Tuesday, April 9th 2013

Radeon HD 7990 CrossFireX Smiles for the Camera

An anonymous tipster left an interesting picture on our doorsteps. It shows a pair of Radeon HD 7990 "Malta" reference-design graphics cards chugging along inside an enthusiast PC. AMD surprised us late last month, when it showed off a reference-design Radeon HD 7990 dual-GPU graphics card, at the Game Developers' Conference (GDC) event. The cards in this new picture appear to be identical to the one AMD showed. The "Radeon" embossing appears pretty clear on both cards, so one can't mistake them for FirePro S10000.

Bearing a new internal codename "Malta," compared to last year's various dual-HD 7970 contraptions that were codenamed "New Zealand," the new Radeon HD 7990 is being designed to be far more energy efficient, and quiet. While the various "New Zealand" cards often featured three 8-pin PCIe power connectors and triple-slot cooling solutions, "Malta" makes do with just two 8-pin power connectors, and a dual-slot cooler. We've been talking to a lot of reliable sources in the industry, and nobody has any clue about a tentative launch date.
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75 Comments on Radeon HD 7990 CrossFireX Smiles for the Camera

#1
badtaylorx
i still think they should have opted for a dual "Tahiti LE" variant card....

7890???
7980???

at $500 it could have destroyed its competition
Posted on Reply
#2
INSTG8R
Vanguard Beta Tester
badtaylorxi still think they should have opted for a dual "Tahiti LE" variant card....

7890???
7980???

at $500 it could have destroyed its competition
Well who knows now that they have officially done their top tier "Dual" There is a "reference" design to follow that can easily roll down the line to lower GPU's We had the 6850X2 and 6870X2 in the last series. As always flagship first then the "trickle down"
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#3
EarthDog
Nice.. I cant wait to review this...soon ;)!
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#4
Kaynar
I hope this official move to 2x7970 will lead to acceptable Xfire performance so that I may buy a 2nd 7970...
Posted on Reply
#5
LAN_deRf_HA
Here's hoping they fix crossfire before they release it... otherwise it's 50% paperweight with some extra heat and power consumption thrown in for shits and giggles.
Posted on Reply
#6
Aquinus
Resident Wat-man
LAN_deRf_HAHere's hoping they fix crossfire before they release it... otherwise it's 50% paperweight with some extra heat and power consumption thrown in for shits and giggles.
My thinking exactly and like the picture, with two of them, that's 75% paperweight until they do something with CFX.
Posted on Reply
#7
Fluffmeister
LAN_deRf_HAHere's hoping they fix crossfire before they release it... otherwise it's 50% paperweight with some extra heat and power consumption thrown in for shits and giggles.
Amen brother!

Still they are cute little runts. ;)
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#8
happita
LAN_deRf_HAHere's hoping they fix crossfire before they release it... otherwise it's 50% paperweight with some extra heat and power consumption thrown in for shits and giggles.
I think the main thing is that the power requirements dropped from 3x 8pins to 2x 8pins and the fact that they said they were trying to make it more efficient versus other dual-7970 options.
btarunrBearing a new internal codename "Malta," compared to last year's various dual-HD 7970 contraptions that were codenamed "New Zealand," the new Radeon HD 7990 is being designed to be far more energy efficient, and quiet. While the various "New Zealand" cards often featured three 8-pin PCIe power connectors and triple-slot cooling solutions, "Malta" makes do with just two 8-pin power connectors, and a dual-slot cooler. We've been talking to a lot of reliable sources in the industry, and nobody has any clue about a tentative launch date.
Posted on Reply
#9
Mathragh
I suppose they're waiting with releasing this until the driver team has the crossfire drivers close to where they want them.
That way, reviews of this card will show the performance of the new drivers, instead of the performance under current batch of(according to many) sub-par crossfire drivers which will cause this card to underperform.
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#10
Hayder_Master
AMD should release it quickly, the title become so old, next generation cards will be release too, so those cards it will be not useful anymore
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#11
BigMack70
too bad quadfire is the most useless POS ever except for benchmarking
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#12
lobsterrock
EA/DICE employee

