# Radeon HD 7970 Raw Specs Leaked



## TheMailMan78 (Dec 16, 2011)

If slide leaked on Orb-Hardware is to be believed we GPU consumers are in for a pretty big treat in the next month or so. The slide shown below states that the AMD 7970 will have a default core clock speed of 925MHz and a whopping 3 GB of GDDR5 memory. 

It also sports a 3.5 TFLOPs precision floating point. Which would put it well beyond the NVIDIA flagship single GPU solution. The slide states the a ROP count of 32, against an earlier speculated count of 48. This could be because AMD may have delinked ROP clusters from memory bus. The cooler itself is under the trademark AMD black shroud so there is no way to see if it uses the rumored "vapor chamber" as seen in after market solutions.

Looking past all the beastly prowess of this slide one cannot help but think about power draw. The "leaked" slide states the 7970 will have a peak power draw of 300 W and an idle draw of 3 W. We will have to wait for review to see if any of these amazing stats are true.





*View at TechPowerUp Main Site*


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## ViperXTR (Dec 16, 2011)

32 ROPs on a 384bit 3GB GDDR5 ram '__'


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## Maban (Dec 16, 2011)

Donanimhaber has a few more slides.

I'm a little disappointed with only 32 ROPS but I'm quite interested in GCN.


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## Lionheart (Dec 16, 2011)

32ROPS wtf, should still be a beast of a card


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## WarraWarra (Dec 16, 2011)

Idle 3w sure it is not 30w surely this is not a mobile gpu as I suggested they do and if it is to achieve the 3w minm then 300w is way over the top for the top end. 


> ATTENTION: It seems this slide is legit but little bit old, GPU clocks and Load TDP are on real cards lower! GPU clocks are probably under 900 MHz and Load TDP +/- 200W.


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## Volkszorn88 (Dec 16, 2011)

AMD, hurry up and rape my wallet right f'ing now!


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## claylomax (Dec 16, 2011)

Maban said:


> Donanimhaber has a few more slides.
> 
> I'm a little disappointed with only 32 ROPS but I'm quite interested in GCN.



Thank you very much for the link, more slides indeed.


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## 63jax (Dec 16, 2011)

...so no Rambus Ram? it would've been nice.


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## Delta6326 (Dec 16, 2011)

If 3W is possible it sounds like they have found out how to do more than lower clocks and Volts.

Over 3TFLOPs! I really need to upgrade my 2x 4850 now that I see these specs!


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## Zubasa (Dec 16, 2011)

32ROPs = Kepler here I come.


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## Sihastru (Dec 16, 2011)

Remember how Cayman was a "Dual Graphics Engine" GPU? It was essentially two Barts GPUs glued together, each with dual 64-bit dual channel memory controllers, where the 2 GB of RAM came from.

This new GPU looks more like a "Tri Graphics Engine" GPU (they gave it a fancy marketing name, GCN = "Graphics Core Next"), so essentially three Barts GPUs glued together (albeit at 28nm), each with dual 64-bit dual channel memory controllers, and this is why it has exactly 3GB of RAM.

Conclusion?

Anyone with a tri-fire HD6870 setup can tell us exactly how this HD7970 card will perform.

"Three HD6870s on a stick" (you can quote me on that)


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## gorg_graggel (Dec 16, 2011)

just because the quantity of ROP is the same as the previous generation, doesn't mean their quality will be the same...
for all we know, they could have beefed them up to be double as fast...

or maybe it just didn't improve performance enough to justify the extra die space...
after all they have been pretty beefy to start with...


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## Zubasa (Dec 16, 2011)

gorg_graggel said:


> just because the quantity of ROP is the same as the previous generation


Make that the generation before that previous generation as well.


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## repman244 (Dec 16, 2011)

Zubasa said:


> Make that the generation before that previous generation as well.



It still doesn't mean that they are the same, it don't think you can just compare the numbers with previous generation.


