# Reference-Design Radeon HD 7990 No Longer a Unicorn



## btarunr (Mar 27, 2013)

In its GDC press-briefing on Tuesday, AMD previewed the reference-design Radeon HD 7990 dual-GPU graphics card. The company dragged its feet over such a product throughout 2012, and allowed its AIB partners to launch graphics cards with their own designs. Among the two that made it to the market were a PCS+ board by TUL, sold under the PowerColor, VTX3D, and Club3D brands, and the ASUS ROG ARES II. While those cards had different company codename, "New Zealand," the new HD 7990 is being referred to internally, as "Malta."

AMD's belated move to launch the Radeon HD 7990 reference design could reiterate the company's long-haul strategy with the Radeon HD 7000 series, which could sail the company through the crucial Summer sales season, over to Q4 2013, when the company is expected to launch its next GPU generation. AMD's reference design HD 7990 enjoys an edge over current market offerings: dual-slot thickness. It uses three 90 mm fans to cool a complex heatsink cooling the two GPUs, the bridge chip, and the VRM to feed them all. AMD didn't speak much about the card, but mentioned that its triple-fan approach is paying dividends. "It's whisper quiet," commented Matt Skynner, general manager of AMD's graphics business unit.





*View at TechPowerUp Main Site*


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## btarunr (Mar 27, 2013)

Many Thanks to Xzbit for the tip.


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## Xzibit (Mar 27, 2013)

Looks like the 7990 is coming along with some friends

















AMD Delivers Unified Gaming Strategy at GDC 2013 

*RUBY* is making a comeback



> Ruby: Rebooted, Reborn, Reloaded
> GDC also marked the 10th anniversary of the launch of the original iconic AMD "Ruby" demo. To celebrate this milestone, AMD unveiled a sneak peek of its remodeled and reinvented Ruby, which was designed and developed by IllFonic, and harnesses the power of Crytek's CryEngine® 3 development engine. The latest AMD "Ruby" demo is still under production and is designed to highlight real-world gaming possibilities of AMD Radeon graphics technology. It will be unveiled to the world in the coming weeks.



•AMD Radeon™ Sky graphics


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## EzioAs (Mar 27, 2013)

"Whisper quiet" should be one of the main focus since the last gen dual-GPU Raden HD6990 was, well you know, "not quiet".


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## renz496 (Mar 27, 2013)

why now? i thought they gave up on making one last year. what improvement or advantage will it have over 7990 from AIB before this?


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## Xzibit (Mar 27, 2013)

renz496 said:


> why now? i thought they gave up on making one last year. what improvement or advantage will it have over 7990 from AIB before this?



Its said to be faster then any of the previous New Zealand cards. ASUS Ares and PowerColors Devil

Maybe they pull a rabbit out of the hat and its the new GCN 1.1 or 2.0 what ever they want to call it.

All the write-ups coming out reference the new series to be out by Q4 2013. 7790 was the first of the bunch.  Naming will be confusing for sure.


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## renz496 (Mar 27, 2013)

what exact core being use in this upcoming 7990?


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## SIGSEGV (Mar 27, 2013)

2 x 8pin power?


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## btarunr (Mar 27, 2013)

The pics Xzbit posted show 2x 8-pin connectors.


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## Xzibit (Mar 27, 2013)

renz496 said:


> what exact core being use in this upcoming 7990?



AMD hasnt disclosed it

Some articles are all over the place from Tahiti Pro, XT / XT2.

If you look at the card in the picture its a much smaller design then the previous ones. It looks just like the FirePro S10000 and if its suppose to be faster then the Asus Ares II and PowerColor Devil 13.  It leads me to beleive there is a new chip under there.

AMD could just be messing with us and it's a FirePro S10000


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## SIGSEGV (Mar 27, 2013)

Xzibit said:


> So it might be a new chip on there








in my opinion this "beast" card is indeed using a new chip


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## Prima.Vera (Mar 27, 2013)

Card looks interesting. Waiting for some reviews.


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## RCoon (Mar 27, 2013)

Reminds me of my old Gigabyte GTX 570...
I am most tempted to get this card upon release, we'll see just how efficient it is and how much better it performs over two 7950's...


