Radeon 7870/7850 Reviews Are up!

[VulgarDisplay]

Just saw this, but Hardware Canucks uses 3DMark11 to measure load power consumption? Are they serious? There's another site I won't waste my time reading.

While it may not get them to use the maximum amount of power I would imagine that their power usage relative to the other cards in the list would not change much because they are all running the same benchmark.

If each different card ran a different benchmark I would cry foul, but this seems fine even if it's not putting the most stress on the cards.

 

[gammaray]

Nice, great. Even more attractive, though price is $100 above where most of the 460GTX type crowd would be willing to pull the trigger.

It has been awhile since i've seen a $200 card (4850 was last one) from AMD that i really like, AMD seems to sabatoge this price point.

I agree.

Video cards pricing is complete BS right now.

I was lucky tho, i got a 5850 on sale for 139.99$ which i grabbed immediately.

i was waiting for a 6950 to drop under 200$ to buy one, but it seems it will never happen.

 

[MrK6]

While it may not get them to use the maximum amount of power I would imagine that their power usage relative to the other cards in the list would not change much because they are all running the same benchmark.

If each different card ran a different benchmark I would cry foul, but this seems fine even if it's not putting the most stress on the cards.

Would you bother reading a review if they locked they locked the cards at 2D clocks even when running 3D? The performance delta should be the same, right?

 

[rana_kirti]

To bridge the Price/Performance gap between the 7870 and 7950 is AMD going to launch a 7890 or a 7930 ...?!?

 

[GaiaHunter]

To bridge the Price/Performance gap between the 7870 and 7950 is AMD going to launch a 7890/7930 ...?!?

It was rumoured a 7950 1.5GB and a 7890 (based on Tahiti and not Pitcairn).

Not entirely sure how would a 7890 fit considering the 7870->7950 performance gap is quite small.

 

[busydude]

What about the huge gap between 7770 and 7850? It blows my mind.. that AMD is ignoring the $200 price point.

 

[Paul98]

my guess is that these were supposed to be at that price point, and will eventually. Right now just released to make as much money when they will sell out anyway. Then after that prices will start to drop.

 

[Meaker10]

What about the huge gap between 7770 and 7850? It blows my mind.. that AMD is ignoring the $200 price point.

If Nvidia release some competition the current cards will fall to those prices.

 

[busydude]

If Nvidia release some competition the current cards will fall to those prices.

Even so.. there is such a big gap between 7770 and 7850 it is not even funny.

It feel like there is some sort of collusion between AMD and nVidia at $200 price point.

 

[Termie]

Even so.. there is such a big gap between 7770 and 7850 it is not even funny.

It feel like there is some sort of collusion between AMD and nVidia at $200 price point.

That's what the $150 HD6870 is for. Fills $200 slot in performance, sells for $150. Win-win.

 

[busydude]

That's what the $150 HD6870 is for. Fills $200 slot in performance, sells for $150. Win-win.

Yeah, but isn't it EOL?

 

[Termie]

Yeah, but isn't it EOL?

There's EOL: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...on%20HD%206870

And then there's EOL (collusion edition):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...on%20HD%206950

Actually, if you think about it, AMD really screwed up the timing of their full-on market press to destroy the 6950 market. There won't be a single AMD card available between $160 and $280 for almost an entire month.

 

[busydude]

Actually, if you think about it, AMD really screwed up the timing of their full-on market press to destroy the 6950 market. There won't be a single AMD card available between $160 and $280 for almost an entire month.

The same thing happened with the 5xxx series. They never seem to get that $200 price point right(Thank god the 5830 was never released ). Only after nVidia released GTX 460, they came up with 68XX.

 

[Rvenger]

The same thing happened with the 5xxx series. They never seem to get that $200 price point right(Thank god the 5830 was never released ). Only after nVidia released GTX 460, they came up with 68XX.

They did make a 5830??

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102878

 

[busydude]

They did make a 5830??

