hd 7950 3gb review.. amd beats fermi to a pulp

[blackened23]

They really should have released 1.5gb cards from the get go. While I understand the current pricing, they could have REALLY taken a large grab of market share with a 399$ 7950 at 1.5gb.

Shrug. What do I know though :hmm:

 

[tviceman]

It's hard to get excited about what should be a great product, but about the same price as what last gen's best product is selling for and it's unnoticeably faster overall (0 to 5% avg). It's more than a year later, $50 cheaper at debut but with a very minimal speed increase...

 

[MrTeal]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...41&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&Order=PRICE&PageSize=20

vs

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...6767 600286739&IsNodeId=1&name=Radeon HD 7950

The 3GB GTX580 is still 15% more expensive than the 7950. I don't think these are going to be flying off the shelf, but at the current prices the only possible justification I could see for buying a GTX580 is if you already have one and want another for SLI. As it stands now, if you're looking to spend $500 on a video card today you'd be crazy not to go with an AMD product.

 

[Stuka87]

Looking at NewEgg half of the 7950's are priced at ~$500. Yes they are OC models, but that is way to close of a price point to the 7970. This really bums me out. I mean, it just means I have to wait longer, but I am not going to spend $500 on a new second level card.

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

It's hard to get excited about what should be a great product, but about the same price as what last gen's best product is selling for and it's unnoticeably faster overall (0 to 5% avg).

AMD isn't a charity, and points of diminishing returns are always at play when it comes to the Enthusiast market. Obviously these cards don't make too much sense when it comes to price/performance in comparison to the HD 6950/70 and GTX 570 and everything below, but if NVIDIA decided to make their flagship $500-550 a year ago and now the price is at $480, then that's the price AMD needs to target. IF NVIDIA readjusts the price much lower (to $400 for example) then AMD will follow suit. Why would you make an Enthusiast (read: low volume, high margin) product that is the same performance as your competitor and decide to price it $100 cheaper? People looking into cards in this range have a lot of money to spend, anyway, and it's not like it's a bad competitor. It's slightly cheaper, slightly faster, consumes less power, and runs cooler.

 

[tviceman]

AMD isn't a charity, and points of diminishing returns are always at play when it comes to the Enthusiast market. Obviously these cards don't make too much sense when it comes to price/performance in comparison to the HD 6950/70 and GTX 570 and everything below, but if NVIDIA decided to make their flagship $500-550 a year ago and now the price is at $480, then that's the price AMD needs to target. IF NVIDIA readjusts the price much lower (to $400 for example) then AMD will follow suit. Why would you make an Enthusiast (read: low volume, high margin) product that is the same performance as your competitor and decide to price it $100 cheaper? People looking into cards in this range have a lot of money to spend, anyway, and it's not like it's a bad competitor. It's slightly cheaper, slightly faster, consumes less power, and runs cooler.

I never said AMD was a charity and I understand all the reasons you list for the card to be priced at what it is, but it does not change the fact that it is a rather unexciting product at it's price point.

 

[Eugene86]

What boggles my mind about the 7950 is that after reading anandtech's review of the card, I noticed that in Battlefield 3 the 7950 just barely scrapes past the GTX570 in performance with an increase of 2-5 fps at most.

Last gen performance and next gen prices? Sign me up!

NOT.

 

[Lonyo]

It's hard to get excited about what should be a great product, but about the same price as what last gen's best product is selling for and it's unnoticeably faster overall (0 to 5% avg). It's more than a year later, $50 cheaper at debut but with a very minimal speed increase...

Where are the complaints about the GTX580 not dropping at all in a year?
It's been $500 since launch and only now has it dropped. That's over a year when the price was $500 without moving.

Why was the price that high? Oh, that's right, no competition.
What's the price now? More like $450. Why? Competition.

AMD has priced their card at $550/450, and so far (duh), the prices haven't moved.
Why? No competition.

 

[railven]

Bit-tech got their 7950 to 1GHz but it needed voltage bumping to 1150mV to achieve it, anything higher created artifacts.

200Mhz increase over stock is pretty good and beats a stock 7970, but I would get a 7970 over a 7950 tbh.

Well that's disappointing. Guess 7970 is still in my future. Come on nice super awesome custom fans - release!

 

[Chiropteran]

in Battlefield 3 the 7950 just barely scrapes past the GTX570 in performance with an increase of 2-5 fps at most.

Best case for nvidia and nvidia still loses. If these are "next gen" prices, why does nvidia still try to charge this much or more for a 580? Explain.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

It's obvious serious discussions or arguments can no longer be had on the video card forum here. The 7950 is the worst priced card I've seen in a long time including the $800 8800 Ultra. At least with the ultra you were getting unrivaled performance. I'm not sure really what the 7950 has to offer. I'd buy a gtx 580 over the 7950 today. The 7950 is on par performance wise but lacks the 3D of nvidia and physX.