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## HammerON (Mar 27, 2013)

Interesting to say the least...


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## HumanSmoke (Mar 27, 2013)

Guy looks stoned


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## cdawall (Mar 27, 2013)

I want


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## Widjaja (Mar 27, 2013)

Ah a sensible x2 8pin version.
Glad to see AMD finally releasing an official version.


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## Recus (Mar 27, 2013)

They can't even make tech demo by self.


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## Animalpak (Mar 27, 2013)

Good job AMD, hope to see nvidia doing the same


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## btarunr (Mar 27, 2013)

Recus said:


> They can't even make tech demo by self.



Nor does NVIDIA. It contracts GCI studios.


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## renz496 (Mar 27, 2013)

Xzibit said:


> AMD hasnt disclosed it
> 
> Some articles are all over the place from Tahiti Pro, XT / XT2.
> 
> ...



why not making new single gpu card if they're going to use new chip? single gpu cards are much easier to sell than dual gpu cards. also did the card using 2 8 pin? looking at power consumption improvement they come up with 7790 i was thinking they were able to make something that will match 7970 in CF under 300W


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## Jacez (Mar 27, 2013)

btarunr said:


> Nor does NVIDIA. It contracts GCI studios.



Of course. Even major game development studios contract CGI studios to create trailers for them.

Practically every "realistic" CGI trailer (as in, not made with the game's engine) has been created by a different company.


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## Xzibit (Mar 27, 2013)

Battlefield 4 was demoed using a 7990

Battlefield 4: Official 17 Minutes "Fishing in Baku" Gameplay Reveal 


Spoiler


















> AMD and EA DICE are proud partners in gaming, with a recent history that includes the award-winning Battlefield 3 in 2011. That relationship continues today with the world’s first public demonstration of Battlefield 4, powered by the AMD Radeon™ HD 7990—the world’s fastest graphics card! Today’s unveiling not only demonstrates the commitment EA DICE makes to state-of-the-art PC graphics, it stands as further proof that the critically-acclaimed Graphics Core Next architecture in the AMD Radeon™ HD 7000 Series is the best choice for truly advanced PC games. http://www.battlefield.com/


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## douglatins (Mar 27, 2013)

Yeah i really want 400w of heat expelled inside my case


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## cadaveca (Mar 27, 2013)

douglatins said:


> Yeah i really want 400w of heat expelled inside my case



Shush. I have 2x7970 and a 7950. 400W is minor, really. I bloody well want this card.

But, I want many things.


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## DRDNA (Mar 27, 2013)

from the looks of it I will need a full tower to house that baby and then maybe  hacksaw too.


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## cadaveca (Mar 27, 2013)

DRDNA said:


> from the looks of it I will need a full tower to house that baby and then maybe  hacksaw too.



I guess 30-33 cm. Looks like 30cm to me, given the distance between PCIe plug and output vs the other side of the card.

Could be a "new" chip, but even if it was, it wouldn't matter. Binning can easily give 1100MHz GPUs @ <175W.


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## Mathragh (Mar 27, 2013)

Looks to me like they might have managed to give it the powertune features of the just released 7790.

It would explain the higher clocks combined with the apparent lower poweruse.


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## Nordic (Mar 27, 2013)

If these were a bit cheaper like $699 I think they would be much more interesting.





cadaveca said:


> Shush. I have 2x7970 and a 7950. 400W is minor, really. I bloody well want this card.
> 
> But, I want many things.



That shush got a good chuckle out of me.


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## blibba (Mar 27, 2013)

douglatins said:


> Yeah i really want 400w of heat expelled inside my case



That's kind of fortunate given the TDP of your main rig.


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## Xzibit (Mar 27, 2013)

Here is the RUBY clip they showed

(shaky and focus)








*linked to proper uploader

4Gamer info on AMD GDC 2013 coverage. (translated to english link)


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## eidairaman1 (Mar 27, 2013)

douglatins said:


> Yeah i really want 400w of heat expelled inside my case



youre already producing that with that 580


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## ThunderStorm (Mar 27, 2013)

Xzibit said:


> Here is the RUBY clip they showed
> 
> (shaky and focus)
> 
> ...



