AMD Radeon HD 7970 Video Card Review @ [H]

UtopiA said:
Odds are if you're using a 580, then you don't want to buy ATI regardless.
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Not at all, I look at the facts and be realistic. I don't honour one brand over the next. If this was churning out acceptable framerates @ 2560x1600 I'd grab one.. It doesn't though - and in reality it is nowhere near worth the upgrade over a 580. The performance boost it does have over the 580 @ the lower res would go unnoticed.
 
From what I can tell this is a solid upgrade over the gtx 580 and I have been finding as of late I prefer the whistles and bells that AMD has been offering over nvidia.

I don't think this card is worth getting though, the O/C headroom is a bit too much and with it being a new chip design I get the feeling that a refresh will be comming up soon.

Also I am still waiting to hear what really matters, AMD/ATI's $200-300 card option. If the 7950 comes in at this price point and is just a slightly nerf'ed 7970 it will be a killer.

BTW does anyone think these card names are just bad. The only thing that would make this worse is if nvidia's next set of cards was the 1800 series with a quick refresh to the 1900s.
 
nowhere near a solid upgrade. Not trying to cause an argument here, but how on earth is this a solid upgrade from a 580?. it's a good card. but just no.

Solid upgrade from a 470 ? sure
 
Seems like an improvement but nothing spectacular... I do think AMD is going in the right path and hopefully down the road it will shine even more.
 
As someone who paid far too many clams for the 7800 GTX ($500) only to be utterly throttled by the 8800GTX a year later (and $100 more at $600) I'm completely familiar with the price of $550. That said, as much as I really want to plonk down the dosh for it given that it tends to range 40-100% over my 470 I just don't want to get caught with my pants down like I've done before (that 7800GTX for instance was then handily beaten by the X1900 XTX and X1950 XTX). So, I think I can hold out a while waiting on Kepler. At worst it could pop out and drive down the 7970.
 
a solid upgrade for whom laffles? its a solid upgrade for anyone who doesnt have a 580, 6990 or 590.. thats not AMD's target audience here. This is for the people with the 480's 6970s 5870s 6950s etc. where it provides a substantial performance increase. The 580 was about 20 to 30% faster than the 6970 in some games and no one screamed and cried when it was released for $599 ( and still goes for about $500 depending on version) so why all the AMD hate. They delivered the fastest single card on the market and it isn't even the most expensive single card, that goes to the 3GB 580 and the OC versions, which might I add, the stock 7970 is faster than. It just sounds like someone is a bit biased.
 
wow there are a lot of Nvidia fan boys in here.....default clocked 7970 soundly defeats overclocked 580 for less money......does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that AMD cleaned house here.....

As to comparing a oc'd 580 to a 7970 you boys should be above that kind of crap......
 
Welllllllllllllll it's not less money.
But I assume you mean relative pricing based on performance: 7970 costs more but it's better value for the dollar.
 
Color me impressed.

Those are some pretty considerable jumps in performance and not just 1 game that they're gonna chest thump over. Thats a wide range of games, and todays games, not 2 year old game benchmarks.

They did good, they did right. The 7K series will be a solid hit for AMD yet again. Let's just hope they don't force you to pair it with the FUDozer ;)
 
UtopiA said:
Welllllllllllllll it's not less money.
But I assume you mean relative pricing based on performance: 7970 costs more but it's better value for the dollar.
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isn't that how you figure it? performance per $? and in that case it is cheaper...
 
Table21 said:
From what I can tell this is a solid upgrade over the gtx 580 and I have been finding as of late I prefer the whistles and bells that AMD has been offering over nvidia.

I don't think this card is worth getting though, the O/C headroom is a bit too much and with it being a new chip design I get the feeling that a refresh will be comming up soon.

Also I am still waiting to hear what really matters, AMD/ATI's $200-300 card option. If the 7950 comes in at this price point and is just a slightly nerf'ed 7970 it will be a killer.

BTW does anyone think these card names are just bad. The only thing that would make this worse is if nvidia's next set of cards was the 1800 series with a quick refresh to the 1900s.
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I'll have to disagree that its a solid upgrade over GTX 580. $550 for additional 20% performance seems like a huge waste of money to me.

Of course, if you want to have the fastest single card available, this is it.

But if you're replacing a current card, you'll have to see how much you have to spend, and what noticeable improvements it will bring.
 
You know, from a sheer non-biased stand point, the card isn't bad. Although I have this odd feeling that this will not stand as AMD's top tier card for more then a few months (especially if Nvidia comes out of the wood work anytime soon). X7970XTX to come perhaps? Who knows...

Not so long ago I traded in my 580 for a 6990, and I was really hoping that this card would surpass the 6990, but it falls slightly short, and by doing so it has put a lot of people (me included) in a tough situation at the current price point. It's as if I almost want to buy it (I love throwing money at people), but the performance as it stands just doesn't have enough gusto to make me open my wallet (this is why I don't blame 580 owners for passing on it either). I think we were all expecting that first round KO, and what we got instead was a 3 round win by decision. :eek:

Anyhow, after the vendors tack on their "convenience fees" to the MSRP, I'm really curious to see how much they will realistically sell for before the card goes out of stock... I'm going to sit by and watch the mayhem from the sidelines, enjoy your card if you get one!
 
