Tuesday, January 24th 2012
Radeon HD 7950 Put Through 3DMark 11
Two different sources have put the Radeon HD 7950 through 3DMark 11 benchmark. The first is DonanimHaber, which put an HD 7950 clocked at 880 MHz core with 1250 MHz (5.00 GHz effective) through Extreme preset against HD 7970 (stock) and GTX 580 (stock), where it outperformed the latter. The second is MyDrivers, which put HD 7950 stock (800/1250 MHz) and overclocked (1030/1250 MHz) through Performance preset, against HD 7970 stock, HD 6970 stock, GTX 570 (screenshots below are in the order HD 7950 stock, HD 7950 @ 1030 core 1250 mem MHz, HD 7970 stock, HD 6970 stock, and GTX 570 stock).
3DMark 11 screenshots by MyDrivers follow.
The inference we can draw purely from these figures is that the HD 7950 will be competitive with GTX 580 in performance, but will have the potential to OC to the performance level of the HD 7970.
Sources:
DonanimHaber, MyDrivers
20 Comments on Radeon HD 7950 Put Through 3DMark 11
$400 usd?
These cards better overclock like the HD 7970s..
When you look at the 880mhz 7950 score versus the 7970 (925mhz) you can infer 7970 often is unbalanced with too many CUs, and when you factor in the bandwidth difference we're talking 7950 being less than 5% slower per clock (at 1080p) even though it has 12.5% less shaders/tmus. I've been saying this for for a while now. They are playing over/under with the skus...with 7950 oddly probably being closer to ideal in a non-dx11 heavy situation.
Also, assuming 225W powertune limit, depending on how much power it takes and how far the lower-class memory will overclock, it will be interesting to see where it starts to throttle. IMHO while it appears pretty balanced, the core could probably be clocked to 880-900mhz before the stock memory clock starts becoming a bottleneck. Hence balance will be key when overclocking given the fact we know what the core is capable...and that is quite a bit over 225w (granted with more CUs active under load and a higher memory clock than this will need). Should be interesting!
On top of all that, this reinforces my thinking Pitcairn will rock its market. While prolly 24 rops, 22 CUs is pretty much exactly (adjusted for 75% ROPs) where this architecture seems to scale. If it shares the same clock capabilities, memory controller/ram as Tahiti while having a 256-bit bus that should suit it perfectly, as well as having a 225w powertune limit...it should be pretty impressive (especially overclocked) considering how cheap it will probably be (eventually). It is supposedly a little smaller than Barts after-all, and I think it will slide right between nVIDIAs chips, hence forcing it down considering how cheap gk104 will supposedly be.
The saga continues and all that...
so I bought then returned an asus 580 matrix..(because it was 560 dollars and would not complete 3dmark vantage at 980/4420) ran 3dmark11 and received x2373... gtx580 oc'd(10.3%) to 900/4420... on a AMD 955 at 3.7Ghz, 2400NB 7-7-7-21 1333 ddr3
the link to my score 3dmark.com/3dm11/2429278
so they used a i7-965... when is an AMD processor (955be) the same? lol
BTW amd 6957 (6950 unlock to 6970) (880,1375) x1787
ti560 900/1002 X1600
and the matrix completed vantage at 900/1002 (would not complete higher) p19248...
We still aren't positive of when a GK104 card will show (6wk's-3mo's), when it does what will Nvidia cards that beat their GTX570 will price-out like? I suspect reference clock (or the "FPB" versions) will be perform just above the GTX570 and MSRP $380, the "normal OC's" will spare with OC 7950 $400-450, while a few "Uber-clocks" will push well above the GTX580, (in some cases right up/under the 7970), but be ~$500.
Finally, at say end of March AMD will (hopefully) have production and the pipe filled, which could translate to rebates and OoP prices ~$370 for 7950 and 7970 might see $525.
It's all going to play out perfectly.
cuz if i remember 2600k stock and my 570 stock 770 gets 6k in 3d11