First AMD 7970 review up: Now with AT official review

[Lonbjerg]

Compute stuff seems good with the 7970:






Tessellation seems good:


Under extreme it beats the 580 by ~24%



Beats the 580 by ~28%.



Best performance/watt card?:



44% better performance pr watt, than a 580.


In some games it really smashes the 580 though:


still cant do crysis1 with 1gpu over 60fps though: (neither can 590 or 6990 though)




Disappointing launch? meh... I think its doing fine for a 365mm^2 chip.
New architecture.... I think drivers will get better performance out of with with time.

You left out some benches...cherrypick much?

 

[SlowSpyder]

Seeing as the GTX580 sells for $475+, I don't see what there is to be disappointed about. This is a high end single GPU, AMD did quite a job getting a new architecture out on a new process. I won't buy it, too rich for my blood, but I don't see how anyone can expect this to be a $400 part.

 

[96Firebird]

Best performance/watt card?:

44% better performance pr watt, than a 580.

I would hope so, since it is the only 28nm card out there right now... Err, in 3 weeks.

Nice job of AMD to get this paper launch out before year's end, hopefully that is all investors wanted. Really sucks that we have to wait on TSMC to get their act together, hopefully GloFo can get around to getting a competing fab up.

 

[Arkadrel]

@Lonbjerg

check out what it looks like with a overclock on stock voltage:
From legitreviews:

Evga 580 classified @ 855/4212mhz ~ 6738 score
7970 @ 1165/6500mhz ~9389 score.

~40% faster than a 580 with overclock (stock voltage).

They have more charts like that, apperntly the 7970 overclocks really well.

 

[ShadowVVL]

I think the performance is good but I was expecting lower power consumption.

 

[Arkadrel]

@ShadowVVL

from techpowerup:

7970 idle: 12w
_580 idle: 32w (266&#37

7970 avg load game: 163w
_580 avg load game: 214w (132%)


so the 580 is useing ~32% more power, but gives 25% or so less performance.


There is no card more effecient, in its performance level than the 7970 (currenly):


perf/watt:

 

[Lonyo]

Looks like AMD made the GPU they were going to make, then threw it out at a price which reflects its performance relative to NVs current GPU lineup.

Ultimately the past few years have seen AMD make great technical progress, but on the business side of things it’s NVIDIA that has made all the money. GCN will help AMD’s product placement, but the other part of that equation is for AMD to stop selling their cards for so little when they don’t have to. And this is what we’re seeing with the Radeon HD 7970. AMD has chosen to price the 7970 like a current generation card – it’s priced relative to a 3GB GTX 580 – and that’s a fair metric. What it isn’t is groundbreaking in any sense.

I would assume they will adjust it when NV comes out with something to compete.
It's disappointing if you plan to buy asap, but it will be fine once NV release something to compete and force AMD to price it more "reasonably".

If you want to complain about anything, complain that NV has nothing to show at the moment to force AMD to price their parts lower.
Certainly NOT a card to buy until NV release something, IMO. Anyone buy buys the HD7970 either has money to waste or is too impatient or stupid to wait for NV cards to put pricing pressure on the market.

 

[Arkadrel]

Certainly NOT a card to buy until NV release something, IMO. Anyone buy buys the HD7970 either has money to waste or is too impatient or stupid to wait for NV cards to put pricing pressure on the market.

same can be said for anyone buying a 580 now or in last few months.

The 7970 gives ~25% performance over a 580, for less than a 25% increase in cost over a 580 = its a better value buy than a 580 is right now.

 

[Silverforce11]

same can be said for anyone buying a 580 now or in last few months.

The 7970 gives ~25% performance over a 580, for less than a 25% increase in cost over a 580 = its a better value buy than a 580 is right now.

Yep, plenty of folks bought gtx570s, 580s and even 6970s. Maybe they should all have waited for the 7970.

Or now, they can wait for the GK104 until its due in.. could be Q2 2012. By then, they can also wait for a bit extra for the 7980.