 

[Chiropteran]

It's obvious

Don't kid yourself. "Par"? It's superior performance, all around. Superior power usage. Superior bitcoin mining. PhysX? Do games still use that?

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

I never said AMD was a charity and I understand all the reasons you list for the card to be priced at what it is, but it does not change the fact that it is a rather unexciting product at it's price point.

This is not directed squarely at you, but in general to the people complaining:

/Incoming rant

The GTX 580 wasn't exciting at its price when it was launched, either, yet I didn't see people whining as much as they're whining about prices now that AMD is selling for high margins, too. Look at the HD 4000 and HD 5000 series and their prices and where it got AMD. Yes, they sold a ton, but they were making next to nothing on each and that reflected on the profit margins for the GPU division. When it comes to business, the bottom line is margins>volume. AMD isn't entitled to give you bleeding-edge performance for $100 less than the competition. If you think they do, I never want to see you become a businessman because you'll see how flawed the thinking is.

If you want the best bang-for-buck, you don't look at the Enthusiast market, but rather the Performance market. There, you can get great cards for cheaper like the Radeon HD 6870 and the GTX 560 Ti. Above that, diminishing points of return start to kick in, but you can get a lower-tier Enthusiast card like the HD 6950/70 and the GTX 570 for not that much, under $350.

So, to all those complaining: stop whining. It's priced where it needs to be if AMD wants to effectively compete, and if you wanted bang-for-buck you wouldn't be looking at these Enthusiast cards anyway. Another thing I find quite hilarious is some people with GTX 580 3GBs complaining about the price when the HD 7950 3GB is the same speed or somewhat faster yet it costs $100 less ($450 vs $550) and you had no problem paying that much for the GTX 580. Give me a break.

 

[railven]

It's obvious serious discussions or arguments can no longer be had on the video card forum here. The 7950 is the worst priced card I've seen in a long time including the $800 8800 Ultra. At least with the ultra you were getting unrivaled performance. I'm not sure really what the 7950 has to offer. I'd buy a gtx 580 over the 7950 today. The 7950 is on par performance wise but lacks the 3D of nvidia and physX.

???

So two cards at similar price points with similar performance? Do you gush over a Civic or a Corolla? Just buy the one that suits your needs better and call it a day.

 

[sandorski]

It's obvious serious discussions or arguments can no longer be had on the video card forum here. The 7950 is the worst priced card I've seen in a long time including the $800 8800 Ultra. At least with the ultra you were getting unrivaled performance. I'm not sure really what the 7950 has to offer. I'd buy a gtx 580 over the 7950 today. The 7950 is on par performance wise but lacks the 3D of nvidia and physX.

Is it really? =>Performance, < Power Consumption, < Temps, < Noise, > RAM.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Don't kid yourself. "Par"? It's superior performance, all around. Superior power usage. Superior bitcoin mining. PhysX? Do games still use that?

Nice how you forget to mention nvidia 3d. You might discount it but it's the reason right now I will not buy an amd card. It's that good IMO. It would take a seriously great card from amd to make me leave nvidia 3D. The 7970 and definitely the 7950 are not the great cards to make me give up my 3D.

Forgot to mention nvidia has superior drivers. Save the drivers that killed a couple legacy cards. I can give you 500 examples where nvidia drivers have outperformed amd. You can give me one example of nvidia smoking a couple 5 year old cards.

 

[blackened23]

Nice how you forget to mention nvidia 3d. You might discount it but it's the reason right now I will not buy an amd card. It's that good IMO. It would take a seriously great card from amd to make me leave nvidia 3D. The 7970 and definitely the 7950 are not the great cards to make me give up my 3D.

Forgot to mention nvidia has superior drivers. Save the drivers that killed a couple legacy cards. I can give you 500 examples where nvidia drivers have outperformed amd. You can give me one example of nvidia smoking a couple 5 year old cards.

This is a baiting troll if i've ever seen it, AMD has HD3D which is pretty much the same thing, - TH had a pretty good comparison of the two a while back. I think neither 3d vision or hd3d are tuned enough to be good, which is exactly what tomshardware said.

 

[Kenmitch]

OK...I wouldn't considered it a beat to a pulp situation but to each his own.

Nvidia needs to hurry up as pricing is rediculous currently. Glad I'm in no need for a higher end card.

 

[tviceman]

This is not directed squarely at you, but in general to the people complaining:

/Incoming rant

The GTX 580 wasn't exciting at its price when it was launched, either, yet I didn't see people whining as much as they're whining about prices now that AMD is selling for high margins, too. Look at the HD 4000 and HD 5000 series and their prices and where it got AMD. Yes, they sold a ton, but they were making next to nothing on each and that reflected on the profit margins for the GPU division. When it comes to business, the bottom line is margins>volume. AMD isn't entitled to give you bleeding-edge performance for $100 less than the competition. If you think they do, I never want to see you become a businessman because you'll see how flawed the thinking is.

