** ATI RADEON 7950 SERIES NOW IN STOCK & AVAILABLE!! **

[Reedux]

Apparently the XFX is noisier than a reference card, whereas the Powercolour one is getting good reviews.

Wow, really? I've read their fans are quite silent :O
and I wouldn't go near a powercolour card, read far too many horror stories regarding their quality and OC ability.

So what about the gigabyte then... it has 3 fans but noise really is a factor as well as cooling.

 

[nitram100]

Happy that there isn't any price gouging for once, it is pretty much a straight conversion from the US price if you factor in the VAT. But performance wise, it is pretty much on par with 13 month old technology from Nvidia, which is a bit lame. What exactly has AMD achieved here besides less power draw and temps, which I couldn't care less about. I am definitely going to wait until the 7950 1.5GB, can be had for around £280.

 

[rare]

Cheapest Vs cheapest there is a £90 difference? Which like 25% more?

I know, which to me would make me seriously considering spending the extra 90. I really would like them to be sub £300, which I think is much more reasonable. The price of this generation just seems high to me when it doesn't represent a massive leap. Just my opinion of course

 

[elmarko]

I'll wait till the prices come down, new tech is always overpriced.

Let's hope the competition force down prices sooner rather than later.

 

[psychas]

400 £ for 7950 same price as 7970 nearly, bad pricing lets see how low they go down when nvidia comes out.

 

[[WU-TANG]GZA]

I know, which to me would make me seriously considering spending the extra 90. I really would like them to be sub £300, which I think is much more reasonable. The price of this generation just seems high to me when it doesn't represent a massive leap. Just my opinion of course

A nice way to put it sir.

psychas wrote: 400 £ for 7950 same price as 7970 nearly, bad pricing lets see how low they go down when nvidia comes out.

That's the most expensive 7950 Vs the cheapest 7970?

The difference is circa £90 which is 25% as above. The price/performance of the 7950 will be slightly better than a 7970 and I'm sure this scale will continue to the 7850/7870/7890 area. Especially for the more 'mainstream' 1080p users like myself.

 

[ljt]

First of AMD's 40nm vs first of AMD's 28nm
5850 = £200 to 7950 = £350 (+75%)
5870 = £300 to 7970 = £430 (+43%)

That's all I am going to say.

Indeed. I have my receipt for my 5850 a couple of days after launch for £198 from OcUK, but arent these 79xx series the 6950/6970 replacements?

Wouldn't it be more realistic for it to be;
5850 = £200 to 7850 = £???
5870 = £300 to 7870 = £???

I'm not trying to argue, just curious if that is the correct way to look at it

 

[straxusii]

To be fair everyone including ATI said they launched the 5850/5870 too cheap, however even at £250/£350 it would be looking good compared to the 79X0 prices

 

[555BUK]

When the 5800 series was first launched, both cards (5850 & 5870) easily outperformed the best card of the previous generation (GTX285) for a much lower price.

The performance gap is closer between the 7900 cards and last gens GTX580, yet AMD have substantially increased prices (75% more for 7970 & 45% more for the 7950). Without such high pricing they could wipe the floor with NVidia, but instead their cards will mostly stay on the shelves until Kepler arrives. At that point AMD may well end up with egg on their faces.

IMO, these cards should have been launched at $100 (~£80) less for each part. They do not offer anywhere near the performance gains over last gen to justify such high pricing.

 

[555BUK]

Wouldn't it be more realistic for it to be;
5850 = £200 to 7850 = £???
5870 = £300 to 7870 = £???

AMD's top end 40nm launch card was the 5800. It compares directly to the 7900, whatever smoke and mirrors AMD try to play with the naming game
5970 to 6990 to 7990 (Ultra-hiigh)
5800 to 6900 to 7900 (High end)
5700 to 6800 to 7800 (Mid-high)
5600 to 6700 to 7700 (Mid)

7800's will very likely be slower than 6900's, in the same way that 6800's (should have been called 6700's) were slower than 5800's. AMD confused everything by bumping up the 5x00 refresh to 6x00 +100.

 

[djxput]

even if nvda comes out with a card in the future that beats AMDs latest; AMD did a nice job and bringing them out early and selling these at a premium.
Least they got one thing right recently (not faildozer).

 

[DamoTourettes]

Anyone have any experience with gigabyte graphics cards? Really like the look of it and with 3 fans im guessing the cooling should be quite good hopefully it has some good overclocking ability as well

In a word, awesome. I bought a GTX 580 SOC with the same cooler and it's damn near silent, and with a factory overclock of 855Mhz (fastest on the market) it's flat out hitting 60 degrees C under full load. Can't recommend it enough - do yourself a favour.

 

[nitram100]

AMD will lose this round due to this silly new pricing strategy. I am an AMD fan but am waiting to see what Kepler brings, well done AMD!

 

[Secret_Window]

I have to agree that I don't see these flying off the shelves, and giving much incentive to buy if you already have a 6950/6970/570/580 - unless you NEED to have 3Gb of VRAM. It would make more sense for AMD to price the 7950 at £300 and the 7970 at £350+ to give people the nudge. Pricing directly with the 580's is not good enough - what's stopping an Nvidia owner SLI'ing his 570/580 - where's the incentive to switch/win people over?! It should be making people question keeping their existing card - especially when something becomes exceptionally good value for money. This is the major drawback for me and many others. Why should we waste money on a small % gain in certain games when we could just add another card and crossfire/sli what we already have and surpass its performance? There's always the single gpu argument but not everyone believes in that.

I think I'll wait to see what Nvidia do - hopefully it will mean good value for both sides of the fence.

 

[arc@css]

^^ You haven't had your 570 very long, have you? Is it not performing as required?

 

[Balb0wa]

Everyone with an ounce of common sense is waiting so see what nvidia bring out, if they were £250/£350 they would be on to a winner

 

[Secret_Window]

^^ You haven't had your 570 very long, have you? Is it not performing as required?

Nah haven't had it very long. Performs brilliantly in everything I do. Not really wanting to change it. All I'm saying is, there must be others in the same position as me (who may have had theirs even longer) who don't want to change it because there is no incentive to with AMD's latest gen price-performance. Similarly, I bet it is the same for those with 6950/6970 cards too. There's no point really.

 

[DamoTourettes]

I have to agree that I don't see these flying off the shelves, and giving much incentive to buy if you already have a 6950/6970/570/580 - unless you NEED to have 3Gb of VRAM. It would make more sense for AMD to price the 7950 at £300 and the 7970 at £350+ to give people the nudge. Pricing directly with the 580's is not good enough - what's stopping an Nvidia owner SLI'ing his 570/580 - where's the incentive to switch/win people over?! It should be making people question keeping their existing card - especially when something becomes exceptionally good value for money. This is the major drawback for me and many others. Why should we waste money on a small % gain in certain games when we could just add another card and crossfire/sli what we already have and surpass its performance? There's always the single gpu argument but not everyone believes in that.

I think I'll wait to see what Nvidia do - hopefully it will mean good value for both sides of the fence.

+1

If the 7970 was £350 I'd buy two straight away and flog off my GTX 580 - I need 3GB as I run 2560 x 1600 res. But at this price/performance you're having a laugh. Still don't buy the "they're underclocked for pure TDP reasons only" argument either - I guess we'll see in time the longevity of running a 7970 overclocked to 1250Mhz...

 

[psychas]

looking at reviews sapphire oc has best cooler .

 

[ALXAndy]

looking at reviews sapphire oc has best cooler .

From what I can make out they're all the same, just different shrouds.