Hmmm, a girl in red beats the shit out of her metal green-ish opponent, suspicious.....


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## The Declaimer (Mar 28, 2013)

Xzibit said:


> Here is the RUBY clip they showed
> 
> (shaky and focus)
> 
> ...


Hopefully you can run it on existing Radeon HD 7xxx hardware.


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## n0tiert (Mar 28, 2013)

damn i need an flimsy excuse for my girl that my 6990 died ...... hehehe


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## Xzibit (Mar 28, 2013)

AMD show off some motion capture using a webcam at GDC 2013










Imagine mario cart/carmaggedon type game with this.


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## RCoon (Mar 28, 2013)

Xzibit said:


> Here is the RUBY clip they showed
> 
> (shaky and focus)
> 
> ...



They sure wanted to make EVERYTHING look as shiny as humanly possible. Even things that shouldnt be shiny.


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## jigar2speed (Mar 28, 2013)

n0tiert said:


> damn i need an flimsy excuse for my girl that my 6990 died ...... hehehe



A drop of water or Extreme high voltage at lowest possible for both GPU will do amazing job.


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## KashunatoR (Mar 28, 2013)

to me, the only positive aspect that this card might bring is forcing nvidia to lower the prices of titan and gtx 690 altough that seems unlikely. otherwise who would want that stuttering and that awful frame latency? good thing that AMD are adressing this major fault, one game at a time LOL


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## Akrian (Mar 28, 2013)

It looks SHINY *_*


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## RCoon (Mar 28, 2013)

KashunatoR said:


> to me, the only positive aspect that this card might bring is forcing nvidia to lower the prices of titan and gtx 690 altough that seems unlikely. otherwise who would want that stuttering and that awful frame latency? good thing that AMD are adressing this major fault, one game at a time LOL



I would hedge a guess and say this will be released when latency issues are fixed/half fixed, so they can advertise how wonderful their crossfire dual chip card works without high frame latency.


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## btarunr (Mar 28, 2013)

Malta chip == cross between Tahiti XT and Tahiti LE. 256-bit memory bus width and package size of Tahiti LE, but the stream processor count of Tahiti XT (2048). Source: my magic arse.


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## Random Murderer (Mar 28, 2013)

btarunr said:


> Source: my magic arse.



I had a good laugh.


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## Xzibit (Mar 28, 2013)

Random Murderer said:


> I had a good laugh.



I was pondering feeding him beans to see if we can get more info out of there


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## cadaveca (Mar 28, 2013)

btarunr said:


> Malta chip == cross between Tahiti XT and Tahiti LE. 256-bit memory bus width and package size of Tahiti LE, but the stream processor count of Tahiti XT (2048). Source: my magic arse.



That would actually make a lot of sense, except such a chip wouldn't draw 200W each unless @ 1200 MHz or higher. I guess that would account for AMD's claim to "higher performance" than current dual TahitiXT2 cards.


Oh, and I need to retract my comment about size of the card. Looks to be near 40cm, or 16 inches. I say 15 inches, there's a lot of card past where the power plugs are.


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## Xzibit (Mar 28, 2013)

Same reference design as the FirePro S10000

The FirePro S10000 PDF spec sheet just says
Full height / full length form factor

Take out your measuring stick







I'm with btarunr magic arse.  It has to be a new chip or else its just extremely late.  I'm thinking more of the lines of a Pitcairn XT or Tahiti Pro succesor with Bonaire improvements. Bonaire with 6 watt TDP increase along with die-size and they were able to pack a good chunk of performance in there compared to Cape Verde XT.


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## tokyoduong (Mar 28, 2013)

Since we know the exact length of the PCIE connection. We have the pic of the card. Find the ratio of card length to that PCIE connection and multiply. You should be within .5 in with this method.


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## eidairaman1 (Mar 28, 2013)

Since Most FirePro/GL/Streams are from the same silicon as their Radeon parts with a bios change and major software tweaks for the Fire series.



Xzibit said:


> Same reference design as the FirePro S10000
> 
> The FirePro S10000 PDF spec sheet just says
> Full height / full length form factor
> ...


