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Just seen 7970 Price @ £452.15 inc vat.

Soldato
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I concede that some premium is always charged for the top graphics card, and the 7970 is currently that. However, this will only last until Kepler arrives (latest estimates 3-5 months), so expect big cuts before the summer. I (and most of the tech sites) have little doubt that Kepler will be significantly faster than the 7970 and I will not get burned again by buying at silly launch pricing. This applies to both AMD & NVidia if listening.

Fermi (GTX480/580) was top dog for two years whilst fighting against equivelent generation opposition. Fermi arguably earned it's £400 price tag. The 79xx's will be top for just several months whilst battling NVidia's last gen cards. For me, they are not worth the >£450 price tag.
 
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Soldato
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I concede that some premium is always charged for the top graphics card, and the 7970 is currently that. However, this will only last until Kepler arrives (latest estimates 3-5 months), so expect big cuts before the summer. I (and most of the tech sites) have little doubt that Kepler will be significantly faster than the 7970 and I will not get burned again by buying at silly launch pricing. This applies to both AMD & NVidia if listening.

Fermi (GTX480/580) was top dog for two years whilst fighting against equivelent generation opposition. Fermi arguably earned it's £400 price tag. The 79xx's will be top for just several months whilst battling NVidia's last gen cards. For me, they are not worth the >£450 price tag.

Agreed, 7000 series should not be trading blows with 500 series cards. it should destroy it in every situation, and it fails to do that, even slower in some situations, call it driver error.. I'm not so sure.
 
Soldato
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Agreed, 7000 series should not be trading blows with 500 series cards. it should destroy it in every situation, and it fails to do that, even slower in some situations, call it driver error.. I'm not so sure.

its call physics.
28nm dosnt solve things it even make it worse.
One reason nvidia is so silent is they got a headache at 28nm.
You cant design and then just build things out on a whim, 28nm is though.

7970 is a card for 2560 and up resolutions, you see the same with nvidia when they are out.
in that I enjoy eyefinity 120hz a lot.
 
Soldato
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Agreed, 7000 series should not be trading blows with 500 series cards. it should destroy it in every situation, and it fails to do that, even slower in some situations, call it driver error.. I'm not so sure.

I completely agree, these should be wiping the floor with the 500 series, which is why I think they are disappointing and overpriced
 
Associate
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I completely agree, these should be wiping the floor with the 500 series, which is why I think they are disappointing and overpriced

They not only wipe the floor with them but p**s on them afterwards :D

If you don't like overclocking, then just grab the aftermarket cards. Sapphire has 1335Mhz on the core, fast enough for you? Think GTX 580's in sli. or grab the Flex for 6GB of ram. These cards are beasts anyone saying otherwise is either bitter becausce they can't afford one and secretly really want one or a fanboy.

Sapphire Readies Radeon HD 7970 Cards with 1335 MHz Core Clock, 6 GB Memory

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.

http://www.techpowerup.com/157771/S...rds-with-1335-MHz-Core-Clock-6-GB-Memory.html

Custom Windforce Gigabyte card,

163a.jpg
 
Soldato
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the custom cards will be interesting to see there numbers and performance, plus how noisey the air cards will be, dont want my machine to sound like it taking off all the time as it does right now when i play bf3 :)
 
Associate
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Blah blah blah

You really think these cards are disappointing? Really?

Is it the stock beating GTX 580 speed whilst using much less power? Is it becausce they overclock faster than the HD 6990? Is it that idle power has been drastically reduced or that the fan actually shutdown when in idle? Is it the 3GB of ram?

Ask yourself are the you disappointed in the HD 7970, or are you disappointed you can't afford one?

Budget cards come out soon ;)
 
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bru

bru

Soldato
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If sapphire can launch a card at 1335Mhz and not have any issues with it, I'm my opinion it just reinforces what i was saying about AMD not doing enough.
they could have released the card with a higher stock speed to give it the stock speed performance it really deserved.
its a good card with some very nice features and its performance over the 6790 is OK, I'd even say that when overclocked the performance over the 6790 is good. and that is the number that matters its performance over the previous AMD card not the performance to the Nvidia GTX580.
 
