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
Metro: 2033
Paired with Crysis as our second behemoth FPS is Metro: 2033. Metro gives up Crysis’ lush tropics and frozen wastelands for an underground experience, but even underground it can be quite brutal on GPUs, which is why it’s also our new benchmark of choice for looking at power/temperature/noise during a game. If its sequel due this year is anywhere near as GPU intensive then a single GPU may not be enough to run the game with every quality feature turned up.
As often as we concern ourselves with Crysis and 60fps, with Metro it’s a struggle just to break 30fps. The 7970 becomes the first video card that can accomplish this at 2560 though it’s going to need quite a bit more performance to run Metro fluidly from start to end.
Compared to the GTX 580 the 7970’s lead in Metro is similar, but the scaling with resolution is even more pronounced. At 2560 it’s ahead by 30%, while at 1920 this drops to 21%, and finally at 1680 it’s only 16%. Meanwhile compared to the 6970 the response is much flatter; 33% at 2560, 28% at 1920, and 27% at 1680. From this data it’s becoming increasingly evident that the value proposition of the 7970 is going to hinge on not only what you consider its competitors to be, but what resolutions you would use it at.
While we’re on the subject of Metro, this is a good time to bring up the performance of the 5870, the forerunner of the DX11 generation. The performance of the 7970 may only be 20-30% higher than its immediate predecessors, but that’s not to say that performance hasn’t increased a great deal more over the full 2 year period of the 40nm cycle. The 7970 leads the 5870 by 50-60% here and in a number of other games, and while this isn’t as great as some past leaps it’s clear that there’s still plenty of growth in GPU performance occurring.
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MadMan007 - Thursday, December 22, 2011 - link
More stuff missing on page 9:[AF filter test image] [download table]
Ryan Smith - Thursday, December 22, 2011 - link
Yep. Still working on it. Hold tightMadMan007 - Thursday, December 22, 2011 - link
Np, just not used to seeing incomplete articles publsihed on Anandtech that aren't clearly 'previews'...wasn't sure if you were aware of all the missing stuff.DoktorSleepless - Thursday, December 22, 2011 - link
Crysis won't be defeated until we're able to play at a full 60fps with 4x super sampling. It looks ugly without the foliage AA.Ryan Smith - Thursday, December 22, 2011 - link
I actually completely agree. That's even farther off than 1920 just with MSAA, but I'm looking forward to that day.chizow - Thursday, December 22, 2011 - link
Honestly Crysis may be defeated once Nvidia releases its driver-level FXAA injector option. Yes, FXAA can blur textures but it also does an amazing job at reducing jaggies on both geometry and transparencies at virtually no impact on performance.There's leaked driver versions (R295.xx) out that allow this option now, hopefully we get them officially soon as this will be a huge boon for games like Crysis or games that don't support traditional AA modes at all (GTA4).
Check out the results below:
http://www.hardocp.com/image.html?image=MTMyMjQ1Mz...
AnotherGuy - Thursday, December 22, 2011 - link
If nVidia released this card tomorrow they woulda priced it easily $600... The card succeeds in almost every aspect.... except maybe noise...chizow - Thursday, December 22, 2011 - link
Funny since both of Nvidia's previous flagship single-GPU cards, the GTX 480 and GTX 580, launched for $499 and were both the fastest single-GPU cards available at the time.I think Nvidia learned their lesson with the GTX 280, and similarly, I think AMD has learned their lesson as well with underpricing their HD 4870 and HD 5870. They've (finally) learned that in the brief period they hold the performance lead, they need to make the most of it, which is why we are seeing a $549 flagship card from them this time around.
8steve8 - Thursday, December 22, 2011 - link
waiting for amd's 28nm 7770.this card is overkill in power and money.
tipoo - Thursday, December 22, 2011 - link
Same, we're not going to tax these cards at the most common resolutions until new consoles are out, such is the blessing and curse of console ports.