Where is the 7990?

[Jacky60]

Starting to wonder where the sam hill the Radeon 7990 is? Its nearly 9 months since the 7970 launched, enough time to create a person but not enough to put 2 gpu's on one pcb it seems. At this rate we'll be seeing the 8970 before it's out the door. Is it because AMD can't keep up with the 690 no matter what they do or has the project been shelved?

 

[Plimogz]

With single GPU 7970 pulling pretty close to 300W, where would they find room for another chip on-board within the max power envelope?

Dual Pitcairn seems more feasible to me.

 

[ocre]

With single GPU 7970 pulling pretty close to 300W, where would they find room for another chip on-board within the max power envelope?

Dual Pitcairn seems more feasible to me.

and more interesting to boot

 

[PrincessFrosty]

Yeah I suspect it's power issues, with the nasty 300W limitation on PCI-E standards is a serious PITA, with single GPUs pulling almost that much on their own, there seems to be no real point in creating a dual GPU card, it's just a less efficient way to spend that 300W of power.

 

[Borealis7]

AIBs are working on a dual 7970s (source: techpowerup), but those aren't officially a "7990".
there have been rumors, i believe it can be done just as nVidia squeezed the 590 into the power envelope a while back.

 

[jackstar7]

Curious to see if there's an 7970X2 model side-by-side with a 7990...

 

[Despoiler]

It's coming in the last half of this month. Limited quantities though.

 

[jacktesterson]

I've heard the 7970x2's Powercolor is working on use 3 8pin connectors. Any truth to this?

 

[SolMiester]

I would think AMD are having the same issues NV had with the 590...and will then have to assess if its worth making given that it may not be able to run full speed to compete against the 690!...

A dual 7870 would be a better dual chip for them, with room for over clocking it could come in between 7970 and 690 and if priced correctly, would be a another option, if they get their drivers sorted...

 

[ViRGE]

I would think AMD are having the same issues NV had with the 590...and will then have to assess if its worth making given that it may not be able to run full speed to compete against the 690!...

I think the 6990 would be the more apt comparison. At least on paper 7970 and 6970 have the same 250W PowerTune limit, so AMD could build a 7990 very similar to how they built the 6990.

With that said, the 6990 was as loud as all heck and as near as I can tell was tepidly received. If AMD made another 6990 it wouldn't be a disaster, but I'd have to doubt it would be well received. So I'm not at all surprised that the 7990 is so late - they have to find a way to build a 6990 and yet cut noise (going by AT's charts) by at least 4dB.

I've heard the 7970x2's Powercolor is working on use 3 8pin connectors. Any truth to this?

I'm pretty sure someone posted a picture that showed just that. Of course the card was a work in progress, so there's no guarantee the final version will be like that. But the math makes sense; 2x250W ≈ 3x150W + 75W

 

[pcm81]

That, which i tell all my friends is this:
If you want a new shiny dual GPU card, expect to water cool it.

HALO cards from either team will ALWAYS be limited by heat. Smaller gate size, just means they pack more cores on the chip.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Known under the codename "New Zealand", Radeon HD 7990 represents AMD's highest-end part from the Southern Islands architecture. Consisting out of two Tahiti XT GPUs and 6GB GDDR5 memory (special edition 7990s could reach 12GB), Radeon HD 7990 goes head to head against the GeForce GTX 690.

By default, AMD has the advantage in terms of 50% more video memory (GTX 690 has 4GB), significantly higher memory bandwidth and the new Turbo mode, technology similar to the Turbo mode used on NVIDIA Kepler-based cards with a few major differences.

Our sources are telling us that the boards are starting to be sampled, all in preparation for the product launch in the second half of July. We will release more details as the launch day approaches, as well as the final retail price, which still isn’t decided as we write this story. While we know AMD's press deck, the company has a long tradition of changing the price at the last moment.



Read more: http://vr-zone.com/articles/amd-rad...ted-edition-in-july-/16567.html#ixzz20ahugFZw

Soon

 

[ShintaiDK]

LOL, Theo article.

 

[minitron]

They need to make sure it's just as good as the GTX 690 in terms of both performance, power envelop, as well as noise production. This is no small task considering the GTX 690 is almost equivalent to GTX 680s in SLi but consumes less power and produces less noise. The MSRP is also equivalent to two 680s.

Basically they need to make the 7990 perform as well as HD 7970s in CFX but consume less power and doesn't sound like a blowdryer. As mentioned above, it's probably too late anyways.

 

[Magic Carpet]

The amount of Vram alone, should make it a killer card for multi-monitor setups.

Imagine two of these in crossfire

 

[Jeff007245]

AMD Radeon HD 7990 May Arrive in Late July

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/graphi...rrive_in_Late_July_in_Limited_Quantities.html

 

[BallaTheFeared]

HALO cards from either team will ALWAYS be limited by heat.

Heat is not a real problem for the 690, Nvidia pulled some voodoo magic with that card. The power drop compared to even SLI 680s is pretty crazy considering the performance is very similar.


I really wouldn't want to see a 7970x2 card, I'd like to see a 7870 or the fabled 7890x2, anything would be better than two severely downclocked 7970s with a single noise maker fan.

Though perhaps they could go with some form of MARS II style cooling I guess, I just can't see them making a single fan like the 6990 work well here the card (if 7970s are used) needs to be clocked quite high to compete with the 690.

 

[RaistlinZ]

It will have to feature some kind of aggressive boost feature to make it perform better than a 690. Either that, or price it around $799.99.

 

[ShintaiDK]

It will have to feature some kind of aggressive boost feature to make it perform better than a 690. Either that, or price it around $799.99.

Basicly its a matter of how much it would throttle if they push it too hard? That aint working either, too inconsistant.

If such card will materialize.

 

[FalseChristian]

Where is the 7990? I think it behind the couch in the living room.