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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CeriseCogburn - Sunday, March 11, 2012 - link
We'll have to see if amd "magically changes that number and informs Anand it was wrong like they did concerning their failed recent cpu.... LOLThat's a whole YEAR of lying to everyone trying to make their cpu look better than it's actual fail, and Anand shamefully chose to announce the number change "with no explanation given by amd"... -
That's why you should be cautious - we might find out the transistor count is really 33% different a year from now.
piroroadkill - Thursday, December 22, 2011 - link
Only disappointing if you:a) ignored the entire review
b) looked at only the chart for noise
c) have brain damage
Finally - Thursday, December 22, 2011 - link
In Eyefinity setups the new generation shines: http://tinyurl.com/bu3wb5cwicko - Thursday, December 22, 2011 - link
I think the price is disappointing. Everything else is nice though.CeriseCogburn - Sunday, March 11, 2012 - link
The drivers suckRussianSensation - Thursday, December 22, 2011 - link
Not necessarily. The other possibility is that being 37% better on average at 1080P (from this Review) over HD6970 for $320 more than an HD6950 2GB that can unlock into a 6970 just isn't impressive enough. That should be d).piroroadkill - Friday, December 23, 2011 - link
Well, I of course have a 6950 2GB that unlocked, so as far as I'm concerned, that has been THE choice since the launch of the 6950, and still is today.But you have to ignore cost at launch, it's always high.
CeriseCogburn - Thursday, March 8, 2012 - link
I agree RS, as these amd people are constantly screaming price percentage increase vs performance increase... yet suddenly applying the exact combo they use as a weapon against Nvidia to themselves is forbidden, frowned upon, discounted, and called unfair....Worse yet, according to the same its' all Nvidia's fault now - that amd is overpriced through the roof...LOL - I have to laugh.
Also, the image quality page in the review was so biased toward amd that I thought I was going to puke.
Amd is geven credit for a "perfect algorythm" that this very website has often and for quite some time declared makes absolutely no real world difference in games - and in fact, this very reviewer admitted the 1+ year long amd failure in this area as soon as they released "the fix" - yet argued everyone else was wrong for the prior year.
The same thing appears here.
Today we find out the GTX580 nvidia card has much superior anti-shimmering than all prior amd cards, and that finally, the 7000 high end driver has addressed the terrible amd shimmering....
Worse yet, the decrepit amd low quality impaired screens are allowed in every bench, with the 10% amd performance cheat this very site outlined them merely stated we hope Nvidia doesn't so this too - then allowed it, since that year plus ago...
In the case of all the above, I certainly hope the high end 797x cards aren't CHEATING LIKE HECK still.
For cripe sakes, get the AA stuff going, stop the 10% IQ cheating, and get our bullet physics or pay for PhysX, and stabilize the drivers .... I am sick of seeing praise for cheating and failures - if they are (amd) so great let's GET IT UP TO EQUIVALENCY !
Wow I'm so mad I don't have a 7970 as supply is short and I want to believe in amd for once... FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DID THEY GET IT RIGHT THIS TIME ?!!?
slayernine - Thursday, December 22, 2011 - link
Holy fan boys batman!This comment thread reeks of nvidia fans green with jealousy
Hauk - Thursday, December 22, 2011 - link
LOL, Wreckage first!Love him or hate him, he's got style..