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Hardware AMD Radeon HD 7970 3GB Review

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by arcticstoat, 22 Dec 2011.

  1. fingerbob69

    fingerbob69 Minimodder

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    1: I don't need to be patronised by you and I'll respond anyway I damn well please.

    2: A year?... more like when nVidia put out their next gen leader ....which could be a year away! lol

    3: Those who want the current best and have the depth of pocket to be able to afford it will be pre-ordering as we speak. If the tables were turned and this was an nVidia release ...the same would be true.

    What we have here ...on 9th Jan is the now best single gpu, by an extraordinary percentage improvement over the current gen for just £20 max (if the £440 cost pans out to accurate) more than the last best cost on release. And some people are going 'meh'. Incredible!
     
  2. Sloth

    Sloth #yolo #swag

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    I've been fairly excited for the 7970 as my two year upgrade cycle is calling for something new this winter, but it is indeed a bit "meh" at the moment. If you're in the market for a £400~ card then sure, it seems to be a good competitor but let's be honest: not everyone is in that market. It's a bit hard to get enthused about something one won't realistically be considering, at least not until the price drops.
     
  3. maverik-sg1

    maverik-sg1 Minimodder

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    There's no extra-ordinary percentage advantage and only a fool would buy a 28nm card before the other side (whichever that may be) has released a card, unless of course you just happen to enjoy forking out £440 a card every 6 months.

    It's also a false eceonomy to buy a card withing 5 weeks of release - allow the market to flood with unsold units then grab yourself a bargain.

    There's certainly no rush to buy a new card if you are gaming at 1900x1080 or lower resolution.
     
  4. madmike32

    madmike32 What's a Dremel?

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    I am amazed that all the tests done so far ...and even by Bit-tech.net ...which is usualy my first port of call for decent tests...
    The fact that you have used 11.12 drivers is not good...and not good research by your testers to put it mildly....
    11.12 do not support the HD7000 series cards.
    Also 11.12 do not have the performance enhancements for current games that 11.11C do....about time you read the info on AMD/ATI's site about the drivers etc.
    Also the only driver to support the HD7000 series is the 12.1 preview drivers... yes they are not WHQL tested but the point is that they are the only set of drivers to support the HD7000 series GPU...
    So why in the hell are you using the wrong drivers during the test...and also the 11.12 drivers do not have performance enhancements and fix's for current games...so even the older 6000 and 5000 and lesser series cards do not get any gains in current games that they would get by using 11.11C..
    So please do more research on drivers before you test with old drivers which don't support the new Tech...and also don't even do the other HD series cards much justice either..

    I would have thought you would have known this fact about the drivers..
    Please re-test using 12.1preview drivers as I would like to see the tests done again with drivers that support the HD7000 series and also see the figures from games that need the 11.11C drivers to get better performance and reliability from

    Mike
     
  5. Fizzl

    Fizzl What's a Dremel?

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    I don't see any features other than 'faster'.

    I have a 2GB 6950 pretending to be a 6970 overclocked a fair amount, was enough for 1920x1080 BF3 but now that I'm playing around with 3 screens and eyefinity it feels like I need a bit more kick.

    Seems like I'm better off just getting another 6950 and doing the same upgrade since it will cost considerably less and give me the performance boost I'm after. Any thoughts?
     
  6. Pooeypants

    Pooeypants What's a Dremel?

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    Why on earth would you bother including Skyrim? It's a DX9 game with a game engine from 2006 albeit slightly updated. The game is notorious for being CPU bound due to it only really using 2 cores. That's hardly a game you would or should use when benchmark a beast like this... stop wasting your time and our time, drop it for something more relevant (Skyrim is a great game but it's definitely not a framerate benchmarker).
     
  7. fdbh96

    fdbh96 What's a Dremel?

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    Compare how this gpu compares with your/their current gpu on the game?
     
