HD 7970 and HD 7950 get detailed

Dublin_Gunner

AMD is expected to release its next-generation Radeon HD 7970 and HD 7950 graphics cores based on the company’s NGC architecture which were just detailed in a recent report to hit the Web.
Tthe specs of the core have remained pretty much a secret until recently, when the Bright Side of News publication managed to dig out some additional details about this GPU.
Tahiti will be actually available in two versions, one called Tahiti Pro and one Tahiti XT, the latter coming as the more powerful version of two since it uses a fully working version of this core.
The HD 7970 GPU will be made up from 32 Compute Units for a total of 2048 cores that operate at a 1GHz clock.
These will be linked via a 384-bit wide memory bus to 3GB of GDDR5 VRAM working in a quad data-rate mode at 1.37GHz (5.5GHz effective) in order to provide a whopping 264GB/s of memory bandwidth.
The HD 7950 on the other hand, which is based on the Tahiti Pro version of the AMD GPU, will drop two of the Compute Units of its older brother to provide its users with 30 CUs and 1920 streaming cores that operate at a lower 900MHz frequency.
The number of ROPs will also be decreased to 60, which will be paired with 120 texture units, as in AMD’s new architecture every CU connects to 2 ROPs and 4 TMUs.
As far as the memory controller included in this core is concerned, the information available is a bit sketchy as it hasn’t been revealed if this will be 384-bit or 256-bit wide, but we do know that the memory clock was decreased to 1.25GHz.
Both products are expected to be released during CES 2012 and will occupy the $349-449 price bracket, while the dual-GPU version of Tahiti, the HD 7990, will debut in March 2012 and the target price is the same as the original price of its predecessor - $699 (520 EUR).

http://www.guru3d.com/news/amd-radeon-hd-7950-and-hd-7970-gpus-details/

Look ridiculously more powerful than current gen cards. the HD 7970 is apparently about the same performance as a HD 6990.....

Eamonn Brophy

****, I want one!

Any ideas on pricing for europe? 300ish for the 7950 maybe?

Icyseanfitz

€560 for a 7970 on pixmania :eek: my god they are pricey too pricey tbh

game4it70

Icyseanfitz wrote: »

€560 for a 7970 on pixmania :eek: my god they are pricey too pricey tbh

You can get them a little bit cheaor but not much :eek:

Word of warning to people that are buying one shop around as ocuk are £30-£60 more expensive for certain brands :mad:

Overheal

that would be like having 4 or 5 5770s.... So yeah, it's actually good value, if you do the math!

Icyseanfitz

dont see why they didnt undercut the 580 tbh, if they had sold it at 400-450 i probably would have bought one, meh il wait till nvidia come along with their high end and see what they are like

Overheal

Icyseanfitz wrote: »

dont see why they didnt undercut the 580 tbh, if they had sold it at 400-450 i probably would have bought one, meh il wait till nvidia come along with their high end and see what they are like

Because it outclasses the 580, only being bested by the 580 in 3 of 10 benchmarks, one of which is synsthetic and only beats it by a 9% performance gain:

http://www.overclockers.com/hd-7970-graphics-card-review/

Conclusion

The HD 7970 is a complete game-changer. It blows almost every other card on the market completely out of the water. With a price about $150 lower than the HD 6990 and the same as the GTX 580, the HIS HD 7970 is definitely worth consideration if you want a bleeding edge gaming system. The $549 MSRP is pretty hefty, but this card truly is the single GPU king. It’s performance in both games and synthetics is hard to match.

Usually there are pros and cons to consider when assigning an Overclockers.com rating, but in this case the performance absolutely speaks for itself. I can definitely say this card is Overclockers.com Approved without any hesitation. The HD 7970 truly changes the landscape of the entire GPU marketplace and will make the months leading up to NVIDIA’s Kepler release quite interesting.

Of course the whole review is kinda sexy.

"The HIS HD 7970 pushes out some solid performance at stock CPU speeds and stock GPU voltage, but this is Overclockers.com and I know for sure that plan to put a powerful setup behind this GPU. After reaching the limits of this GPU at stock voltage, I was able to flash a beta BIOS from AMD that unlocks voltage control on the HIS HD 7970. Once equipped with the ability to increase the core voltage to 1.3v, I got to work pushing this card as far as it could go. I managed an additional 110 MHz to bring the core up to a blazing 1250 MHz at 1.25v. This was the absolute bleeding edge of stability, any additional voltage or speed led to tons of artifacts during benchmarking.

While overclocking the HIS HD 7970, I did run into some issues pinpointing the precise voltage and core speed to achieve stability. Usually the process is really straightforward: increase the GPU clock until it freezes or artifacts appear in benchmarks; then raise voltage, rinse and repeat. Inconsistencies based on different voltages and speeds did arise, which is why I eventually settled on 1250MHz at 1.25v. Any higher than 1.25v seemed to render the GPU completely unstable, despite temperatures that were well within reason.

Only one thing left to do, I cranked the i7-2600k up to a blistering 5GHz and ran the whole battery of synthetic tests:"

/fap

Icyseanfitz

yeah its just annoying as nvidia are going to come out with the 680 and probably try to charge more than amd's higher offering (as they nearly always do) which will increase the cost of gpu's, of course they might try to undercut amd but i doubt it,
just annoying that the release prices of the 6970 and 7970 are so different