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## gorg_graggel (Dec 16, 2011)

repman244 said:


> It still doesn't mean that they are the same, it don't think you can just compare the numbers with previous generation.



^^this


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## Zubasa (Dec 16, 2011)

repman244 said:


> It still doesn't mean that they are the same, it don't think you can just compare the numbers with previous generation.





gorg_graggel said:


> ^^this


I never said it is the same, for all we know there is a company that can make things worst than their previous generation. 
Even if they some how manage to to make the ROPs twice as powerful, top-end Kepler has exactly 64ROPs and that is counting on nVidia some how doesn't know how to make their GPUs better.


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## repman244 (Dec 16, 2011)

Zubasa said:


> I never said it is the same, for all we know there is a company that can make things worst than their previous generation.
> Even if they some how manage to to make the ROPs twice as powerful, top-end Kepler has exactly 64ROPs and that is counting on nVidia some how doesn't know how to make their GPUs better.



That is true 

But we still don't have anything about Kepler (at least not as much we know about HD7xxx) so we can only guess how Kepler will perform(and we could also say the same for HD7xxx).
Guessing the performance based on paper numbers can backfire (a.k.a. Bulldozer )


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## nt300 (Dec 16, 2011)

*AMD Radeon HD 7970 Launch Pulled Forward to 22nd December, Rumour Claims*

Tell me what is the benefit for increasing the number of (ROPs) Render Output Units 
Or is it (ROPs) Raster Operations  Or what ever let call them ROPs 

6 more days till we see the monsterous HD 7970.

*AMD Radeon HD 7970 Launch Pulled Forward to 22nd December, Rumour Claims*   

http://www.itproportal.com/2011/12/16/amd-radeon-hd-7970-launch-pulled-forward-22nd-december-rumour-claims/


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## gorg_graggel (Dec 16, 2011)

ROP = Raster Operation Processor

it's the last step in a graphics pipeline, where all data is put together to be copied into the framebuffer, which then gets displayed on the monitor...anti aliasing and depth information is also processed there... (overly simplified)


so increasing the number of those units would only benefit, when 1) the units have not been improved over the last generation and to get more performance you need to have more ROPs, or 2) they have not been fast enough already...


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## TheMailMan78 (Dec 16, 2011)

Many 1337 thanks to DanishDevil on the scoop.


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## phanbuey (Dec 16, 2011)

Performance is not going to be HUGE since its a totally new approach, which usually means no 2x performance jump (again totally speculation take with a lethal dose of salt.).  Some games I am sure the 6970 will be close to the speed, and in others it will get blown away.

Also, dont forget about AMD's infamously fast driver support.  They probably only optimized 3Dmark and Unigine for now, and Crysis 2 and other games are still rendering with the "VGA adapter driver" from windows 95.


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## TheMailMan78 (Dec 16, 2011)

phanbuey said:


> Performance is not going to be HUGE since its a totally new approach, which usually means no 2x performance jump.  Some games I am sure the 6970 will be close to the speed, and in others it will get blown away.
> 
> Also, dont forget about AMD's infamously fast driver support.  They probably only optimized 3Dmark and Unigine for now, and Crysis 2 and other games are still rendering with the "VGA adapter driver" from windows 95.



The last time they changed architecture it was from the 48xx series to the 58xx series. If that wasnt a huge jump in performance I dunno what is. The 69xx series is just a refined 58xx series so don't base your opinions off of that.


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## phanbuey (Dec 16, 2011)

TheMailMan78 said:


> The last time they changed architecture it was from the 48xx series to the 58xx series. If that wasnt a huge jump in performance I dunno what is. The 69xx series is just a refined 58xx series.



I agree that was huge - but that wasnt a new Architecture IMO- it was the same VLIW concept tweaked. and in these cases performance increase is massive and proportional.

4870 had 800 stream procs... 5770 also had 800 tweaked with DX11 instead of DX10.1, and performance was similar.
5870 had 1600 stream procs - was double the speed of the 4870 give or take.

