[Official] HD 7970 Reviews

ALXAndy · 22 Dec 2011 at 13:47

elrasho said:
What I meant was your original post made no sense, as in I couldn't understand what you were talking about. But now I do, you got a link to any non-reference design 7970 reviews?

He only got them in this morning so maybe later tonight?

TBH I wouldn't touch that noisy blower crap with a barge pole, and what Vortez said about them being horribly loud has already put me off.

But hey, maybe there will be some nice aftermarket coolers come along

TheRealDeal · 22 Dec 2011 at 13:48

I am a bit disappointed, if the stated prices are true but i do remember paying £350 for a x1900xtx not long after its launch. Amd have done some really nice cards for some really nice prices over the last 3-4 years but i always thought it was not gonna last forever, especially now they have a bigger share of the desktop market than nv which makes them the market leader. The last article i seen had nvidia still losing ground.

Freddie1980 · 22 Dec 2011 at 13:49

I'm impressed with the performance but is it an impressive card? I'll wait until I see it in the shops first but I don't expect to see this for much less then £400 given 3Gb GTX580's cost that much and this is faster.

Rofflay · 22 Dec 2011 at 13:50

If you get a cheap 580 on ebay from someone who upgraded blindly then you are laughing.Ill be waiting for keplar for some proper fps increases.Its not worth putting up with ATI drivers for about 10fps imo.AVP benchmarks was impressive though 20fps would maybe make me consider it.

For this reason RRP should have been £350 at launch dropping to £320 when things settle down.Its £500 right now? Laughable is it 350 in the states from newegg? Would not suprise me if this is UK pricing here.

I hope!

oli collett · 22 Dec 2011 at 13:52

CF scaling looks pretty impressive on some games:
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/revie...review&utm_medium=intro-link&utm_campaign=amd

ALXAndy · 22 Dec 2011 at 14:02

Rofflay said:
If you get a cheap 580 on ebay from someone who upgraded blindly then you are laughing.Ill be waiting for keplar for some proper fps increases.Its not worth putting up with ATI drivers for about 10fps imo.AVP benchmarks was impressive though 20fps would maybe make me consider it.

For this reason RRP should have been £350 at launch dropping to £320 when things settle down.Its £500 right now? Laughable is it 350 in the states from newegg? Would not suprise me if this is UK pricing here.

I hope!

I checked Newegg earlier and they're showing nothing.

nitram100 · 22 Dec 2011 at 14:02

oli collett said:
CF scaling looks pretty impressive on some games:
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/revie...review&utm_medium=intro-link&utm_campaign=amd

Destroys 580 SLI, scaling looks to be awesome! Would this mean that the 7800 series would scale very nicely also?

Jakus · 22 Dec 2011 at 14:03

It's still grating with me why these things are running so hot ! and why ATI has changed it's habit of the last few years of not having sensible fan control on reference cards.

Is this new die shrink not performing very efficiently ?, I don't know enough about the subject to comment, just seems strange to me

Defunkt · 22 Dec 2011 at 14:07

nitram100 said:
If AMD can do that then they may be onto a winner, but if a 7950 comes in at 300, where will the 7870 and 7850 come in? Are they going to be around similair performance of the current 6970 and 6950?

Most likely.

~>Dg<~ · 22 Dec 2011 at 14:08

haha at 1080p in bf3 like i said loads of cash for basically nothing

my card get 5 fps less same setting at 1080p and costs less than half

Rofflay · 22 Dec 2011 at 14:12

~>Dg<~ said:
haha at 1080p in bf3 like i said loads of cash for basically nothing

my card get 5 fps less same setting at 1080p and costs less than half

1080p is standard though lets see your card at 1600p + MSAA where the big boys play

d_brennen · 22 Dec 2011 at 14:14

JAKUS said:
It's still grating with me why these things are running so hot ! and why ATI has changed it's habit of the last few years of not having sensible fan control on reference cards.

Is this new die shrink not performing very efficiently ?, I don't know enough about the subject to comment, just seems strange to me

4870/90s were not exactly icy cold, neither were the 3870s nor the 2900 :confused:

panyan · 22 Dec 2011 at 14:14

ALXAndy said:
Well technically a 3gb card won't be faster than a 1.5gb card. Just like the 2gb Rad 6950 was barely any faster than the 1gb version they made to compete with the Ti.

Bobisuruncle54 said:
Irrelevant, the 3GB card is rarely faster, if at all. You can simply go and read some GTX 580 reviews and compare it to the 1.5GB version. It's even slightly slower in some case. I'll make it real easy for you.

i remember reading that the 2GB 560Ti had much higher FPS than the 1GB 560Ti, thats why i thought the 3GB would be better than the 1.5GB - apparently not

ALXAndy · 22 Dec 2011 at 14:16

Don't sweat it man, it'll come into its own over the coming months.

If BF3 is anything to go by (1.4gb in single player for me) then your card will be worth having, whilst the lower vram models will become worthless.

I'm gutted, because I own quad SLI 295s. And they rip benchmarks to bits. Sadly they're utterly richard the third for BF3.

FreeStream · 22 Dec 2011 at 14:17

I am liking that idle power draw vs my 4870.

Very much looking forward to getting one of these or the 7870 at some point

Defunkt · 22 Dec 2011 at 14:17

Crossfiring these cards looks to be a marked improvement in scaling at launch compared to previous AMD cards. Some real impressive numbers. Leaving the 580 SLi in the dust.

Whatever peoples thoughts are on these cards there is no doubt AMD have provided something very solid for those using or wanting to use Eyefinity. The high Res/multi monitor brigade are gonna love these cards.
The cherry on the cake being that 1 card will power right down when not gaming so it won't cost a fortune on the electric.

Jakus · 22 Dec 2011 at 14:19

d_brennen said:
4870/90s were not exactly icy cold, neither were the 3870s nor the 2900

Your missing my point, this is a massive die shrink, I thought that meant big efficiency gains ?

jonnylaris · 22 Dec 2011 at 14:21

Yea I'm very disappointed tbh. Another fail from AMD really in my books.

I'm thinking and hoping that the 680/780 will destroy this.

Jakus · 22 Dec 2011 at 14:26

jonnylaris said:
Yea I'm very disappointed tbh. Another fail from AMD really in my books.

I'm thinking and hoping that the 680/780 will destroy this.

No, I think that's a little strong really

If it was cheaper and quieter it would be a spectacular card in my books !

Defunkt · 22 Dec 2011 at 14:30

JAKUS said:
Your missing my point, this is a massive die shrink, I thought that meant big efficiency gains ?

Power consumption and reduced heat gains are what the 28nm is really about. Leading to more potential OC's. And looking at what they have done in this regard with 28nm it looks pretty good to my eyes.

We will find out just how good soon enough.