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Maybe you've already done this but if at the time of the test you weren't using the 4gb mod for skyrim, it might behoove you too for eyefinity and such. The 1.3.1 patch that just came out basically permanently forced the 4gb mod into the official game so...might be worth checking out again. Letting the game use more ram is pretty much essential if you're playing the game beyond stock capabilities (texture mods, or in your case - triple resolution) otherwise crashes WILL be frequent.

Also, you can change the fov through the console by typing "FOV 70" etc. Stock is 65. I expect it will help with eyefinity level resolutions.

You probably already knew and/or did this but...
 
Very nice numbers all around. Very happy over here.

Time to replace the 5870. (going on 27months in my PC tomorrow!)

EDIT: Just learned about included HDMI to DVI + Active Display port to DVI adapters included with every card. Very nice, 3x1 DVI Eyefinity support out of the box.
 
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NKD said:
LOL< are you just trolling. Yes it is not a gtx 580 killer, but you would rather buy a gtx 580 for less performance at this time? Unless you just purely hate ati.
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I can grab a used GTX 580 for around 350 USD. This one is 200$ more expensive with about ~20% more performance. So not worth it FOR ME.
 
heatlesssun said:
Just saying that this type of card is simply not target for the Linux market, don't see what the big deal is, clearly it's not.
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It's somewhat related though... I use linux to get work done so that I can have money to buy expensive cards. Just because you buy a good card, it doesn't mean you will be gaming 100% of the time you are on the computer. I would think that if I bought their best card (I currently have a 6970), that they would care enough to make it work in some of the popular distros.. they apparently don't care.
 
I'm waiting for the crossfire tests. I just got a MSI HD 6970 Lightning in early October and added another one in early November. I also upgraded to a 30" Dell U3011. My 6970's have had no issue running anything I've thrown at them at 2560x1600 with maxed details (except Metro 2033 and Witcher 2 with Uber Sampling). I'd consider selling these cards while they have high resell value but I doubt the crossfire performance will be enough to sway me. I'll have to wait and see.

I am a bit surprised that the launched so quickly, I really wasn't expecting to see them until Feb/Mar 2012. Any idea when these hit retail?
 
Hornet said:
I'll have to disagree that its a solid upgrade over GTX 580. $550 for additional 20% performance seems like a huge waste of money to me.

Of course, if you want to have the fastest single card available, this is it.

But if you're replacing a current card, you'll have to see how much you have to spend, and what noticeable improvements it will bring.
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If you look at the benchmarks for the 7970 vs the gtx 580 (at stock) then is a pretty decent increase. Also looking at both cards overclocked the 7970 pulls far ahead of the gtx 580.

But like I said it's not a card I would be in a rush to buy and I have a strong feeling a refresh will be out in a few months
 
I will be coming from a Crossfired 4890 and 4870. Therefore, the only question I will have it, 6970 or 7950. Well, early next year will be interesting.
 
As I upgrade anyway for games, curious what this card will do with F@H and BC Mining. That much shader power should be WONDERFUL!
 
Wow, nice review. Honestly wasn't expecting it to be as good as what I saw, definitely a pleasant surprise. What isn't a pleasant surprise is the price,ouch. I'm running 2 matrix 5870's now, guess I'll continue to hold off a bit til' hopefully, prices come down a bit. Wouldn't have even been a question a few years ago when I was single and without a cute baby girl. Pretty easy to tell by the cards when I got hitched and all my dreams crashed and burned,lol
 
$550? No thanks, will wait for Nvidia, and for the more mainstream offerings. Besides, this thing appears complete overkill for 1080p anyway.
 
Seems review samples had wrong TIM applied to them and are running much hotter than they should which also means the fan would spin faster, increasing noise levels.
Did AMD already take the card back Brent? Maybe you can do what they did and replace the thermal grease and see what temps you get.

http://translate.google.com/transla...c-poprve-v-testu-hlucnost-teploty/39235/37594

coolerv.jpg
 
It's awesome to see the [H] moving to an i7 2600k test bed and testing eyefinity resolutions! Really stepping up the game here. Great review.
 
Very impressive for a 1st gen. product and release drivers....kudos to AMD on this one!
 
Not a bad card. But I think it would be quite a step backward performance wise from my GTX 590 for 1080p. Going to wait to see what Kepler has to offer.
 
KickAssCop said:
I can grab a used GTX 580 for around 350 USD. This one is 200$ more expensive with about ~20% more performance. So not worth it FOR ME.
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No you can't. The card used by H was a oc'ed 580 with 4 display outputs. If you want the same performance, you have to shell out $600. If you buy a stock 580 you must subtract at least 15% from the numbers in this review. And ofc no multiscreen action. Over 25x16 you won't get any action, because the 1,5Gb framebuffer will be to small.

So no, you can't get anywhere near the same performance with a stock used 580.

Shame on H for this kind of trickery. SHAME!