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## DRDNA (Mar 28, 2013)

well both my 4870x2's together are really starting to show just how long in the tooth they really are and this is appealing for sure   I am sure I will only be able to afford one but still a foot in the right direction.


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## 15th Warlock (Mar 28, 2013)

Looks like AMD is being really smart here by using 3 big fans as opposed to a blower design, bigger fans = more air flow at lower RPMs, this should keep thermals and acoustics in check, this should be a monster of a card.

The only issue is blowing this heat into the case as mentioned by others, but if your case has a good airflow (and it should) this shouldn't even be a problem


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## eidairaman1 (Mar 28, 2013)

15th Warlock said:


> looks like AMD is being really smart here by using 3 big fans as opposed to a blower design, bigger fans = + more air flow at lower RPMs, this should keep thermals and acoustics in check, this should be a monster of a card.



for it to be a dual slot cooler unit which looks like something from arctic cooling


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## 15th Warlock (Mar 28, 2013)

eidairaman1 said:


> for it to be a dual slot cooler unit which looks like something from arctic cooling



Yes, reminds me of the Arctic Accelero, only in a two slot package, much more convenient


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## Xzibit (Mar 28, 2013)

This is what AMD said about having 3 fans




> AMD Radeon Graphics‏@AMDRadeon
> @keyboardN1nja @Guilte Three WHISPER-quiet fans... why? Because why not?!


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## eidairaman1 (Mar 29, 2013)

15th Warlock said:


> Yes, reminds me of the Arctic Accelero, only in a two slot package, much more convenient



Best of all it matches the boards colors right


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## n0tiert (Mar 29, 2013)

jigar2speed said:


> A drop of water or Extreme high voltage at lowest possible for both GPU will do amazing job.



they are on water already... she would not belive it ..... in first case


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## tacosRcool (Mar 29, 2013)

Will this be the fastest gpu for like a few months until the next series of gpus comes out


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## Slizzo (Mar 29, 2013)

DRDNA said:


> well both my 4870x2's together are really starting to show just how long in the tooth they really are and this is appealing for sure   I am sure I will only be able to afford one but still a foot in the right direction.



Well, good thing is that one of these will no doubt utterly destroy your 2x 4870x2s.


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## tokyoduong (Mar 29, 2013)

15th Warlock said:


> Looks like AMD is being really smart here by using 3 big fans as opposed to a blower design, bigger fans = more air flow at lower RPMs, this should keep thermals and acoustics in check, this should be a monster of a card.
> 
> The only issue is blowing this heat into the case as mentioned by others, but if your case has a good airflow (and it should) this shouldn't even be a problem



Any case that can fit this will probably come stock with good air flow. Anyone buying this card probably already has an elaborate set up with watercooling or massive fans.


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## NeoXF (Apr 2, 2013)

renz496 said:


> why now? i thought they gave up on making one last year. what improvement or advantage will it have over 7990 from AIB before this?



Better power usage (and thus, silicon)... probably faster overall (than even ASUS Ares II) and most probably full-on driver support... rather than makeshift R7970 CF ones... or however stock drivers treat AIB models... oh and also hopefully a price lower than 1000$... I'm hoping for 700... 900 tops... that would seriously cripple nVidia's TITAN/GTX690 market...


Edit: Also, I really hope the stock cooler is decent, temperature and noise -wise... because it might not look as stylish as nVidia's ones... but it sure as hell looks beastly and just screams "bitch, I own this game"...


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## n0tiert (Apr 2, 2013)

i would love to see some benchmarks with this baby and the ARES2, the 7990´s from Club 3D/PowerColor & Devil 13 non reference


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## MxPhenom 216 (Apr 2, 2013)

cadaveca said:


> Shush. I have 2x7970 and a 7950. 400W is minor, really. I bloody well want this card.
> 
> But, I want many things.



First, crossfire has to work...............


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## NeoXF (Apr 3, 2013)

n0tiert said:


> i would love to see some benchmarks with this baby and the ARES2, the 7990´s from Club 3D/PowerColor & Devil 13 non reference



HIS also has the Radeon HD 7970 X2 in the same category...


IMHO, looks like the best card for 2560x1440@120Hz setups, wish AMD would also release a monitor overclocking tool as well... or a compact Eyfinity setup.


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