hd 7950 3gb 1st review! amd burys fermi in a coffin made of sand

the hd 7950 is here and i have the 1st review (2 card and single). amd hopes to keep their winning streak alive and with the next card on the table they mightjust pull this off..

overall in games the 7950 ranges from = to a factory oc'd 580(battlefield 3) to outpacing most manually overclocked one (skyrim, deus ex)

now into the fluids. in 3dmark 11 the 7950 beats the 580's on extreme settings and draws on preformance. in unigine.. hold the phone the 7950 just dropped a second atom bomb on nvidia. giving them an even bigger wall for nvidia to climb over in terms of tess. preformance

ocing the 7950 is easy. taking it to 1.1ghz or more core is a breeze and you pick up a nice 12fps in bf3 as your reward
power consumption is much lower than a 6970 easily near the 6950's level (idle and load) so folks with one of those will know that if they go 7950 they need not panic over power supply. but temp is a bit of a let down managing to be only a few degree's cooler that the 7970. but with custom fan models on the way thats expected to change

7950 rocks the block. it preforms well and in cfx its consistently prooving itself to be a real animal on the testbed. tahiti pro seems to be even more dangerous than xt. and with that the 580 has been spiked

source:http://pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/AMD-Radeon-HD-7950-3GB-Graphics-Card-Review

and yes.. your eyes dont decieve you, its me..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVinwOpllQk

wtttfff ionusx is back after a short 3 week break, whats going on haha

bueno

wtttfff ionusx is back after a short 3 week break, whats going on haha

blaznwiipspman1

u can thank marc for that..

the man has some mad life help skills..

wtttfff ionusx is back after a short 3 week break, whats going on haha

blaznwiipspman1

new ToS?

I thought you were gone from this forum for good? I'm not complaining though, I get my early AMD news now.

I'm waiting for the 7850 or 7870. Those should be about the same price as the 6950/560 Ti/570 while using less power and hopefully better overclocking capability.

Also, it seems as though there may be some unlocking potential here with the 7950. Maybe it's the way they worded the review, but I think there might very well be some unlocking potential, although AMD are probably keen to stop that happening again, considering what happened with the 6950 2GB.

I thought you were gone from this forum for good? I'm not complaining though, I get my early AMD news now.

I'm waiting for the 7850 or 7870. Those should be about the same price as the 6950/560 Ti/570 while using less power and hopefully better overclocking capability.

Also, it seems as though there may be some unlocking potential here with the 7950. Maybe it's the way they worded the review, but I think there might very well be some unlocking potential, although AMD are probably keen to stop that happening again, considering what happened with the 6950 2GB.

Daanyal

thats already been confirmed actually overclcokers did it to a 7950,. there are no hidden shaders but putting the 7970's bios on the 7950 does improve preformance to the point where an OC'd 7950 (/w bios swap) matches a stock 7970

your also forgetting the pitcarin xtx (7870 is xt, 7850 is pro) which is the 7890 :D

ive also hear word from ECS (elitegroup) that the gk104 ppl keep wetting themselves over is the sister flag or gtx 670 ti if you will

It's a great card based on it's performance relative to AMD's previous 6950, but if you are rockin a GTX 580 3gb or 6970 already then there's no reason to buy it. If you are going from a GTX 570 or lower card then it makes more sense. You could even justify buying it going from a GTX 580 1.5gb if you are into multimonitor setups. I think they need to price it a little more agressively if they really want to sell this card, 75.00-100.00 less would make this "the card to get".

It's a great card based on it's performance relative to AMD's previous 6950, but if you are rockin a GTX 580 3gb or 6970 already then there's no reason to buy it. If you are going from a GTX 570 or lower card then it makes more sense. You could even justify buying it going from a GTX 580 1.5gb if you are into multimonitor setups. I think they need to price it a little more agressively if they really want to sell this card, 75.00-100.00 less would make this "the card to get".

retrogamer1971

i read the review and it states that AMD is supply constrained for the moment. I bet prices will go down once supply evens out and nvidia releases their 6xx series.

Once the supply channels start to fill up I hope that's what we see. :) I'd be in for two of these at lower price point i mentioned, and if AMD gets it CFX issues worked out. Two of these OC'd another 200mhz would own a dual 7970 setup in terms of price/performance. I am a Stalker fanatic and want to be able to run Stalker 2 @ 4800x1200 smooth. My GTX 580 3GB hitches alot compared to a 6970 i had a chance to use for a week. If Stalker was the only game series i played, I'd be rockin a CFX setup right now. Gotta go.... the Zone is calling me .........

ionusX is back????

Why are the prices of these cards so bloody high, in Australia! >:(

$550-650 for 7950, I'd rather get a pair of 6950s.

ionusX is back???? C_Rule

Anyone know when 600 series is coming?C_Rule

We may see a GTX 560ti replacement coming in April with low end stuff to follow. The high end stuff will be later this year around 3-4 quarter.