  8. Elton

    Elton Officially a Whisky Nerd

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    I think I'll just crossfire my HD6850s. Or wait until the next generation mid-range card. Truth be told the increase isn't justified given that come the HD8xxx or GTX8(or 9??) series would just have this kind of performance in a smaller power envelope.

    At any rate, CrossfireX is actually mature enough to warrant a shot. Although I do wish I could've gotten HD6870s, HD6850s in crossfire should be relatively interesting.
     
  9. rogerrabbits

    rogerrabbits What's a Dremel?

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    Yeah. I like running a good card so I can do that too, but it's just that there are only a few games that really need it. BF3, Arma2, and that's about the only ones I play that have settings high enough to push my card :( I am pleased that they are improving the noise levels of the cards though. The only reason I never bought a 580 when they were new is because they were so loud. I wouldn't mind getting similar performance to that but with a good volume and temps.
     
  10. stanonwheels

    stanonwheels What's a Dremel?

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    That's one of the best looking graphics cards I've ever seen. Even makes faildozer seem bearable just so I can colour-coordinate my rig :)
     
  11. metarinka

    metarinka What's a Dremel?

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    I'm waiting for the 7950 or whatever is one step below this card. I have a 5850 that works well but it's starting to show it's age. Guess I'll be waiting a few more months though
     
  12. Abdul Hadi

    Abdul Hadi Technically, I wanna be tim!

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    HEY WHERE IS THE FOLDING@HOME analysis page?
     
  13. debs3759

    debs3759 Was that a warranty I just broke?

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    FAH doesn't run on the new cards yet. We'll have to wait for the next beta version to see if they have it added by then (they can't release a new version for every new card, and card IDs are hard coded to the current version).

    I don't think you can get it running on the 6.x gpu clients either, although that wasn't specifically mentioned in a review I read a couple of days ago that mentioned v7 (sorry, I have forgotten the link).
     
  14. earlydoors

    earlydoors Minimodder

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    I haven't upgraded since May 10, so I'm definitely thinking of investing

    I've had my GTX 260 for a long while and it started showing its age since I moved up the resolution ladder. I'm sure the next card I have will last me plenty too.

    Question is, will AMD's design improve with their next releases like Fermi did from GTX4 to GTX5, or is it all only in the hardware configuration of the card?
     
  15. t4n6o

    t4n6o You know when you've been tangoed

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    I so want one of these......


    does anyone fancy getting me a brthday present for me in march ;);););)
     
  16. Waynio

    Waynio Relaxing

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    Now I know how demanding 2560x1440 res is for gaming I'm gonna need a bigger boat, erm GPU :D & something like this or nvidia's next should be just what I need to max games at such a res.
     
  17. emenac

    emenac What's a Dremel?

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    Cool from specification point of view and also dashing in look. However there price problem, price is more as compare to its features... Might be drop after some days of launching...:rolleyes:
     
  18. Paradigm Shifter

    Paradigm Shifter de nihilo nihil fit

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    Scan are saying (at the bottom of the page) that this'll be in the £500 region upon release. I hope that that's just them (and possibly other etailers) price-gouging for what amounts to a paper launch, rather than an 80 quid 'Rip-Off Britain' tax, because even after 20% VAT, a direct USD to GBP conversion is £421. ($549->£351, £351+20%VAT = £421)...

    I was going to pick one of these up at the end of January/early February, when I rebuild my Surround rig (mobo dying) to give EyeFinity a shot, but if prices are going to be that high for many months, I won't bother.
     
  19. dunx

    dunx ITX is where it's at !

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    Sorry, but without a better monitor, this would be overkill for me.

    I would like to see it's number crunching ability measured myself.

    dunx
     
  20. Waynio

    Waynio Relaxing

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    :waah: The dawn of the uber expensive GPU.

    £500 Sheesh, well there goes my GPU upgrade system, I'd need 2 580's to raise the cash for 1 of these :lol: definitely not getting a single GPU at such a bloated price, this new ATI card (sorry will always be ATI in my mind :hehe:) is good but not £500 good :D.
     
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