2900 - 3800 -4800 - 5800 - 6900 are all general variants of the same concept, 7xxx series seems a bit more radical, uses a totally new approach - closer to the 1950XTX to 2900XT shift (again, take with a lethal dose of salt purely my 2c)


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## FierceRed (Dec 16, 2011)

Games this GPU needs to be benchmarked against at 1920x1200 & 2560x1600 before people can justifiably start to whine about the 32 ROPs:


Batman: Arkham City under DX11
Battlefield 3 on Ultra Preset, no custom bullshit
Metro: 2033 because its the new Crysis
Metro: Last Light upon release
Skyrim because people will froth if it isn't benchmarked... and then they'll froth anyway.
Witcher 2 with and without Ubersampling

And by the way, unless all the major sites have had 7970s since the beginning of December, I doubt we're going to see "reviews" including benchmarks next Thursday. Which is fine because I wouldn't want to see a 7970 benchmarked on pre-12.1 drivers anyway.

Wouldn't mind seeing these benchmarks on 120Hz monitors as well, now that I think about it. This vSync idiocy needs to end.


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## TheMailMan78 (Dec 16, 2011)

phanbuey said:


> I agree that was huge - but that wasnt a new Architecture IMO- it was the same VLIW concept tweaked. and in these cases performance increase is massive and proportional.
> 
> 4870 had 800 stream procs... 5770 also had 800 tweaked with DX11 instead of DX10.1, and performance was similar.
> 5870 had 1600 stream procs - was double the speed of the 4870 give or take.
> ...



The 7970 is rumored to have 128 texture units, and 2,048 stream processors.


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## phanbuey (Dec 16, 2011)

TheMailMan78 said:


> The 7970 is rumored to have 128 texture units, and 2,048 stream processors.



"GCN at its core is the basis of a GPU that performs well at both graphical and computing tasks. AMD has stretched their traditional VLIW architecture as far as they reasonably can for computing purposes, and as more developers get on board for GPU computing *a clean break is needed* in order to build a better performing GPU to meet their needs.This is in essence AMD’s Fermi: a new architecture and a radical overhaul to make a GPU that is as monstrous at computing as it is at graphics. And this is the story of the architecture that AMD will be building to make it happen."

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4455/amds-graphics-core-next-preview-amd-architects-for-compute


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## THE_EGG (Dec 16, 2011)

meh only impressed by the 4.3 billion transistors and the fact that its still 8 pin and 6 pin power plugs. Hopefully it will run well, (that is as long as it doesn't have the same fate as BD).


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## phanbuey (Dec 16, 2011)

LOL nice pic...


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## Hayder_Master (Dec 16, 2011)

32 ROP's, so they release new series improve on 20% maybe over 6970, so GTX580 already better than 6970 with good overclocking it pass about 30% over 6970 so it will same performance of 7970.


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## TheMailMan78 (Dec 16, 2011)

Hayder_Master said:


> 32 ROP's, so they release new series improve on 20% maybe over 6970, so GTX580 already better than 6970 with good overclocking it pass about 30% over 6970 so it will same performance of 7970.



Did you happen to notice the precision floating point?


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## Hayder_Master (Dec 16, 2011)

TheMailMan78 said:


> Did you happen to notice the precision floating point?



wait for reviews, i think another billdozer will come again.


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## TheMailMan78 (Dec 16, 2011)

Hayder_Master said:


> wait for reviews, i think another billdozer will come again.



The GPU part of AMD is a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT animal man. This will be no Bulldozer. At worst it will be another 2900. At best it will be the next 5850/70.


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## Hayder_Master (Dec 16, 2011)

TheMailMan78 said:


> The GPU part of AMD is a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT animal man. This will be no Bulldozer. At worst it will be another 2900. At best it will be the next 5850/70.



right bro, but i am comparing with GTX580, so the 7970 should be have overkill performance over GTX580, that is new series roles.


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## Crap Daddy (Dec 16, 2011)

My crystal balls tell me that this will be 30% faster than the 6970 and 10-15% than the GTX580 in gaming benchmarks.


