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
The Test
Starting with the launch of the 7970 we will be using our new GPU testbed, replacing both our hardware and most of our benchmarks. On the hardware side we’re using an Intel Core i7 3960X overclocked to 4.3GHz on an EVGA X79 SLI motherboard, giving us access to PCIe 3.0 while keeping most CPU bottlenecks at bay. While we’re only looking at a single card today, based on some informal surveys for multi-GPU testing we will continue to test our cards adjacent to each other to represent the worst case scenario, as it turns out there are a number of users out there who do use that arrangement even if they’re not in the majority.
On the software side we’ve refreshed most of our benchmarks; the suite is tilted towards DX11, but there are still enough DX9/10 tests to get a good idea of how new cards compare to pre-DX11 cards. On that note I know we have a lot of Skyrim fans out there, and while we wanted to include Skyrim benchmark we’re having trouble coming up with any good test cases (that don’t involve INI hacking) that aren’t incredibly CPU limited. If you have any suggestions, please drop me a line.
For drivers on AMD’s cards we’re using AMD’s beta 8.921.2-111215a drivers, which identify themselves as Catalyst 11.12 but are otherwise indistinguishable from the Catalyst 12.1 preview released last week. On that note, for those of you who have been asking about support for D3D11 Driver Command Lists – an optional D3D11 feature that helps with multithreaded rendering and is NVIDIA’s secret sauce for Civilization V – AMD has still not implemented support for it as of this driver.
For NVIDIA’s cards we’re using NVIDIA’s latest beta driver, 290.36.
Finally, as we’ve only had a limited amount of time with the 7970, we’ve narrowed our suite of cards just slightly in order to make the deadline. For those of you curious about how middle-tier cards such as the GTX 560 series and the Radeon HD 6800 series or various multi-card SLI and CrossFire setups compare, we’ll be adding new results to Bench throughout the rest of the month, and Eyefinity soon after that. For the time being since we only have a single card, we’re focusing on single card results with a single monitor.
| CPU: | Intel Core i7-3960X @ 4.3GHz |
| Motherboard: | EVGA X79 SLI |
| Chipset Drivers: | Intel 9.2.3.1022 |
| Power Supply: | Antec True Power Quattro 1200 |
| Hard Disk: | Samsung 470 (240GB) |
| Memory: | G.Skill Ripjaws DDR3-1867 4 x 4GB (8-10-9-26) |
| Video Cards: |
AMD Radeon HD 7970 AMD Radeon HD 6990 AMD Radeon HD 6970 AMD Radeon HD 6950 AMD Radeon HD 5870 AMD Radeon HD 5850 AMD Radeon HD 4870 AMD Radeon HD 3870 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 470 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285 NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT |
| Video Drivers: |
NVIDIA ForceWare 290.36 Beta AMD Catalyst Beta 8.921.2-111215a |
| OS: | Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit |
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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.