AMD Radeon HD 7970 Review: 28nm And Graphics Core Next, Together As One
by Ryan Smith on December 22, 2011 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
- AMD
- Radeon
- ATI
- Radeon HD 7000
Total War: Shogun 2
One of our goals with this iteration of our benchmark suite was to throw in some additional non-FPS games, so we’re broadening our horizons a bit by adding in Total War: Shogun 2. Shogun 2 is the latest installment of the long-running Total War series of turn based strategy games, and alongside Civilization V is notable for just how many units it can put on a screen at once. As it also turns out, it’s the single most punishing game in our benchmark suite.
When deciding on what settings to use with Shogun, it required a bit more creativity on our part. 2560 is a true moonshot; everything is turned on, and it takes a minimum of 1.5GB of VRAM to run the game at this resolution. Accordingly performance is rather dismal, though as this is a TBS 30fps isn’t quite as critical as it is in other games. In any case the 7970 comes the closest to hitting 30fps, coming in just shy at 28.2fps, which is 29% ahead of the GTX 580 and 48% ahead of the 6970.
Meanwhile for 1920 we turned Shogun’s settings down to Very High, and yet we still had to disable MSAA to make it work with 1GB cards (did we mention that Shogun loves VRAM?). At these lower settings performance rockets up, and at the same time so does the 7970’s lead over the GTX 580. Here it’s 36% ahead of the GTX 580, which will be the greatest lead among all of our gaming benchmarks. As for the 7970 compared to the 6970, it’s still 48% of the 6970 showing us just how similar these video cards are at times.
Finally at 1680 the overall performance goes up yet again, but the 7970’s lead remains. It’s ahead of the GTX 580 by 30%, and 48% ahead of the 6970.
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haukionkannel - Thursday, December 22, 2011 - link
Well, 7970 and other GCN based new cards are not so much driver depended as those older radeons. So the improvements are not going to be so great, but surely there will be some! So the gap between 580 or 6970 vs 7970 is going to be wider, but do not expect as big steps as 6970 got via new sets of drivers.Ryan Smith - Thursday, December 22, 2011 - link
This is actually an excellent point. Drivers will still play a big part in performance, but with GCN the shader compiler in particular is now no longer the end all and be all of shader performance as the CUs can do their own scheduling.CeriseCogburn - Thursday, March 8, 2012 - link
I hate to say it but once you implement a 10% IQ cheat, it's though to do it again and get away with it again in stock drivers.I see the 797x has finally got something to control the excessive shimmering... that's about 5 years of fail finally contained...that I've more or less been told to ignore.... until the 100+ gig zip download here... to prove amd has at least finally dealt with one IQ epic fail... (of course all the reviewers claim there are no differences all the time - after pointing out the 10% cheat, then forgetting about it, having the shimmer, then "not noticing it in game" - etc).
I'm just GLAD amd finally did something about that particular one of their problems.
Halleluiah !
Now some PhysX (fine bullet or open cl but for pete sakes nvidia is also ahead on both of those!) and AA working even when cranking it to 4X plus would be great... hopefully their new arch CAN DO.
If I get a couple 7970's am I going to regret it is my question - how much still doesn't work and or is inferior to nvidia... I guess I'll learn to ignore it all.
IceDread - Thursday, December 22, 2011 - link
It's a good card, but for me it's not worth it to upgrade from a 5970 to a 7970. Looks like that would be about the same performance.Scali - Thursday, December 22, 2011 - link
This is exactly the reason why I made Endless City available for Radeons:http://scalibq.wordpress.com/2010/11/25/running-nv...
Could you run it and give some framerate numbers with FRAPS or such?
Boissez - Thursday, December 22, 2011 - link
What many seem to be missing is that it is actually CHEAPER than the current street prices on the 3GB-equiped GTX 580. IOW it offers superior performance, features, thermals, etc. at a lower price than current gen at a lower price.What AMD should do is get a 1.5 GB model out @450$ ASAP.
SlyNine - Thursday, December 22, 2011 - link
Looks like I'll be sticking with my 5870. I upgraded from 2 8800GT's ( that in SLI never functioned quite right because they were hitting over 100C ever with after market HSF) and enjoyed over 2x the performance.When I upgraded from a 1900XT to the 8800GT's same thing, 800XT-1900XT, 9700pro - 800XT, 4200(nvidia)-9700pro. The list goes on to my first Geforce 256 card.
Whats the point, My 5870 is 2! generations behind the 7970 yet this would be the worst $per increase in performance yet. Bummer I really want something to drive a new 120hz monitor, if I ever get one. But then thats kinda dependent on whether or not a single GPU can push it.
Finally - Thursday, December 22, 2011 - link
Since when do top-of-the-line cards give you the best FPS/$?For the last few months the HD6870+HD6850 were leading all those comparisons by quite some margin. The DH7970 will not change that.
SlyNine - Thursday, December 22, 2011 - link
If you read my post, you will notice that I'm compairing it to the improvments I have paid for in the past.40-60% Better than a 2 YO 5870 Is much worse than I have seen so far. Considering that its not just one generation but 2 generations beyond and for 500+$ to boot. This is the worst upgrade for the cost I have seen.....
SlyNine - Thursday, December 22, 2011 - link
The 6870 would not lead the cost per upgrade in performance at all, It would be in the negitives for me.