It was an EA/DICE employee. He showed off the picture on /r/battlefield, a quick look through his history indicated that he was an EA/DICE employee.
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#13
Animalpak
Amazing card will be super quiet and cool.
Posted on Reply
#14
Aquinus
Resident Wat-man
BigMack70too bad quadfire is the most useless POS ever except for benchmarking
We'll see if that is still the case after AND fixes their drivers. It might not be entirely useless If they get it right. I'll reserve judgment until after we have tangible evidence that their efforts have been successful or not.
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#15
EarthDog
Quadfire/QuadSLI scaling is TERRIBLE, and if they havent fixed that to this point, its not going to get much better. Besides, they arent fixing FPS, that is fine its the FRAMETIME everyone is up in arms about (for little reason).
Posted on Reply
#16
TheHunter
PLX bridgelike by GTX690 or regular crossfire bridge?


Imo plx could make a big change.
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#17
chinmi
Cant wait for the review....
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#19
PopcornMachine
LAN_deRf_HAHere's hoping they fix crossfire before they release it... otherwise it's 50% paperweight with some extra heat and power consumption thrown in for shits and giggles.
AquinusMy thinking exactly and like the picture, with two of them, that's 75% paperweight until they do something with CFX.
MathraghI suppose they're waiting with releasing this until the driver team has the crossfire drivers close to where they want them.
That way, reviews of this card will show the performance of the new drivers, instead of the performance under current batch of(according to many) sub-par crossfire drivers which will cause this card to underperform.
They must have a new driver to handle crossfire ready for this, or they will get crucified with the new frame latency testing.
Posted on Reply
#20
MxPhenom 216
ASIC Engineer
TheHunterPLX bridgelike by GTX690 or regular crossfire bridge?


Imo plx could make a big change.
What are you talking about? Linking 2 of the cards together or for the GPUs within the card?

Dual GPU cards like the 7990 and 690 is basically SLI and Crossfire on a stick. There is a chip on them to make the GPUs run in sync like a bridge would do for 2 separate cards.
Posted on Reply
#21
EarthDog
MxPhenom 216What are you talking about? Linking 2 of the cards together or for the GPUs within the card?

Dual GPU cards like the 7990 and 690 is basically SLI and Crossfire on a stick. There is a chip on them to make the GPUs run in sync like a bridge would do for 2 separate cards.
Correct. :toast:
PopcornMachineThey must have a new driver to handle crossfire ready for this, or they will get crucified with the new frame latency testing.
Oh yeah? You may be right, but seeing as how these are completely different beasts in some respects, I wouldnt hang my hat on it until you see the data...

... not to mention this issue was blown way out of proportion in the first place IMO. ;)
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#22
radrok
BigMack70too bad quadfire is the most useless POS ever except for benchmarking
quote for truth and emphasis.
Posted on Reply
#23
erocker
*
EarthDogNice.. I cant wait to review this...soon ;)!
Check those frametimes!!! :laugh:

If the card actually works well, I'd get one.
Posted on Reply
#24
EarthDog
erockerCheck those frametimes!!! :laugh:

If the card actually works well, I'd get one.
Can the $2k in equipment needed come out of TPU's budget? I WOULD LOVE TO! Otherwise, we are letting this issue blow over, but will reference other testing as there are some that cant let it go, err would like to see it. Being more serious, I would like to see how CFx on a stick handles it compared to two boards...its just, we cant afford the testing equipment... its going to be fixed soon by AMD (not that everyone sees it anyway) and after that we will all be left with $2k worth of testing equipment that nobody cares about.

Hopefully we are right on that anyway... hah! :)
Posted on Reply
#25
Xzibit
EarthDog... not to mention this issue was blown way out of proportion in the first place IMO. ;)
Yup.

Same people harping on those results were to blind to see that SLI when working properly isnt worth the price your paying. Once you go from SLI at 1080p to 1440p the value of the second card drops like a brick and your variance spikes. Which is the whole issues your trying to avoid.

They just got too excited to diminish the competition they didnt care if they were getting screwed aswell.
Posted on Reply
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