AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition Video Card Review @ [H]

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Brent_Justice

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AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition Video Card Review @ [H] - We have been documenting AMD's struggle to compete with the NVIDIA Kepler generation since it was introduced. Today AMD attempts to strike back with the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition. This video card features higher operating speeds and introduces AMD's version of GPU Boost. Will the performance justify a price of $499 or will AMD fall short again?
 
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Finally! I was on the edge of my seat, refreshing this page. I was pretty psyched about this refresh, and about what [H] had to say.

Too bad it wasn't the ridiculous upgrade we were hoping for. Oh well, I'm glad to have the option. $450 it is!
 
Pretty much exactly what my expectations were. Slight bump not much else.
 
Wait, is GPU boost going to be a software/driver feature? If so, then we could expect it on the existing 7970s down the line. That, and the option of turning it off would be nice too.
 
My Radeon HD 7970 isn't that great an overclocker, and it clocks at least as high as the GHz edition does. Doesn't seem like a big deal at all. We all knew that overclocking is where the 7970 shines. A slight bump in factory clocks for an extra $50 or so doesn't really change anything.
 
DoomDoomDoom said:
Reading through this now! Thought I'd check the site/forums to see what word is on, after AMD released this bit through their channels: http://www.marketwire.com/press-rel...deon-hd-7970-ghz-edition-nyse-amd-1672488.htm
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The MarketWire article makes me laugh. So they overclock their video card and suddenly they've "taken the crown"?!? This is doing nothing but solidifying my disdain for AMD.

Thanks for the review, guys. Another AMD card I'm not impressed with.
 
Ajiki-kun said:
Wait, is GPU boost going to be a software/driver feature? If so, then we could expect it on the existing 7970s down the line. That, and the option of turning it off would be nice too.
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No, you will only see it on the 7970 GHz edition.

AMD's PowerTune with Boost is enabled via 3 things: Driver, Firmware and Hardware Regulators on the video card PCB. You won't see this on any other card. But you will probably see it in future products.
 
So happy I went with a 670 this round from my 6970. I musta missed, how much this thing costing?
 
Hate to say it. I expected better then this for $500.

I mean....its an ok product, but when you can get a normal 7970 and get better clocks....i dunno just doesnt seem worth $500 to me. I think the [H]ardocp review was right, It should be $20 cheaper.

Great review guys!!!! Its great to see Max Payne 3 and the Witcher 2 in the review.
 
Dan_D said:
If I don't switch to NVIDIA, I'd just go for another standard 7970 and be done with it.
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Can certainly be had cheaper, and with custom cooling, you'll achieve well over the clocks of this new card anyway, for less money.
 
Brent_Justice said:
$499 with availability in 10 days
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Brent, just curious, did you detect any coil whine on your card when vsync was turned off? A lot of people had that problem with the original 7970 (and its happening with ref 670s as well.)

Also off topic: do you have a lightning 680 review coming? :confused:
 
Thanks for the answer Brent.

Regarding the clock bump, well, factory overclocks are also a common practice, so this isn't all that unusual, just a tad overpriced.

This move certainly does make the 7970 more competitive... in a solid, second-best choice, got-your-back-in-case-680-is-still-hard-to-find kind of way
 
Brent_Justice said:
Can certainly be had cheaper, and with custom cooling, you'll achieve well over the clocks of this new card anyway, for less money.
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And apparently AMD finally got it's crap together with Crossfire drivers in Catalyst version 12.6 beta.
 
Yeah, pretty much as expected.

Fixed thanks, Kyle
 
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gathagan said:
Yeah, pretty much as expected.
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fastest is contestable but versatile is not. With its superior compute performance they have earned the right to say that they have the most versatile GPU.
 
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Kind of dissapointing, but hopefully this will drop regular 7950/7970 prices further.
 
Unfortunate to see the gaming performance, but I'm actually amused/intrigued to see them touting GPGPU/video encoding. I wouldn't go out and buy this card because they finally added some GPU offloading, but at least they recognized that this was a market interest.
 
raghu78 said:
fastest is contestable but versatile is not. With its superior compute performance they have earned the right to say that they have the most versatile GPU.
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I don't think that's correct. OpenCL performance does not dictate "compute performance". DX Compute and CUDA performance also make up "compute performance" and there's no sign that Kepler isn't capable there.
 
To Grady and Brent: Your overclocking experience with this card has been identical to my experiences with four different 7970s (an XFX Black, 2 Sapphire reference, and 1 Sapphire Dual OC). Each card reached its maximum potential and boosting the voltage provided no real benefit.

The inability to view dynamic voltage changes may be due to the present default configuration of Afterburner and a few other programs. If you remember, during the immediate aftermath following the release of the 7970s there were people reporting massive fluctuations in the voltage based on load. (I was one of them). Afterburner was changed to display only the maximum voltage plugged in. However, this could be changed by editing the same file that allowed for "unofficial" overclocking beyond the 1125MHz limit.