[QUOTE="C_Rule"]Anyone know when 600 series is coming?retrogamer1971

We may see a GTX 560ti replacement coming in April with low end stuff to follow. The high end stuff will be later this year around 3-4 quarter.

Ill touch the 7 series when the drivers for it arent so horrendous. Heard next real driver for them isnt until march. AMD's software dept. needs to start having their jobs put on the line. Human-after-all

I like your Beyonder avatar:)

Yeah, the driver team for AMD can be behind the curve at times. I don't think they have the resources to devote to driver development like Nvidia does. Luckily for me, the Stalker series plays alot better on AMD cards than Nvidia cards based on my own experience. That's the only reason I am willing to give a couple of 7950's a chance when Stalker 2 comes out, in addition the Lost Alpha. :)

Well price for 7970 and 7950 here is very high, nowhere near 400 its more like 500euro for the 7950. So its still more beneficial to cf my 6970. Although very impresive performance.

[QUOTE="blaznwiipspman1"]

wtttfff ionusx is back after a short 3 week break, whats going on haha

ionusX

u can thank marc for that..

the man has some mad life help skills..

Hahaha,what a comeback.Looking forward to hearing more random AMD news ;)

Got bored of Anandtech?

as much of 10 minute it took me to translate / read it all it show a different result for BF3 but it was at high .. i don't know how it got that big in performances how ever



not that im bashing AMD much but i expected better result lol knowing it latest driver / lastest BF3 Patch but im sure some patch within 2 month will make it win on gTX 580 where it didn't include because a GTX 570 Oced to around 840-860mhz Gpu Clock is said to be performing in most of game as GTX 580 while costing in general 150$ less but a GTX 580 Oced will perform another 10-15% better just saying while 7950 is GTX 580 priced it vital they keep the head up

But anyway 7950 is sure a nice card but there are some issue Like The most played RPG Skyrim which is know to have lot of issue to maximize everything in game ie : SSAO From ENB Even after 1.4.20 Beta patch or SkyBoost R3/R4 not that everyone use that lol but most try to make there game the most powerufl / pretty this affect performances but it where bigger card or SLI / CF save you

But in general the review are right for like metro 2033 it doing AWESOME given the 450$ price tag and that you can find GTX 580 1.5GB high OC Version at that price and that AMD as Twice more the memory so better for 2560x1600 or Triple monitor user as long they don't end up with too much bug like infamous Rage issue in the near future they should get back on track to rival Kepler hopefully lol

and perhaps in there review they didn't do the BIOS update like said IonusX which said to allow OC which allow (the HD7970 Stock Clock performances in some game at 1920x1080 / 1920x1200

i read the review and it states that AMD is supply constrained for the moment. I bet prices will go down once supply evens out and nvidia releases their 6xx series.

blaznwiipspman1

Supply has nothing to do with it -- AMD has finally realized they don't have to leave money on the table by always undercutting Nvidia's offerings. The 7950 and 7970 are both priced exactly as they should be relative to the 580; the only way AMD will drop prices is if Nvidia does.

yeah but i doubt Nvidia make there newest Card Drop the price of the current much so i don't think we can expect a 7950 at 350$ AFTER MIR :P before fall 2012 but we could expect 7970 to drop of 50-80$ if Kepler do well but only after MIR/IR from the store

anyway there doing well for the price if there could just optimize some Driver it would totally worth it over GTX 580 the 7950 :) unless you want that bad the PhsyX :roll:

if something might happen is happen to see GTX 580 at 370$ AFTER MIR now that we can find GTX 570 (reference cooler) which is low OC headroom for like 290$ AFTER MIR or 320-340$ for a High overclocking one like Gigabyte Windforce or ASUS DC II

we will have to see how perform 78xx series probably 50-70 to follow the marketing name of previous card because 5870 to 6870 wasn't that much of a difference :? in most of game even after newest AMD CCC which up it performance it was even slower by a bit to 5870 tested with same hardware but with newest driver however it normal they didn't make 6870 in mind as true successor of 5870 in performances but in TDP yep

So far it seem AMD HD78xx might Fight Well the GTX 560(ti) / GTX 570 user hopefully for the price segment because 6970 is not doing that well against a gTX 570 that become 1% slower then GTX 580 or 2% Better then gTX 580 Stock given you got it at 930-950mhz :)

Didn't read thread.

IONUSX IS BACK :D

A couple of reviews I poked through, the HD 7950 is roughly +/- 5-10% when compared to a GTX 580. They tend to trade blows. I saw a couple of games where the 7950 under performs a GTX 570 on the low and mid/high end resolutions but once they hit the high end it pulls ahead by a tad.

I think the price is a bit steep on these cards. Roughly the performance of a GTX 580 for the same cost or more. Sure it may have a good overclocking headroom like suggested in these reviews....guess I was just hoping the price was right between the GTX 570 and 580 - thus maybe forcing a slight price drop on these two cards from Nvidia. Guess I just keep waiting to see how things go.

