Any update on the 7870?

[James3shin]

Any new information on the 7870 release date, performance or price?

 

[Panopticon]

7870 is set to drop in Feb. 7950 may show its face toward the end of the month but most likely in the first week of Feb. From what I've read the only new things you will see in 28nm this month will be more non reference 7970 designs.

 

[superjim]

Latest news reflects what Panopticon said for release dates (week of February 20th). There's some conflicting reports that the 7850 will either be $200 or $250 but the 7870 has always been shown to be $300. I find a $100 price gap to be too much myself. More likely, AMD will split the 7850 into 2 SKUs with 1GB and 2GB of RAM for those prices.

We've discussed Pitcairn in other threads so I'll recap the speculation here. Based off of the 7970 performance, AMD slides and current 6000 series prices, the general/agreed-upon/assumed performance of the 7870 puts it right with the 6970 more or less depending on who you talk too. Of course you still have to factor in driver tweaks over time and 28nm overclocking potential (if this pertains to you).

Personally, I hope the $300 7870 is ~10% or more faster than a 6970 otherwise it proves to be a small upgrade over those with an unlocked 6950-to-6970 which can be had for $220 AR right now. Sure, you'll lose out on overclocking potential (if the 7970 overclocking is any indication) but the 6950 is known to overclock pretty well (link).

 

[VulgarDisplay]

I personally think that 7870 will be somewhere between the 6970 and gtx580 in performance. I'd guess at -5% of the gtx580. That's where it would fall if the 7950 is -15% of the 7970 and the 7870 is 15% slower than that.

Seems like a lot of people are saying that the 7950 will be the same as the gtx580, but I think it would be stupid of AMD to release a card that is 24% slower than the 7970.

 

[superjim]

The 7950 is out of my price range and the 7870 is still a little out of my comfort zone at $300. To put this in perspective, you can buy a PS3 and two greatest hits game for that much. I'd be willing to argue that most gamers can't tell much of a difference between the PS3 and PC versions of most games, especially once they are immersed in the game, so why pay the difference? This coming from a PC-gaming advocate.

 

[StinkyPinky]

A 7870 seems the logical choice for an upgrade for a 5850. For me anyway.

 

[swilli89]

Thats a good point but PC has great exclusives like:

Starcraft 2
The Old Republic
Battlefield 3 (real battlefield 3, 32vs32 not 12vs12 lol)
Soon to be released Diablo 3

Just to name a few. Not to mention a superior input (kbm)

sorry to derail a little.

 

[Mopetar]

Not to mention a superior input (kbm)

Don't want to start a holy war, but although kbm is definitely better for many games/genres (e.g. shooters) there are plenty of other games where it's no better than other input methods or is worse.

It really just depends on what you want to play.

 

[Arzachel]

Don't want to start a holy war, but although kbm is definitely better for many games/genres (e.g. shooters) there are plenty of other games where it's no better than other input methods or is worse.

It really just depends on what you want to play.

That's the beauty of Pc gaming, there is no Microsoft nor Sony nor Nintendo to tell you what you should or shouldn't do. Ps2 with an usb adapter? Sure. Wiimote with custom drivers? No prob. Joysticks, steering wheels, trackballs, horrid monstrosities like Razer's Naga, use what you want.

Also, I won't believe that there actually are Pc gamers that don't have a gamepad.

 

[superjim]

Also, I won't believe that there actually are Pc gamers that don't have a gamepad.

*raises hand*

First-person shooter: I buy it for the PC or not at all
Action, Driving: I buy it for the PS3 with some exceptions

I'm not paying $40 for an Xbox 360 controller (not to mention I can't stand them) and most of the third-party controllers are crap or too expensive.

Getting back on track, T-minus 41 days until Feb 20th.

 

[Arzachel]

*raises hand*

First-person shooter: I buy it for the PC or not at all
Action, Driving: I buy it for the PS3 with some exceptions

I'm not paying $40 for an Xbox 360 controller (not to mention I can't stand them) and most of the third-party controllers are crap or too expensive.

