***AMD Radeon HD7970 GHZ Edition - Official Reviews Thread***

[Homeles]

What percentage of gamers do you think game at 2560x1440? It's like 2%. The majority of gamers game at 1920X1080. I believe the number is like 86%

25% according to steam.

 

[exar333]

I still can't get over how this card eats 168 more watts then a 670

That thing uses more power than the 690!

 

[toyota]

If you buy a $500 video card to play on a $150 monitor, well what can I say about that.

lol, you could say nothing and that would be great. the vast majority of people that buy a single 680 or 7970 play at 1920x1080.

 

[exar333]

whats to stop a partner to take existing 7970 stock and flash a ghz edition bios to the existing stock?

Looks like all they did was crank-up the fan and boost the clocks. What a crappy release. This isn't quite FX 5800 'loud' but pretty close considering the competition is SO much quieter these days.

Sounds like the best plan is to just get a custom PCB 7970 and OC that instead of paying more for this.

 

[Homeles]

Looks like all they did was crank-up the fan and boost the clocks. What a crappy release. This isn't quite FX 5800 'loud' but pretty close considering the competition is SO much quieter these days.

Sounds like the best plan is to just get a custom PCB 7970 and OC that instead of paying more for this.

It's definitely underwhelming, but it's better than nothing.

It's a bit sad that the most exciting part of the review for me was seeing the performance increases from the new driver. Lol.

 

[HurleyBird]

1200 boost core and it only ties the 100 dollar less 670

Be less obvious next time.

 

[borisvodofsky]

Nvidia has a clear win..

Though I still don't think any games out today justify the expense. Not even BF3, with all the eye candy turned up, I feel like I'm playing at a significant disadvantage.

What's the point of having it look really good if you lose...?

 

[HurleyBird]

The power consumption isn't too big of an issue, but there's no arguing that this card is way too loud. AMD seriously dropped the ball not redesigning the reference cooler or binning for lower temperatures.

7970GE could be quite an awesome part, but the reference card is a lemon. Non-reference designs could be pretty awesome, but given that the new power tune seems to model the reference cooler (and it's a safe assumption that future cards will all follow the same example) one has to wonder where exactly non-reference cards will fit in.

We're also already six months in. If it takes a long time for non-reference designs to come in, than waiting for Big K or Sea Islands will become more and more tempting.

 

[arkcom]

That thing uses more power than the 690!

You aren't reading the chart right.

Edit: Neither is Don. It's 112 watts difference.

 

[HurleyBird]

Huh, over at [H] they have the GHz edition coming up quieter than the old 7970. May be a bit of a crap-shoot.

 

[3DVagabond]

Huh, over at [H] they have the GHz edition coming up quieter than the old 7970. May be a bit of a crap-shoot.

There is no standard on how they measure noise. Or power usage or temp, for that matter.

 

[lehtv]

What's official about this thread? Shouldn't it be unofficial?

 

[Mistwalker]

Much like the GTX 580 was considered "what the 480 should have been" this is the kind of performance the 7900 series is capable of and really should have been launched at these levels. Hindsight and all, I suppose.

Unfortunately AMD has had to make too many trade-offs to chase the 680 in the noise and power departments...it boggles my mind that AMD refuses to put a better reference cooler on the things. I think users might overlook power consumption but if AT's review is accurate, these cards are horrendously loud.

 

[toyota]

Much like the GTX 580 was considered "what the 480 should have been" this is the kind of performance the 7900 series is capable of and really should have been launched at these levels. Hindsight and all, I suppose.

Unfortunately AMD has had to make too many trade-offs to chase the 680 in the noise and power departments...it boggles my mind that AMD refuses to put a better reference cooler on the things. I think users might overlook power consumption but if AT's review is accurate, these cards are horrendously loud.

yeah the 580 brought lower noise, better cooling, and lower power usage with its performance increase over the 480. the 7970 1ghz has only made all of those characteristics even worse.

 

[HurleyBird]

There is no standard on how they measure noise. Or power usage or temp, for that matter.

The fan speed is lower. Cooler and PCB are identical. 2 + 2 = ?