It's a great card based on it's performance relative to AMD's previous 6950, but if you are rockin a GTX 580 3gb or 6970 already then there's no reason to buy it. If you are going from a GTX 570 or lower card then it makes more sense. You could even justify buying it going from a GTX 580 1.5gb if you are into multimonitor setups. I think they need to price it a little more agressively if they really want to sell this card, 75.00-100.00 less would make this "the card to get".

retrogamer1971

Pretty spot on, except the 6970 and 570 are roughly equivalent. So I would categorize 570+/6970+ don't worry about it.

Welcome back, man.

are all of the 6950s over 10" at the moment, i noticed the XFX double D is 10.5... hoping something around 9.5" will be released soon

tl:dr

ionus is biack.

Ionus is blackIantheone

[QUOTE="Iantheone"]Ionus is blackionusX

[QUOTE="Iantheone"]Ionus is blackionusX

Welcome back, don't let the man keep you down.

[QUOTE="ionusX"]

[QUOTE="Iantheone"]Ionus is blackIantheone

nah were all pink and bloody on the inside :D

[QUOTE="blaznwiipspman1"]

i read the review and it states that AMD is supply constrained for the moment. I bet prices will go down once supply evens out and nvidia releases their 6xx series.

Slow_Show

Supply has nothing to do with it -- AMD has finally realized they don't have to leave money on the table by always undercutting Nvidia's offerings. The 7950 and 7970 are both priced exactly as they should be relative to the 580; the only way AMD will drop prices is if Nvidia does.

thats true, but I also think supply also has a factor to play in this. Lets say they put the price at $350 for the 7950 then what would happen? It would sell out instantly and there would be a backlong plus alot of angry customers. That kind of publicity isn't something they'd want. It would be smarter to keep the price at $450 for now until the supply eases out. By then Nvidia will release their new series, but AMD will have already maximized their profits, and be ready for a price cut.

$50 less than 580, a bit better than it at high resolutions, huge overclocking room (35% stock volts)

What's so wrong about the price?

*ahem* Someone's bias towards AMD is showing too much in the title...*ahem*.

Anyway, it seems about equal in performance to the 580, while being priced the same and being cooler and burning less. That's good news, though I wish it was priced even more aggresively, maybe 50$ less than the 580. I can see it dropping to about 350 when Kepler comes around though.

Still, I had hoped it beat the 580, even by a small margin. I really wanted AMD to crush Nvidia, so I can get a second 580 cheap.

All that said, should we really be comparing a 40nm card based on 2 year old technology with a brand new 28nm chip?

And if Nvidias claims are true about Kepler's mid range outperforming the 7970 for 299$...things could get really interesting.

*ahem* Someone's bias towards AMD is showing too much in the title...*ahem*.

Anyway, it seems about equal in performance to the 580, while being priced the same and being cooler and burning less. That's good news, though I wish it was priced even more aggresively, maybe 50$ less than the 580. I can see it dropping to about 350 when Kepler comes around though.

Still, I had hoped it beat the 580, even by a small margin. I really wanted AMD to crush Nvidia, so I can get a second 580 cheap.

All that said, should we really be comparing a 40nm card based on 2 year old technology with a brand new 28nm chip?

And if Nvidias claims are true about Kepler's mid range outperforming the 7970 for 299$...things could get really interesting.

QQabitmoar

As long as they are competitors, yes.

$50 less than 580, a bit better than it at high resolutions, huge overclocking room (35% stock volts)

What's so wrong about the price?

kaitanuvax

It's not really $50 less, since pretty much everyone is offering a MiR that'll get their 580 down to the same price as the 7950.

It's only an issue inasmuch as AMD has been selling their high-end cards at ridiculously low prices for the past few generations, and without that aggressive pricing not only do we as comsumers lose out on some great deals but there's less pressure on Nvidia to keep their prices low as well. Not a problem per se, but it's disappointing.

*ahem* Someone's bias towards AMD is showing too much in the title...*ahem*.

Anyway, it seems about equal in performance to the 580, while being priced the same and being cooler and burning less. That's good news, though I wish it was priced even more aggresively, maybe 50$ less than the 580. I can see it dropping to about 350 when Kepler comes around though.

Still, I had hoped it beat the 580, even by a small margin. I really wanted AMD to crush Nvidia, so I can get a second 580 cheap.

All that said, should we really be comparing a 40nm card based on 2 year old technology with a brand new 28nm chip?

And if Nvidias claims are true about Kepler's mid range outperforming the 7970 for 299$...things could get really interesting.

QQabitmoar

that was proven to be forum hype done by marketting teams hired by nvidia.

I'll stick to my 570 *hugs it*

yay new tech beating old tech, how shocking is that!:roll:

I'll stick to my 570 *hugs it*

wis3boi