Friday, December 23rd 2011
AMD Dual-GPU Radeon HD 7990 to Launch in Q1 2012, Packs 6 GB Memory
Even 12 months ago, an Intel Nehalem-powered gaming PC with 6 GB of system memory was considered high-end. Now there's already talk of a graphics card taking shape, that has that much memory. On Thursday this week, AMD launched its Radeon HD 7970 graphics card, which features its newest 28 nm "Tahiti" GPU, and 3 GB of GDDR5 memory across a 384-bit wide memory interface. All along, it had plans of making a dual-GPU graphics card that made use of two of these GPUs to give you a Crossfire-on-a-stick solution. AMD codenamed this product "New Zealand". We are now getting to learn that codename "New Zealand" will carry the intuitive-sounding market name Radeon HD 7990, and that it is headed for a Q1 2012 launch.
This means that Radeon HD 7990 should arrive before April 2012. Tests show that Tahiti has superior energy-efficiency compared to previous-generation "Cayman" GPU, even as it has increased performance. From a technical standpoint, a graphics card featuring two of these Tahiti GPUs, running with specifications matching those of the single-GPU HD 7970, looks workable. Hence, there is talk of 6 GB of total graphics memory (3 GB per GPU system).
One can also expect the fruition of AMD's new ZeroCore technology. This technology powers down the GPU to zero draw when the monitor is blanked (idling), but in CrossFire setups, this technology completely powers down other GPUs than the primary one to zero state, when the system is not running graphics-heavy applications. This means that the idle, desktop, and Blu-ray playback power-draw of the HD 7990 will be nearly equal to that of the HD 7970, which is already impressive.
Source:
Softpedia
This means that Radeon HD 7990 should arrive before April 2012. Tests show that Tahiti has superior energy-efficiency compared to previous-generation "Cayman" GPU, even as it has increased performance. From a technical standpoint, a graphics card featuring two of these Tahiti GPUs, running with specifications matching those of the single-GPU HD 7970, looks workable. Hence, there is talk of 6 GB of total graphics memory (3 GB per GPU system).
74 Comments on AMD Dual-GPU Radeon HD 7990 to Launch in Q1 2012, Packs 6 GB Memory
And eyefinity with several 4k monitors would use up 3gb easily : ]
The power savings is brilliant (obvious but brilliant), like the later CPUs, cores not used are cores that doen't eat up much/any power Nom Nom Nom Nom...
and that's just at HD.
I get slowdowns when I turn round in skyrim because it uses more than my 1gb.
and I only play @ 1680x1050.
Hate to use this line, but it's an enthusiast card the more over the top the better :laugh:
Also as GPGPU becomes more popular having a lot of ram on your card could become very useful.
The reason is, the HD 6970 has a 256-bit memory bus. This allows for 2048MB.
The GTX 580 has a memory bus of 384-bit. This allows for 1536MB.
So AMD had to choose between 1.5GB per GPU or 3GB per GPU.
And I think 6GB is great.
Besides, they will have to make the price competitive to stay above the HD 6990, so the extra RAM likely won't mean a higher price.
All quiet on the Green front! :cry::cry::cry::cry::cry:
lol
However it does say that it comes with 3GB of GDDR5 VRAM memory.
I look forward to see how it performs in eyefinity resolutions.
if not then I think I am going to start saving for this bad boy
HD6990 CFX's 2GBs doesn't work like 8GB It's always 2GB, even with 4 GPUs right? Well anyway it can't cope with BF3 VRAM needs, had to remove AA samples.