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## TheMailMan78 (Dec 16, 2011)

Hayder_Master said:


> right bro, but i am comparing with GTX580, so the 7970 should be have overkill performance over GTX580, that is new series roles.



I think (nothing other then my gut) that the 7970 will devour the 580. It has almost tripple the floating point. But its all rumor. No one knows.


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## Benetanegia (Dec 16, 2011)

TheMailMan78 said:


> I think (nothing other then my gut) that the 7970 will devour the 580. It has almost tripple the floating point. But its all rumor. No one knows.



HD6970 has 2.7 TFlops, so it also has almost triple that of the 570. There's no need to point out that it doesn't devour it.

3.5 TFlops is 30% more, and that's exactly the performance increase I think we will be seing. 128 TMU is also 30% more than Cayman so...

On GPGPU tasks Tahiti might trully eat GTX 580 alive though.


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## pantherx12 (Dec 16, 2011)

TheMailMan78 said:


> I think (nothing other then my gut) that the 7970 will devour the 580. It has almost tripple the floating point. But its all rumor. No one knows.



That slide isn't from the ACTUAL amd slides dude 

Notice it was the only one with OBR plastered all over it.

Other clues are less than 3w power draw.

It's either bullshit or they including the entire range.


So that floating point stuff is probably the dual GPU card or BS.

And the less than 3w at idle is probably the lowest end card. Even then that's a crazy low number.


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## TheMailMan78 (Dec 16, 2011)

Benetanegia said:


> HD6970 has 2.7 TFlops, so it also has almost triple that of the 570. There's no need to point out that it doesn't devour it.
> 
> 3.5 TFlops is 30% more, and that's exactly the performance increase I think we will be seing. 128 TMU is also 30% more than Cayman so...
> 
> On GPGPU tasks Tahiti might trully eat GTX 580 alive though.


 I agree man. But I cant help but wonder if this new achtecture will take advantage of the floatingpoint advantage for a change. Hell this thing could be a paper tiger like the 2900.



pantherx12 said:


> That slide isn't from the ACTUAL amd slides dude
> 
> Notice it was the only one with OBR plastered all over it.
> 
> ...



Of course it rumor. Ive stated that many times. That and its from the ORB as you said so........yeah. Just rumor news man.


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## pantherx12 (Dec 16, 2011)

TheMailMan78 said:


> Of course it rumor. Ive stated that many times. That and its from the ORB as you said so........yeah. Just rumor news man.



I know, but it seems you want to believe it your self. 
You covered your self well in terms of posting it as a news story.

No criticisms there


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## TheMailMan78 (Dec 16, 2011)

pantherx12 said:


> I know, but it seems you want to believe it your self.
> You covered your self well in terms of posting it as a news story.
> 
> No criticisms there



I'm just playing devil advocate. I'm saying a lot of "IF". IF this or IF that is true. Do I personally believe it? Nope. I believe W1zz and Cadaveca reviews. Until then I don't believe anything.

However I do want the 79xx series to be a success. I want the same for NVIDIA. I like a good fight. Only thing is sadly games hardly take advantage of the 58xx series or the 4xx series by NVIDIA now. Both companies better watch their pricing because its becoming less and less justifiable to drop 500 bucks to play console ports.

Now for our folding buddies I REALLY hope these specs are true.


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## pantherx12 (Dec 16, 2011)

TheMailMan78 said:


> I'm just playing devil advocate. I'm saying a lot of "IF". IF this or IF that is true. Do I personally believe it? Nope. I believe W1zz and Cadaveca reviews. Until then I don't believe anything.
> 
> However I do want the 79xx series to be a success. I want the same for NVIDIA. I like a good fight. Only thing is sadly games hardly take advantage of the 58xx series or the 4xx series by NVIDIA now. Both companies better watch their pricing because its becoming less and less justifiable to drop 500 bucks to play console ports.
> 
> Now for our folding buddies I REALLY hope these specs are true.



