Radeon HD 7970 SALE !

[Elfear]

Screw the 7970 and the 680/670, they're simply filler cards meant to raise profit margins through slow progression and milk a suckers wallet.

I challenge anyone to name some $550 retail launch cards that were sold for $369 bucks within the same year of their release. $200 off the top in half a years time, now that's nuts, especially for anyone who spent $500+ this round.

Unless they were Bitcoin mining from day one and have earned half the card's cost back. :sneaky:

 

[funboy6942]

I assume you are saying that your oced 7970 is 75% faster than a stock 6970? even that sounds like a stretch though as a stock 7970 is only 30% faster than a stock 6970 at 1920 according to techpowerup.

I had a 7970 Sapphire card till it started screwing up on me with artifacts and low bench scores, but now I run a pair of 6970 cards and can tell you the two of them are faster then one 7970, and cost me about $100 less. So Im quite happy my card went south. And it was the dual bios Sapphire 7970 that with the flip of the switch overclocked the card to GHE speeds.

 

[RussianSensation]

Unless they were Bitcoin mining from day one and have earned half the card's cost back. :sneaky:

You are being generous now. If you gamed 5 hours a day and mined for 19 hours since January, you would have paid for more than half of the card. Also, if you take into account the mining still left until HD8000 series, it'll be a free upgrade for most 7900 users.

I had a 7970 Sapphire card till it started screwing up on me with artifacts and low bench scores, but now I run a pair of 6970 cards and can tell you the two of them are faster then one 7970, and cost me about $100 less. So Im quite happy my card went south. And it was the dual bios Sapphire 7970 that with the flip of the switch overclocked the card to GHE speeds.

Did your 7970 start to artifact on BIOS 2? You didn't actually overclock beyond 1050mhz? It's hard to believe that 2 6970s in CF would be much faster since a single GE card is > 50% faster than a stock 6970. With 1.15ghz+ overclock, it would be close to 60-70%+ faster. CF scaling isn't 100%, so at best you are looking at 80-90% on average, which isn't much faster, especially since in some games such as Batman AC and Crysis 2, HD6900 series just tanks.

 

[funboy6942]

Heaven benchmark 1080P:
Extreme
16x
8x

7970:
FPS 44
Scores 1108
Min FPS 16.1
Max FPS 112.6

6970 Crossfire
FPS 48.3
Scores 1217
Min FPS 11.2
Max FPS 119.6

Cinebench 11.5

7970
41.74 FPS

6970 Crossfire
48.64 FPS

Computer:
Bulldozer 8120 @ 4.0ghz on air and stock volts
Kingston Value ram 8 Gigs DDR3 stock

And I have not overclocked any of the cards at all. They are/were bone stock. Only thing the 7970 beat the 6970 CF cards at is Min FPS, other then that Im getting slightly faster FPS for less money then a 7970. Anyway, if you already have a 6970, crossfire with another and get a slightly fast 7970, or a computer that scores damn close to it. $150~ for another 6970 is better then spending $360~ for a 7970, IMO, and wait for the next gen of cards to come out. And you got to wonder why in reviews of the 7970 they didnt pit it against a 6970 crossfire set up. Or at least I havent found one that ran them against each other.

EDIT
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7970/7.html

Found a review that pitted the 6990 against the 7970 which is just 2 6970 chips wedged on one card (crossfire) and shows it kicking some ass.

 

[RussianSensation]

Anyway, if you already have a 6970, crossfire with another and get a slightly fast 7970, or a computer that scores damn close to it. $150~ for another 6970 is better then spending $360~ for a 7970, IMO, and wait for the next gen of cards to come out. And you got to wonder why in reviews of the 7970 they didnt pit it against a 6970 crossfire set up.

I would have picked up a 2nd 6950 but my PSU wouldn't cut it. I'd have to upgrade the PSU and then the cost would be a wash with a 7970. Also, once overclocked to 1.05ghz+, the 7970 performs very close to 2 x HD6970 ~ HD6990s. But I can see how in some games that are GPU constrained, the dual 6970s would beat it.

I agree with you that bang-for-the-buck, 2x unlocked HD6950s for $300 are a great deal if you can find them used for $150 a piece. Generally speaking on paper two mid-range cards tend to provide similar performance for less or better performance for the same price as a top-tier card (GTX460 OC SLI vs. GTX480). For example 2x HD7870s for $500 are faster than a $500 GTX680. I think a lot of people would take 20-30% less performance to not deal with dual-GPUs for gaming though.

But ya, if you can't notice micro-stutter, two slower GPUs can be an alternative to a fast single-GPU card. Even when next generation of cards are released, the same argument could be made for 2x HD7950s/660Ti/670 cards against say a single GTX780/8970. I am sure 2 current generation mid-upper cards will beat a next generation single-GPU flagship as well. HD7950 is already dipping to $310, which means it's not out of the realm of possibility to think that 2 of those will cost less by the time a single HD8970 launches.