Getting back on track, T-minus 41 days until Feb 20th.

That PS3 controler works perfectly fine with MotioninJoy drivers and Bluetooth dongles are dirt cheap, so no, you don't count

 

[Kloreep]

T-minus 41 days until Feb 20th.

Here's hoping Pitcairn gets a paper launch ahead of availability. I'd rather not be deciding whether to buy while they're going on sale.

 

[deadken]

...

Getting back on track, T-minus 41 days until Feb 20th.

Now only 14 days until Feb 20th...

I really would like to 'only' spend $250 on a new video card. I definitely want 2gb of Vram. I'll spend $300 if the %20 price premium is gonna get me %20+ of performance.

Any new information?

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

I'm really hoping the HD 7890 exists after looking at the fact that the clock-for-clock difference between the HD 7950 and HD 7970 is 3-7%. Since according to the rumors the amount of compute units cut will be the same, that means 6-14% difference clock-for-clock. If it'd cost $300-330 it'd be a huge hit.

 

[skipsneeky2]

I'm really hoping the HD 7890 exists after looking at the fact that the clock-for-clock difference between the HD 7950 and HD 7970 is 3-7%. Since according to the rumors the amount of compute units cut will be the same, that means 6-14% difference clock-for-clock. If it'd cost $300-330 it'd be a huge hit.

A pair of those 7870s would be pretty interesting at the right price geezus man $300 for this generations mid range?

No deals this generation huh?Whats gonna be $150 the 7770?

 

[Lonbjerg]

That's the beauty of Pc gaming, there is no Microsoft nor Sony nor Nintendo to tell you what you should or shouldn't do. Ps2 with an usb adapter? Sure. Wiimote with custom drivers? No prob. Joysticks, steering wheels, trackballs, horrid monstrosities like Razer's Naga, use what you want.

Also, I won't believe that there actually are Pc gamers that don't have a gamepad.

I don't own a gamepad.
I play either FPS (M+KB), WoT (M+KB) or space/flight games (Force Feedback Joystick)...or cargames(Force Feedback Joystick).

Don't need a gamepad, don't want a gamepad...games designed for gamepads often suffer from "autoaim"...and that *beep* needs to die.

 

[Skurge]

I don't own a gamepad.
I play either FPS (M+KB), WoT (M+KB) or space/flight games (Force Feedback Joystick)...or cargames(Force Feedback Joystick).

Don't need a gamepad, don't want a gamepad...games designed for gamepads often suffer from "autoaim"...and that *beep* needs to die.

Joystick for racing games?

I'm sorry, what? You need to explain that one to me. Maybe you meant force feedback racing wheel. Cause a gamepad would be miles better for racing games that a joystick.

 

[Shamrock]

I don't own a gamepad, I use the KB + Mouse for FPS games. I use my Logitech G27 for racing games.

 

[Borealis7]

what does that have to do with the 7870?

and gamepads suck. real men use KB+M for everything. even seks.

 

[kidsafe]

No deals this generation huh?Whats gonna be $150 the 7770?

Initially the HD 7770 should be $150, but I don't expect it to perform better than a $150 HD 6850 at stock speeds given what we know about its SPs, ROPs, TMUs. Figure maybe 80% the performance for the same price...not really a good deal unless it can make up the 20% via an overclock (900 to 1100 MHz)

 

[Grooveriding]

http://translate.google.com/transla...7990-resmiyet-kazandi-Mart-ayinda-geliyor.htm

Like some others have said the 7870 and 7850 are coming out this month, probably for $249 and $299 respectively. The 7990 will be out next month as well, in case you are holding out for an $850 card

 

[superjim]

Latest "news" are saying 7850/7870 release is March 6th:

http://www.brightsideofnews.com/new...07770-on-february-15-78507870-on-march-6.aspx

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

No Tahiti LE/HD 7890?