If there's nothing concrete on the release date for the competition, how long are you willing to wait? Also factor in all the rumors, NV's first kepler release isn't the high-end but a tweaked gtx580 with some extra CUDA cores, with rumored performance "slightly above gtx580". You wanna wait for that, for an unspecified amount of time? Me, i'm gonna get the 7970 as soon as its available because i've been waiting long enough since my 5850s.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Only game I care about is BF3 and it's way below what I expected. I was on the fence about spending money on a new card but now I'm definitely not. My gtx 480 with an accelero cooler run quieter and cooler and at 861 core I'd bet it's faster than a stock 7970 in BF3. What a letdown.

 

[biostud]

So anyone have a guess on 7950 price point? $400-$450?

 

[aphelion02]

Its not a total disappointment, but certainly not at the 50%+ improvement over gtx 580 a lot of people were expecting. It seems that this card is really ripe for a refresh / price drop in Q2 when Nvidia unveils its offerings. I'm going to hunt for a midrange card to tide me over. If you are looking to sell your 5850, PM me.

 

[Grooveriding]

Only game I care about is BF3 and it's way below what I expected. I was on the fence about spending money on a new card but now I'm definitely not. My gtx 480 with an accelero cooler run quieter and cooler and at 861 core I'd bet it's faster than a stock 7970 in BF3. What a letdown.

That's pushing it man, lol. The 7970 with no overclock is definitely faster in BF3 than your OCed card. Put that 200MhZ OC everyone is getting and it's going to be a good deal faster. I agree the BF3 numbers were underwhelming though, that was the game I was looking at too.

That said, the benches were being done with 4xMSAA, so GCN has certainly turned and evened the tide on those features where Fermi had an advantage over Cypress; deferred MSAA, tessellation etc. I need more as well, so either it's going to be a 7970 that can do 1300 on the core guaranteed, a refresh of the 7970 or whatever nvidia releases in the middle of next year.

I'm holding out to see what MSI does with the 7970. Looking at these early overclock results with no voltage bumps on reference cards, although AMD does have solid reference cards, I think a 7970 Lightning type card could get up to 1200-1300 on the core with voltage.

 

[Genx87]

It is faster than the 580, it is also more expensive than the 580. If this is their flagship for 2012 I think it is a meh release. When reading anands review I am mentally putting the next Nvidia product where the 590 is performance wise. At 549 the price for this card is a bit high. But for now AMD can get away with it, as the card is clearly the fastest single GPU card out there.

 

[RavenSEAL]

I can haz overclock review?

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Yep, plenty of folks bought gtx570s, 580s and even 6970s. Maybe they should all have waited for the 7970.

Or now, they can wait for the GK104 until its due in.. could be Q2 2012. By then, they can also wait for a bit extra for the 7980.

If there's nothing concrete on the release date for the competition, how long are you willing to wait? Also factor in all the rumors, NV's first kepler release isn't the high-end but a tweaked gtx580 with some extra CUDA cores, with rumored performance "slightly above gtx580". You wanna wait for that, for an unspecified amount of time? Me, i'm gonna get the 7970 as soon as its available because i've been waiting long enough since my 5850s.

Yes I'll wait since its not much of an improvement over my overclocked gtx 480. AMD is in no position to charge such a premium. If I leave nvidia I'm leaving behind nvidia 3d vision which kicks butt, physX, and twimtbp games such as BF3. It sucks nvidia has no pressure to lower prices really. A $450 gtx 580 is a better value. Wow how crappy is that! If nvidia wanted to they could lower the 580 to $399 with rebates getting them into the $370 range and theyd steal all of AMD's sales.

 

[RavenSEAL]

Never mind, this thing is disgustingly sick D:

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

That's pushing it man, lol. The 7970 with no overclock is definitely faster in BF3 than your OCed card. Put that 200MhZ OC everyone is getting and it's going to be a good deal faster. I agree the BF3 numbers were underwhelming though, that was the game I was looking at too.

That said, the benches were being done with 4xMSAA, so GCN has certainly turned and evened the tide on those features where Fermi had an advantage over Cypress; deferred MSAA, tessellation etc. I need more as well, so either it's going to be a 7970 that can do 1300 on the core guaranteed, a refresh of the 7970 or whatever nvidia releases in the middle of next year.

I'm holding out to see what MSI does with the 7970. Looking at these early overclock results with no voltage bumps on reference cards, although AMD does have solid reference cards, I think a 7970 Lightning type card could get up to 1200-1300 on the core with voltage.

