7970 "preview"

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cannondale06

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http://alienbabeltech.com/main/amds-upcoming-hd-7970-exposed-a-short-lived-video-card

The HD 7970, codenamed “Tahiti”, launches this Thursday with but without availability for purchase until January 9th when the HD 7950 launches. So it is a paper-launch until the day before CES and you will now have a preview of the reviews that you will get in a few days from the tech sites lucky enough to get one.


The most interesting thing about this launch is that it appears that Tahiti’s HD 7970 may be short-lived. AMD’s 28nm yields are known to not be great and the specifications of the new GPU indicate that something strange is going on. The chip itself is quite complex with 4.3 billion transistors but its core only runs at a very conservative 925MHz. Most telling is that its performance is not that great except in DX11 games and especially in heavily tessellated scenarios – only about 25% faster than a GTX 580 overall.
 
No major increase in dx9 games? You mean I won't get anymore fps in mw3? Is the any dx9 games other then skyrim that are taxing?
 
well if that's the case they might as well get ready to fire the rest of the PR people.
 
But of course, shitty performance, as to be expected. Bulldozer, now this.

This is one game I won't play with AMD, period. $550 dollars? Are the Out of TFM?

I wondered why everyone was fired, now I completely understand.

Looks like I'm keeping my 4.9Ghz and savings for Nvidia's new stuff this spring. See, I'm not like most of these other guys on here. I absolutely will not buy into mediocrity. I don't believe in the driver fairy to fix things. And, yes, where there is smoke, there is fire. Bulldozer, now this. People getting fired, ok, the circle of BS has now been completed. AMD, you lose.

See, Nvidia was where AMD is at now with Fermi. They are smart enough not to let this happen again. Anyone who is smart enough to wait on Nvidia's new cards will be rewarded with the better video card solution, performance, mark my words.
 
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tricky0502 said:
No major increase in dx9 games? You mean I won't get anymore fps in mw3? Is the any dx9 games other then skyrim that are taxing?
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well MOST games are still DX9 so yes some DX9 games can be a bit taxing with high AA levels and/or high res.
 
only about 25% faster than a GTX 580
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So completely worthless if you already have a 580 then. I have a feeling that 25% is going to drop dramatically when it's tested.
 
Thanks for the post. I am still psyched about this release, but it's looking more and more like I will be waiting to see what Nvidia brings to the table this spring.
 
Frankly, if it turned out to be at least a 25% improvement over the GTX580 in all cases and without overclock, I'd say it's actually quite a decent release. But I suspect the average will turn out to be something like 10-15% faster than the 580, probably breaking even in the heavily Nvidia-biased games.
 
A lot of transistors have gone on the additional programability commodities.

As for the GPU clock, on the slides that have been recently leaked, they talk about 1 Ghz overclock at minimum, showing a normal top range of 1100 Mhz. That's OK. Having GPUs beyond the Gigahertz is great. Today's GPUs go up to the Ghz, but not many, being 900 - 950 Mhz the top limit.
 
if its only 25% faster than a gtx580 and priced even higher then Nvidia will have it made in a couple months. heck Nvidia has probably already realized they can dial back the clockspeeds on whatever they will be releasing later.
 
Fake fake fake. Sounds like abt didn't get a review card. Typical trash from a trashy site.
 
Just like Bulldozer we'll have to wait for the software to be coded to take full advantage of GCN...







...not sure if trolling? ;)
 
According to the "leaked" slides and graphs from AMD, The 7970 is supposed to be anywhere from 35-60% faster than a 580 in the games and settings they tested at. In some older dx9 titles at 1080p or even 2560x1600 single monitor, it wouldn't surprise me if they only had a 15-25% lead, probably CPU bound like the dual gpu cards are with those sorts of games.
 
cannondale06 said:
if its only 25% faster than a gtx580 and priced even higher then Nvidia will have it made in a couple months. heck Nvidia has probably already realized they can dial back the clockspeeds on whatever they will be releasing later.
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You're crazy if you think if either company will make substantial strides when it comes to performance. They want people to buy every release. I highly doubt nVidia will offer a card that is all that much faster for the same price. They still haven't even fixed their current cards for the most part. Plenty of people still can't get proper GPU usage in big release games.
 