/is a sad panda.

If Pitcairn uses VLIW4 I'm not interested. Looking forward GCN is the way to go and that's what everything will transition to.

Looks like I'll have to wait to see if NVIDIA can cook something decent up, but their only recent card that's good for the money is the GTX 560 Ti and maybe the GTX 570.

 

[Termie]

Latest "news" are saying 7850/7870 release is March 6th:

http://www.brightsideofnews.com/new...07770-on-february-15-78507870-on-march-6.aspx

Actually, Tom's reported a bit more info about the 7850/7870:
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/AMD-Radeon-HD-7000-gpu-video-card,14596.html

Summary:

(1) HD7870 ($299) - 1408 stream processors and 88 texture units, 2GB Vram (and thus 256-bit bus)
(2) HD7850 ($249) - 1280 stream processors and 80 texture units, 2GB Vram (and thus 256-bit bus)

And here's some information on existing cards:
(3) HD7950 ($449) - 1792 stream processors and 112 texture units, 800MHz/1250MHz clocks, 384-bit bus
(4) HD6950 (~$250) - 1408 stream processors and 88 texture units, 800MHz/1250MHz clocks, 256-bit bus


Let's extrapolate performance from the delta between the 7950 and 6950. The 7950, which has 1792 stream processors (27% more than the 6950), the same clock speed, and 50% more memory bandwidth, is approximately 32% faster than the 6950 (using Metro 2033 as a benchmark).

That means that it almost exactly lines up with its theoretical advantage, and the $299 7870 will almost certainly match but not significantly exceed the 6950 unless it's clocked much higher. For all the hoopla about GCN's advantages over VLIW, the performance of the new cards seems to come down almost entirely to compute hardware and clock speeds.

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

Actually, Tom's reported a bit more info about the 7850/7870:
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/AMD-Radeon-HD-7000-gpu-video-card,14596.html

Summary:

(1) HD7870 ($299) - 1408 stream processors and 88 texture units, 2GB Vram (and thus 256-bit bus)
(2) HD7850 ($249) - 1280 stream processors and 80 texture units, 2GB Vram (and thus 256-bit bus)

And here's some information on existing cards
(3) HD7950 ($449) - 1792 stream processors and 112 texture units, 800MHz/1250MHz clocks, 384-bit bus
(4) HD6950 (~$250) - 1408 stream processors and 88 texture units, 800MHz/1250MHz clocks, 256-bit bus


Let's extrapolate performance from the delta between the 7950 and 6950. The 7950, which has 1792 stream processors (27% more than the 6950), the same clock speed, and 50% more memory bandwidth, is approximately 32% faster than the 6950 (using Metro 2033 as a benchmark).

That means that it almost exactly lines up with its theoretical advantage, and the $299 7870 will almost certainly match but not significantly exceed the 6950 unless it's clocked much higher. For all the hoopla about GCN's advantages over VLIW, the performance of the new cards seems to come down almost entirely to compute hardware and clock speeds.

The HD 7950 will be ~15% faster than the HD 7870, which means the HD 7870 will be roughly 5% faster than the HD 6970. And the way they'll squeeze that much performance is obviously from higher clocks. Look at the HD 6870 and the HD 5850 for your examples, though the difference will be that even though the 7870 will be clocked close to or at 1GHz it'll have good overclocking headroom unlike the HD 6870.

Also, going with GCN was never about getting higher gaming performance (except in titles that require a lot of compute and excessive tesselation) but higher compute performance for GPGPU while not sacrificing performance/watt and die size. From the get go that seemed extremely obvious, so I don't know why you're complaining.

Regardless, as yields improve they can keep raising clocks and they can eventually make a card with more compute units than the HD 7970.

Also, don't the latest rumors have the HD 7870 at $250 or so? Getting 6970 performance doesn't seem bad, though since it's VLIW4 I'm personally not interested because the architecture will be phased out next year.