If you want the best bang-for-buck, you don't look at the Enthusiast market, but rather the Performance market. There, you can get great cards for cheaper like the Radeon HD 6870 and the GTX 560 Ti. Above that, diminishing points of return start to kick in, but you can get a lower-tier Enthusiast card like the HD 6950/70 and the GTX 570 for not that much, under $350.

So, to all those complaining: stop whining. It's priced where it needs to be if AMD wants to effectively compete, and if you wanted bang-for-buck you wouldn't be looking at these Enthusiast cards anyway. Another thing I find quite hilarious is some people with GTX 580 3GBs complaining about the price when the HD 7950 3GB is the same speed or somewhat faster yet it costs $100 less ($450 vs $550) and you had no problem paying that much for the GTX 580. Give me a break.

So when the hd6870 comes out, performs +/- 5% compared to a gtx570, and is priced at $329, are you going to continue to use the same excuses and defend the pricing levels at that tier? Quit defending the pricing and being a consumer. It's not about Nvidia or AMD. The pricing sucks. That's all there is to it.

 

[blackened23]

So when the hd6870 comes out, performs +/- 5% compared to a gtx570, and is priced at $329, are you going to continue to use the same excuses and defend the pricing levels at that tier? Quit defending the pricing and being a consumer. It's not about Nvidia or AMD. The pricing sucks. That's all there is to it.

Nvidia gets a free pass though, they can price their parts into the stratosphere :awe:

 

[sandorski]

This is not directed squarely at you, but in general to the people complaining:

/Incoming rant

The GTX 580 wasn't exciting at its price when it was launched, either, yet I didn't see people whining as much as they're whining about prices now that AMD is selling for high margins, too. Look at the HD 4000 and HD 5000 series and their prices and where it got AMD. Yes, they sold a ton, but they were making next to nothing on each and that reflected on the profit margins for the GPU division. When it comes to business, the bottom line is margins>volume. AMD isn't entitled to give you bleeding-edge performance for $100 less than the competition. If you think they do, I never want to see you become a businessman because you'll see how flawed the thinking is.

If you want the best bang-for-buck, you don't look at the Enthusiast market, but rather the Performance market. There, you can get great cards for cheaper like the Radeon HD 6870 and the GTX 560 Ti. Above that, diminishing points of return start to kick in, but you can get a lower-tier Enthusiast card like the HD 6950/70 and the GTX 570 for not that much, under $350.

So, to all those complaining: stop whining. It's priced where it needs to be if AMD wants to effectively compete, and if you wanted bang-for-buck you wouldn't be looking at these Enthusiast cards anyway. Another thing I find quite hilarious is some people with GTX 580 3GBs complaining about the price when the HD 7950 3GB is the same speed or somewhat faster yet it costs $100 less ($450 vs $550) and you had no problem paying that much for the GTX 580. Give me a break.

Pretty much. There seems to be a Double-Standard concerning Pricing. AMD has no obligation to meet those "Standards" though. It kinda sucks for us the Consumer, but in reality it sucked more for AMD as they sacrificed Income when they didn't have to.

 

[Termie]

AMD's attempt to lift its stock prices on the backs of its enthusiast GPU users will backfire. It's just not a large enough market. AMD has been heavily promoted on this forum and others for its value, not for top-of-the-heap performance, because no one truly needs that. The 7950 is an even worse value than the 7970, and I just don't see anyone buying it. Why bother? If you wanted this level of performance for this price, you already have a GTX580. If you want more, you already have a 7970.

Here's a graph that tells a sordid tale:

Consider the following:
- HD3870: Nov. 2007, $220
- HD4870: June. 2008, $299 (8 months, 2.3x faster, 1.3x the price)
- HD5870: Sep. 2009, $380 (15 months, 1.8x faster, 1.3x the price)
- HD6970: Dec. 2010, $369 (15 months, 1.2x faster, 1x the price)
- HD7950/70: Jan. 2012, $450/550 (13 months, 1.2x faster/1.4x faster, 1.2x/1.5x the price)

Never before has AMD's performance increase trailed its price increase!

 

[Madcatatlas]

I dont know if i would use the expression "beats it to pulp", thats what the 7970 does, the 7950 just is a better card in all ways, but it doesnt beat the 580 to pulp.
The 580 is still a great card in this price segment, especially if you bought one 10 months ago.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

This is a baiting troll if i've ever seen it, AMD has HD3D which is pretty much the same thing, - TH had a pretty good comparison of the two a while back. I think neither 3d vision or hd3d are tuned enough to be good, which is exactly what tomshardware said. All of the other stuff you mentioned (such as 500 reasons) is such obvious flamebait troll, and its clear you don't want an objective discussion on the matter

Thanks for the personal attacks.

If you guys can scream your opinions to the point where you run off all the nvidia fans then I figure I can voice my opinion as well.

 

[dust]

Nvidia gets a free pass though, they can price their parts into the stratosphere :awe:

Yup. That seems to be the new thing here. Funny how the same people that are complaining about the price now, were pointing fingers and laughing at AMD with every quarter report.