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102878

That was sarcasm.. kind of like how there is only one Matrix movie. Get it?

 

[Rvenger]

That was sarcasm.. kind of like how there is only one Matrix movie. Get it?

LOL, sometimes sarcasm and jokes go over my head.

 

[3DVagabond]

It was rumoured a 7950 1.5GB and a 7890 (based on Tahiti and not Pitcairn).

Not entirely sure how would a 7890 fit considering the 7870->7950 performance gap is quite small.

Apparently the comparisons weren't done on the same drivers. This is why you see some games where 7870 is faster than 7950. FWIU the difference is greater with both cards on 12.2.

 

[3DVagabond]

What about the huge gap between 7770 and 7850? It blows my mind.. that AMD is ignoring the $200 price point.

The 7770 is this generations 5830. In other words, it sucks.

The only point I can see for the 7700's is low TDP for OEM's.

 

[GaiaHunter]

Apparently the comparisons weren't done on the same drivers. This is why you see some games where 7870 is faster than 7950. FWIU the difference is greater with both cards on 12.2.

So that means the 7950 is not only 1% faster than the GTX580 at 1920 4xAA?

Someone is not going to be happy?

 

[3DVagabond]

So that means the 7950 is not only 1% faster than the GTX580 at 1920 4xAA?

Someone is not going to be happy?

No, that's not what it means.

 

[Tuna-Fish]

The 7770 is this generations 5830. In other words, it sucks.

The only point I can see for the 7700's is low TDP for OEM's.

7770 is the single fastest card out there that has a 128-bit bus to inexpensive GDDR5 ram. It also has a diminutive die size and tiny tdp. For the cost to produce it is very impressive. The reason it's not very impressive right now is that AMD is not passing that advantage down to the consumers -- probably because there isn't enough volume in TSMC 28nm to make it sensible.

Once volumes ramp up and it drops to the sub-$100 category where it belongs, it will start looking like a much, much better pick. Also, it makes awful lot of sense in higher-end notebooks.

 

[Rackmountsales]

The HD 7700-series leverages a scaled down version of AMD’s Graphics Core Next in order to deliver the best possible DX11 gaming environment. It also has a diminutive die size and tiny tdp. For the cost to produce it is very impressive. The reason it's not very impressive right now is that AMD is not passing that advantage down to the consumers -- probably because there isn't enough volume in TSMC 28nm to make it sensible.

 

[Meaker10]

Looks like it was made with notebooks in mind to be honest.

 

[Olikan]

Apparently the comparisons weren't done on the same drivers. This is why you see some games where 7870 is faster than 7950. FWIU the difference is greater with both cards on 12.2.

actually it is in the same drivers!

words of an AMD staff...

Timing.

Although there was a relatively short time period between the releases of the chips, Verde and Pitcairn's bring-up, and to some extent qualification, have a reasonable level of leveraging going on so they are a little shortended in terms of initial engineering wafers back to product shipping. Actually setting the product "boundries" for Tahiti happened a while ago, on initial engineering material and few wafers out from the fab; Pitcairn and Verde on the other hand had their product boundries set when Tahiti production starts were already occuring and there is a very quick evolution in terms of understanding things with the new process / chips.
I guess the question you want to ask is whether, now that we know things have evolved, are we going back to re-look at Tahiti

http://forum.beyond3d.com/showpost.php?p=1626557&postcount=3100

 

[railven]

actually it is in the same drivers!

words of an AMD staff...



http://forum.beyond3d.com/showpost.php?p=1626557&postcount=3100

Actually, reading the original link and the question he is answering - it has more to do with why the Verde and Pitcairm are clocked so high versus Taihiti.

It says nothing about drivers. This just supports why Taihiti was clocked so low versus it's younger siblings. The process matured.

EDIT: I think people are assuming in the reviews, instead of re-benching the Taihiti card, they just took their results from the previous review (which was only a few weeks ago) even though there was a driver revision in between?