SixFootDuo said:
But of course, shitty performance, as to be expected. Bulldozer, now this.

This is one game I won't play with AMD, period. $550 dollars? Are the Out of TFM?

I wondered why everyone was fired, no I completely understand.

Looks like I'm keeping my 4.9Ghz and savings for Nvidia's new stuff this spring. See, I'm not like most of these other guys on here. I absolutely will not buy into mediocrity. I don't believe in the driver fairy to fix things. And, yes, where there is smoke, there is fire. Bulldozer, now this. People getting fired, ok, the circle of BS has now been completed. AMD, you lose.

See, Nvidia was where AMD is at now with Fermi. They are smart enough not to let this happen again. Anyone who is smart enough to wait on Nvidia's new cards will be rewarded with the better video card solution, performance, mark my words.
Click to expand...

Wow, way to overreact to totally unsubstantiated information.

I, for one, would be quite happy with a 7970 if it's consistently ~25% faster than a GTX 580. Considering it should launch around $400, 25% faster than GTX 580 performance for $100 less ain't too shabby. Plus, considering it's got 3GB of memory, the performance boost should be even higher at 5760x1200.
 
The argument whether 7970 is x times faster is moot for me, sadly. There is just no point for people with "normal", <2560x1600 setups to be interested here. Moreover, anyone with a dual card, top-end setup doesn't need this card, or Kepler for that matter. Unfortunately, coinciding with developers movement toward consoles, we've seen the number of game titles that benefit from more top-end rendering power get progressively less and less over the past 3-4 generations of GPUs, 8800/4870 to 280/5870, maybe 8-10 titles required extra GPU power at highest settings; 280/5870 to 480/6970, maybe 5-6 titles; 480/6970 to 680/7970, maybe... 1-2 games?

All in all, I guess I'm saying I'm disappointed that I'm not excited in this upcoming generation of GPUs. At the end of the day enthusiasts will still buy it, but I think owning a 7970 ir 680 will be like having a ferrari with no road to drive it on.
 
Poisoner said:
Fake fake fake. Sounds like abt didn't get a review card. Typical trash from a trashy site.
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Agreed. Lost all credibility when he mentioned that Nvidia's next GTX 580 successor is the GTX 680, when it isn't.
Edit: Just browsed the forum, found this gem -
i can see why AMD did not want to send me one; but they are very rude when they feel like it. i am just returning their favor since i am not under NDA. Yes, business IS Business and i also run a media organization that specializes in graphics news.
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LOL

I love how he keeps mentioning this too:

AlienBabelTech is not under NDA with AMD for the upcoming launch of their new architecture HD 7970 this coming Thursday, December 22.
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Yet I did not get anything from that article that we could get elsewhere. I mean, the author just summed it up here:

We hope you enjoyed our preview of the HD 7970. Many thanks to the leaks posted at VR-Zone, Dominhaber, Expreview and other tech sites. Of course, you read it all put together first at ABT.
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Not much of a preview really. Thumbs down.
 
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ROFLMAO .... They made an article with all the leaked stuff over the internet and someone posted here as a "PREVIEW" .... Nice try ... Not even close.....
 
It should be a lot more than 25% better since this is a "real" generation improvement due to the die shrink.

I don't imagine Nvidia's 5-6 billion transistor 28nm chip being "only" 25% better than the GTX 580.
 
Supertag said:
It should be a lot more than 25% better since this is a "real" generation improvement due to the die shrink.
Click to expand...

Not to pick apart your logic, but there is no absolute correllation between significant performance increases and a die shrink (e.g., 2900 XT to 3870). It's more down to architechtural changes.
 
