out, I wanted a video card to run 4 monitors of it so I don't have to use secondary video card. The 3GB of RAM over 1GB is also good but considering I got water bloock for the HD5870 spending again $550-600 this video card is not easy to live with. I might end up buying it but still, I was hoping it would be better

[sobek]

I might end up buying it but still, I was hoping it would be better

 

Relax, maybe the drivers aren't that good yet. I'd wait until the official release in January before i draw any conclusions.

[hassata]

maybe I was bit harsh, I've read another review (from AnandTech) and it seems it's more then 10% increase over HD6970... more like 15-20% on average, but still I was hoping to be near HD6990 and GTX590 so it would be good jump from my HD5870... right now I don't know if I will buy it when it's out, I wanted a video card to run 4 monitors of it so I don't have to use secondary video card. The 3GB of RAM over 1GB is also good but considering I got water bloock for the HD5870 spending again $550-600 this video card is not easy to live with. I might end up buying it but still, I was hoping it would be better

 

You should consider a 6970 with 2GB. I run 4 monitors off of that and am very pleased. Price has probably dropped now, too.

[Kuky]

Review at Techpowerup made me rethink of getting it, I like the overall relative performance summary page, it seems for my resolution (I run 1920x1800 with 3 monitors) I might get about 50% increase over HD5870 which is actually not that bad

 

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7970/28.html

 

 

 

[GregP]

All the reviews I've seen suggest improvement over the 6970 of nearly 30%, so this could very well be worth the upgrade, in my case.

[Cedaway]

DCS is CPU dependent => Does a GPU change could make the difference?

[Pilotasso]

Wait for the NVIDIA response, youll be able to judge better then.

[Gadroc]

Wait for the NVIDIA response, youll be able to judge better then.

 

Sure. I'll hold my breath and you let me know when NVIDA releases a video card that doesn't require SLI for over two monitors. :thumb up:

 

Don't get me wrong NVIDIA has some great cards for stock gaming configurations, but they really really fall flat when you are trying to put together a cockpit that requires 4+ video outputs.

[GregP]

DCS is CPU dependent => Does a GPU change could make the difference?

 

DCS performance is dependent upon both GPU and CPU. It depends on the specifics of each person's configuration. If you've maxed out your system's GPU, you will probably still see an improvement with more GPU power.

 

It is true, though, that DCS is more dependent upon the CPU than most other games.

[hassata]

OC Guide:

http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-7970-overclock-guide/

[Kuky]

Damnit... looks like the HD7970 will be able to run 3 monitors only... and 6 monitors can be used only if used with some HUB's :( this sucks

 

 

1:37

[PeterP]

Yes - they are cutting the hardware down (to save production costs)- because not many "gamers" using the the full capabilities of the hardware.-and we have to spend even more to use all the features.

 

Something that NVidia has done from the beginning - seems that AMD is going now the same route after they have introduced eyefinity6 cards - and only very few had bought this.

[Gadroc]

Very very disappointing!

[hassata]

6970. You won't be disappointed.

[Pilotasso]

You guys with 6 monitors could well do a 4 way crossfire with 4 of 6970's. The investiment should be similar.

[Loz]

Damnit... looks like the HD7970 will be able to run 3 monitors only... and 6 monitors can be used only if used with some HUB's :( this sucks

I don't read that the same as you. All other reviews say that it will ship with an HDMI to DVI adapter, hence giving the same four monitor output.

They've lost the extra DVI output to make the space for an improved fan out vent.

Remember with the stock 6000 series you only had either DVI or HDMI because of the shared clock.

 

Found this Here

 

"So for Southern Islands AMD has taken this to its logical conclusion and cut out the 2nd DVI port entirely. There is now a single DL-DVI port, along with an HDMI port and 2 miniDP ports all along a single slot. The 7970 still has the internal logic to drive the same monitor configurations as the 6970, but anyone using the SL-DVI port will now be fed by the HDMI port. (my highlighting) In order to make this transition easier on buyers, AMD will be requiring that partners ship both an HDMI to SL-DVI adaptor and an active miniDP to SL-DVI adaptor with their 7970s, so 7970 users will be able to drive up to 3 DVI monitors out of the box, which is actually better than what the 6970 could do. Of course we expect that this will be a limited time offer; once AMD’s partners start putting together cheaper cards later in the 7970’s life, the mDP to SL-DVI adaptor will be the first thing to go."

 

Hope this is correct or else AMD won't be seeing any of my money. :no:

Edited December 31, 2011 by Loz

[Kuky]

I hope you are right Loz as I really want to see ability to run 4 monitors of this one card so I can get rid of secondary video card... in couple more days we will know... I am eager to get water block for this card and have it water cooled, I've seen one guy who somehow got the HD7970 overclock it to 1125MHz core (I assume on stock cooling)

 

EDIT:

and if this is true this will be so kick ass:

http://www.techpowerup.com/157771/Sapphire-Readies-Radeon-HD-7970-Cards-with-1335-MHz-Core-Clock-6-GB-Memory.html

It looks like AMD's claims of HD 7970's extreme overclocking capabilities weren't the usual PR hoopla. A confidential company document revealing the non-reference models Sapphire has in the works, got leaked to the web, and it is a bundle of surprises. To begin with, Sapphire plans no less than six non-reference Radeon HD 7970 models apart from the vanilla AMD reference design card. Among these, the top-of-the-line cards are codenamed "Atomic RX" and "Atomic WC". One can guess that the "RX" is an air-cooled card, and the "WC" a water-cooled one. It packs blistering clock speeds of 1335 MHz core, with 5735 MHz (1433 MHz actual) memory.

 

The other card that caught our eyes is codenamed "FLEX 6G". The Flex variant typically features a flexible display output configuration. This card is said to have six mini-DP connectors. While this card sticks to AMD reference clock speeds, it packs a whopping 6144 MB of video memory, all wired to a single GPU. While 4 Gbit GDDR5 chips don't exist, we expect Sapphire to be using 24 * 2 Gbit chips on this card, with twelve sets of two chips sharing 32 bit paths. Then there are other milder factory overclocked cards apart from the Atomic; there's Toxic 3G, and VaporX 3G, both packing impressive out of the box clock speeds.

Edited January 1, 2012 by Kuky