Still won't be an improvement in folding though ( much of one) AMD/ who ever makes folding needs to get off their arse an do something. : [

There's a how bunch of GPGPU stuff where AMD doesn't do nearly as badly because the developers have taken the time to code with their architecture in mind.


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## TheoneandonlyMrK (Dec 16, 2011)

the V7 F@home client works well and gives good ppd on 5800 cards as is

i am hopeing 7xxx will be even better though obv


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## pantherx12 (Dec 16, 2011)

theoneandonlymrk said:


> the V7 F@home client works well and gives good ppd on 5800 cards as is
> 
> i am hopeing 7xxx will be even better though obv



Well apparently I've not been paying attention to the world of folding 

I thought AMD performance was still abysmal.


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## TheoneandonlyMrK (Dec 16, 2011)

i only have a 5850 a 5870 and a gt240 but the ati cards roughly do double the admitedly meager nv one so not great but acceptable


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## Black Panther (Dec 16, 2011)

3W idle draw? I can't figure out how that's possible?


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## TheoneandonlyMrK (Dec 16, 2011)

well i figure if you take a future view of it, one day this 7xxx gpu having 400-800 shaders and sitting next to 4 BD cores in trinity or the APU after that, then it would make sense to work hard to cut idle power, i mean this core is going to get used in everything from tablets to possibly smartphones media players(poss) ,consoles in altered form so pre engineering in such things would make sense if slightly surpriseing


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## Crap Daddy (Dec 16, 2011)

Black Panther said:


> 3W idle draw? I can't figure out how that's possible?



Powered by two AA batteries.


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## TheoneandonlyMrK (Dec 16, 2011)

ViperXTR said:


> 32 ROPs on a 384bit 3GB GDDR5 ram '__'


 kinda ties in to it having a 128bit iommu only bus alongside a 256bit memory bus or something


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## LAN_deRf_HA (Dec 16, 2011)

Black Panther said:


> 3W idle draw? I can't figure out how that's possible?



As per clock performance goes up clocks can be set lower and lower. Add in the smaller manufacturing process and it adds up.


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## Benetanegia (Dec 16, 2011)

Black Panther said:


> 3W idle draw? I can't figure out how that's possible?



Maybe they can have all units turned off except for 1 of the scalar units.


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## THE_EGG (Dec 17, 2011)

phanbuey said:


> LOL nice pic...



haha thanks I do like the laser cat as well


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## Aceman.au (Dec 18, 2011)

Well... Im getting 2 for crossfire depending on reviews


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## Lazzer408 (Dec 18, 2011)

How long is it?


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## Maban (Dec 18, 2011)

Lazzer408 said:


> How long is it?



Going by the length of the PCIE connector, I get a little over 11 inches.


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## Lazzer408 (Dec 18, 2011)

Maban said:


> Going by the length of the PCIE connector, I get a little over 11 inches.



So under 12" fo sho? Just wondering if it'll fit in the ITX chassis I'm working on. 

...and yes I'm saying fo sho with scarcasm.


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## erocker (Dec 18, 2011)

Here's a non-official comparison to the 6970, I did the best I could.


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## Lazzer408 (Dec 18, 2011)

6970 is about as long as a 5870 right? I can't find an image with all the cards side by side.


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## THE_EGG (Dec 18, 2011)

Lazzer408 said:


> 6970 is about as long as a 5870 right? I can't find an image with all the cards side by side.



Comparing the length of the reference design ASUS 6970 with their reference 5870 on their website, both appear to be 11" long. Although the 6970 did have a blockier design compared to the more smooth looking 5870.


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## TheoneandonlyMrK (Dec 18, 2011)

*3watt idle power confirmed in slides*

http://www.geeks3d.com/20111218/radeon-hd-7970-zerocore-power-technology-and-latest-news/

some slides shown confirming the 3 watt idle power rumour though obv they could be fake

lots of slides detailing specs etc


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