Not going to give them a click, since it sounds like a troll article.
AMD’s 28nm yields are known to not be great and the specifications of the new GPU indicate that something strange is going on. The chip itself is quite complex with 4.3 billion transistors but its core only runs at a very conservative 925MHz.
Click to expand...
If you want conservative specs, try the original Fermi.
And BTW, 3GB of memory sure account for most of those transistors.
 
Piotrsama said:
And BTW, 3GB of memory sure account for most of those transistors.
Click to expand...

Memory doesn't contribute to core transistor count.

Robin B said:
Some more from Fud. belive what you want :)

http://www.fudzilla.com/graphics/item/25278-hd-7970-up-to-60-percent-faster-than-gtx-580
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Well, considering the 3GB of memory vs. 1.5GB and the high resolution, AA, and AF of those tests, the reality of it might be fairly close to that. With that much memory and it being 384-bit GDDR5, high resolution with lots of AA and AF is where that card is going to really shine.
 
SixFootDuo said:
But of course, shitty performance, as to be expected. Bulldozer, now this.

This is one game I won't play with AMD, period. $550 dollars? Are the Out of TFM?

I wondered why everyone was fired, no I completely understand.

Looks like I'm keeping my 4.9Ghz and savings for Nvidia's new stuff this spring. See, I'm not like most of these other guys on here. I absolutely will not buy into mediocrity. I don't believe in the driver fairy to fix things. And, yes, where there is smoke, there is fire. Bulldozer, now this. People getting fired, ok, the circle of BS has now been completed. AMD, you lose.

See, Nvidia was where AMD is at now with Fermi. They are smart enough not to let this happen again. Anyone who is smart enough to wait on Nvidia's new cards will be rewarded with the better video card solution, performance, mark my words.
Click to expand...

Geforce 580 GTX is the fastest single gpu solution I know of. If the 7970 is 25% faster then a 580GTX then I am impressed. However, at the end of the day, both cards are a waste of money when a $130-150 video card lets you comfortably max the settings on 9 out of 10 games at 1080p...
 
Parja said:
Memory doesn't contribute to core transistor count.
Click to expand...
AFAIK video card companies don't disclose how they count transistors, so I don't see how you know that.
In fact, IIRC ATI counts the whole card when mentioning trans. count.
 
Not that I need an upgrade... but I might buy a second 6950 to unlock for 6970cf before those start disappearing, and be set for a very long time. I just need to wait for further 6900 price drops as the 7000s are released. But unless I get something larger than 1080p, it would be a complete waste.
 
Piotrsama said:
AFAIK video card companies don't disclose how they count transistors, so I don't see how you know that.
In fact, IIRC ATI counts the whole card when mentioning trans. count.
Click to expand...

but the ram isnt on the gpu die. cache counts because it is on the die.
 
harmattan said:
The argument whether 7970 is x times faster is moot for me, sadly. There is just no point for people with "normal", <2560x1600 setups to be interested here. Moreover, anyone with a dual card, top-end setup doesn't need this card, or Kepler for that matter. Unfortunately, coinciding with developers movement toward consoles, we've seen the number of game titles that benefit from more top-end rendering power get progressively less and less over the past 3-4 generations of GPUs, 8800/4870 to 280/5870, maybe 8-10 titles required extra GPU power at highest settings; 280/5870 to 480/6970, maybe 5-6 titles; 480/6970 to 680/7970, maybe... 1-2 games?

All in all, I guess I'm saying I'm disappointed that I'm not excited in this upcoming generation of GPUs. At the end of the day enthusiasts will still buy it, but I think owning a 7970 ir 680 will be like having a ferrari with no road to drive it on.
Click to expand...

Naw, even for single screen you still need multiple GPU's to max games. When GPU's get powerful enough to run everything great single GPU then I will be impressed. Performance still has a long way to go, especially for multi-screen.
 
Being a smart consumer I always aim for the $200~$300 bracket so after seeing all this, I wonder where this puts the 7950... :cool:
 
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