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
Battlefield 3
Its popularity aside, Battlefield 3 may be the most interesting game in our benchmark suite for a single reason: it’s the first AAA DX10+ game. It’s been 5 years since the launch of the first DX10 GPUs, and 3 whole process node shrinks later we’re finally to the point where games are using DX10’s functionality as a baseline rather than an addition. Not surprisingly BF3 is one of the best looking games in our suite, but as with past Battlefield games that beauty comes with a high performance cost
How to benchmark BF3 is a point of great contention. Our preference is to always stick to the scientific method, which means our tests need to be perfectly repeatable or very, very close. For that reason we’re using an on-rails section of the single player game, Thunder Run, to do our testing. This isn’t the most strenuous part of Battlefield 3 – multiplayer can get much worse – but it’s the most consistent part of the game. In general we’ve found that minimum framerates in multiplayer are about half of the average framerate in Thunder Run, so it’s important to frame your expectations accordingly.
With that out of the way, Battlefield 3 ends up being one of the worst games for the 7970 from a competitive standpoint. It always maintains a lead over the GTX 580, but the greatest lead is only 13% at 2560 without any MSAA, and everywhere else it’s 3-5%. Of course it goes without saying that realistically BF3 is only playable at 1920 (no MSAA) and below on any of the single-GPU cards in this lineup, so unfortunately for AMD it’s the 5% number that’s the most relevant.
Meanwhile compared to the 6970, the 7970’s performance gains are also a bit below average. 2560 and 1920 with MSAA are quite good at 30% and 34% respectively, but at 1920 without MSAA that’s only a 25% gain, which is one of the smaller gaps between the two cards throughout our entire test suite.
The big question of course is why are we only seeing such a limited lead from the 7970 here? BF3 implements a wide array of technologies so it’s hard to say for sure, but there is one thing we know they implement in the engine that only NVIDIA can use: Driver Command Lists, the same “secret sauce” that boosted NVIDIA’s Civilization V performance by so much last year. So it may be that NVIDIA’s DCL support is helping their performance here in BF3, much like it was in Civ V.
But in any case, this is probably the only benchmark that’s really under delivered for the 7970. 5% is still a performance improvement (and we’ll take it any day of the week), but this silences any reasonable hope of being able to use 1920 at Ultra settings with MSAA on a single-GPU card for the time being.
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tw99 - Thursday, December 22, 2011 - link
I just wanted to say thank you for including the 8800 GT in some of your benchmark charts. Even though its dated hardware, including it in your comparisons illustrates the punch that the newer hardware has and assists in decision making for people like myself looking to upgrade from their current setup, unlike most benchmarking articles on other sites that like to compare only the very recent generations, not taking consideration what people would have now.Leyawiin - Thursday, December 22, 2011 - link
I wonder if the Arctic Cooling Twin Turbo II I have sitting in the closet (and haven't ever used) would fit on one of these? Its compatible for up to an HD 6970 so I know it can cool one of these sufficiently (if the mounting holes match their old cards). Maybe I should wait to see what the HD 7950 is like - buying the top of the line card at launch usually isn't smart from a value standpoint.Leyawiin - Thursday, December 22, 2011 - link
Its all a moot point anyway. Damn "soft launch" not available for at least three weeks. Just a marketing ploy to keep people from buying Nvidia's top cards at the moment. If you aren't ready to sell your cards, keep your mouth shut.james.jwb - Thursday, December 22, 2011 - link
I have an Arctic Cooling Extreme Plus II on a 6970 and wouldn't use the lower sized versions. But Im also interest to know if it'll fit the 7970. But in all honesty, until these prices come down I won't go near this card, the performance increases just aren't worth it for most people.Dark Man - Thursday, December 22, 2011 - link
It looks like page 7 and 8 got the same content ?Dark Man - Thursday, December 22, 2011 - link
Sorry, page 8 and 9Dark Man - Thursday, December 22, 2011 - link
Page 13 and 14, tooRyan Smith - Thursday, December 22, 2011 - link
We added a couple of pages this morning; you're probably seeing the cascade effect of the rest of the pages being pushed back.evilspoons - Thursday, December 22, 2011 - link
I'd just like to say that I found this review harder to read than the usual stuff on Anandtech. Everything seemed wordy - if there was an opportunity to use a sentence instead of a word, the sentence was used.Good job on the comprehensive information, but trim the fat off the writing next time, please!
RussianSensation - Thursday, December 22, 2011 - link
Even if it's a 6 months lead, 2012 is so far looking like a year full of console ports. We have Syndicate (February 21, 2012), then Mass Effect 3, Max Payne 3 (both on March 6). Those games will get crushed by modern GPUs. HD7970 is an amazing buy for those who are building a new system now/soon and planned to spend $500+ on a GPU. But for current GPU owners, it's not enough of a performance boost imho. And on its own, it's still not fast enough for 2560x1600 either. It's a good card, but since modern GPU generations last 18-24 months, it's too early to call it great.