As I said earlier:

Thx for the review, looks like the 7970 is a solid card, guess the 7950 is going to be my christmas gift to myself. TPU had oc results to, fairly good:

Maximum stable clocks of our card are 1075 MHz core (16% overclock) and 1715 MHz Memory (25% overclock).

Both overclocks are spectacular. It's amazing to see over 15% overclocking potential on a brand-new GPU design, using a brand new production process. Over 1700 MHz memory clock is actually the highest memory speed we have ever seen!
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But..

Sighh...

I have always regarded you because of your high integrity. Now you begin with the same shit as Anandtech and start comparing stock Amd card against highly oc'ed nvidia cards? FGS, I thought we were finished with that kind of trickery. Sad really. What is Anandtech going to do if you are doing this? 2GHz liquid nitrogen-cooled Gtx580 (2pcs ever produced) against 7970 with 11.1 driver?

Though this is an overclocked GTX 580, it does represent what a high-end GTX 580 can deliver, and if the HD 7970 can compete.
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So if you are so gung-ho to show us what an "high end gtx 580 can deliver", why no 7970 oc results on all graphs to show "what a high end 7970 can deliver"? I know you stated several times that the 580 was oced, more expensive and a special version allowing 4 monitors, but, that isn't the 580 ppl buys. And most ppl will just skim the graphs and images, and say: "oh, it is just 15% faster than a 580." NOT "oh, it's only 15% faster than a higly oc'ed special version, limited availability gtx 580". I expect you to use an oc'ed 7970 against that 580 you are doing a review of then, if you are going to be consistent.

On an other note, on the nVidia oc card you used a beta driver. Did you test the Catalyst 12.1 driver? TPU at least lists this as
Quote:
According to sources, 12.1 Preview is the first driver that provides early (read: rough-on-the-edges) support for AMD's next generation Radeon HD 7900 series graphics cards,
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You have done a review of this drivers your self so I guess you compared this later, non-whql drivers as well?
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I'm pleasantly surprised to see a single card that can provide such good results in multi-monitor setups. This is exactly what I was hoping to see from the next gen, nothing less, nothing more. I think the gold award is well deserved. However, I am still waiting to see what Kepler's performance is like before I make a decision on my next build.

P.S. Thanks to the [H] team for testing the multi-monitor resolutions in the very first review. I'd like to see this happen all the time.
 
I'm not sure how anyone can call this a "great review".

I remember the days of threats from nVidia of 'no more cards' because of the no bullshit stance on testing here. I have a hoodie hanging in my closet that reads 'Work [H]ard. Play [H]ard. Stay [H]ard.' So I'll genuinely ask, what the hell is up with this?

A year ago people wanted Anand's head on a pike for using an overclocked nVidia card on the AMD 6870/50 launch article. Most felt it was unethical and tried to paint a different scenario of the launch in general, and Anand himself indicated there was heavy pressure from nVidia to include it.

So I'll ask the obvious question: Why is the no bullshit, take nothing from no one site doing the same thing a year later?

I've seen one person mention in this thread the fact that the card you are reviewing against is overclocked. Some are already spouting percentages based on the numbers they see - and on page 12 someone asks if they compared it to a stock 580.

I guess I'm writing this because I'm disappointed. Not in the article, in the direction. I guess gone are the days of telling manufacturers to fuck off and die and posting the article anyway, consequences be damned huh? And having to look at other reviews for overclocking results on a piece of new hardware? If you had asked me if that would ever happen back in 2000, I would have laughed in your face.
 
bah! was considering 2 of these to replace tri-fire 6970, but at that price it doesn't seem worth it. Good review :D looks like I can hold out for NVs next cards unless the price drops on these.
 
16 - 38% (I only game with three monitors) faster than an OC'ed 580, and cheaper.

I am buying one!
 
I'm not sure I quite get some people. Why do people think that those who actually buy $500 video cards and then upgrade to the next $500 video let the old video card on the bench collecting dust? I'm pretty sure most don't (at least I never did). On average, I was paying $200/year for the best video card available since I always sold the old one.

However, I don't play games much anymore so I bascialy play 2 year old games on 1 year old HW. Lost my [H] somewhere along the way. :p
 
Adam12176 said:
I'm not sure how anyone can call this a "great review".
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Sometimes I forget [H] has reviews.
I stopped looking at them entirely many years ago, because I don't like their style. I'm more of a "canned benchmarks" kind of guy. The whole "playable settings" never really felt right for me.

Flame shield, activated!
 
ManofGod said:
I will be coming from a Crossfired 4890 and 4870. Therefore, the only question I will have it, 6970 or 7950. Well, early next year will be interesting.
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I upgraded from a crossfired 4870 to a single msi 6970 lightning and found the performance increase was pretty good. Especially the minimum fps. A month later I added a second 6970
 
Brent_Justice said:
One thing this video card does do, whether you think the performance improvements are good or not, is that it drives down prices on current video cards, putting those into more peoples hands, and it helps fuel competition with NVIDIA, which is a good thing for us hardware enthusiasts and gamers.
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^^ This, the best thing for ati and nvidia fanboys alike
 
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