Soldato
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They not only wipe the floor with them but p**s on them afterwards :D

If you don't like overclocking, then just grab the aftermarket cards. Sapphire has 1335Mhz on the core, fast enough for you? Think GTX 580's in sli. or grab the Flex for 6GB of ram. These cards are beasts anyone saying otherwise is either bitter becausce they can't afford one and secretly really want one or a fanboy.


http://www.techpowerup.com/157771/S...rds-with-1335-MHz-Core-Clock-6-GB-Memory.html

Custom Windforce Gigabyte card,

To be fair, 6GB vRAM means nothing unless you game at ultra high resolution with SuperSampling. 1.5GB vRAM is just enough for standard resolutions, I would say even up to 2560x1600 if you don't turn up AA too high and 1920x1200 with maxed out AA.

That would make 7950 1.5GB the best choice when it comes to value for money from the speculated prices and specifications I've seen.

We also don't know what gains such a core overclock would bring, for all we know a 40% on core may mean 25% increase in fps, similar situation that we've seen with Radeon 6900 cards where overclock after a certain point would not mean a lot in terms of performance improvements.

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1805/15/

Shows 80% core clock scaling in Metro 2033, Just Cause 2 and 3DMark 11 benchmark, where the core is overclocked by 26% and gains are around 20-21%. These figures always go down with higher clocks as seen in Radeon 5800s and 6900s.


If sapphire can launch a card at 1335Mhz and not have any issues with it, I'm my opinion it just reinforces what i was saying about AMD not doing enough.
they could have released the card with a higher stock speed to give it the stock speed performance it really deserved.
its a good card with some very nice features and its performance over the 6790 is OK, I'd even say that when overclocked the performance over the 6790 is good. and that is the number that matters its performance over the previous AMD card not the performance to the Nvidia GTX580.

It's most likely due to restrictions on TDP, AMD claims to support higher overclocks through unofficial BIOS releases.
 
Soldato
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you are starting to bore me now, I have seen reviews and even ocuk reviews (it's faster in benchmarks) but in games which people play and the reason you buy these cards it's sometimes slower is some games, on par in some and faster in others.

it should destroy it in everything and it fails to do that IN GAMES.

If benching 3dmark and heaven is your thing by all means buy one.

If you are loyal to the ATI brand buy one.

If over-clocking the nuts of it (which is does very well indeed) buy one.

If you feel the price is right buy one.

It's entirely up to the person buying it, but to claim is destroys its rivals and urines on it after is deluded fanboi talk.

TBH the overclocked 7950s (that will become a standard with aftermarket designs) seem to close the gap on GTX590 in many titles.

I'd say that's enough of an improvement to warrant an upgrade from a GTX580. If you have the money that is.
 
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Soldato
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You really think these cards are disappointing? Really?

Is it the stock beating GTX 580 speed whilst using much less power? Is it becausce they overclock faster than the HD 6990? Is it that idle power has been drastically reduced or that the fan actually shutdown when in idle? Is it the 3GB of ram?

Ask yourself are the you disappointed in the HD 7970, or are you disappointed you can't afford one?

Budget cards come out soon ;)

there you go again talking out of your behind.

DO you know what system I have currently and know my system history NO?

I cant afford it blah blah, don't me me laugh.

you keep saying they over-clock faster than a 6990 yes they do (its 28nm) but there is no results with them past 1100mhz yet so there is nothing to compare until the overclocked versions are
out and the tools to overclock them are available to download, GIBBO himself has posted on this very forum asking for help in overclocking the cards higher as the current tools don't let him do just that.

in your posts you say its beating and trading blows with the 580 that is over a year old, big whoop, this card wants to compete with nvidia next step, but it will have bob hope and no hope of doing that, unless ati release a new card.
 
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