Really? A gtx 480 @ 820 core is = gtx 580. If I'm at 861 core on my gtx 480 that is definitely on par with a stock 7970 in BF3.

 

[Silverforce11]

Yes I'll wait since its not much of an improvement over my overclocked gtx 480. AMD is in no position to charge such a premium. If I leave nvidia I'm leaving behind nvidia 3d vision which kicks butt, physX, and twimtbp games such as BF3. It sucks nvidia has no pressure to lower prices really. A $450 gtx 580 is a better value. Wow how crappy is that! If nvidia wanted to they could lower the 580 to $399 with rebates getting them into the $370 range and theyd steal all of AMD's sales.

You didn't know BF3 was an AMD Evolved title? NV just added FXAA at the last minute and slapped on TWIMTBP. Frost bite 2 is primarily AMD E.

It's already 20% faster than a gtx580 in BF3 (more at 1600p and 3 monitors), with plenty of OC headroom and excellent scaling, its far beyond a gtx580. A single 7970 can run BF3 @ >40 fps on eyeinfinity, at stock. A gtx580 has no hope, even the 3gb variant.

1080p, BF3, thats not good? It's frankly awesome for a 200w card. With a no vcore OC, its approaching previous gen top dual cards.

 

[SirPauly]

I don't see how anyone can expect this to be a $400 part.

Considering AMD's mantra has been the sweet spot strategy since the HD 3870, why would you offer that so boldly? What it is-is a flip flop -- a change of strategy. Personally don't have any problem with enthusiast priced single GPU's though and have been consistent about it and never believed in the sweet spot strategy because it left too much revenue potential on the table.

 

[MrX8503]

How is this anywhere close to a Bulldozer failure? I don't get the OP.

 

[TheAdvocate]

Sorry guys, I am just not seeing it. Not a fanboy thing (I'll happily use a Radeon and have before), I am thinking with my wallet. So incredibly expensive for the performance, and I think as things stand now, Tom's Hardware nailed the asessment. This thing is overpriced for a single card without doing the one thing people wanted - eyefinity gaming @ good framerates from a single card. That might justify the price premium. Running games at 1080p at a few meaningless frames faster than cards that cost half as much or less, just isn't a compelling reasons to spend all that money. (If a 6950 or 570 is giving you a highly playable gaming experience @ 1080p, why would you dump so much more money for an upgrade? epeen?)

Then again, let's see what the card makers do with it on non reference PCB & cooling and OC'd. Maybe they can squeeze some more performance out of it. Driver optimizations may help too. Maybe it can become single-card-eyefinity viable with a combination of all of those things.

I feel like AMD just rushed to market with an unoptimized part. Otherwise, it's just a bit of a letdown. The power consumption is probably the most disappointing thing. I was shocked by those numbers. Guess my expectations were unrealistic. I guess that will be a letdown for the nVidia 28nm parts as well. Can't see why it wouldn't be.

 

[WMD]

Disappointing. Very marginal performance increment. Still cannot break 30fps in metro2033. And only 5% better than 580 in BF3?!

In 2009 the 5850 outperforms GTX285 similarly and AMD charged $259 for it. Now the price is insanity!

I think anandtech's review comment sums it up nicey:

With that out of the way, Battlefield 3 ends up being one of the worst games for the 7970 from a competitive standpoint. It always maintains a lead over the GTX 580, but the greatest lead is only 13% at 2560 without any MSAA, and everywhere else it’s 3-5%. Of course it goes without saying that realistically BF3 is only playable at 1920 (no MSAA) and below on any of the single-GPU cards in this lineup, so unfortunately for AMD it’s the 5% number that’s the most relevant.

 

[exar333]

Not impressive, but not dissapointing either. I was in for 2 x 7970s if they were <$500, but the launch price is too much for the performance, especially with NV looking to lower the 580s to <$400 (according to rumors).

I will wait for Kepler and grab 2 of the best performance/$ top-tier single GPU options. Not sure if that will be 2x7970 or 2xGTX680. Time will tell...

 

[formulav8]

What a ocing beast. For real it is. But way to expensive for me.