 

[HurleyBird]

Above is a picture of our 7970 GHz Edition review unit, which came to us directly from AMD. However, there is a bit of a catch. The card above is based on AMD's reference design, but we understand retail cards from AMD's various partners will have custom coolers and possibly custom PCB designs. You won't likely see a 7970 GHz Edition that looks like that picture.

Some AiBs may actually release similarly spec’d cards but several we have talked to have no intention of modifying their lineup for the time being since they already have custom HD 7970 SKUs clocked at 1GHz and higher.

Seems like quite the contrast. If Tech Report is to be believed, higher noise on the reference GHz Edition may be a non-factor. If Hardware Canucks is to be believed, the GHz Edition might be itself a non-factor.

Regardless, two thoughts come to mind:

1. The new Radeon drivers are impressive

2. Nvidia is lucky that AT hasn't changed over to DiRT: Showdown yet. What a murder.

 

[toyota]

yeah what the hell is up with Dirt Showdown? surely some of that massive gap can be addressed with a new driver from Nvidia.

 

[Mistwalker]

yeah the 580 brought lower noise, better cooling, and lower power usage with its performance increase over the 480. the 7970 1ghz has only made all of those characteristics even worse.

Oh, I'm not comparing what each successive card brought over its predecessor (the 580 was an across-the-board better product, the 7970GE is simply a clock bump). Just remarking that this is AMD's turn at quickly pushing out an improved version of a card that clearly had room to improve over its original iteration. Sadly since it IS basically just a clock increase and AMD loves its blower coolers, it's a disappointing trade-off IMHO.

 

[palladium]

If this release translates to a price reduction in the non GE 7970, I'm happy.

 

[HurleyBird]

yeah what the hell is up with Dirt Showdown? surely some of that massive gap can be addressed with a new driver from Nvidia.

As per TR:

Although Showdown is based on the same game engine as its predecessors, it adds an advanced lighting path that uses DirectCompute to allow fully dynamic lighting. In addition, the game has an optional global illumination feature that approximates the diffusion of light off of surfaces in the scene.

Smart money is on DirectCompute dynamic lighting. It seems likely that Nvidia can narrow the gap somewhat with drivers, but if that DirectCompute code is aggressively targeting GCN it would explain a lot.

 

[lopri]

If this release translates to a price reduction in the non GE 7970, I'm happy.

Same here. At least now everyone showed their hands. (Didn't think this 7970 GHz would be a real product) I will see how the prices move.


Off-topic: Can we do something about this annoying NV-marketing guru? S/he has been trying to camouflage his identity as much as he could, but it seems s/he can no longer contain herself/himself.

This person has so many threads started, and it seemed like s/he could contribute more there helping others. But apparently those threads (despite being her/his threads) took back seat to this new, fresh target. It is odd no matter which way you think about it. I mean, say, you've just got a GTX 680 triple-SLI setup. Would you be hot and bothered by a mild improvement of HD 7970?

Hmm....

 

[Skurge]

OMW the noise is insane, I wouldn't put that card in my PC if AT is accurate. and power use? For this specific release they might as well have just let the AIB's fight the GTX680 and just give them the new BIOS and Drivers.

On the other hand, I'm really happy to see AMD (although not really succeed) try and go toe to toe with nVidia for the perfomance crown. Looks like Read is putting some fighting spirit into the boys at AMD. I hope the continues in the future and they can excecute better. and design a better freaking cooler.

 

[Will Robinson]

Whats you're excuse then because you're not one of the smart people. Overall picture you say?

7970GE runs Hotter, Eats more power , Makes more noise and STILL loses to the vanilla 680. Great product Amd

The Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition has indeed recaptured the single-GPU performance title for AMD; it's even faster than Zotac's GTX 680 AMP! Edition. And at $499.99, the 7970 GHz Edition is unambiguously a better value than the stock-clocked GeForce GTX 680.

The Tech Report

Yeah,sounds like a real disaster Don...

 

[Cookie Monster]

With nVIDIA, even if they had a more power hungry/noisy card, its usually 10~20% faster than the competition across the board. So in a sense it was acceptable and arguments could be made for/against.

In this case.. its abit underwhelming when it doesn't do the above while going overboard in power/noise department for a stock card.

 

[ShintaiDK]

So much about the rumours of a new spin, lower voltage etc. Its just an "overclocked" HD7970 with the added power consumption and increased voltage.

And the noise levels.