Overall this re-release is at least honest in that it is nothing more than a binning exercise. Of course, since nearly all 7970s can and will hit 1GHz, 1.05GHz, or 1.1GHz and there is no change in the maximum headroom for the card (as well as little real change in temperature, noise, or power consumption between the original and GHz edition at those speeds) then AMD should have released the cards from the start at 1050MHz.

The biggest kudos is probably due to AMD's driver team for finally beginning to tweak code enough to use tap the card's potential a mere six months after the public sales began.
 
BlueStorm said:
I don't think that's correct. OpenCL performance does not dictate "compute performance". DX Compute and CUDA performance also make up "compute performance" and there's no sign that Kepler isn't capable there.
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I don't understand where you get the idea that Kepler is capable in compute performance. You forgot that double precision (DP) performance is a part of compute performance. Also ignoring OpenCL performance which is an open industry standard is not an answer.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6025/radeon-hd-7970-ghz-edition-review-catching-up-to-gtx-680/14

GTX 680 losing to the GTX 580 in Civilization V and SmallLuxGPU ( even if SmallLuxGPU is OpenCL based ) is not a sign of good compute performance by any stretch of imagination.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7970-ghz-edition-review-benchmark,3232-14.html

In Sandra 2012 DP performance of HD 7970 is atleast 6 times GTX 680.
 
So what you're saying is cheaper standard edition 7970's in 7 to 10 days!!!

I like this.
 
Brent
Is there any reason for such a sharp drop in fps for the Radeon HD 7970 Ghz edition during the cut scenes compared to the Radeon HD 7970. Is it an indication of some hardware problem (insufficient power delivery for memory) which may cause the memory to not be able to run stable at 6 Ghz speeds on the Radeon HD 7970 Ghz edition.
One of the most striking points I noticed when reading one of your earlier reviews is how well the Sapphire HD 7970 OC ran all the tests at 950 Mhz compared to the ref HD 7970 in your review.

http://hardocp.com/article/2012/04/10/sapphire_hd_7970_oc_edition_video_card_review/5

The min fps for the Sapphire HD 7970 OC (950 Mhz) in games like Batman Arkham city were twice the ref HD 7970. The only difference in hardware was the number of power phases which the Sapphire HD 7970 OC used 5 (GPU) + 2 (memory) compared to the ref HD 7970 which used 5 + 1 power phases. So I think the Radeon HD 7970 Ghz edition needs more power phases for the memory ( 2 instead of 1). here is the picture of the Sapphire HD 7970 power phases

http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1038648438&postcount=62

Also the number of games in the review is too less at 3. I hope that it stays at 5 games as was the case previously.
 
Would have loved if Skyrim was included. I checked out Skyrim benchmarks at Toms and Techreport. Seems like HD 7970 is faster in that game now.

I think AMD has finally done a good job with Catalyst 12.7 beta.

AMD has got their mojo back. But both companies aren't doing anything to bring the prices down. Where's the GTX 660 anyways?
 
raghu78 said:
Is there any reason for such a sharp drop in fps for the Radeon HD 7970 Ghz edition during the cut scenes compared to the Radeon HD 7970. Is it an indication of some hardware problem (insufficient power delivery for memory) which may cause the memory to not be able to run stable at 6 Ghz speeds on the Radeon HD 7970 Ghz edition.
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This was most likely a driver issue. As you recall we are using Catalyst 12.7 BETA (not yet released to public) for the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition, whereas we are using Catalyst 12.6 Beta and CAP 6 Beta for the reference Radeon HD 7970.
 
Skyrim & Batman are dropped from your gaming suite or those were not tested due to lack of time etc ?

What I've seen from reading another reviews that in these two games, amd's drivers have shown most of the improvements & 7970 win in both these benchmarks.

If it would have been the case in your testing as well, would you have considered it as a better performing card based on only raw performance ?
 
I would have thought that AMD could do better for less money.

My son has 7970s in his computer and we can reach the maximum CCC overclocks without any effort.(1125/1600) Your maximum manual OC was just a tad higher and I'm sure the reference cards he has could reach that easily, too.

If AMD wants to be competative they should drop the price a bit. I just don't see anybody buying these when the standard product is as good and cheaper.:D
That and the reference coolers are noisy! The AIB partners coolers are vastly superior and much quieter....although nothing is more quiet than water....;)
 
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My first thought was "can you flash a normal 7970 to a Ghz Edition?"

According to anandtech there are *no* changes on the hardware side except the GPU binning. Can you confirm this?

Again I come here for the gaming results as my first point of call. +1 review quality.

It would have been nice to have seen a 4th game though I appreciate you guys are time-constrained. Although it would have rounded things off nicely to see n extra title in there :)
 
I just don't see the value at all in paying the same as a vanilla GTX 680 for essentially the same performance but with more heat/power usage. They really need to lower the price on these things.
 
Mchart said:
I just don't see the value at all in paying the same as a vanilla GTX 680 for essentially the same performance but with more heat/power usage. They really need to lower the price on these things.
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But dude, the COMPUTE PERFORMANCE! :p
 
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