Hardware AMD Radeon HD 7970 3GB Review

"However, it's questionable whether you seriously need that much graphics performance."
...you are f@#k%!g kidding me!!!??? A magazine that caters to those who concern themselves with bleeding edge tech, even if they can't all afford it, and you question the need for moar??? And if it's true of this card now then it was already true of the gtx580, right?

"With the PC games industry tied down by games that need to be developed for ageing consoles, you won't benefit from this sort of graphics power unless you use very high resolutions. A quick glance at the performance in games such as Skyrim or Dirt 3 at 1,920 x 1,080 is enough to tell you that, for most titles, a cheaper card delivers equally playable results.
Regardless, you'd arguably be foolish (or perhaps an AMD fanboy) to jump the 28nm gun so quickly."
Translation: don't upgrade now, new tech is just around the corner....as it always is

"Nvidia will respond with its own 28nm Kepler parts around March/April (to coincide with Ivy Bridge, we believe) and we expect new GPUs from AMD between January and March too."
Rumour, conjecture and with no basis in fact. We don't know when nVidia will release their next gen. The gtx480 was promised November '09 ...arrived May? '10. We... you... have even less idea as to what performance improvements they'll bring or at what cost.

Belief in a future nVidia release is an act of faith. The HD7970 is a present day(well, Jan 9th) fact.

 

But, can it....?

 

Did I miss the in depth noise analysis? You know the one that gets pulled out of the bag whent when nvida has a noisey cooler? Other sites are claiming this thing is as noisey a GTX590 under load......I recall certain reviewers likening this to making their ears bleed...

Overall when compared to it's 40nm comrades - the number of texture units, the number of transistors, the new memory bus, the fact that you guys more than likely have a 'golden sample' card in terms of overclocking - a defacto 20% improvement over the GTX580 is not exactly an evolutionary step - My advice to anyone considering a new gpu right now, do as I always do and wait for the full spread of 28nm cards to become available before making your choice.

 

Really? Guys at Hardwaresecrets have a different results ...
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/AMD-Radeon-HD-7970-Video-Card-Review/1458/14

 

£440 minimum for a gpu you got to be crazy

 

It would be like 50% more here in Croatia = £660
What do you say for that?

Happy Christmas to all!
P.S. Save a quid or two for the new GPUs in the 2012.

 

BT caters for the entire market, and most of the market can't afford to have triple SLI, top-end GPUs and more RAM than sense. A value proposition is important - we're now at the point where you need to be at 2560x1600 resolutions to start noticing a difference amongst the top tier cards, and even then it's a matter of a few FPS for a £90+ investment.

Throw in the fact that most people are using 1920x1200/1080, then yes, it's completely valid that you may not even need a 7970 (or for that matter a GTX590 or 6990).

Which is perfectly valid. AMD must be on the verge of pushing out lower cost models that may well be more suited to people's budgets and needs, and NVIDIAs launch is pretty much guaranteed, the exact timing is the only query.

Rumour and conjecture from those in a position to hear accurate rumblings from the industry. The 7970 may well be fact, but it's a single card at the very top of the tree that very few people can afford.

 

£440 is far too much !

If they do actually sell at that price it tells me they have very limited stock.

 

I like it. The heat wise awesome reading and the power consumption very impressive. Now do we wait for this or do we wait a little longer for the 7990 and I for one will wait for the 7990.

 

Or maybe to wait a little extra longer for 7979x2 Expect something over £600

 

Sorry, 7970x2

 

To those that are saying there is no valve in this because PC games are being held back ect ect, I'm not sure I'd agree (unless you are only 1 generation behind, I tend to always upgrade every 2 years or generation jumps, currently using a ATI 5870).

For me (a total graphics and frames per second wh*re) I'm only fully satisfied when, on a single GPU, I can run all games at full setting with the bare minimum of X4 AA/16x AF at 1920X1200, with the frame rate never dropping below 60 FPS. It seems we are only just getting to that point with this generation.

Don't get me wrong, it's not like I need to fulfill those requirements to enjoy a game (or I'd only be playing games from 2005 or before, heh) but it's not until all those were met that I'd consider an upgrade to a graphics card not worthwhile. Still, hard to disagree that it's worth hanging on a few months to see what's around the corner.

 

I agree with the only necessary for super high resolutions thing. With the fugly old console games we have to put up with these days, it's not worth it unless you insist on playing Skyrim at 9 million fps. :/

 

Interesting that your review has the 7970 with similar power draw to the gtx580 at load, yet every other review seems to have the 7970 significantly lower. Are you numbers correct there?

 

@Cei
You said: BT caters for the entire market

I said: A magazine that caters to those who concern themselves with bleeding edge tech, even if they can't all afford it

Think BT might prefer my idea of their target audience.

Seems peoples' main critic of this card is based on price. The gtx580 was how much on launch? £380 to £430!
http://hexus.net/tech/news/graphics/27390-nvidia-gtx-580-launch-day-pricing-availability/
And prices have not actually been confirmed yet.

And for what percentage gain over the 480 ....10% While the 7970 is giving 9-72% over the current competion ....580 and the 6970.
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/12/22/amd_radeon_hd_7970_video_card_review/14

And I know I have read, with the launch of a new top end card, from either AMD or nVidia, the point always being made that if you have the previous top end card then the price/performance gain is always gonna be small.

 

Should that say 3GB or have I misunderstood?

 

Nope, but I would like to maintain 60 with the AA cranked up as high as I can

 

Holy crap! This came out of no where. I was still reading rumours about it yesterday.

I will wait for the dual card versions of both Nvidia's (maybe) and AMD's cards before choosing. Running 3 screens means I will never have enough power but it needs to be a worthwhile jump and I don't want to spend more than £600. This may be wishful thinking.

 

Haha this card really came out of nowhere. AND IT'S AWESOME! If it was a bit cheaper tho..

 

The ultra high resolutions only come into play with a multi-monitor set-up or a really really high end 27-30" monitor..... I don't have the space for more than one monitor and my 28" unit at1900x1200 seems to be okay for me, especially when I can employ just 4xAA to smooth things out and get rid of any jaggedness.

So it's performance at these settings that interest me, until higher resolutions are more affordable and the min frame rate performance is beyond 60fps at these settings - of course I suspect it's not so necessary for have AA set high for these resolutions so reaching these goals and having the game looking gorgeous will be more down to brute force rather than 'eye candy' settings.

When will ray tracing be the standard?